Last week, we had our friends and Pre-Cana marriage counselors, Tim and Kathy McCormick, over for dinner. When we arrived at the dessert portion of the meal, Tim asked whether I had ever written a blog post on my favorite desserts. While I had written about my favorite fast food desserts, I have never addressed my favorite homemade desserts. That all changes tonight.

5. Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches – When I was younger, my mom would make homemade ice cream sandwiches on two occasions: for my birthday so I could bring them to school for my classmates and also during the middle of summer for those hot July nights. My mom would take two of her homemade chocolate chip cookies, cram a generous portion of ice cream between them, put each sandwich in an individual ziplock bag, and freeze them. At the time, I thought I was getting two desserts in one. They were so fresh, so cool, so refreshing.

4. Candy Bar Cake – The first time Sid ever baked me a cake was for my first birthday spent in Myrtle Beach. She surprised me with a candy bar cake. It was chocolate cake on the inside coated in frosting that was mixed with crushed Hershey candy bars on the outside. I am not kidding, Sid probably ground up five or six candy bars for that dessert. Every bit of real estate on that cake was covered with candy pieces. It tasted perfect as each bite contained the perfect amount of cake, frosting, and chocolate bar.

Sidney made me this delicious candy bar cake for my birthday.

3. Darn Good Chocolate Cake – This is the Mary Reser (my mom) classic. Baked as a pound cake, my mom has made this for years, usually for New Year’s Day. She uses chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding, and a bag of chocolate chips for the base of the cake itself. She then frosts the entire thing in a thick chocolate frosting. We then eat it hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I love rich desserts, and this delivers.

2. Ice Cream Pie – After you eat my mom’s ice cream pie, you will never want a traditional cake for your birthday again. While my mom made us ice cream sandwiches for our school birthday celebrations, she made us ice cream pies for our family celebrations. How much do I love this dessert? I once wrote a whole blog post on ice cream pie. My mom would start with a brownie crust. She would then let the birthday boy or girl select his/her favorite ice cream to fill it with. She would then top it with fudge, candy, cookies, and sprinkles. Probably weighing in at 1,000 calories per slice, I loved this Reser family tradition.

Me holding one of my mom’s delicious ice cream pies.

1. Peanut Butter Pie – The best thing about me moving to the South is that I met Sidney. The second best thing is that I discovered peanut butter pie! The day Sid made me peanut butter pie for the first time I knew I was in love……………

……………..with the dessert AND Sidney!

It was everything I crave in a dessert: rich, heavy, chilled, easy to eat. It also used a main ingredient that I am slightly obsessed with.

The dessert is a mixture of peanut butter, cream cheese, and whipped cream (plus other things such as heavy whipping cream and sugar). Sid then spreads it over an Oreo cookie crust and serves it with more whipped cream. Although the serving size is just a small sliver of a piece, I can easily gobble down two large pieces. It is so addicting and so good. As you can imagine, this is the dessert we had when the McCormicks were over.

On the left is a peanut butter pie made by Sidney. On the right is what it looks like after I am through with it.

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Sorry to my health nuts out there, no healthy or fruit desserts on this list! Not that I don’t like those too, but my favorite dishes are the ones that pack the calories and the flavor. Do you have a favorite dessert you would like to make me? Just let me know. Don’t Blink.