Our Little Guy's First Birthday Party

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The dessert spread...strawberry with homemade pound cake, funfettie and devils food cupcakes with butter cream frosting, no bake nutella oreo cheesecakes, gluten/dairy free brownies, two kinds of macarons, monster cookie dough truffles, and on the very left, pie crust fries. 

  Well, the day finally came.  Our youngest son's 1st birthday party!  I went ALL out for our older son's thrid birthday party, which you can see here.  That was only a month ago, and I was still exhausted from that one, so I decided to scale back and just do a dessert party.  If you haven't figured it out already, I love making desserts.  I had a list a mile long of ideas.  What you see in these pictures has been pared down from a much longer list than what it started, and things I had every intention of making got cut from the menu even up to that day, once I started putting out the food, seemed like it would be too much.  I was right.  Just for kicks, I was going to have caramel popcorn, then downgraded that to buttered popcorn, then dropped it all together.  I was also going to do chocolate and caramel dipped hard pretzels, those didn't make the cut either.  It was good though, there was a ton as it was.

The first thing I need to do is give a huge thanks to Larry Berger Photography for the incredible photos taken at the party, I am so thankful to have a photographer as a father! (As are his non photo-shy grand kids).

Secondly, I am not in any way creative, and all the cute signs and printables were the Little Peanut the Elephant Customized Printables package from.  Fantastic product, wonderful customer service, and they have hundreds of party package designs. I couldn't find the shop on Etsy at the moment, but the link goes to their blog.

These cute little swirly suckers I got from the Oriental Trading Company, and added some of the printable labels from the Dimpleprints pack.  Absolutely perfect for the theme.

Labels from Dimpleprints, lollypops from Oriental Trading Company

As with any party, the food is the biggest attraction, second to our birthday boy.  Below are some of the most insanely delicious and uber chocolatey fudgy brownies I have ever had.  Not only that, but they were gluten and dairy free!  We had several family members with dietary restrictions, and I think I can happily say, that with these, they did not feel like they were missing out on anything, because they were insanely delicious!  I will be doing a recipe post on these later, but the recipe was from Katrina over at Gluten Free Godess.  I will never make regular brownies again.

The lovely green and orange gems pictured below are my Andes mints macarons (green) and my boysenberry jam filled macarons (orange).  The orange ones also worked great for those on a gluten or dairy restrictive diet. 

These are my go to favorite for those that don't have much of a sweet tooth, like my husband.  Of course, I covered half of them in cinnamon sugar, but these are homemade soft buttered pretzels with either salt or cinnamon sugar topping. Went great with the circus theme too!

In the back of the picture you can see a container on the left with little wrapped candies, those are my peppermint salt water taffy's I made as well.

Here is a drool worthy close up of the cinnamon sugar pretzels...I won't lie, was I pretty proud of how they came out.

 Here we have a dessert for the non chocolate lovers--homemade pound cake (King Arthur Flour inspired)    with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  I think it is one of my new favorite desserts.  Simple, light, refreshing, and just yummy.

I love nutella, I had to have a nutella dessert, and in fact, I had several.  I worked very hard though to whittle it down to one.  I decided on this no bake nutella oreo cheesecake cup.  It was slightly adapted from My Baking Addiction's  No Bake Nutella Cheesecake recipe. If you like nutella, or cheesecake, or oreos...this is your dessert!  My husband isn't a big fan of any of those things, and he was just loving these to pieces!

I adore King Arthur Flour's website, blog, recipes, and products.  I follow them on Facebook and was fortunate enough to see a post a few weeks ago about Pie Crust Fries.  I saw that and I immediately put those on my list of things to make for the party.  I mean really, how cute is this??  Covered in cinnamon and sugar, put in fry containers I got on the Oriental Trading Company's site, and with labels from Dimpleprints. 

We had so much (even after cutting back and not making everything), that I got to send everyone home with to-go containers (yes, I have a pack of take out containers from Sam's just for this reason) full of goodies.  I love being able to share the foodie love.  And...I do not need to be left alone with all these goodies!  That would be so bad for the diet....

Now, on the the highlight of the party.  Our photo booth!  I was good, I didn't plan any silly games, or much of anything at all, but the one thing I had to have was a "photo booth."  I decorated an area in our house, bought some silly mustache props and some clown noses, and made (yes, you can ask, I made them do it) everyone take a turn taking some funny pictures.  I am so glad that I did, because they are absolutely priceless!!!  I am going to be polite and only post pictures of us, but let me tell you, every photo of every guest was just fantastic and priceless!


This is my wonderful husband, and our rambunctious but darling three year old.  He wears that clown nose and funny glasses with just a little too much ease :)

 

**Note--After discussions with my husband as to whether or not our kids should be pictured on the blog, we decided we would, but I have removed any personal information from the pictures for safety reasons, so if there is an area in a picture that looks a bit funny, it is because of my poor photo shopping job, and in no way the photographer's doing.**

This would be me and my hunny doing our photo booth photo.  Can't make everyone else do it if I refused to, right?  I am a good sport like that.  The background for the photo both is just tablecloths cut lengthwise and strung from our chandelier to the wall.  The banner is another great printable from the party pack from Dimpleprints.

