Sweet treats and a fairly boring birthday...
I wanted to write about the sweet treats that I made for Alyssa's birthday so that I have a reference in case of a Pinterest fail (sometimes I'm sure I've pinned something but then when I look at my food pins, I can't find what I was sure that I pinned) and to document why I made what I made.
Alyssa's favorite kind of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory is one called Hershey's Chocolate Bar Cheesecake. It consists of one layer of chocolate cheesecake flanked by two layers of chocolate cake. Chocolate icing separates the layers and surrounds the side and top of the cake. Chocolate chips are then placed on the sides of the cake. We'd been to CF recently and Alyssa didn't hesitate with her cheesecake selection- she knew she wanted a piece of Hershey's Chocolate Bar Cheesecake.
For her birthday celebration with family, I asked Alyssa if she'd like me to try to make a Hershey Chocolate Bar Cheesecake (HCBC). She responded very enthusiastically about my suggestion :). I found a copy cat recipe for CF's HCBC on a website here. The instructions looked pretty easy; make cheesecake, make cake, make icing and assemble. The recipe for the chocolate cake part was homemade- no "use your favorite boxed cake mix and make according to the directions on the box." I make a lot of baked goods from scratch- cookies, pie crust, brownies, cheesecake to name a few BUT I rarely make homemade cakes. I imagine it's because my mom, who was the consummate from scratch baker (homemade pies, cookies, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, bread, etc were the home baked goods of my childhood) didn't make her cakes from scratch. She made cakes fairly often, but she used box mixes almost exclusively for her cakes. I guess because of that, I've not ventured in the realm of from scratch cakes much (I've made homemade red velvet cakes on a few occasions).
On Saturday, I made the cheesecake for the Hersey Bar Cheesecake and then ventured onto the cake making part on Sunday before church. It didn't take long to add the cake ingredients together to make the cake from scratch. After tasting the cake, I must say that it's worth the extra few steps to make the cake from scratch rather than use a boxed mix. It was so good! The frosting for it (HCBC) was the same recipe that I use when I make homemade chocolate frosting so I was familiar with it and knew it would be good. Everything came together well regarding the cheesecake, cake and icing (if I do say so myself... not to mention everyone who tried it said they really liked it). I will make the HCBC for sure again for special occasions. It has a lot of steps but is well worth it for special events. Alyssa's 10th birthday certainly qualified as that! I'm thinking that my 40- something birthday in April just may be worth it as well!!
On Alyssa's actual birthday, I made her caramel brownies. My mom made a version of these when I was younger but I never saw nor had her recipe. I was a huge fan of them when I was younger. When I had the brownies as an adult a few years ago, I remembered they were the brownies from my youth that I loved so much. The recipe I use is from the Pioneer Woman and she calls them Knock You Naked Brownies. What does Knock You Naked even mean?? Figuratively? Literally? I don't want to think about nakedness when eating these bad boys. I think calling them caramel brownies suffices!! They are also somewhat of a copy cat recipe of Dorothy Lane Market's Killer Brownies. Whatever you call them, they are delicious! Alyssa dreams in caramel and chocolate so making this brownie on her birthday was appropriate.
I do a few things differently than the Pioneer Woman's recipe. I use Devil's Food cake mix instead of German chocolate. Also Jacob and Alyssa both strongly dislike pecans and powered sugar. Crazy, right that they would both dislike two such wonderful things?? I make a small portion of the brownies with pecans (for Donnie, Abby and me) but make most of the pan of brownies without pecans. I don't put powered sugar on top of any of the brownies. I like powered sugar but it isn't worth hearing Jacob and Alyssa complain if, heaven forbid, a smidgen of powered sugar makes its way onto their powered sugar free zone.
Aside from eating caramel brownies on her birthday, (which I do think was the highlight of her day) Alyssa's actual birthday wasn't too exciting. She went to school and shortly after she arrived home from school, she and I headed to Mason for futsal. She doesn't love futsal at all but her soccer teammate Chloe is now going to the same futsal session that Alyssa is so that makes futsal much nicer for Alyssa. This week, the girls coordinated their outfits beforehand so they both wore their Alex Morgan jerseys. After we arrived home from futsal, Abby and Alyssa played a little bit with Alyssa's new AG doll items and then it was time for our ten year old to go to bed!
Making the cheesecake layer for the CF's Hershey's Chocolate Bar Cheesecake- weighing mini candy bars to get the right amount.
Getting to use my springform pan- I don't use this very often because I don't make cheesecake very often. I enjoy "playing" with it (toggling the release mechanism) as much as baking with it!!
I had a helper... She was an almost 10 year old wide eyed brown eyed button nose chocolate loving beauty...
The cheesecake batter was wrist licking good!!
... and of course spatula licking good!
