Thanksgiving Part IV: Pumpkin Spice Cake with Chocolate-Pecan Filling

Oh my God, you guys, this cake is ridiculously good. I made it as a dessert for Thanksgiving to combine and put a twist on the traditional pumpkin and pecan pies. The result is something straight out of a fall dessert dream. I realize it's no longer fall, but I don't recall there being any rules on when pumpkin could be consumed. This will be the last but certainly not least installment of Thanksgiving recipes from 2012.

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New York Cheesecake with Mixed Berry Topping

My mother-in-law is known for her perfect cheesecake, so when she gave me a springform pan with a little recipe tucked inside, I couldn't wait to try it. Cheesecake isn't something you make every day, so I waited until Don's birthday when my family was visiting to test it out for the first time. The more people the better; nothing good can come of having an entire cheesecake sit in front of just two people.

MIL warned me about the pitfalls of this recipe; namely, if you take the cake out of the oven too fast it will fall and crack in the center. It's a risk I was willing to take to create this light and fluffy dream! The trick for me was to leave it in the oven to cool completely overnight. It only fell slightly in the middle but with no cracks so it still looked gorgeous. I created my own berry topping recipe by combining my favorite parts of a few others. Read on for the cheesecake and topping recipes!

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No Such Thing As Too Much Chocolate

Last year I wanted to make a chocolate cake that was going to be melt-in-your-mouth moist and over-the-top chocolatey. Enter "Too Much Chocolate" Cake from allrecipes.com. A simple search allowed me to discover its beauty. So easy! SO good! I am now required to make it for my sister's fiancé every year for his birthday. No skin off my back, that means I have an excuse to eat it every year! While it's certainly not healthy, I try to use the less-fat version of each ingredient where possible and no one can taste the difference, it's so rich.

Usually I make it as a rectangle pan cake (because I don't have a bundt pan which is suggested for it), but with the success of my first layer cake I decided to step it up a bit this time.

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Fruit n' Spice Birthday Cake

I've been a naughty blogger. It's been over two weeks since my last post! I was in Sanibel with Don's family enjoying the sun but also obtaining food poisoning, then my parents were in town, then our friend Clyde was visiting! It's been busy around these parts and I apologize. To make it up to you, I'm back with a vengeance: a dessert! I'm not much of a sweets person, but I do indulge on occasion. My parents were in town to celebrate my sister and their birthdays (I'm the only non-Aries in the family!). One birthday requires a great cake; THREE birthdays require an amazing, drool-down-your-face cake. Enter Hummingbird Cake from Food Network! Since this was my first attempt at a layer cake, I took a lot of advice from smitten kitchen, a.k.a. my cooking guru. I swear by her suggestion to freeze layers, trim the edges, and create a crumb layer (details below). It came out great!

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