Mother’s Day brunch and dinner menus

Happy Mother’s Day! with this year’s Mother’s Day brunch and dinner menus

The inside of the icebox cake after serving & while I was devouring it!

This year, for Mother’s Day, my mom came over for brunch, and Dan’s family came over for dinner. My mom requested her favorite, Huevos Rancheros.  I make white beans, guacamole, and this year I made my own salsa.  I used the leftover roasted poblanos from the chili pepper post for the salsa so that it wouldn’t be too hot for the moms.

Roasted poblano salsa

And, I decided to make an almond cake for (brunch) dessert. My friend Melissa gave the almond cake recipe to me. It’s so good!  And, it can be gluten-free. My mom loved it and took half of it home for snacking on later in the week.

Gluten Free Almond Cake

Dan’s mom requested tacos for dinner. Dave brings this carne asada that looks divine and smells even better.  I used the fixin’s from the huevos rancheros for the tacos (homemade salsa, guacamole, cheese, and white beans), so it was a pretty easy dinner for me to prep. (And, since I usually come home after they have already started the dinner festivities, it was nice to have most everything prepped in the fridge and ready to go).

For (dinner) dessert, I made chocolate raspberry icebox cakes. (This is the first time I’ve tried these, though my mom used to make something similar but with Nilla Wafers when I was a kid).  Maria said they reminded her of a cross between a raspberry Oreo cookie and an ice cream sandwich. Excellent description.

Everyone said they were like fancy restaurant desserts because they were little individual cakes. I’m really happy with how they turned out. They weren’t hard to make, just a little time-consuming. But, the fact that they’re prepped up to one day before serving means that you don’t have to spend time making them at the last-minute.

icebox cakes after being assembled and ready to be frosted

So, here’s the recipe for the icebox cakes, and, feel free to switch the berries or even try different fruit (pineapple might be nice), or try them with Nilla Wafers.

And, Happy Mother’s Day to everyone, especially, to my wonderful mom. Thanks for everything you do. I love you.

icebox cakes being made

Chocolate Raspberry Icebox Cakes

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Chocolate Raspberry Icebox Cakes

Author Debi

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup chilled heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 chocolate wafers such as Nabisco Famous
• 1/3 cup fresh raspberries

Instructions

1. Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla in a deep bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks.
2. Spread 1 heaping teaspoon cream onto each of 4 wafers. Arrange enough raspberries side by side (as close together as possible) on 1 cream-topped wafer to form an even layer. Stack 2 cream-topped wafers on a plate (cream sides up) and top with a berry wafer, then carefully spread another teaspoon cream over berries. Top with last cream wafer and cover cream with remaining plain wafer.
3. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining cream. Cover with an inverted bowl and chill at least 4 hours.
4. Serve cake with remaining berries. Just before serving, check to see if you need to freshen the frosted whipped cream a little (it may look a little dry).

Recipe Notes

Makes one serving (so figure out how many cakes you want and multiply out)
Cook’s note: Cakes can chill up to 1 day.