Punkin' Cheesecake

Current Mood: excited!!!!!
Current Song: Monster-Eminem/Rihanna LOVE THIS SONG

Christmas spirit is in the air!!

This weekend we will cut down our first Christmas tree and decorate our house for our real first Christmas together! And our last before we are married. Woop Woop! Okay enough with the mushiness...is that a word?

Ready...set...GO! That's what I'll be saying tomorrow to myself when I get off work and head home to start making four pumpkin cheesecakes for Kelly! And then again to myself on Wedn when I head home from work and start making 20 dozen minis for Kelly! Talk about busy, huh!? But I am pumped.

I tested my pumpkin cheesecake rendition over the weekend for our "Friendsgiving." I keep seeing this on Facebook and I didn't get it at first. But DUH, we had one of these Saturday night when we had 3 other couples over for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Dom made the fried turkey laced with bacon (literally laced across the top of the turkey...no...not drugs) and I made the cheesecake. One couple brought stuffing and mouth-burning jalapeno mashed taters (they burned but damn were they good) and the other couple brought semi-mashed sweet potatoes. These were also very delish and something completely new to me. Thanks for the leftovers, guys!

Of course then we had cranberry "sauce" sliced at the can indents and rolls that were apparently sweet potato rolls.

We had a family style dinner and some drinks (well some had too many drinks) and fun!

My pumpkin cheesecake was divine. It was extremely close to pumpkin pie (I may, in fact, leave out a bit of pumpkin puree for the order) and had the delectible tang of sour cream topping to give it a kick. The cinnamon graham crust was a splendid addition to the cake and I topped it with three pumpkin Hershey kisses (I didn't have pecans at the time).

No cracks. No issues. No problems.

Can't wait to bake four of them tomorrow night! What a busy, busy week ahead of me.

Random Tip of the Day: Use your food processor for EVERYTHING! Well...not everything. But I've never used it to make crust before and it was soooo much easier. I threw in the grahams, sugar, and cinnamon. Blended for 1 minute to get all chunks out. Added the melted butter, pulsed it a few times until it started to clump together and poured into the spring form pan. Easy as cake! (No pun intended)

Cheers!

Cinnamon Swirl Latte COMPLETE!

Current Mood: Ready to go home! 

Current Radio Station on Pandora: N'sync Radio (don't laugh)

So I'm pretty pumped for this weekend's Pre-Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Dom's making a FRIED turkey covered in BACON. 

Is everything really better with bacon????

The real concern here is the frying of the whole 13 lb turkey. We bought 2 gallons of canola oil for our new turkey fryer. 2 GALLONS. Heart attack just waiting to happen. 

I will try it though. 

I am making a test round of the pumpkin cheesecake that I will be making 4 of for Kelly for delivery on Thanksgiving morning. I stocked up on pumpkin puree too because I just know all the crazies will be out buying it all out of stock. 

Yes, I am a crazy. 

Anyways, back to what I am really blogging about. I'm also REALLY excited for its future--The Cinnamon Swirl Latte cupcake!!! I completed round 5 of this recipe Sunday night. In fact, this was only after I threw together my VERY first crock pot meal EVER. That's hard to believe to some, but to others, it's not because they know I DON'T COOK. I am a baker. There's a difference. 

So Sunday I basically slaved in the kitchen while we waited for that tornado to blow over during the Raven's game. Crock pot meal turned out GREAT according to the hubby-to-be. I found a recipe on Pinterest for turkey quinoa mini meatballs in crushed tomatoes. I literally shocked myself! I may have to make a crock pot meal EVERY Sunday! 

That night, I decided to call it quits on my very own recipe. Calling it quits meaning put an end to the experimentation and put it up for sale finally!!! 

Round 5 is the winner indeed. Removed the butter, added 1/4 cup more oil and 1 tsp of cinnamon to the batter. Kept everything else the same and it was perfectly moist and perfectly delish with homemade cinnamon whipped on top. 

Get yours today!! 

Random Tip of the Day: If you're running low, or completely out of, powdered sugar, you can make your own by running some granulated sugar through a coffee grinder or food processor. Now THAT is amazing.

Cheers!

It's mustache-y delightful! 

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, and MORE Pumpkin!

Current Mood: Very awake (more than usual) and relaxed
Current Song: The Script-Breakeven
Plans for the Evening: Bowling for a friend's birthday

So the fall/Holiday season is my favorite simply because of the flavors and scents. Right now, you walk into my house, you'll smell an aroma of maple bacon, hazelnut coffee, and buttered rum. Now, these are your usual autumn scents, but they are cozy scents and I think of autumn a cozy season! I think of warm blankets, snuggies, hot tea, pies, pumpkins, and many other things when I think of autumn. It is my all-time favorite time of year!

Then you also have the best Starbucks flavors during fall. You have pumpkin spice lattes, peppermint mochas, and caramel brulees. As you move toward the Holidays you have gingerbread lattes and eggnog lattes. MMMMMMM...drooling just thinking about it!

What I'm getting at here is that you can never make enough baked goods that involve pumpkin or fall flavors in the fall. You just can't. Impossible.

I've made three batches of mini pumpkin cupcakes so far this season, and I'm making 3 more batches in less than two weeks! They have been a huge hit at all events that I've made them for. I first made them for Dom's parent's football party about a month ago when we played the Steelers (and lost ugh). Dom and our other friend Dom sat there and literally ate 10 in a row. Just peeling away at the liners and stuffing them into their mouths. At one point, Dom tried to encourage me to use no liners in the future. I'm way too afraid of them sticking to the pans for this though!

Then I made them for Allie's Halloween party the week after that. Another huge hit there. After that, I made them for our very own Halloween party. Instead of regular whipped cream this time, I added some (well... a lot) Rum Chata to the frosting. I added a bit too much and I don't think Rum Chata whips as well as the cream. Needless to say, the icing sunk a bit. But not too much! It stayed on the cupcake it just wasn't as pretty.

There was one left on the plate the next morning.

That's it. I'm keeping this recipe forever.

Now I have an order of 10 dozen pumpkin minis, 10 dozen red velvet minis, and 4 pumpkin cheesecakes for Kelly for Thanksgiving. Pumpkin cheesecake is literally my favorite thing on Thanksgiving. I'm not a big pumpkin pie gal so this fills that gap PERFECTLY.

There are two Thanksgiving dinners that day at Peerce's and Kelly's going to put these delectibles out on the buffets at each. Good choices!!!

Who else wants some pumpkin minis for their Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas dinners, Kwanzaa dinners, Hanukkah dinners, or any other Holiday get together!?

Order today!

Cheers