Must have one of the whole family!  The birthday boy was more interested in eating the mustache than wearing it, but what do you expect? 

Since we did a photo shoot last week for the birthday boy, in which I made a two layer cake with butter cream frosting for him to destroy in his pictures, I decided to cheap out on it for the party.  I just took a cupcake and covered it in whipped cream.  I figured it would be an easier mess to clean up.  I think he knew that he got cheated, he wasn't very in to making any mess.  Good for me, bad for the photo ops.  Thank goodness for that photo shoot the week before!  Mess or not, he was still a very happy little guy with his cupcake.

The hardest part of the party was trying to convey to our three year old that these presents are not for him, that he can not "help" his brother by opening them all for him, and that the gifts inside are not his, but his brother's.  This is him do his "sad walk."  In other words, he was MAJORLY pouting.  His brother was not particularly concerned about it it seems.  More interested in the hangers.  We are still trying to convince the elder one that these new toys are his brothers and not his...not going well.

Well that was pretty much the party.  Eating, pictures, birthday cake for the birthday boy, and presents.  Short(ish), sweet, and simple (kinda).  I had a blast planning it, loved all the different desserts I got to make, and enjoyed getting to share the big milestone of the youngest having his first birthday with all of our family that came. 

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cheesecake Frosting

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My son's 1st birthday party is next week so I am starting to work on desserts for the party.  Coincidentally, the party is a dessert-only party.  Thought I would make it easier on myself since I went all out on my 3 year old's birthday party last month (see pictures here).  I saw a recipe for no-bake nutella cheesecakes from My Baking Addiction and really wanted to make those, which I still might, but then I thought, how good would a lighter version of that cheesecake filling be as a frosting for chocolate cake?  Well let me tell you:  Really good!  The frosting takes like  5 minutes to make, I will definitely be using it again.  Combine that with a boxed devil's food cake mix and some oreo cookie crumbs, and this is one classy dessert with no effort at all!

For me this made 70 mini cupcakes, but depending on how much frosting you use, it may need to be doubled.  I used mini cupcake liners from Wilton that I found at target.

MINI CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH NUTELLA CHEESECAKE FROSTING
(Adapted from My Baking Addiction)

Ingredients:

• 1 box devil's food cake mix, prepared as instructed on box
• 3/4 cup nutella spread
• 1 (8 oz.) block cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 16 oz cool whip, thawed
• 5-6 oreo cookies with the cream center removed

Directions:

1. Using the prepared cake batter, fill mini muffin tin cups 3/4 full.  Bake at 325 degrees F for about 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
2. For the frosting, in a medium bowl mix cream cheese, nutella and vanilla until well combined and smooth, using either a spatula or hand mixer.
3. Add the cool whip and fold in until there are no streaks remaining.
4. I used a piping bag to add the frosting to the cupcakes, but a ziploc bag with the corner cut will work great too.
5. Crush the oreo cookies and sprinkle over frosting.
6. Store in refrigerator until ready to eat.

Personal Apple Pie Cheesecakes with Caramel Sauce

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Warning:  I am pretty darn proud of how these turned out, so I am going to shamelessly photo-bomb this post with pictures of the cheesecake.  You have been warned.  You will either need to deal with it or stop reading it right now :)

All right, now that is out of the way.  

I warned you....Lots of pictures :)

This weekend is my mother-in-law's birthday.  Her favorite dessert as far as I have been informed of is cheesecake.  Sadly, since that is the case, I usually make her the same cheesecake every year.  This year, I decided to take the extra time and rack my brain for any variations on cheesecake that I thought would make it a little bit more special for her.  I knew she liked caramel, and apple pie, so I thought about how I could integrate those things into her favorite dessert, and still have it be something that would turn out OK.  This is what I came up with.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself.  I like to make things so that she can freeze them or partition then out so that it lasts longer, so I thought I would find another use for my wonderful King Arthur Flour hamburger bun pan (which I LOVE), and make personal size cheesecakes in it.  Since it isn't a spring form pan, I cut strips of parchment paper and laid two crossed over each other in each well of the pan for (hopefully) easy removal.  See the picture below. 

Love love love my King Arthur Flour hamburger bun pan.  Nothing sticks and it cooks beautifully and can be used for so so so many things!

Close up of the parchment tabs and cooked cheesecake.

This is what they looked like after they were baked.  I stuck them in the fridge after they cooled on the counter for a while, and when I tried to pull one out this morning, I just lifted by the parchment paper pieces and it came right out.

When life hands you extra cheesecake batter....for goodness sake don't waste it! Make more crust and bake it in something!

