Raspberry Vanilla Birthday Cupcakes

On June 8, Monica turned one! She started walking the day before she turned 11 months old, so turning one sealed the deal of her becoming a toddler (sniff).

 

While I had a secret Pinterest board filled with birthday party ideas, I didn't go over the top crafting elaborate decorations. I ran a half marathon the day before her birthday, so we decided to keep things simple. We catered Buona Beef, served food on pink plates with pink silverware, bought a canopy for the backyard which we decorated with pink paper lanterns, and had several coolers of chilled beverages. 

 

One thing I didn't want to skimp on was the dessert. I had pinned several mini layer cakes as inspiration, but ultimately decided to bake cupcakes. Since the loose party theme was pink, the cupcakes had to be pink. In addition to baking exactly what I Monica wanted, I could avoid hard to pronounce food additives and artificial food colors.

 

Monica has been enjoying berries lately, so I decided to bake vanilla cupcakes with raspberry buttercream (strawberry being a close runner up). These weren't organic by any stretch, but I felt a little better knowing exactly what was in the cupcakes.

 

In addition to Monica's current love of raspberries, these cupcakes were inspired by The Cup's Raspberry Beret cupcakes. I don't think I ever had this flavor, but The Cup can do no wrong, in my opinion. Monica's birthday cupcakes are also reminiscent of the first recipe I shared on this blog, raspberry champagne cupcakes. Obviously there wasn't champagne in these cupcakes.

 

This may be one of my favorite pictures of Monica eating her birthday cupcake. Yes, there are other pictures of us singing to her and her enjoying her cupcake, but I love the expression on her face in this photo. It's like she's thinking, "Oh no! Cupcake down!"

 

One last minute (and extremely playful) detail I loved from the party was using one of Monica's bath toys as a paperweight. I just grabbed the purple walrus and it just went perfectly with the pink napkins. The napkins and walrus might still be sitting on the buffet.

 

 

Raspberry Vanilla Cupcakes
Vanilla cupcakes adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction
Raspberry buttercream adapted from Eat Live Run (where she shared strawberry buttercream)

Vanilla Cupcakes
Yield: 12 cupcakes (I tripled the recipe, which made 45)

Ingredients
1 and 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

1/4 cup yogurt (The original recipe called for vanilla greek yogurt. I used strawberry greek yogurt since that's what we had.)

3/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350*. Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.

 

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Melt butter in a small saucepan on the stovetop or in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave. Transfer this to the bowl of your mixer. Using the paddle attachment, stir in sugar (the mixture will be gritty). Add in the egg, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract until combined.

 

Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no lumps remain. Batter will be thick.

 

Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting.

Raspberry Buttercream
Note: I was able to frost all 45 cupcakes using one batch of this recipe

Ingredients
4 sticks unsalted butter, softened (1 pound)
1/2 cup pureed raspberries (about 1 cup whole raspberries, optional: strain out the seeds for a smoother frosting)
2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
8 cups powdered sugar (from two 1-lb boxes or one 2-lb bag)

Directions
Beat the butter using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer until creamy.

Add in the pureed raspberries.

Slowly add the powdered sugar, about one cup at a time.

Finally, add the lemon juice and sea salt. Continue beating until very light and fluffy.

Pipe* or spread frosting on each cupcake. Enjoy!

*I bought the Bake it Pretty Best-Ever Cupcake Icing Kit (5 jumbo pastry tips and 1 pastry bag) just for these cupcakes and it was fantastic! You can currently save 10% off your order using coupon code "BALLOONS".
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2014 Super Bowl desserts

It's that time of year again! Time for entertaining commercials, tasty snacks, and a pretty big football game. Once again, I'm taking inspiration from the competing teams to bake a dessert for our Super Bowl party.

Going into the NFC/AFC championship games, I hoped that Denver and Seattle would make it to the Super Bowl. Denver (and all of Colorado) is all about craft beer and Seattle is home to Starbucks. That means a boozy and caffeinated dessert is on the menu!

