My son is home and a super successful cake!

I got the biggest hug (well several). I guess he did miss us! He said he didn't start thinking about it until he was on the plane and then he was getting so excited to be home. Which is good. It really means he had a great time. Our toddler, Henry was SOOOO excited all evening and this morning he has claimed all of Adrian's shoes as his and keeps going to Adrian to beam at him.

Now the cake. It turned out GREAT! I have this Croatian Desserts recipe book and all the cakes look and sound scrumptious, but... the book STINKS. I "hope" the more recent editions caught some of the errors, but there will be listing of ingredients, but no mention of how and when to add it in the directions. Directions will say, "mix eggs", but they really mean separate the eggs into whites and yolks and mix the whites to stiff peak and yellows to creamy and light. The ONLY reason I have been able to decipher it is because I'm married to a Croatian who knows a lot of these recipes and he can tell me if they turn out or not.

This particular cake I've made several times - Dalmatian Cake, but last night was the best attempt yet. A pretty cake it is not because the "icing" is simply cooked yolks, sugar, milk and 1 tbsp. of flour - nothing like the typical sugar and butter we know. So, it's not "showy", but oh my goodness is this yummy! All the cakes and desserts from this book, if you figure them out, are amazing, but without fail, EVERY first attempt turns out a bit of a flop. I think I've had ONE cake turn out right the first time and that was recently and I think only because I was able to decipher the directions well enough from prior recipe failures! LOL

The biggest compliment (besides the two kids snarfing it down) was from DH. He WILL NOT say something without meaning it, ever, so he said, "This cake is amazing. It's the best one of these yet. This is better than the Dalmatian cake at that fancy restaurant I went to." I attached a picture of my cake and the picture of the cake from the book. I wish it would take better pictures, but it does look nice and it is SOOOOOOO yummy - an almond pastry, custard filling, light caramel syrup, and a soft sponge cake with more caramel syrup and more icing and almonds for decoration.