Just Desserts:

Butter Cookies:

Ingredients:
250g flour
160g sugar
A few drops vanilla essence
A few drops red colour
200g butter.

Method:
Cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Mix vanilla essence and red colour. Gently fold in the flour. Put the mixture into a piping bag with a large nozzle. Pipe out shapes of your choice on a greased baking tray. Bake in a moderately hot oven at 150 degree C for 20 minutes. Store in an airtight container. You can decorate cookies with jam.

Walnut Fudge:

Ingredients:
1 tin condensed milk
1 cup milk
3 tbsp cocoa powder
12 walnuts(halved)
12 small cookie moulds
1 tbsp butter(melted).

Method:
Mix condensed milk, butter, milk and cocoa powder well. Pour this mixture in greased moulds. Press the walnuts into the cookie mixture. Bake in a moderately hot oven at 200 degree C for 15 minutes. When cool, un-mould the cookies and store in an airtight container.

Mysore Pak:

Ingredients:
2 cups(400g) sugar
1 cup gram flour
1/2 cup water
2 cups ghee(melted).

Method:
Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan and add gram flour and roast till light brown. Remove from heat and set aside. In the same pan mix sugar and water and bring to a boil. You will obtain a syrup of one string consistency. Remove from heat. Add the roasted gram flour and mix well. Put to heat and keep stirring on a low heat. Put in spoonfuls of melted ghee. When this mixture begins to bubble and the ghee separates, quickly spread a thick layer on a perforated plate, set on a fitting container, to drain out the excess ghee. Cut into cubes while still hot. Set spoonfuls of the mixture in small cake moulds. Set these at an angle to drain out the excess ghee. Fill the moulds to the brim and level to obtain neat pieces. Serve cold.

Cheese Cake:

Ingredients:
For the biscuit base:
7 crushed biscuits
1 tbsp softened butter.
For the cheese cake:
2 1/2 cups thick curd
1 cup cream
3 tsp gelatin
10 heaped tsp powdered sugar
A few drops pineapple essence
A few drops edible yellow colour

Method:
Hang curd in a muslin cloth for an hour. Beat the cream, cheese and powdered sugar till smooth and keep aside. Mix the biscuit crumbs with butter and press into a pie dish. Bake for 10 min at 180 degree C. Cool and keep aside. Dissolve gelatin with 2 1/2 tbsp of water in a double boiler. Cool. Add this gelatin, essence and color to the curd mixture, stirring continuously. Chill in the freezer till slightly thick. Pour this mixture on biscuit pie. Keep in the freezer till well set. Decorate with cherries and serve.