I already have a few such cupcakes in my recipe box:

Dark Chocolate Smoked Porter Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting - The bottom half deemed the best cake I've ever baked by John.  

Dark Chocolate Smoked Porter Cupcakes with Chai Buttercream - Because I also enjoy an occassional Chai Latte from Starbucks.

Mile High Chocolate Stout Pie from The Beeroness

The Beeroness also has a bevy of beer-infused dessert recipes. Her Mile High Chocolate Stout Pie sounds divine and somewhat fits with my Denver/Seattle theme. Denver is the Mile High City and the recipe uses Rogue Chocolate Stout, which is from Portland (not exactly Seattle, but still in the Pacific Northwest).

If you really want to stick with Colorado microbrews, I'd go with Great Divide Brewing Co.'s Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout, Breckenridge Brewery's Vanilla Porter or Oatmeal Stout, or Left Hand Brewing Company's Milk Stout.

What are you bringing to your Super Bowl party this year?
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2013 Super Bowl Desserts

It's that time of year again: the Super Bowl is upon us! With the commercials and a Beyonce halftime show, this year's event should make for an entertaining evening. In keeping with my personal tradition, I'll be baking some desserts to represent the teams. 

To be frank, when I heard that Baltimore made it to the Super Bowl, I was less than excited. While I'm not a huge football fan, I grew up in Cleveland and the infamous Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore for the 1996 football season. That left our fair city without a football team until 1999. To say that Cleveland is still bitter is an understatement. At least we got to keep our team name, colors, team records, etc. Needless to say, I'll be cheering for San Francisco this Sunday.

Top left: Fortune cookie recipe from Martha Stewart
Top right: Gold dipped fortune cookies from Cake Appreciation Society
Bottom: Dipped and sprinkled fortune cookies from Share Dessert Company

To get back to the desserts, when I heard that San Francisco would be playing, two desserts came to mind immediately: fortune cookies and chocolate. My family visited San Francisco several years ago and we stopped by a fortune cookie factory. According to the NY Times (and Wikipedia), fortune cookies were "introduced by the Japanese, popularized by the Chinese, but ultimately ... consumed by Americans." You could go the Martha Stewart route and bake fortune cookies from scratch. Or you could go the easy route and decorate store-bought fortune cookies with edible glitter or team-colored sprinkles.

As for the chocolate, Ghirardelli is an obvious choice. Bake anything with Ghirardelli and you're golden. Maybe dip some fortune cookies in Ghirardelli chocolate!

Top left: Berger cookie recipe from Blue-Eyed Bakers
Top right and bottom: Berger cookie feature in The Washington Post

Another reason I was hesitant for Baltimore to make it to the Super Bowl is that I didn't know if they had a signature dessert. Seafood: yes. Dessert: I was hoping it wasn't a Maryland crab cupcake. Fortunately, Baltimore is home to the decadent Berger Cookie. It's a vanilla cookie dunked in chocolate ganache. DUNKED!

So my Noodles started thinking, what if this year I combined the cities into one dessert? Bake the uber-delicious Berger cookie and dunk it in a ganache made with Ghirardelli chocolate? Sounds like the perfect game plan to me!

Don't forget to wash down your Super Bowl treats with a little craft beer! San Francisco has all sorts of good beer to enjoy. Anchor Brewing and Lagunitas should be pretty accessible. While there are microbrews available in the Baltimore area, I'm going to suggest Flying Dog. They're in Maryland and an hour outside of Baltimore. Plus, their labels are pretty entertaining.

What are you bringing to this year's Super Bowl party?
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Peppermint Mocha Cake

Happy New Year! After a little holiday break from blogging, it's nice to be back here. I have a growing list of blog post ideas, so let's get 2013 started!

I know early January is a time for resolutions and plans to become a better person during the coming year, but most resolutions are broken before the year is over. So why not indulge a few days early in the peppermint mocha cake I baked for Christmas with John's siblings? We can always go to the gym afterwards ;)

Instead of messing with a good thing, I used my now favorite chocolate cake recipe as the base and added some minty goodness in the frosting. It turns out John and my brother-in-law have quite the affinity for candy canes, preferrably those "seasoned" on a Christmas tree (even for a few hours), so this cake was a big hit.

