Aw, creamy fruit desserts, who doesn't love 'em? This one's a conversation-stopper, layers of bread and a mango pudding studded with sherry-soaked raisins, much like an English Trifle but simpler. The recipe comes from Seasons of My Heart, the cooking school in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it's called "ante de mango" or "layered mango pudding" or "mango charlotte". That's a lot of names for a dish that makes up in minutes and is surprisingly low in calories! Everyone’s heard of Cinco de Mayo but what about Cinco de Abril? Ha – that’s the 5th of April and the date selected for a few friends to gather for dinner earlier this month. Our clever hosts, Denise of the food blog Eat Laugh Love and her husband Craig chose the theme and assigned courses. We got dessert, challenge on! We checked Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless cookbooks before hitting upon the obvious but inspired choice, perfect for spring: a mango pudding we first taste

Layers of fresh or frozen rhubarb and cheesecake, that luscious combination of rhubarb-sour and cheesecake-creamy. Make it in a simple pie plate or in cute mini ramekins. Either way, it's spring! Time to break out the rhubarb! ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~ Babying the Rhubarb We’re babying a tiny rhubarb plant, a much-prized Canadian Red transported last summer from Minnesota-black dirt. It barely survived last year's hotter’n’hades Missouri summer but is so small, even an Iowa boy weeding the garden didn’t recognize the small heart-shaped leaves on graceful red stalks. So until Missouri rhubarb shows up in the markets, I’m using up last year’s frozen rhubarb, here with a recipe I’ve had my eye on for more than a year. Usually those recipes just never get made – I am so glad this one finally did! The recipe is as much deconstructed cheesecake as it is upside down cheesecake. There are two barely sweet layers, one of fruit and another of cheesecake dusted with gin