The Little Kitchen Cakes and Homebakes

In September we hold a fundraiser for our children who attend a London District Christian High School. To you that may not mean much, but they travel from Sarnia to London everyday and since it is a school not funded by the government, that means we have made the choice to pay the tuition for our children to attend. So, every day, about 30 kids take a bus that must be paid for by the parents over and above the tuition. For the past 6 or so years, we have held a gala dinner to raise funds for this bus. This year the total raised was +/- $23,000.00, no small feat for fewer than 20 families. What we do is come up with a theme every year, decorate the local Christian school gym to the hilt and then serve an awesome dinner with the servers dressed in period costumes as required or in clothing suited to a theme. Following are several pictures from this year's dinner, A Medieval Feast. All Photos are courtesy of Fred Rekman Photography.

My job was to research, organize, delegate, prepare and serve the desserts at the end of the evening. The dessert menu included:
Poached pears in Wine

Strawberries in "Snow" (spiced strawberries in a wine sauce topped with a whipped cream meringue, finished with a shortbread cookie and chocolate filigree leaf)

Ricotta and Pine nut cheesecake (filled with chopped almonds, toasted pine nuts and chopped semi-sweet chocolate and topped with a Kahlua coffee sauce and garnished with chocolate covered cookie sticks )

Pear and Almond Tart ( a sweetened short crust 4" tart filled with something similar to almond paste and topped with two pear slices. Then baked, garnished with a glazed raspberry, a whipped cream rosette and a chocolate filigree leaf)

Frangipane ( sweetened short crust base filled with a light almond cake, baked, cut into triangles and garnished with whipping cream and a chocolate filigree)

Ginger Cookie Cheesecake (a no bake cheese cake with a ginger cookie crust and a filling of cream cheese, egg nog and spices, garnished with yellow sanding sugar, whipped cream and a chocolate filigree leaf)

Rhubarb Compote served over a custard and topped with round shortbread cookie and a chocolate filigree leaf