Peppermint Mocha Cake
Cake adapted from The Brooklyn Kitchen
Frosting adapted from Eat Live Run

Cake

Ingredients
1 cup flavorful dark beer – I used Stone Brewing Co. Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean. You can also use something like Rogue Mocha Porter, Lagunitas Cappucino Stout, or Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout.
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder)
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (I used Medaglia D'Oro)
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions
Preheat oven to 350*. Grease two 9-inch cake pans and set aside.

Combine the beer and butter in a large sauce pan and heat to melt.

Remove from heat; whisk in the cocoa, sugar, and espresso.

In your mixer, beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla. Add the beer mixture a little at a time. It'll still be warm (or hot) and you don't want scrambled eggs.

Sift together the flour and baking soda, and fold into the batter. Mix until combined.

Divide evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 35 minutes. Test with a toothpick to be sure they're baked through.

Cool completely on a rack.


Peppermint Frosting
Note: Make more frosting if you want to frost the sides of the cake too.

Ingredients
1 stick butter, softened
3 - 4 cups powdered sugar
1 - 2 tablespoons milk
1 tsp peppermint extract
Crushed candy canes (about 2)

Directions
Beat the butter in a mixer with the whisk attachment until soft.

Add the milk, peppermint extract, and the powdered sugar (1 cup at a time) to the butter and continue to beat for 10 minutes until very light and fluffy.  

Frost liberally and sprinkle with the crushed candy canes.
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Inspired by Peppermint Mocha

Peppermint mocha cupcakes, gingerbread cake, cookies

With Christmas right around the corner, you know I'll be baking up a storm over the next few days. We're staying in Chicago for Christmas and have a mini Christmas with John's siblings this weekend. I'm thinking about baking a peppermint mocha cake, which inspired this Friday's outfit:

Gap striped dress, GiftShopBrooklyn red velvet and sequin clutch,
Elephantine earrings, Tory Burch Eddie bow ballet flats

Maybe a little dressy for sibling Christmas, but still festive. I mean, who can resist a little sparkle around this time of year?

If I don't talk with you before Tuesday, have a very merry Christmas!

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Mom's Apple Pie

Thanksgiving is this week and I can't wait for all the homemade goodies! The turkey! The stuffing (who cares if I like Stove Top)! The side dishes! And the pies! Oh, the pies!

For my extended family holidays, my parents always host Thanksgiving. Which meant the weekend before and week of Thanksgiving was a flurry of cleaning and preparations. Most years, the apple and pumpkin pies were made from scratch (minus the crust). If my Mom ran out of time and bought pies from the store, we were sorely disappointed.

First, because homemade pies are superior.

And second, so we could sneak some of the cinnamon sugar apples. My Mom always made extra apples for the filling knowing a portion of them would never make it into the pie.

Which is why this recipe calls for heaps of apples. A few slices go to "quality control" and a few more are snacked on by John and me.

I may have cut a few corners by using Pillsbury pie crust, but nobody was complaining.

And the pie still looks homemade because I haven't mastered my crust fluting skills yet.

Plus, it's what's inside that really counts :)

Mom's Apple Pie
Note: See my Mom's extra tips in the comments.

Crust (for a 9.5 inch 2-crust pie)
I cheated and used Pillsbury. A box of 2 rolled pastry crusts can be found in the cooler near the cans of cresent rolls and biscuits. I don't like using the crust that already comes in the pan.

If you have more time on your hands, you can use Joy the Baker's or Smitten Kitchen's recipes.

Apple Pie Filling
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
9 to 12 cups of thinly sliced pared tart apples* (McIntosh, Golden Delicious, Jonathan, Honeycrisp, etc.)
3 tablespoons butter, cut into small cubes

Directions
Preheat oven to 425*.

Prepare the crust (or just roll it out from the box). I like to use a glass pie pan.

Stir together the sugar, flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Mix well with the apples, trying not to snack on too many of them ;)

Pour the apples into the pie crust and dot with the cubes of butter.

