Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

These are by far the best sugar cookie on the planet. They get crispy in the oven but yet stay soft and yummy after they are baked. (but then again, I like my cookies soft). They hold up really well when frosting for holidays, yet they also make great crusts for tartlets, fruit pizza, and anything else where you need a cookie crust. They are great by themselves with a cup of coffee, or decked out with frosting for holiday cookies. This is the cookie recipe I use for all my cut out cookies, with the latest time was making cookies for my daughter's Valentine's party at her school, she said they were a hit. No wonder, they are the best sugar cookie on the planet! Pictured below will be the same sugar cookie recipe used for our Christmas cookies we made and decorated. They were beautiful, only because my daughters decorated them.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine
6 oz cream cheese
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

Beat margarine or butter and cream cheese until smooth with electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Add about half the flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat till thoroughly combined. Beat in remaining flour. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

Divide the chilled dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet (I line my cookie sheets with parchment paper, it works really well)

Bake in 375 oven for about 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool cookies on wire rack.

Variation:
Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies: Prepare as above, except add 2 squares semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled, with the first half of the flour.

Here pictured is our Christmas cookies made with this sugar cookie dough, aren't they pretty? I think they are, the girls did a great job decorating them.

Chocolate Molten Cakes with Raspberry Sauce

This by far was the best dessert (besides cheesecake of course) that has been invented. If you are a serious chocolate person, than this dessert is for you. It is eaten warm so that the chocolate center oozes out and pair that up with my Raspberry Sauce or some vanilla ice cream and this is a dessert sure to please any sweet tooth.



Chocolate Molten Cakes with Raspberry Sauce

6 oz chocolate chips (about 2/3 cup)
3/4 stick of butter (6 Tbsp)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tarter
2 Tbsp sugar
Raspberry Sauce (recipe follows cake directions)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt the chocolate and butter together and stir frequently on the stove. Or microwave in 30 second intervals until all melted and then stir together until smooth. Once chocolate and butter are smooth, sift in the cocoa until smooth.

In a different bowl, mix together the egg whites and cream of tarter on medium speed for about 3 minutes; this should make small peaks. Then add sugar and beat on high until the peaks are stiff. Fold 1/4 of the egg whites into chocolate at a time until all has been added. Be careful not to over stir the mixture.

Butter and sugar the baking dishes (ramekins work best for me). Bake for 7-10 minutes. It will be slightly soft in the middle and the cake will have risen however, once you take it out it will fall a little. When the cake has come away from the edges, flip over onto small serving plate. The cake should be done on the outside, yet still gooey in the middle. Serve hot with a dollop of whipped cream and raspberry sauce.

Raspberry Sauce:
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tsp orange juice

Puree in a blender until all are combined. Spoon over favorite desserts. Store in the refrigerator.

Other Serving Suggestions:
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream
- Serve warm drizzled with caramel sauce and whipped cream or ice cream
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve hot

Latest Cakes

In the past couple months, I have been busy with 2 occasions in which I had to make cakes. I had both my daughter's birthday cakes to make within about 10 days of each other.

Here are some pictures of my latest cakes and some of the tips to decorating them.

The first cake was my oldest daughter's cake for her 10th birthday and she is a Hannah Montana fan... a BIG fan! I call this cake the Best of Both Worlds cake and it was double layer sheet cake with one chocolate layer and one white layer. The frosting is just basic buttercream with some tinted purple for the trim and between the layers. The music notes are made with Junior Mints candies with the stems of the notes just piped on. The guitar is made with chocolate bark melted and freehand cut into the shape of a guitar and then decorated. The star is also made with chocolate bark.





The second cake was for my daughter Vanessa's 4th birthday. She is a Dora the Explorer fan and that is what she wanted. So we just went and bought the pan and I made the cake. I just used a basic buttercream icing recipe and tinted it all those colors. The eyes and trim are with a Wilton tip #3, the stars are with Wilton tip #16, and the border was with Wilton tip #21. It took me about 4 hours to frost it but she loved it for her birthday. It was a great success!



Here is the closeup of the face so you can see how intricate it gets piping on those stars for most of the cake.



It was a lot of fun doing these cakes. I also make the cakes for my co-workers monthly birthdays and some of them will be getting creative and I will post the photos from those also. This should be fun!

Old Fashioned Baked Cheezecake

This cheesecake is the best baked cheesecake I have eaten. It is very light and creamy and goes wonderful with fruit toppings or just plain. It is easy to make, but it is time consuming. Despite the fact that it has 5 packages of cream cheese in it, it tastes lighter than most cheesecakes I have had. Got a special dinner you are cooking for your loved one this Saturday night? Serve this cheesecake for dessert and have him or her eating out of the palm of your hand. For sure!

Old Fashioned Baked Cheezecake

Crust:
1 1/4 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp sugar

Melt the butter. Mix the sugar into the graham cracker crumbs. Add the melted butter. Mix and press into bottom of spring form pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let it cool. Leave the oven on for the cheesecake to bake later.



Filling:
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup sour cream (cold)
1 cup heavy cream (cold)
5 packages of cream cheese (never the low-fat kind)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 large eggs (at room temperature)

Cream the cheese with the sugar on high speed. Add 2 tsp vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time continuing to beat on medium speed. (only use medium speed after the cream cheese is creamed). Add the flour. Turn mixer on low speed and add in the sour cream. Stop the mixer after this addition.

In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream until it stiffens. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese batter.



Pour into the pan and bake in the middle of the oven at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. The cake will rise out of the pan: not to worry, it should just brown around the edge and begin to set up in the middle. At that time, shut off the oven, move the cheesecake to the front of the oven and open the oven door about the width of a hand and leave door open. When the pan is cool enough to pick up, take out of the oven and cool on counter for 1 hour. DO NOT REMOVE THE SPRING FORM PAN





After the hour, run a knife around the inside of the pan to separate the cake from the edge. Cool overnight before removing the spring form pan. Enjoy!!



Tips:
- if preparing for a special occasion, make sure you make it the day before so it will be ready for your special occasion
- Serve with any fruit topping and whipped cream for an extra treat.
- Drizzle with chocolate sauce and raspberry sauce for more elegant treat.