Jess’ birthday was on Saturday this year so she got the whole weekend to celebrate. Which she needed, because she felt super lousy starting in the afternoon and we postponed dinner and cake until Sunday.
Corinne created a treasure hunt for her which, naturally, led her to her presents. We got that done around lunch time before Jess crawled into bed for the rest of the day.
On Sunday we played a round of Garden Variety and a few rounds of Cat Fluxx (new games Jess got for her birthday).
We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then home for the salted-caramel cheesecake I’ve been trying to perfect. I realized this year that the recipe for a caramel topping I’d been using is not actually a caramel recipe (white sugar)–it’s a butterscotch recipe (brown sugar and butter). So I switched to an actual caramel recipe. Still working out how to get the caramel stiff enough so it doesn’t run off the sides. Next year, I’m planning to mix in powdered sugar once it cools to stiffen it up, which I did experimentally for the (poorly-piped) decorations. Also need to figure out how to keep the water in the water bath from getting into the springform pan and making the blondie crust soggy. But it still tastes really good.
