Rich and Creamy Cheesecake With Caramel Drizzle

Okay, lets talk about CARAMEL....

My husband says it all wrong and he knows it bugs the snot out of me, 

  lot of things do lol.

I tell him all the time...
It's CAR-A-MEL

 NOT CAR-MEL

You can't leave out the A...it is not a silent A. 

BUT....it sure is yummy isn't it.

We wont even get started on how he says Pecan. 

I'm from Louisiana, and I will quickly correct him.

After all, that's what good wives do....right?

How do you pronounce it?

Well even if you pronounce it wrong, you should still make this cheesecake.

It's fantastic.....I think I ate half of it....ALONE.

Classic Cheesecake

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 Tbsp. sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

Filling:

2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla

4 eggs

Directions: 

Pre-heat oven to 325˚ 

Combine graham cracker crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter.  Press mixture onto bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.

Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla on medium speed until well mixed. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add eggs one at a time, mix just until blended after each egg. 

Pour filling in pan, over the crust.

Bake for 55-70, or until the center is almost set. Remove from oven and let set 10 minutes on a wired rack. Loosen cake from rim of pan. Let cake completely cool before removing rim.

Refrigerate the cake, loosely covered for 4-6 hours.

Before serving drizzle cake with warmed caramel sauce. 

A Superhero Cake for a True Hero

I'm not a huge fan of making cakes.  

Don't get me wrong I love doing them, but they never come out just like I want them. They aren't like cookies and cupcakes. With those I can make extra and if I mess up, I just toss that one and make another. Not so with cakes.  We don't bake four and five and choose the best one.

However, when the wife of a soldier contacts you to make a cake for her returning husband....

you say YES!

Then you pray the darn thing comes out good and they love it.

She had a picture of what she wanted, the cake design is NOT my own, but one she found online. 

We changed it a bit and made it for a soldier. 

Her husband is a HUGE Superman fan, so it was perfect. 

It came out great and the customer loved it. 

Welcome home Soldier!

Thanks for your service and a job well done.

You're wife missed you and we are all very glad you are home safe in her arms.

Cut out superman logo

Cut out yellow background  and place logo on top

Roll out round piece of fondant in blue. Make sure it's the size of your cake top.

Make camouflage fondant. Roll in circle size of cake top. Slice top to center. Fold back at cut to form collar. Add name tag. Ice the rest of cake and trim.

*Name has been blacked out for security purposes*

~Throw on your heels and get to baking~

Eye of Newt and Essence of Spider.......

Halloween brings so many fun things. There's the candy....we all love that.  There's the costumes where we can dress up like we are still kids......or a sexy version of a Disney princess/fairy tale character, which seems to be the choice costume among women today (giggles). 

For the cookie/cake decorator it brings some NOT so fun things....like dark colors that do NOTHING for your nails.....seriously my nails were horrible from the black food gel.

Saturday I took the day off from decorating and went to have my nails done.  I brought Miss B and  

Miss P with me and made a girls day out of it.  Hey, a girl's gotta have nice nails.....and cute shoes.  That's a RULE in this house.  It's the one rule my daughters DON'T complain about :)

BUT......from now on it's gloves when coloring icing. 

Now.....on to the cookies.

You will need:


Wedding cake shaped cookies
orange royal icing
black royal icing
piping bags
#1 tip
#2 tip

First outline your cookie in orange royal icing.  Let dry about 15 minutes then fill with orange flood icing.  Let dry about 2 hours.

next pipe on spider and web with black royal icing using a #1 tip.  Outline cake layers in black royal icing.

Next pipe white dots on bottom layer of cake using a #2 tip.  Make various sizes of dots.  Be sure not to make dots to close to each other like I did or they will run into each other. Then take black royal icing and #1 tip and place dot on top of white dots to make eyes.  

Next pipe vertical lines with black royal icing and #2 tip.  Allow cookie to dry 6-8 hours or overnight. 

For another cute eye catching treats check out:
Confessions of a Cookbook Queen's Peanut Butter Eyeball Truffles

Sweet Sugar Belle's 3-D Witch Hat Cookies

Stars and Stripes cake........

It's such a beautiful day.......and I have the best husband in the world.  I can't begin tell you how lucky I truly am.  There aren't many good men out there anymore....no seriously, I think I may have gotten the last one. 

I am so proud of him.  He's an American soldier.....what's not to love right?  He just got back from his second deployment. It's so good to have him home. It's with him in mind that I make most of my desserts. 

This patriotic themed week in memory of 9-11 was near and dear to my heart.  I have such a deep love for my country and those who serve it. 

It was a great pleasure to do this project in memory of 9-11.  I'll never forget that day nor will I forget those who lost their lives and those who make sure something like this will never happen again. 

I was so excited to make this cake. I always love baking and creating something pretty, but this time was different. This time I got to use my new Cricut cake machine!

As always my husband buys me the neatest little gadgets. I guess it's the only thing he can enjoy in the cookie/cake making process.....other than eating all my creations. So it should have been no surprise when this new toy of mine showed up at the door.

It sat on the shelf a month in my baking supply closet.....secretly I just didn't feel like reading the instructions.

My husband is always trying to do things for me.....guess he's working on brownie points or something, I'm not sure. Well I didn't have a star cutter small enough for the stars I needed. So my husband got the new Cricut machine out for me and set it up......he even read the instructions, which to men I believe is totally taboo. He even cut out the stars for me....that did earn him brownie points.

The machine was easier to use then reviews I read online. The fondant didn't tear or get jammed up. Guess I should have tried it out a while ago instead of believing what I read somewhere online. I did stick the sheet of rolled fondant in the freezer for a few minutes to harden just a tad.

How many of you have one of these handy little machines? Don't you just love it?

If you don't own one you can get one here.

 I highly recommend purchasing one. They are very easy to use....after all my husband was the one who used it to cut out the stars.

I can't wait to use it for other treats I whip up in my kitchen.

~Throw on your heels and get to baking~