International Dessert Day

Yesterday the girl's school hosted "International Dessert Day". Each student was asked to bring in a traditional dessert from the country they are from. I've mentioned before the diversity in this school. It is so AWESOME. And, this was a great way to honor and celebrate some of that diversity.

Well, since my kids are pretty much representative of the melting pot of America, we chose to look online and try to find something either Irish or Swedish, as we identify most with those ancestors. We noticed that one traditional Irish dessert was caramel cake. We knew Grandma Kelly had a family recipe for that. So, we decided to go for that!

As I imagined, and as Grandma indicated, it was a pain the butt to make :) Caramelizing sugar, trying to stir it up into liquid without it crystallizing, etc.

But, can I just say how much FUN it was to make with Alli???!! She had so much fun, and she really felt special making something from scratch, from a recipe from Grandma. How did it taste? It appeared to be a little bit dry, and the icing looked kinda weird. Well, lets just say the girls in this family are not big fans of the cake, but Daddy is. I didn't' taste it, but Alli saved one little piece for Daddy and he said it turned out great!

I'll be honest, I had a back up plan. We made the cake into two small pans so that each girl could take one. And, just in case it was a total wreck, we made two small loaves of banana bread too! When the girls asked if banana bread was Irish too, I just said that they could inform their classmates that in Ireland, they drink a lot of tea, and they often serve sweet breads and cakes with their tea :)