Oopsies- good thing frosting acts as a glue to hold errant pieces of cake together
...but not yet complete
My ten year old wide eyed brown eyed button nose beauty (and Chloe!!)
Happy birthday sweet girl!
Alyssa's favorite kind of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory is one called Hershey's Chocolate Bar Cheesecake. It consists of one layer of chocolate cheesecake flanked by two layers of chocolate cake. Chocolate icing separates the layers and surrounds the side and top of the cake. Chocolate chips are then placed on the sides of the cake. We'd been to CF recently and Alyssa didn't hesitate with her cheesecake selection- she knew she wanted a piece of Hershey's Chocolate Bar Cheesecake.
For her birthday celebration with family, I asked Alyssa if she'd like me to try to make a Hershey Chocolate Bar Cheesecake (HCBC). She responded very enthusiastically about my suggestion :). I found a copy cat recipe for CF's HCBC on a website here. The instructions looked pretty easy; make cheesecake, make cake, make icing and assemble. The recipe for the chocolate cake part was homemade- no "use your favorite boxed cake mix and make according to the directions on the box." I make a lot of baked goods from scratch- cookies, pie crust, brownies, cheesecake to name a few BUT I rarely make homemade cakes. I imagine it's because my mom, who was the consummate from scratch baker (homemade pies, cookies, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, bread, etc were the home baked goods of my childhood) didn't make her cakes from scratch. She made cakes fairly often, but she used box mixes almost exclusively for her cakes. I guess because of that, I've not ventured in the realm of from scratch cakes much (I've made homemade red velvet cakes on a few occasions).
On Saturday, I made the cheesecake for the Hersey Bar Cheesecake and then ventured onto the cake making part on Sunday before church. It didn't take long to add the cake ingredients together to make the cake from scratch. After tasting the cake, I must say that it's worth the extra few steps to make the cake from scratch rather than use a boxed mix. It was so good! The frosting for it (HCBC) was the same recipe that I use when I make homemade chocolate frosting so I was familiar with it and knew it would be good. Everything came together well regarding the cheesecake, cake and icing (if I do say so myself... not to mention everyone who tried it said they really liked it). I will make the HCBC for sure again for special occasions. It has a lot of steps but is well worth it for special events. Alyssa's 10th birthday certainly qualified as that! I'm thinking that my 40- something birthday in April just may be worth it as well!!
On Alyssa's actual birthday, I made her caramel brownies. My mom made a version of these when I was younger but I never saw nor had her recipe. I was a huge fan of them when I was younger. When I had the brownies as an adult a few years ago, I remembered they were the brownies from my youth that I loved so much. The recipe I use is from the Pioneer Woman and she calls them Knock You Naked Brownies. What does Knock You Naked even mean?? Figuratively? Literally? I don't want to think about nakedness when eating these bad boys. I think calling them caramel brownies suffices!! They are also somewhat of a copy cat recipe of Dorothy Lane Market's Killer Brownies. Whatever you call them, they are delicious! Alyssa dreams in caramel and chocolate so making this brownie on her birthday was appropriate.
I do a few things differently than the Pioneer Woman's recipe. I use Devil's Food cake mix instead of German chocolate. Also Jacob and Alyssa both strongly dislike pecans and powered sugar. Crazy, right that they would both dislike two such wonderful things?? I make a small portion of the brownies with pecans (for Donnie, Abby and me) but make most of the pan of brownies without pecans. I don't put powered sugar on top of any of the brownies. I like powered sugar but it isn't worth hearing Jacob and Alyssa complain if, heaven forbid, a smidgen of powered sugar makes its way onto their powered sugar free zone.
Aside from eating caramel brownies on her birthday, (which I do think was the highlight of her day) Alyssa's actual birthday wasn't too exciting. She went to school and shortly after she arrived home from school, she and I headed to Mason for futsal. She doesn't love futsal at all but her soccer teammate Chloe is now going to the same futsal session that Alyssa is so that makes futsal much nicer for Alyssa. This week, the girls coordinated their outfits beforehand so they both wore their Alex Morgan jerseys. After we arrived home from futsal, Abby and Alyssa played a little bit with Alyssa's new AG doll items and then it was time for our ten year old to go to bed!
Making the cheesecake layer for the CF's Hershey's Chocolate Bar Cheesecake- weighing mini candy bars to get the right amount.
Getting to use my springform pan- I don't use this very often because I don't make cheesecake very often. I enjoy "playing" with it (toggling the release mechanism) as much as baking with it!!
I had a helper... She was an almost 10 year old wide eyed brown eyed button nose chocolate loving beauty...
... and of course spatula licking good!
chocolate cake batter
Oopsies- good thing frosting acts as a glue to hold errant pieces of cake together
The icing on the cake
...but not yet complete
Alyssa and Chloe at futsal on Alyssa's birthday
My ten year old wide eyed brown eyed button nose beauty (and Chloe!!)
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