Lemon Angel Food Cake

It's been forever, I know. It' s not that I forgot; I just don't bake as much as I used to. Plus, a majority of the people who read this blog are the same ones who I bake for so that motivation to write a post is also gone. I don't know if I'm even going to announce this post on social media - especially since the recipe was for Easter and I'm writing this on Father's Day weekend 🤦 (which I admit was partially because I forgot about the blog).

As I've mentioned before, I don't like to be wasteful so I save the egg whites that are leftover from the Pepperoni Pinwheels and freeze them. Once I had 12, I held onto them to use in an angel food cake. This year, I decided to make it a lemon one since (for once) I had asked my mom for some lemons from the lemon tree outside their Arizona house. After some searching, I finally landed on a recipe from Two Cups Flour (which ended up backfiring - more in the notes).

Velvety Cheesecake

This year for Easter, Auntie Vicki suggested something different than usual: a plain cheesecake that could be topped with fresh berries. For my search, I decided to stick with my books and magazines since I tend to go on autopilot to the internet. I considered choosing a fruit-flavored cheesecake but eventually decided to stick to finding a plain flavor. In the end, I chose a recipe from one of the pocket magazines I once grabbed from the register display, specifically by Gooseberry Patch.

Easy Strawberry Cake and Frosting

I feel like there are some flavors that are universal in my family. As in, just about everyone likes them. Other than chocolate (because, duh), peanut butter is the main one that comes to mind: with the exception of Carly and Stefan, I think everyone in my family likes peanut butter (just don't put it into frosting 🤦‍♀️).

There's also strawberry. Other than my dad, I'm not sure if there's anyone in my family who doesn't like strawberries (if there is, they're not as vocal about it 😏). So since he wasn't going to be here for Easter, I decided to make something with strawberries in it. After looking at both hard copies and digital copies, I decided on a cake and frosting recipe from The Spruce Eats.

Simple Cocoa Layer Cake

When I told my mom that I was going to make jelly bean fudge for Easter, she didn't think that was enough and suggested I make a cake. So I turned to my plethora of cookbooks in search of a chocolate cake recipe (because who doesn't like chocolate? Plus, I had given up chocolate again for Lent). I finally settled on a fairly simple recipe from the Hershey's 1934 Cookbook.

I also searched for decorating ideas. Because bringing a plain cake seemed boring. Sadly, I wasn't able to execute the main idea I liked as it involved bunny Peeps and all I found at Target was chicks. Still, I did my best with drug store and dollar store finds, plus a prepared decorating bag (already filled with frosting - you can find them in the baking aisle) that I wasn't able to use for decorating St. Patrick's Day cookies. I might've gone overboard on decorating.

Jelly Bean Fudge

When my aunt asked me to bake for Easter this year, I decided to do something different. So I started searching online for recipes. Specifically, Easter desserts. I noticed a few flavor trends: 

• Coconut (nope, couldn't do that - only Mom and Nonni like that)
• Peanut butter (no, not that - Carly's allergic)
• Fruits, such as lemon and raspberry (just did the lemon cupcakes so might need to stay away from fruit for a while)

I also saw a lot of jelly beans, which to me screamed "Easter," so I started to focus on that. Eventually, I found an easy recipe for Jelly Bean Fudge. Just 3 ingredients. The results were ... interesting, to say the least.