Oh my gosh, I feel like a rock star!  For those of you that know me well, you know that I am a cook much more than I am a baker.  Baking scares me just a bit, but I am determined to become more comfortable with this fine art.  My family and I are invited to a couple of shindigs for the 4th of July and for the second one, I was asked to bring a dessert.  My husband brought this message to me after his men’s softball game.  One of the guys on his team and his wife are hosting and that was his request.  “Oh my goodness” I thought to myself.  “Baking, are you sure he doesn’t want something savory instead?”  Oh boy, now I will need to figure out how to make a dessert and do it from scratch.  I can do this, I thought. I’m actually glad our friend requested I make a dessert because it forces me to come out of my comfort zone a bit.  I decided to give this dessert a trial run today to make sure I could do it.

Well, I’ve watched Ina make her mocha ice box cake and it always looks amazing!  I will definitely be trying to make hers for my book club, or whatever gathering I have at my house next.  Hmmm, I thought to myself.  How can I make a version of Ina’s cake, but for the 4th of July.  Don’t get me wrong, Ina’s cake would work for sure, but I wanted to go red, white and blue.  So, I started with the basics.  Heavy cream, mascarpone cheese, and sugar.  From there I decided to add one and a half teaspoons of vanilla and a tablespoon of red raspberry preserves.  You can’t imagine how happy I was that this did form stiff peaks, just like it was supposed to.  I went with a vanilla wafer as my cookie for the cookie layer and I also bought a bag of frozen mixed berries (red, white and blue).  My springform pan was broken, much to my surprise, so I used a pie tin.

I started with a layer of vanilla wafers and then spread my whipped cream mixture on top of that.  Next, I sprinkled a small amount of white chocolate chips and then sprinkled my frozen berries over that.  On top of the berries, I added another layer of vanilla wafers and then another layer of the whipped cream (I did not add the white chocolate chips to this layer).  On top of the whipped cream, I added more berries and crumbled vanilla wafers.

I think this turned out beautifully.

Until next time, Kris