Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

A few weeks ago I got a spring form pan for cheesecakes. This weekend I finally put it to use. The product- Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake.   Doesn’t that sound good. I have had the craving for the chocolate peanut butter combo.

It was a pretty easy recipe. Check it out here.

Instead of Oreos for the crust, like the recipe calls, I used chocolate animal crackers. They were on sale at Meijers this week. Gotta love saving money.  I think they were a good substitute and not as fattening as what the Oreos are. Besides that I didn’t do any other alterations to the cheesecake itself. There was lots filling though. So much that I was able to do 7 small cupcake size cheesecakes. My family enjoyed them. (Seeing that the cheesecake takes a long time to chill in the fridge the little ones are ready to eat in about an hour.)  The topping is a mixture of sour cream and sugar. I did not use this. Instead I melted down some chocolate chips and used that in place of. Then topped with the peanut butter cups and leftover crust crumbs. Then drizzled it with melted peanut butter.  

Overall I was happy with the end result. I have yet to have a piece. wanted to wait till I could sit down and enjoy it. I had a bit of my moms and it tasted good. Not a really strong peanut butter taste. That is why I drizzled it with peanut butter.  My whole family loved it.   

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Bonus week you get 3 pictures not just one.

Ga Living.

So this was my team when I lived in Ga working at Adventures in Missions office as an intern. We all sat in the same office talking on phones at the same time. It was chaotic at times.  It was a fight for community at first but then we really became family once we ALL decided that it was worth having. It was great living and working with these guys. The Ashley's and Em and I shared an apartment. We cooked together, ate together, watched movies, did crafts, lived life. We were also blessed to be part of the youth group at our church. Ashley Hall (the blonde[now Simonson]) and I taught sixth grade sunday school. It was great to get to know and invest in those ladies. We had very few guys that showed up. Both Ash and I were stretched in our teaching but it was really good. As a team we learned a lot that year. We had a lot of ups and downs but over all it was a great year.

Rainbow cake.

Every now and again I get the itch to bake a cake. Usually I resist.  I don’t need a cake sitting around saying “eat me”.  It had been awhile. So I gave in. 

Another thing that I have given in to lately, I'm sure that many of you have too, is Pinterest. Its a little dangerous. I tried one of the cakes that I have seen on there.

The problem was the recipes all used a box mix. I try not to use those. I mean I went to Culinary School.  I don’t think Chef Fred and Chef Mike would like me breaking open a box cake.  Plus its much more fulfilling (for me anyways) to bake one from scratch. So I had to search out a vanilla cake mix.  I haven’t made one of those before. I found a easy one on allrecipes.com. It turned out good. It was a little more dense then not. But it  had good flavor.

                     

Vanilla Cake.
12 servings

1 Cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pans.
Cream together sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time Then vanilla. Combine flour and B powder, add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. At this point I put the batter in six different bowls and mixed in coloring to get R..O.Y. G. B.V.  I then put them in the pans. In one pan I put Red, Orange and Yellow. In the other I put Green, Blue, and Violet.
 Then bake for 30-40 minutes. Till tooth pick comes out clear or cake springs back to the touch. 

I then used a vanilla butter cream recipe. Because of limited powdered sugar the cake was a little slim on frosting but it was covered. Then I used some blue sprinkles. Who wouldn’t like sprinkles.

When cut the cake came out with clear lines and bright colors. It would be great for a kids birthday. 

My new baking partner.  He helps with cleaning up. 

Creation

Shoes

Took this picture during one of our VBS times at a park. All the girls took their shoes off to jump rope. We did a lot of Jump roping in the DR.

More bags.

Last month while on an IKEA (love that place) trip with my cousins. They were admiring my purse that I made. So i told them that if they picked out fabric I would make them each one. So after splitting up we both ended up at JoAnn's. This was a perfect time for them to pick out the fabric and get it to me to get he purses made. So finally after a month they are done and will be in the mail to them this week, Hopefully tomorrow. I added a ribbon to theirs for ties. The original had ties but I left them off mine.

The purses:

Blueberry Muffins.

I finally tried out my new muffin top pan. I wanted to do a lemon poppy seed muffin but was not up to the task of a new recipe. So I stuck with blueberry. I used a Martha Stewart recipe. Not a huge fan of hers but I inherited her baking handbook from my Aunt. So I thought I would use it.

 

Blueberry Muffins
Makes 1 dozen.

1 stick butter room temp
2 cups all purpose flour ( I used some whole wheat flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups fresh blueberries ( I used frozen)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare muffin pans. [I usually spray and flour or you could use papers] In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt. Working over the bowl, toss the blueberries in a fine sieve with about a little of the flour mixture to coat berries. Set both aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on med high till light and fluffy. About 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating till combined. Add vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, add the reserved flour mixture, beating until just combined. Add milk, beating until just combined; do not over mix. [muffins are okay if batter is a little lumpy, it will all work its self out in the over while cooking] Fold in blueberries with a spatula. Divide among muffins cups.

Bake for 25-30 rotating pan half way for even cooking. Take out and let cool for a few minutes and then ENJOY!

My muffin tops weren’t as big as I wanted. Next time I will fill them more. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, being my first time. Next time they will hopefully look more like I envisioned them to look.