Cover the apples with the top crust. Seal and flute the edges of the crust. And cut 3 or so slits into the top.

Cover the edge with a 2- to 3- inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; removing the foil during the last 15 minutes of baking.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in the crust. Place the pie pan on a cookie sheet while baking to catch any drips.

* - One pound of apples equals 3 medium apples or 3 cups sliced apples

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Stone Brewing Smoked Porter Chocolate and Chai Cupcakes

Did you watch any of the Presidential Debate? I'm not usually one for political discourse, but have to say that Romney owned it.

Now back to the topic du jour....cupcakes.

 

Remember how we hosted a birthday party for John's dad? When it came time to decide on the dessert, I knew I'd be baking. It had to be chocolate and there was already a request for the Stone Smoked Porter chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel cream cheese frosting. But I wanted to try something new too. Yes, I'm that person that makes new recipes for a party.

 

Fortunately, it wasn't a total risk. The bottom half of the cupcake was already tested and deemed John's favorite cupcake that I've ever baked. He could be found enjoying quite a few bald (sans frosting) smoked porter cupcakes. Sometimes chocolate cakes or cupcakes can be dry, but the sour cream is the trick to keeping them moist.

After a little searching on one of my favorite foodie blogs, Eat Live Run, I found my answer: chai buttercream. Seasonally appropriate (I looove cinnamon). A little something different. But not too strange.

Yes, those are mustache candles

 

The verdict: a.mazing and birthday approved. These cupcakes are sophisticated and a touch sassy with the cinnamon.

Cheers!

Stone Brewing Co. Smoked Porter Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Chai Buttercream
Cupcake adapted from The Brooklyn Kitchen
Frosting adapted from Eat Live Run

Cupcake

Ingredients
1 cup flavorful dark beer – I used Stone Brewing Co. Smoked Porter. You can also use somethig like Rogue Mocha Porter, Lagunitas Cappucino Stout, or Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout.
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder)
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (I used Medaglia D'Oro)
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions
Preheat oven to 350*.

Combine the beer and butter in a large sauce pan and heat to melt.

Remove from heat; whisk in the cocoa, sugar, and espresso.

In your mixer, beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla. Add the beer mixture a little at a time. It'll still be warm (or hot) and you don't want scrambled eggs.

Sift together the flour and baking soda, and fold into the batter. Mix until combined.

Pour into cupcake pan (you can go a little more than ¾ full on these) and bake for 20-25 minutes for regular-sized cupcakes and 10-12 minutes for mini's. Test with a toothpick to be sure they're baked through.

Cool completely on a rack.


Chai Frosting

Ingredients
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
About 3-4 cups powdered sugar
2 chai teabags
2 T boiling water
2 T milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon (heaping if you love cinnamon like me)

Beat the butter in a mixer with the whisk attachment until soft.

Brew the tea in the two tablespoons of boiling water and let sit for ten minutes to steep. Then, add the milk.

Add the chai tea mixture, cinnamon, and the powdered sugar (1 cup at a time) to the butter and continue to beat for 10 minutes until very light and fluffy.

Frost liberally :)
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TGIF FTW

Are you ready for the weekend? As the week starts to wind down, I'm wiped out. The work week wasn't particularly strenuous, so I think it was a combination of things (read: first world problems). Feeling under the weather and moody (dare I say from PMS?); leaving for work late after dropping yogurt on the kitchen floor, my pants, and the wall; back-to-school traffic; and staying up late to bake cupcakes.

Sure, some of those literal and figurative headaches could have been avoided. Fortunately, the lack of sleep was darn worth it for these cupcakes! We always bring in an airlift of food for birthdays at work and this week was no exception. It was my boss's birthday, so I wanted to bring in more than a store-bought treat. Since he likes dark beer and chocolate, I knew these Rogue Mocha Porter cupcakes with salted caramel cream cheese frosting would be perfect. I found the recipe through The Bake & Brew and her review had me hooked.