It ended up making so much filling that I quickly made a second batch of crust, did the same thing with a 9" round cake pan (once again, not a spring form, so I used parchment strips, just a lot more of them), and ended up dumping the rest of the batter in to this.  It was exactly the perfect amount.  As you can tell, this makes a ton, but it will depend on what you decide to bake it in.

I know cheesecake can be intimidating, but I promise, it is fairly forgiving, specially if you are not  concerned with a little cracking on top, which will not affect flavor in any way.  Give it a try, it is worth it.  I will give some notes on different pan ideas at the end of the recipe, and a few different baking options depending on the pan you use. 

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Personal Apple Pie Cheesecakes with Caramel Sauce

(This recipe will make 12 personal size ones done in a hamburger bun pan that has 1 1/2" deep wells that are 4" across)*

Ingredients:

Crust:

•  4 cups ground graham crackers (about 1 box)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
• 3 Tbs granulated sugar

Filling:

• 2 (8 oz.) blocks neufchatel cheese (light cream cheese), softened
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups fat free plain greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 can apple pie filling

Caramel Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup 2% evaporated milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Crust:

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2.  In a mixing bowl, combine the ingredients with a fork until evenly moistened. Lay two parchment strips across each other in each well of the pan to form an X.
3. Spoon the crumbs into the pan wells and, using the bottom of a measuring cup or the smooth bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and up the sides (the paper may curl in on it, but once you get the crumbs pressed in, it should hold the paper open more). 
4. Bake in oven for 6 minutes.  Remove and let cool slightly. 
5. Place about a tablespoon of apple pie filling in the bottom of each well, on top of the baked crust, and spread to cover the bottom.

Filling:

1. In  a large bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the neufchatel cheese on low speed for 1 minute until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes (the higher speed you beat it on, the lighter the cheesecake will be, so if you want a dense cake, beat on low speed for the minimum amount of time needed to fully incorporate ingredients)
2. Add greek yogurt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Mix well.  Periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. The batter should be well-mixed but not over beaten. Pour the filling into the apple pie filling covered, crust-lined pan wells, most of the way full.
3. Place in oven.  Bake for about 30 minutes. The cheesecake should still jiggle in the center just a bit (it will firm up after chilling), so be careful not to overcook.  Remove from oven.  Let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours. Remove from pan by lifting the cheesecake out by the parchment strips slowly and gently.

Caramel Sauce:

1. Place sugar and water in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil heating on high. 
2. Boil on high until the sugar dissolves and eventually turns a deep amber color, swirling occasionally to distribute the color, but do not stir. About 10-12 minutes
3. Once desired color is attained, remove from heat and CAREFULLY add the evaporated milk.  It will boil violently, release hot steam, and sputter, so be carefully and add slowly.  Stir constantly until all the milk is added and it has stopped boiling and is well incorporated.  Add vanilla and mix.
4. Let cool in pan.  Once it is cool enough to handle, spoon over refrigerated cheesecake as desired.  
5. Store remaining in fridge in air tight container for up to a week.  Reheat in microwave to make it pourable.

Rarely, if ever, have I had pictures come out of my food that I like.  I like.

*Notes:

• If you don't have a deep welled hamburger bun pan, similar sized ramikins can be used.  Use the same parchment paper technique for easy removal.  Regular sized muffin pans can be used too, it will probably make about 24 of them.  Two 9" cake pans (about 2-3" deep) can also be used.  When filling up anything for cheesecakes, it will rise so do not fill all the way to the top.
• The 9" cake pan baked for about 45-50 minutes, if you decide to go that route.
• If you have a spring form pan, by all means, use it.  You can cut the crust recipe in half if you have a 9 or 10" spring form pan and just want to make one large cheesecake.
• I know the best way to bake a cheesecake is to do it in a water bath, but I did not have a pan that would fit my hamburger bun pan in so I opted to do the method of baking at a slightly lower temperature.  The personal sized cheesecakes had no cracking problems on top what so ever.  The large one started cracking on the top around the edges slightly by the end, but after it cooled, they sealed up and you can't tell.  We are smothering it with caramel sauce, so what difference does it make anyways?  The cheesecake came out wonderfully creamy, so if you don't have a pan for a water bath, don't worry.  I am trying to make this as user friendly as possible.
• If your dissolved sugar mixture is really grainy by the time it starts to get some color, add 1/2 cup of water to it and stir to dissolve the sugar, return to a boil and continue with the recipe.  You can also add a bit of corn syrup to help also. 
• If you have never made a cheesecake, they look a bit undercooked when they are done, a bit wiggle still in the center.  It is ok.  It will set up in the fridge the rest of the way.  Just make sure it wiggles like jello, and not like a bucket of water being shaken (too loose).
• This cheesecake is much lower in fat and calories than regular cheesecake so it will be creamier band lighter.  Less guilt on going back for seconds I say!

Last one, I promise.

 Feel free to leave any questions in the comments section.  If I don't have an answer, I will try to find it for you from someone else who does.

Enjoy, and let me know if you make it how you like it!