Birthday Cheesecake cups

As a special request I made sweets for Christopher's Grandpa's birthday this weekend. It was a last minute thing so I had to think of something quick and easy. I went back to a recipie I claimed I would keep on hand, my cookies and cream cheesecake cups. To add a little flair to them this time I topped them with a white chocolate covered oreo with chocolate sprinkles. I also used Happy Birthday candles to make them extra cute. They were tasty as always, the perfect quick treat!

Cruise Photos

I'm pretty sure I have them all uploaded now so click the link to see all the pictures from our wonderful cruise!

Cruise Photos

Carnival Paradise

We are back and had an amazing amazing vacation. I'll take the time to tell all the details but until I get the chance here are some pictures. I'll be getting more from Kim and Jon's camera too so I'll post them as I get them! Check them out!
Cruise Photos

Sail Away

Tomorrow morning we head off to Long Beach to board the Carnival Paradise until Friday. The life of luxury awaits, not to mention more food than I've ever seen in my entire life! I'm so excited. I've been packed for nearly a week. Midnight dessert buffets have been dancing around in my dreams for a month. The song Food Glorious Food from Oliver has been playing in my head since they day I booked the cruise. They even have an onboard sushi bar. I don't know how they can pack so much amazing into one boat, but from what I heard...THEY DO! After church and work this morning I'm off to Deba's house to trade her cars. Between Kim and I who over pack and Chris and Jon who pack like girls, there was no way we could fit all our luggage into any of our little cars. So Deba is letting us take her SUV, better find her something special on the trip as a thank you gift! We'll all pack up and hit the road around 9 am. We board between 12 and 4.
The earlier we get on board the sooner we can start eating!
I didn't do any baking this weekend, been too busy sitting in my office waiting for the phone to ring. And the rest of the time I've been adding more things to my suitcase that I know I don't need. So, no new photos of yummy treats. HOWEVER, I did do a photoshoot with Christopher's cats yesterday. He only has pictures of them taken with his phone and they aren't very good quality. The kitties now have qualities photos to be proudly displayed!

This is Harley, he's my favorite. It's no secret.



This is Vespa; she is rotten!

Happy 90th Birthday Henry!

Let me start off by telling you that I can NOT take credit for this huge amazing cake. My little cousin, and by little I mean much taller but slightly younger, Taylor made this cake for her grandpa's 90th birthday. The lucky little jerk works at Cafe Med and got to make the cake with their pastry chef. Complete with a edible photo of Henry. It was a white cake with stawberries in the center all topped with a whipped vanilla frosting. Great job cuz!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Last week was my friend Katie's birthday, clearly this event couldn't come and go without making here a cake. Now here's the catch, Katie's favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. The classic. Well I don't know if you've ever tried trying to find a recipe for yellow cake but there basically isn't. Yellow cake happens to be Christopher's favorite too so I made him a yellow cake from scratch a while back. The recipe came from Alton Brown, and was one of the only ones I could find in books or online. It was just okay, it wasn't the classic out of the box simple yellow cake that so many love and adore. It just can't be replicated. As much as I hate to do it, I had to. I used the box cake mix. Of course I didn't admit at to the people eating it I did such a thing. If they take the time to read my blog then they deserve to know, but if they don't then they will continue to be fooled and miss out and the beauty and craft that is my blog. So yes, box cake bleh. To be a bit less obvious I used 2 cake mixes and split them up among 3 9in. pans. They came out just beautiful. Now for the real treat: my favorite Chocolate Frosting Recipe. I've made it twice now and I don't think I'll try any other chocolate frosting recipe again. It's just perfect and I will forever claim it as my own. This recipe comes to us from the Hershey's chocolate website.
ESPECIALLY DARK CHOCOLATE FROSTING
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Melt butter, Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
Both times I've made this frosting I've doubled the recipe. Two cups just isn't enough for a 3 layer cake and I like to have extra for snacking while decorating. I used my decorating with white chocolate trick again. It's soooo much easier to write out things in chocolate on wax paper than using frosting directly on the cake. It saves on having to scrape off frosting and start over if mistakes are made. Just pop it in the freezer peel off the wax paper and set the chocolate writing on top of the cake. I also made some chocolate polka dots with the leftover chocolate to make it cute and girly. The cake was great!
No time to bake this weekend sadly. I have to spend all my time in the office answering phone calls. It may be some time before I get to bake again. Christopher and I leave for our cruise Monday the 24th with Kimberly and Jon! There will be tons and tons of photos and maybe Flip! will even make his blogging world comeback. Ya...remember good old Flip!? If you don't, Flip! is my mini video camera; he's the best. I'm so excited!!

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

You all know I've been waiting along time to make these cookies and cream Oreo cheesecake cups, well Saturday was finally the day! Saturday was just a great day for food... for lunch I stopped by the Gourmet Shop at Cafe Med and had a Greek Salad, Pita and dip for $4. That's right, a non fast food lunch for $4. Amazing. On another non cheesecake related note, Saturday night Christopher made me dinner: Penne Carbonara, Caprese Salad, and Garlic Bread. The Penne Carbonara is from his Tyler's Ultimate cookbook and was fantastic so when Chris makes it for me again (which he will if he knows whats good for him) we'll do a special on here with that recipe. And now back to the cheesecake. This recipe is also from my Martha Stewart Cupcake Book, and yet again I tell you this is NOT a cupcake. I'm okay with it this time though, they are exactly what I suspected. Great!!! I'll give you the recipe from the book then tell you after the changes I made.
Ingredients:
42 Oreo cookies, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, slightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
pinch of salt
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
2. With an electric mixer and medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scarping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
4. Driving batter evenly among cookies=filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating times halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.
Changes:
I didn't change really all that much, the biggest thing was that I don't understand regular Oreos. Double stuffed Oreo's are a million times more delicious. Why would you settle to the old fashioned oreo? They are so 1974. Ya I said it! Don't believe me... go check it out for yourself. That's right. Double stuffed oreos were released in 1975 and we haven't looked back since. Okay so I bought the double stuffed oreos which after you subtract 12 to mix in leaves you with 24, the perfect amount to fill 2 cupcake tins instead of 2 and a half. Since everyone has half of a cupcake tin lying around? In my head 24 makes far more sense. But thats in my head so beware. So I'm not sure if it was the increased volume of cheesecake goo per cup by decreasing it to 24, but 22 minutes wasn't enought. I tacked another 5 minutes on and we were good to go.
Results:
These were devoured at the Melodrama Saturday night. Before, most there were partial to my red velvet cupcakes but some decided this was their new favorite thing I make. I think they give me such great reviews because they want me to keep bringing treats to them. Well it works guys, keep the compliments coming in and the sweets will follow! So there we have it, I will make these again no doubt. They would be perfect in a party setting. No silverware or clean up required, just little bit size cups of heaven. If I haven't convinced you to run out and make these right now, let me tell you again. These are so simple and just all around great. Please give them a shot!