When I couldn't find the Rogue Mocha Porter, I snagged a bottle of Stone Brewing Co. Smoked Porter and never looked back. "Smooth, with chocolate and coffee-like flavors balanced by subtle "smoky" character of peat-smoked specialty malt" sounded like the perfect complement to these cupcakes to me.

And the rave reviews at the office put them straight on the "to bake again" list.

For another boozy dessert, try the raspberry champagne cupcakes. Hope you have a fantastic (and restful) weekend!


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Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

AKA...John's favorite cookie.

Last week, John was in Kentucky for the Appalachia Service Project with our parish. With an 8 or 9 hour drive from Chicago, I knew they would need some treats. Sure, they already had two passenger vans worth of snacks, but there's always room for something made with love :) 

Plus, I have a little history of baking these cookies for John. While dating in college, he went on the March for Life with a group from SLU. Not one to pass up an opportunity to bake, and show my affection, I sent a batch of cookies with him to Washington, DC.

Which is one of my not-so-secret secrets to a happy relationship: Small, unexpected gestures to show your love for the other person.

Be that surprising them by baking their favorite cookies. Picking up a 6-pack of their favorite hard to find beer. Or just making dinner and cleaning up the dishes so he or she can relax after a long day.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
From a package of Sun-Maid raisins

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or a little more if you're like me)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick or old fashioned oats
1 cup raisins

Directions
Preheat oven to 350*.

Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, milk, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Stir together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Use a whisk to make sure they're combined properly.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.

Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. I like to line mine with parchment paper for easy clean up.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top.

Remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire racks.
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Apricot Bars

Old habits die hard! Because wouldn't you know it...I'm back sharing another dessert recipe :)

Like my favorite peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and guacamole, these apricot (or raspberry) squares are in the year-round rotation at our house. And the crust is extremely versatile because you can swap out the fillings for other fruit preserves or apple pie filling to make an apple crisp.

Before I get to the actual recipe, I have to tell you a funny story about one of the first times I baked these on my own.

It was 4th grade and we had to give "how to" or explanatory presentations. I planned on bringing in the ingredients for raspberry squares and demonstrating to the class how to make them. And of course I had to bring in the final product since I didn't have access to an oven at school.

I made the raspberry squares the night before and put them in a shirt box to bring to class. Once at school, I put the box of raspberry squares in the lockers. When it was time for my presentation, I was horrified to find an army of ants eating my lovingly baked goods!

I don't remember if I still presented on my assigned day or if I was given an extra day. Either way, I brought in a new batch of raspberry squares the following day in an air-tight container.

Who knew that I would learn about proper food preparation in 4th grade English class!

Apricot (or Raspberry) Squares

Makes a 9x13 pan worth of bars

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter
2 cups quick oatmeal
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
16-18 oz (a medium jar) of apricot or raspberry preserves

Directions
Preheat oven to 350*.

Grease a 9x13 pan generously.

Mix together oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, and melted butter.

Pat 1/2 of the mixture down on the greased pan.

Spread apricot or raspberry preserves evenly.

Crumble remaining flour and oatmeal mixture over the preserves and pat down gently.

Bake at 350* for 30 minutes. Or until the preserves start bubbling through the crumbles and the crumbles are starting to brown.

Cut into bars when cool.

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A Sneaky Chocolate Dessert

Hi, friends! We're back to Monday. Did you have a good weekend? Ours was pretty social, which is a nice change from the past few weekends. I brought a sneaky dessert to a friend's on Friday night, which I'll tell you about in two paragraphs.

There was also a donut sale at our church for the Appalachia Service Project. A group of teens and adult leaders (John being one) is going to rural Kentucky for a week this summer to help rebuild houses and build community. They raised about $1,500 this weekend (woo hoo)! Through April 8, 2012 10% of all sales from my Etsy shop will be donated to the Appalachia Service Project.

So back to my sneakiness. On Friday, we went to a friend's party. I volunteered to bring a dessert, but didn't think about the timing of everything. There was no time during the week to prep, so I was left with 45 minutes between getting home from work and leaving our house for the party. Therefore, I wanted to make something fast, no-bake, healthy, and reasonably priced. 

