Chocolate & Peanut Butter Fudge Cheesecake

Before I get into my recipe for this I just want you all to know that it has come from one of my most favourite recipe books.

This is quite possibly the best book that my family has ever come across, with the most amazing cookie and cake recipe's I have ever made.

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Fudge Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 45 wafers, crushed)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1/3 cup dairy sour cream

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon sale 

1 cup chocolate chips, melted

1 cup peanut butter chips, melted

Fudge Topping or Whipped Cream (optional)

Directions

Step 1:

Heat oven to 350 F. Combine wafer crumbs, powdered sugar, cocoa and melted butter in medium bowl. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 9-inch springform pan. Bake 8 minutes; cool.

Note: I normally don't use this recipe for the crust, I prefer Oreo cookie crumb crust but that all depends on your personal taste.

Step 2:

Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add eggs, sour cream, flour, vanilla and salt; beat until well blended.

Step 3:

Place half of batter in separate bowl. Stir melted chocolate into one bowl of cream cheese mixture and melted peanut butter chips into the other. Spread chocolate mixture in prepared crust. Gently spread peanut butter mixture over chocolate mixture. Do not stir.

Step 4:

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until centre is almost set. 

Note: For less cracking of cheesecake surface, bake in water bath. Also cut the edges away from the pan as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Remove from oven to wire rack. Cool completely; remove side of pan. Cover; refrigerate.

Step 5:

To serve, drizzle each slice with fudge topping and top with whipped cream, if desired. Cover; refrigerate leftover cheesecake. 

   

Minnie & Mickey Mouse Cakepops

My sisters niece and nephew turned 2 a few weeks ago. Their birthday party was mickey and minnie mouse themed so of course she made minnie and mickey mouse cakepops.

Vanilla Cupcakes

These are probably the best vanilla cupcakes ever from Hello, Cupcake! I always forget how good they are until I make them.

Ingredients


2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs

Directions 

1. Preheat the oven 350 F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Combine the milk, oil and vanilla extract in a 2-cup measuring cup or a small bowl.

3. In another medium bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the milk mixture in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating just until blended.

Note: This mixture will be thick.. DO NOT ADD EXTRA MILK OR OIL TO MAKE IT WATERY.


5. Fill the paper liners two-thirds of the cup. I generally use an ice cream scooper, one scoops generally fills it up to two-thirds. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the baking pan, place on a wire wrack and allow to cool completely

Justine's Wedding

Three months ago this girl that I work with was getting married. She wanted to be different and decided that at the end of her receiving line decided to give everyone a shot and a Cake pop. So of course who else would she enlist us to do it.

  

Also I thought I would make note of this but, since my first post my sister and I have invested in cake pop makers. If anyone wants to make their life a lot easier instead of making a cake and letting it cool down to roll them, this baby bakes them in about 3-5 minutes. It takes maybe a half an hour to 45 minutes to bake them all, all perfectly round and everything.

 

Baby Cakes Cake Pop Maker

Grandfather and Cake pops?

About 5 years ago my grandfather started losing his eye sight. For the longest time he didn't let it affect him until it started getting worse. He has a condition called Macular Degeneration, which starts slowly and it starts off by missing holes in your sight. Essentially it's like looking through a pasta strainer. He can't drive, he made his garden smaller (which is his life) and started becoming depressed.

Recently he's seemed to be more cheery and more involved in our lives. He has started trying to not let it effect him, although, everyone has their days. Anyways the reason i'm writing this is because my sister and I often make cake pops for special events i.e. weddings, birthdays etc. We we're making these black and pink cake pops for someones birthday.

He saw us making these cake pops and as usual said to us "Ma, you two never stop baking do you?" and of course sat down and started watching. It was only a matter of time before he became interested and started helping us dip the cake pops in chocolate.

Recently, he has become more involved in our lives and not as "angry" as he use to be. Although, he's become more accepting of what has happened to him his eyes are continuously getting worse. Thankfully his attitude is getting a lot better and has his funny days... where he thinks he's hilarious but does it in a mean way. We've just come to accept that thats the way he deals with things so we ignore what ever it is that he decides to say to us.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, I probably have the cutest grandfather. In the words of my nonno,

 "Too many chiefs, not enough indians."

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bowls

These are one of my favourites! Mainly because they look cute and you can eat them when you're finished your ice cream!

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ stick) butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips


Step 1Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2To make the dough, combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with electric mixer until light and fluffy. To this mixture, add the eggs and extract. Once it’s blended start adding the flour mixture, one cup at a time. Be sure to blend it after each cup.

Step 3Roll out the dough in between two pieces of wax paper. Use the other side of a cupcake tray and cover in tin foil. Make sure you crisco the tin foil so the dough doesn't stick when it comes out of the oven.
Cut pieces large enough to cover the tin foil on the cupcake tray.

Step 4Bake for about 10-13 minutes or until the cookie cups are golden brown. Cool on pan or cooling rack for 10 minutes before attempting to loosen the bottom edges of the cookies. So as not to break off the cookie edges and using a small spatula carefully remove cups from the pan and allow them to cool completely. Wash the pan, spray it again, and repeat the process with the remaining dough.

Fun Decorating

This post is just about fun decorating I've done in the past.

Tiffany's Inspired Cupcakes

Balloons

 Cake Pops

 Christmas Trees

 Easter Basket

 Angele's Birthday Cupcakes

 Oreo Flower Lady Bug Cupcakes

 Alison's Ladybug Cupcakes

 Mario & Luigi Cupcakes

 Mickey Mouse Birthday Cake

 Joey's Moustache Cupcake's

 Halloween Tomb Stone Cupcakes




















Butterfly Cupcakes