easter and a whole lot of baking

What a weekend!  I baked up a storm and loved every minute of it.  At one point, I was whipping cream in a daze and realized I was thinking of how much I love being a baker.  There truly isn't anything I'd rather do with my life then bake up delicious treats to share with those I love.  Aside from making a chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream as dessert at our Easter dinner, I made two desserts for a friends dinner as well.

 

Cheesecake topped with whipped cream and strawberries.  This was one hell of a cheesecake let me tell you.  11" and 2 1/2 lbs of cream cheese later, I sure hope they enjoyed it!

Angel food cake with lemon curd and mascarpone cream topped with strawberries.

I have no idea how I managed to pull off baking everything I did this weekend.  I got home from work on Friday and then started a marathon in the Grob kitchen.  I started with a strawberry buttermilk cake for Josh (I've got a post coming up with details about this one.  Yum!) because I knew how much he wanted something that wasn't lemon or chocolate.  And because I really love him, instead of just whipped cream to go with the cake, I went all fancy and made him pastry cream.  He was in heaven.

 After that came lemon curd for the angel food cake, then the mascarpone cream, the most intense cheesecake ever, and then finally the angel food cake.  That was absolutely enough for one day.  

Saturday morning was spent finishing the angel food cake and cheesecake before they were picked up at noon.  Then a wonderful afternoon with my husband and then the McLean family dinner.  

Moving on to Sunday, the Grob family dinner where I baked a chocolate cake (thank you duncan hines... there are times when using a mix comes in UBER handy!)   The cake may have been from a mix, but I made the swiss meringue buttercream myself.  What a delicious combination! 

Then, just for fun, my mother in law Lori and I decorated the cake with gummy bears.  It truly was such a wonderful weekend filled with great food, lots of family, a whole lot of love, and because it wouldn't have been as delicious without it,  dessert.

I hope your Easter was as sweet as mine!