A Trio of Cheesecakes

We had a charity bake sale at work the other day. I threw together some cheesecakes for the event. I decided to go for a little variety and tried a simple banana cheesecake to go with my usual chocolate and mixed berry. It wasn't much extra work since most of the process is the same; I just mixed a big batch of cheesecake base and filling, then added berries to one and pureed banana to the other two. I put down a layer of chocolate sauce for the berry cheesecake and one of the banana cheesecakes, and drizzled it on top for decoration.

The chocolate sauce was running out by the time I came to decorate them, so I couldn't get it to pour smoothly. Still, they looked OK in the end, and everyone seemed to like them, so that was good.


And hey, I won a cactus, that was cool.

T-Virus Belt

If you're interested in weaving paracord, you should check out fusion knots. Run by a Mr. J. D. Lenzen, the gallery features a huge list of amazing knots and weaves, all with links to very clear and easy to follow instructional videos.

A surprising number of these look like they would work well as belts. I tried the T-Virus Sinnet, and it came out quite well:

So I used the pattern for a belt:

It's much lighter and more flexible than the previous belts I've made, and it's quite quick to weave (though you do have to pay attention to the distance between the knots if you want good consistency). The belt is a little too narrow for a man though (plus it's too fancy for me), but I think it makes a good woman's belt. I think this one is just under 3 feet long, and took about 35 feet of dark blue paracord, and perhaps a little over 6 feet of light blue paracord. I'm wondering if it could be made wider using a more complex pattern in the centre than a spiral, or perhaps weaving a second row of knots along the outside (it should be possible but will be more time-consuming as the entire working cord would need to be pulled through the knot each time, rather than just a loop).