16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake

16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake

I had high hopes of catching up on this thing in a timely fashion, but let’s face it–we’re all surprised I’m even still updating it all at this point. The 10-year anniversary came and went a few months ago without much (or any) fanfare, but I AM still here–just not as attentive as I used to be. Let’s face it–a LOT has changed over the last 10 years. No plans to completely let it die yet, but I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it.

Anyway, here’s 16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake, which was one of two desserts I served for Christmas 2023 (XMAS 23).

Seemed Christmas-appropriate, plus it’s gluten-free! That doesn’t matter to anyone that’s in this house, but someone out there might care about something like that.


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16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake

16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake

I grew up in Southern California, and lived there up until about 10 years ago. At one of my last jobs before I left, I was often gifted with a Porto’s Bakery fruit tart, which was (and I’m sure still is) delectable. 16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake reminds me of those fruit tarts, and makes me excited for warmer weather days ahead (check with me again about that when we’re in the middle of summer).

Glazed fruit tarts aren’t unique to just Porto’s or Simply Delicious, and there’s even different options for glazing your fruit tarts, depending on what you’re going for.


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19-23: Nuts

19-23: Nuts

Do you enjoy nuts? I wasn’t a big fan of them growing up, but find myself warming up to them in my adult years. 19-23: Nuts is another entry from Simply Delicious’ Cooking School, and it outlines a lot of different types of nuts, ranging from the more common to some less frequently used kinds. Nuts are found in all types of cuisines, and are a good source of protein and other healthy stuff.

In case Simply Delicious isn’t enough for you, here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for nuts. Compare that to the “nut” wisdom from 35 years ago you can find after the jump.


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16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake

16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake

It’s a bit past apple season (usually fall/autumn), but 16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake uses applesauce instead of fresh fruit, so you can make it anytime you’ve got a hankering for apples. Or cake. Cake is always good.

They (Simply Delicious) are trying REALLY hard to make you believe there are actual apple pieces in this cake. I mean, the picture and the description would lead you to think that this thing is just chock full of fresh apples.

I hate to break it to you, but this is gonna be one heck of a bamboozle.


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16-45: Raspberry Tartlettes

16-45: Raspberry Tartlettes

I’ve used this project as an excuse to make dishes to share at work before. This time, I made 16-45: Raspberry Tartlettes for a quarterly staff meeting. I had a colleague that was interested in trying vegan recipes and another that required gluten-free dishes, so I tried to incorporate both in this attempt.

I had originally bought tartlette tins for 5-20: Golden Cheese Tartlettes, and I’m just glad I’ve finally found another use for them. There’s also 16-9: Raspberry Tart, if you’re looking for something a bit larger, but in the same ballpark.

Did you notice that there already was a #45 for Group 16? 16-45: Colonial Apple Cake is also 16-45. Good job, Simply Delicious. 🙄


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16-26: Elegant Almond Cake

16-26: Elegant Almond Cake

A few months ago, I made two Simply Delicious almond cakes for work: this one, 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake and 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake. I think this one came out prettier, but they were both delicious.

Simply Delicious doesn’t mention this in their blurb, but it’s also great for accompanying coffee or tea on a Wednesday morning at the office. They also refer to this dish as a cake, but it’s very clearly a tart. To confirm, here’s a recipe from King Arthur Flour that is essentially this exact same dish (referred to a tart) but with raspberries instead of Maraschino cherries.


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14-19: Old-Fashioned Apple Meringue

14-19: Old-Fashioned Apple Meringue

The editors of Simply Delicious love to write a common type of recipe that includes the act of putting meringue on top of a fruit filled pie. 14-19: Old-Fashioned Apple Meringue is a mistake with all but the classic lemon custard version of a meringue pie. Apple and cherry do not carry a meringue the same way in my opinion.

The meringue clouds in the example photo would probably have been the ideal presentation method, however, my meringue came out runny so it didn’t clump very well. I was lucky that it cooked to a hard crust. 


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16-14: Orange-Almond Cake

16-14: Orange-Almond Cake

No, this isn’t a repeat of 16-47: Orange-Almond Pie–at least, not exactly. 16-14: Orange-Almond Cake uses almond paste while the pie version used almond meal (flour). This one also includes dark chocolate, which ALWAYS goes well with almond and orange flavors. đŸ«

In the interest of not eating the whole cake at once (which is possible with something like this), I’m going to bake 12 individual cakes instead with a mini-Bundt pan that I have. That way, I can make them all, wrap and freeze them so that we can pull out a portioned piece for dessert without the temptation of eating the whole thing.


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17-25: Almond Rolls

17-25: Almond Rolls

17-25: Almond Rolls are kind of a bonus holiday baking (XMAS 16) post for me–only one person received the bulk of these, as they made up part of a week-long Secret Santa gift-giving event that my work puts on. 🎄🎁 My giftee for Secret Santa not only got these, but a batch of 17-9: Brownies with toasted hazelnuts both in the batter and on top, as well as a batch of my family’s chocolate chip cookie recipe with red & green M&Ms swapped in for semisweet bits. đŸȘ🎅

These almond rolls are similar to cinnamon rolls/buns, and like the recipe that Simply Delicious provides for cinnamon rolls, these ones lack a glaze/icing as well. However, given the sweetness of the filling and the fact that these are a gift for someone, I’ll forgo adding icing on my own this time. 🍰


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17-52: Apricot Macaroons

17-52: Apricot Macaroons

This recipe is another Simply Delicious â€œtake” on something that already largely exists in a slightly different form. These aren’t really these kind of macaroons (the Passover kind). They’re not these kind of macarons (the French kind) either.

17-52: Apricot Macaroons were part of my big batch of assorted baked goods that I made as gifts for people this year–you can find the others linked at the end of this entry.


Mine were a horror show compared to the picture on the card–I blame poor tools (my pastry bag blew its side out early on, rendering it useless and me bagless) even though any chef knows that’s a cop-out. I also blame exhaustion–these were the last ones I made of all of the recipes.


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