Good thing I remembered this recipe from last year. After a quick stop at the grocery store on my way home from work, I was ready to go. I threw all the ingredients in the food processor, sliced some apples, and we were out the door.

I served the bowl of chocolate dip with the apples and didn't tell anybody what was in there, besides Nutella. One guy literally pulled up a chair to the dip and went to town with apple slices, crackers, maybe even a spoon.

So what was the secret healthy ingredient?

Garbanzo beans! I made a dessert hummus and people ate it up! The Cupcake Project "frosted" gluten-free cupcakes with her chocolate hummus. We were having pizza for dinner that night, so I wanted something lighter, like apples. This hummus would also be perfect to bring as an afternoon work snack!

The original recipe called for honey, but we were all out. Instead, I substituted maple syrup. If I make the recipe again (a strong possibility), I'd like to try it with honey.

And thankfully Stef made the side note that "if you use Nutella or another product with lots of added sugar, your end result will be sweeter than [the original recipe] and, depending on your personal taste preferences, you may need to cut back on the honey." My hummus seemed pretty sweet without adding any honey or syrup, so I only added a little maple syrup to make the dip a little creamier.

Do you ever sneak healthy ingredients into your recipes?

Sneaky Chocolate Hummus
Adapted from the Cupcake Project

Ingredients
1 can (14 oz) garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1/2 cup Nutella
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Honey or maple syrup, to taste (I used about 1 Tablespoon)

Directions
Put the garbanzo beans, Nutella, and brown sugar in a food processor.

Pulse until it's as smooth as you can get it. Scrape down the bowl occassionaly.

Add honey or maple syrup, to taste. This will sweeten the hummus and help make it creamier. Pulse the food processor a few more times.

Store hummus in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to enjoy with fruit, graham crackers, pitas, cupcakes, or a spoon :)
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Chocolate makes everything better

Hi there! How was your weekend? Other than a slight hiccup, the refi closing went smoothly. Plus, I started our taxes. I know, I live an exciting life :) Before I jump into mortgage madness, I want to share my Super Bowl desserts because it's better late than never.

I ended up baking desserts for both the Patriots and Giants. My Boston Cream pie cookies wound up being vanilla cake cookies with and without the ganache. I didn't particularly like the coconut cream filling from the original recipe, so I ditched it. Plus, making them into sandwich cookies seemed a little like overkill because the cookies were already a rich and dense. Even though, I made the cookies half as big as the recipe. But what do I know? Someone at the party ended up making these into sandwiches with a cheesecake ball!

Aforementioned cheesecake ball :)

These cheesecake balls were also a little tricky. You'll see that they didn't make it in cakepop form. I don't think the balls were firm chilled enough when I tried to dip them in chocolate. Plus, I used melted chocolate chips and a little cream instead of Bakerella's recommended chocolate candy melts. Therefore, it was a little too liquid-y.

Everything tasted great. They were just a little messy. Not that messy is a bad thing when it involves chocolate :) To dress up the cheesecake balls, I topped them with chopped white chocolate with blueberries.

Sacrificial cheesecake for the cheesecake balls

If chocolate cheesecake balls are a little too much to handle, how about my aunt's cheesecake recipe? If you want to make a cheesecake just for the cheesecake balls, skip making the graham cracker crust and sour cream topping. I made 2/3 of the recipe, which yielded 24 cheesecake balls.

Aunt Me's Cheesecake

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients
1/2 stick butter
1 2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sugar

Directions
Melt butter in 9x13 baking dish in 325* oven. Add graham cracker crumb and sugar. Mix and pat onto sides and bottom of the pan.

Cheesecake

Ingredients
3 8 oz. containers/packages of cream cheese.
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1 T vanilla

Directions
Cream the cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Pour onto crust. Bake at 325* for approximately 25 minutes or until it doesn't wiggle.

Topping

Ingredients
1 pint sour cream
5 T sugar

Directions
Mix sour cream and sugar and pour over cheesecake. Bake at 375* for 5 minutes.



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