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Patriotic Cheesecake Delight (Happy Election Day! & Hello Kitty for President 2012)

Happy (Early) Election Day!

My sister was craving Cherry Delight pie and requested a red, white, and blue colored dessert to go with the occasion. Most patriotic desserts involve strawberries which my sister is allergic to, so I had my work cut out for me. The Cherry Delight pies my sister was thinking of consisted of canned cherry pie filling. Instead, I went to the grocery store and picked up what red and blue fruits I could find – Bing cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

I did take a shortcut and used a pre-made graham cracker crumb crust, but didn’t skimp out on any other steps from this Martha Stewart recipe.  It’s good that I skipped the crust because I had forgotten cherries needed pitting! Red hands and pulverized cherries later, this cheesecake was cooling in the refrigerator waiting to be eaten. This cheesecake was a bit on the sour side since it has sour cream and cream cheese paired with the tart fruits. It was fun making this cheesecake “delight”, but I don’t think it’s worth making again, especially if you don’t own a cherry pitter!

Also, for the past couple of days, Hello Kitty has made her campaign headquarters for the 2012 Election DC! You didn’t know she was running? Well Tuxedo Sam is her Vice President and she’s not running for any traditional party and entered the race late.

I went with my sister this past weekend to her headquarters to show my support for her cause and to have some cheesy good fun.

 

Thin Mint Cupcakes

This year, I’ll have been a Girl Scout for 20 years. After all those years of eating, selling, and buying Girl Scout cookies, I’ve never thought to bake with them. The most I’ve ever done is pop some thin mints into the freezer. I saw a lot of recipes for Thin Mint, Samoa, and Tagalong-inspired recipes on Pinterest and decided I was going to do something creative this year. I can’t usually wait long enough to save a whole box for baking, but this time I bought extra and forced myself to wait to make something special with them.

We had a celebration at work for someone’s promotion so we surprised him with some treats. I made the little “Congrats!” flag the same way I did on the mini whoopie pies, a toothpick and decorative washi tape.

I used a cake recipe (found through Pinterest) I baked Peppermint Mocha cupcakes with in December that everyone declared “the best cupcakes ever.” I then combined two other recipes for the ganache and frosting. Another great discovery I’ve made is that the perfect vessel for cupcake duo transport is a tea box! I’ve used this method multiple times to give friends and family two cupcakes and it works like a charm.

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Funfetti Cookies & Pinterest

I used to have a feature on here called “Show and Tell” where I would share a few of my favorite things found on the internet that  caught my eye. After a few installments, I found out about Pinterest. It basically accomplishes the same thing as my feature was and it’s a one-stop-shop to ‘pin’ things that inspire you, or to remind you to make those recipes that you see floating around the internet. The great thing about it is that you can share or ‘re-pin’ things on it very easily and it always keeps a main picture and original source link.

I introduced my sister to Pinterest and she found about about these Funfetti cookies and shared them with me! Before meeting up with my sister for an event we put on together for local Girl Scouts, I made these as a surprise treat for her.

These cookies use funfetti cake mix, but you also have to add flour, eggs, butter, and… wait! It sounds like I’m making cookies from scratch? The amount of work needed for these cookies and the fact that they only use part of a box of cake mix makes me think that I won’t make them again. They do have that nostalgic “kid’s birthday party” taste, but they are a tad flat. The recipe makes a lot of cookies, but I think it would be worth it to double the recipe just to use up the full box of cake mix.

Regardless, my sister was happy and so was my office since they got to eat the leftovers. I ate quite a few myself, so I can’t complain too much!  For the source of inspiration and recipe, visit Lovin’ From the Oven.