The first cake in this cake series is Laura Vitale’s no-bake chocolate cheesecake! I made this for my mom’s birthday and I came up with the idea to add some extra special touches to it.
My sisters and I were actually scrambling to finish a nice birthday celebration the night of our mom’s birthday. Each girl was busy with a different task as the hour was getting late. So I apologize in advance that the pictures aren’t the best quality…florescent lights aren’t the best for pictures, but since these are the only pictures I have I’ll just use these.
Imagine opening your fridge and seeing open books with chocolate butterflies in them. 🙂 Pinterest has been a great help and I can’t tell you how many of our birthdays now have Pinterest-inspired decorations and gifts! Does anyone else identify!? 😉
Your old college textbooks come in handy for these kinds of projects…although I doubt that you can learn anything from them about chocolate butterflies…lol! If you’re interested in making your own chocolate butterflies I found them on this great blog. Check it out!
I just loved the way they turned out! They added such a special touch to the cake!
The table is almost ready as presents and cards are brought out to be given to mom!
The table is all ready!
Here is another Pinterest story. While my sister Abby was making the butterflies, my other sister Becky was working on the paper teacups. Becky made a template for me to cut out the teabag cookies. Now I’m not a person of much patience and artistic meticulous ability, so cutting the cookies in this shape was pretty painful! 🙂 After making about two cookie sheets full of them, I took out my handy dandy little heart cookie cutter and sped up the process by 100 mph. 😉 Instead of making “one cookie an hour” I was now making “100 cookies in an hour”. JK! But, you get the point! 🙂
In the end it turned out very nice! Worth the patience and work, but definitely not something I plan on doing on a regular basis. 🙂 The heart-shaped cookies turned out to be perfect as well because we were able to write a special note to mom with them (see above picture). Now I can add some pins to my “pins I tried board”! 🙂 Make sure you follow me on Pinterest!
As we called mom to see our surprise, my 3-year-old sister Caroline said “mom you’re going to be like, shocked!” 🙂 And she was!
No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake
Recipe from Laura Vitale
Ingredients:
1 Prepared 9” Chocolate Crumb Crust
8 oz of Semisweet Chocolate Chips, melted
2 8oz Blocks of Cream Cheese at Room Temperature
½ cup of Brown Sugar
½ cup of Regular Granulated Sugar
2 Tbsp of Milk
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
½ tsp of Instant Espresso Powder
Chocolate Chips, for topping
Process,
In a large bowl add the cream cheese, both sugars, milk, espresso powder and vanilla extract. Whip with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes. Add the melted chocolate and mix for another 2 minutes.
Pour into the crust and sprinkle the top with the chocolate chips. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours before serving.
Enjoy!
Note: If you want to make teabag cookies, cut a template out of paper. Recently I just saw a teabag cookie cutter online, if you want to spare yourself the pain buy one! 🙂 Also go here if you want the directions for the paper teacups.
Cutout Sugar Cookies
recipe from Laura Vitale
Makes a few dozen
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
3 cups of All Purpose flour
1/2 tsp of Baking Powder
1/4 tsp of Salt
3/4 cup of Unsalted Butter at room temperature
1 cup of Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
Chocolate Ganache
4 ounces of Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1/3 cup of Heavy Cream
Process,
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla and continue to whisk for about 1 minute.
Add the flour, salt and baking powder and mix it all in until its all combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for about an hour. Take the dough out of the fridge and allow it to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/3 to 1/4 inch thick, cut out any design you like with your cookie cutter(s) and place them a couple inches apart on your lined baking sheet. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges and allow them to cool completely.
Heat the cream in a small pan over medium heat until just below boiling point. Pour cream over chocolate chips and let sit for 1 minute. Whisk the whole thing together until the chocolate has fully melted. Use to dip your teabag cookies halfway.
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