Lasagna Cupcakes

I made these awhile back for a girl's night get together. They are super easy, not to mention super cute!

Ingredients:

Round Won Ton Wrappers

Your Favorite Sauce

Garlicky Spinach (optional- recipe below)

Grated Mozzarella Cheese

Ricotta Cheese

Cherry Tomatoes (halved) and basil leaves for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray muffin tin with cooking spray. 

2. Start assembling lasagnas. Line each cupcake mold with a won ton wrapper. Put a little ricotta, a little mozzarella, a little spinach, and a little sauce. Repeat layers until cups are full.

3. Top each lasagna with mozzarella cheese and bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is lightly browned.

4. Garnish with one cherry tomato half and a basil leaf.

Garlicky Spinach

Ingredients:

2 tbls olive oil

2 to 4 cloves garlic, peeled

pinch red pepper flakes

1 pound fresh spinach

1/2 small lemon, juiced

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large skillet. Add garlic and red pepper flakes.  Cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is golden. 

2. Remove and discard garlic. 

3. Add spinach, sit-fry until it wilts.  

4. Add lemon juice, then transfer to a colander to drain.

Pumpkin Pecan

And just because I know you can't get enough cheesecake...

Pumpkin cheesecake, with gingersnap crust and a pecan strussel topping!

Masquerade Ball

My company had it's holiday party last week, and the theme was a masquerade ball. Of course, as soon I heard this, I went to work thinking up fun costume ideas. I ended up borrowing a sparkly dress, which was decidedly not poofy enough. So I did what any rational, poofy skirt loving girl would do - I went to JoAnn's and bought 20 yards of sparkly tulle. I spent an afternoon sewing my poofy tulle monstrosity into a ball skirt that I simply tied around my waist on top of the dress she lent me. The skirt was actually incredibly easy to make (and believe me - I don't sew!). We just did a simple gathering stitch, adjusted it to fit, and sewed on a ribbon to create a waste band/tie. Then I took a few portions of the skirt and sewed them to create a pick-up skirt effect, and glued on some glittery flowers (glitter, courtesy of glitter spray...there is nothing better than glitter in a can!). I used the leftover tulle as a wrap.

The next step in getting masquerade ready was of course the mask! To match the dress I painted the mask blue, and covered it in glitter. Then outlined the eyes with rhinestones (I do love my rhinestones!), added a glittered up flower (the same one used on the skirt), ribbon, and silver beads to dangle from the sides. Lastly, I glued it on a stick wrapped in blue and silver ribbon.

Finally, to complete the outfit, I took an oversize silk, blue flower, sprayed on some glitter, and glued it to a clip for my hair. My make-up was done by a co-workers cousin who works for MAC. Yeah I know it's a lot of blue eye shadow, but hey, how often do you get to go to a Masquerade ball?

I failed to get good details pictures of everything, but this should suffice (ignore the fact that my eyes are rolled back)

Peanut Butter and Chocolate!

They are individual peanut butter chocolate cheesecakes. Like my pumpkin cheesecakes, these are made in a cupcake pan with a cookie crust. There is a chocolate cheesecake layer and peanut butter cheesecake layer, topped off with a dollop of chocolate ganache and mini peanut butter cup for garnish.

Here is the recipe, but beware - these are deadly rich!

Ingredients:

18 chocolate cookies (nilla wafer used to make a chocolate cookie, but I haven't seen it lately - oreos minus the creme filling work great though)

2 8oz packages Cream Cheese softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

8 to 10 oz melted chocolate

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 tbs whipping cream

chocolate ganache (recipe below)

Directions:

1. Line cupcake pan with wrappers and place one cookie in each wrapper.

2. Using an electric mixer, combine 8oz of cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbs whipping cream, and melted chocolate. Spoon batter into cupcake pans, about 1/3 full.

3. In a clean bowl, using electric mixer, combine remaining 8oz of cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbs whipping cream, and 1 cup peanut butter. Spoon batter into cupcake pans, on top of the chocolate batter, so that cupcakes are 2/3 full.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until set.

5. Cheesecakes will appear very poofy, but will settle, leaving a small indentation, when cooled. Once cooled, spoon a small amount of ganache into craters and top with mini peanut butter cup if desired.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

2/3 cup chocolate chips or squares

1/2 cup whipping cream

Directions:

1. Heat cream on stove top, using low heat, bring just to a boil (be careful not to scald the cream)

2. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk together until all chocolate is melted and fully combined

3. Allow to cool

Fall Treats

Here are a few fall themed treats I have whipped up over the last month or so.

Carmel Apple Slices:
I doesn't get much simpler than this - sliced apples dipped in carmel and rolled in nuts. For a little variety, try drizzling chocolate on top!

Chocolate Mousse in Phyllo CupsI piped this homemade rich chocolate mousse into store bought phyllo cups.

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes:

As you know, i love cheesecake! And more than that - I love individual deserts! What better way to celebrate my love of these two things than combing them! Instead of a traditional crust, I just use store bought cookies as the crust (they are the perfect size!). I use gingersnaps for these, then made my pumpkin cheesecake and finished them off with a sour cream topping and a sprinkling of Cinnamon and nutmeg.

Apple Spice Cheesecake:This a 6 inch cheesecake, so not quite full size, but not individual sized either. I made a gingersnap crust using crushed cookies and melted butter, then pressed into the pan. The cheesecake is a simple plain cheesecake with Cinnamon and nutmeg stirred in. I layered the cheesecake with thinly sliced apples that I cooked up on the stove with butter, sugar, and Cinnamon. After baking, I arranged more thinly sliced cooked apples on top and drizzled with the sugary butter syrup that was left over from cooking the apples.

Halloween Goodies

So I clearly have not updated here in a long time! Of course, I'm pretty sure that there are only 2 people who read this, so I probably haven't been missed too much. Regardless, I have been keeping busy and have oodles to share! Let's start with my Halloween goodies!


Dark chocolate and white chocolate crispy candies (think nestle crunch):
This basically entailed melting chocolate, stirring in little crispies (which I bought at my local candy/baking store, but I've seen them at craft stores, etc), placing a spoonful of the mixture into a mini cupcake wrapper, sticking a piece of candy corn on top. Super simple and super yummy!

Ghost and Bat Cookies:

I just used a simple butter cookie recipe, then melted up some dark and white chocolate with a small amount of oil and spread it on. The eyes are little orange sugar beads.

I packed up one of each in these adorable spider web bags (Martha Stewart Crafts of course!), punched two holes in the bags and tied them off with black ribbon. I made up the bat shaped gift tags in photoshop, punch a hole, and tied them on. They read: "Happy Haunting From Colleen"

Pumpkin Cakes (I made these for my company's Halloween party):

These little guys are pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I baked them in mini bundt cake pans (roughly the size of cupcakes - slightly larger). The steams are mini pretzel sticks, and the final product is placed into candy apple wrappers.


There's lots more to come, I promise!

Another Cheesecake

Colleen's Cheesecakery has been very busy! Last week I made this Dulce de Leche cheesecake. It has a caramel shortbread crust, a layer of dulce de leche cheesecake, a layer of plain cheesecake, and caramel swirled sour cream topping!