Mounds Brownies

I cannot remember where I saw the recipe for these brownies. I knew when I saw it I had to make it one day, so I saved the recipe. Finally, the perfect opportunity presented itself. My husband's boss, who is a big chocolate lover, was having a party! I knew he would love these. They were a little tricky to make. You spread half the brownie batter in a greased pan. I used spray and am not sure if I will do that again. As I was spreading the batter, it slid around the pan. Then, I had to spread the coconut mixture (coconut and condensed milk)on top of the brownie batter. In order to do this, I placed several small spoonfuls on top of the batter and carefully spread it around. The difficulty was in not pulling up the batter as it stuck to the coconut, it had to be done slowly, requiring great patience. Next, I topped the coconut mixture with more brownie batter. Although I prefer to make brownies from scratch, you can use a mix.
They were so scrumptious, I wish I had a piece right now!

Hometown Helpers

Hometown Helpers is a neighborhood volunteer program in my community. We offer help to our elderly and disabled neighbors by providing rides to the doctor, the bank, the supermarket or sometimes just a friendly visit. This helps them stay connected to the community. We recently had a picnic that brought together our volunteers and neighbors, many of them had never met. It was a potluck event, so naturally, I brought a cake. It was a 10" vanilla layer cake with cream cheese frosting, the sunflower is made of butter cream. I chose a sunflower because it is the symbol used by Hometown Helpers.
It was a very successful event. We had a great time and it was nice to match up faces with voices from the phone.

"In the real world you have to wear shoes"

An old friend of my daughter's recently graduated from college. I was honored when she asked me to make a cake for her party. After some discussion and research on her part we came up with some ideas. I took some artistic liberty and this is what I came up with. This is a two layer, half sheet, vanilla sour cream cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. "In the real world you have to wear shoes" is something a professor said to her after she arrived barefoot to class. It left an impression. Since my lettering skills are questionable and this was a big statement,I decided to do the lettering out of fondant that I dyed and marbleized to go with the color theme. A few months ago my daughter Samantha gave me mini alphabet cookie cutters. I had actually given them to her, but she thought I would make better use of them. Thank you Sam,they are my new best friend along with my battery operated sifter.
This cake was made with love and I was very pleased with the result of my labor and the reaction when I delivered it. Let me know what you think.