Another year

Yesterday was one of those "big" birthdays. In some ways it was like a normal days and other days it was special. Mom arrived in the morning from Houston. We had a nice lunch out. And did a bit of shopping. I also made myself a cake. The thing is I have a kitchen to cook and bake in, and I was so excited to be able to do it.

The recipe is from this month's delicious. magazine, Dulce de Leche cheesecake

Here's my cheesecake

And the cool slice shot

I had to make my own dulce de leche. I didn't have time to go find already made dulce de leche, so I made my own as per the recipe by boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk. When I opened the tins and mixed them up, they were slightly lighter than I wanted. So after some thought, I ended up cooking the sweetened condensed milk more in the oven using a bain marie. It worked perfectly. I was totally willing to open two more tins, but thought I'd give this other idea a whirl. I'd actually recommend following the oven method for dulce de leche as you can see how brown your dulce de leche is.

Cheesecake was nice. Rich, so best enjoyed in small slices.

My birthday celebrations aren't over. We are going out for a nice lunch in the mountains on Saturday with Ed & Steve. And next week I'm going out with the girls for dinner.