Meringue vanilla cake with custard cream and caramelized berries

Russian curd & raisin cake - (Zapekanka) - ТВОРОЖНАЯ ЗАПЕКАНКА

This is a common breakfast food in Russia made with Russian farmer's cheese or tvorog and semolina (in US, a box of Cream of Wheat cereal works, or if you can get semolina flour from an international store that's great, too!).

It is made with a low amount of sugar so the raisins add a nice combination of sweetness plus tartness.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream for an authentic Russian breakfast, or substitute Greek yogurt if you prefer! Powdered sugar and a side of fruit also go well with this yummy treat.

Bite of Paradise

Multicolor mini cakes

Raspberry Jam Cheese pie

Coconut Custard Pie with Malibu rum

To My Friends

These cards are perfect for family and friends ! They're offer a nice way to say "Hello," " I miss you," or " I love you." 

I used the "Simple Stories Collection" paper for these ones. I love this shabby chic look!

Christmas cards

Here some Christmas cards I made this year , but there were much more !) 

This Vintage style card I made one ESPECIALLY for my friend from Kansas - Shannon !!! My way to say " Thank you and I m glad you re my friend!". She is a very sweet girl , the owner of one of the cutest vintage store on Etsy.

Here is a link:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DorothyAndCleo?ref=ss_profile

Check it out - if you like vintage items, you ll love it!

The other cards  I made for my friends, of course, my family members, for my church and Danil's teachers 

I made this basket for our children's pastor, Pastor Herb ! It was full of " Thank you " cards from all parents and was given to Pastor Herb after Christmas play" Christmas Carol  . My son, of course, took apart in this play))!!

My boy is Daniel Tarasov ( he s on a screen) and the first one in second row on the right ))))

Chocolate lava cake

Eclairs

Mini tarts

One-bite pies

Raspberry curd pie

I made these pies using Russian curds, which is not the same as the cottage cheese found in the U.S.

It's topped with raspberry jam, made from wild raspberries gathered with my mo this summer in Canada while we were visiting my sister there.

Then I made jam out of it and brought it here to America!

Finally I'm open for business!!!! Valery's Wonderland Treats!!

Finally I got to the point when I'm ready to sell my yummy treats and
not just make it for my friends and family members! Hurray!

I'd like to thank my wonderful family- my son, husband, my mom, my sister, my brother -
all the people who love me and care about me.
Thank you, guys! You re the most important thing in the world!

A special ''thank you" goes out to my friend / tutor Zhanna,
 who helps me not to get driven crazy, and edits my blog.
She nicely agreed to help me to run this Internet stuff!
Thank you, Zhanna!
I do appreciate your help soooo much!
You're provided with sweets from me forever!

Halloween Bake Sale at Danil's School

It was Danil's very FIRST Halloween!

He was very excited, and he was the cutest GANGSTER I've ever seen.

He was very busy gathering treats in our neighborhood for about 4 hours, but when he came back home his pillow case (yes, it was his "bag") was almost overflowing.

He doesn't care too much about all those junk food and sweets -

he's lucky - he prefers the meat all other kinds of food including sweets,

but his father was very happy.

Unlike Danil, he loooooves them!

All those sweets were gone in 4 days...

 

 I found this very old picture recently.
It was my first Halloween, taken in Tokyo, Japan.
At that time, I was a teacher at an international school in Vladivostok, Russia.
We took a field trip to Tokyo , so that's how I was introduced to Halloween.

It was great time - we had a lot of fun! 

 Ok, finally the bake sale! This is my version of the American donut,
except much smaller, and much healthier!
 They are bite-size and come in vanilla, cinnamon, and custard flavors.
They end up being like a kind of cake with colored glaze.
I think it s very nice treat for any children's event!

 Again, my favorite decorated cookies - featuring lace and daisies! Daisies are very cute...
for some reason they remind me of breakfast and fried eggs.

 And of course, what would Halloween be without owls?
These owls are not perfect ones,
but Danil helped me decorate them, so that's how they became priceless.
These are "the best ones"!

 Healthy, flourless bars - oatmeal, nuts, homemade caramel, raisins, chocolate chips
 and a few teaspoons of butter - that's it!

Very tasty!

 My version of Oreo cookies,
but mine are vanilla butter cookies with peanut caramel cream in between and
white chocolate drizzles on the top!

Christmas is coming!!! Presents, presents, presents!!!

Snowy  white vanilla cake with Meringue Christmas trees 

 This amazing " fluffy " white cake  with Meringue pink Christmas trees I made  as  a present for my sister -in-law -Pamela and her husband Thomas . Thomas was just released from the hospital after surgery , so it was my way to say " We love you ! Get well.please!!"

Unfortunately we were so busy swallowing this cake that I forgot to take a picture how it looks like inside .. ,but I m  ensuring you ,its  very pretty light pink  ( the same color as Christmas trees on the top )  and very light melting vanilla  butter cream 

 I promise  next time when I make it , I ll take  more  photos!!!

 Here are some of my decorated Christmas cookies ! I made a looooooooooooooooot of those this year , more than 300 because I had to pack about 20 gift boxes with them and all other gifts-trinkets))))) I love them ! there are a few different flavours- Classic Butter cookies, Sugar cookies, Lemon cookies,, Ginger and Orange ones.

Also there were several red-bright cookies with Christmas trees , those ones were eatable ornaments !))

You can see them on photos of my Christmas tree  below !

 Again treats for my lovely son  Danil! He loooves my homemade waffles , so I decided to make these Chocolate Waffle cookies  using my waffle maker )) 

They re very light . about 3 inches size with coconut glaze and coconut flakes on the top ! I think it looks snowy , isnt it?)

 Here it is !! My Christmas tree ! This year I decided to decorate that in old -fashioned style- here you can see my Christmas ornaments I posted before- Ginger stars with surprise inside. woolen  sparkle hearts and stars ,eatable red bright cookies ..can not see my clay ornaments, but they are there !!!