Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars

Baking is something I have always enjoyed. I love to search for new recipes. Actually, I Love to read through cookbooks. A new cookbook would make an awesome gift for me, but no one seems to pay attention to that idea!

Anyway, the other day I needed to make a dessert for a function at church. I was looking for something I had never made before and preferably non-chocolate. I came across this recipe from Taste of Home that sounded yummy and easy enough to make. It is called Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars. I love Cheesecake and I Love Strawberries, so this sounded like a wonderful mix!

This seemed to be a hit. The kids are always complaining that I make things for church and we never have any at home. Since the majority of us did not attend the function at church, I made a batch for home.


This is a recipe that I recommend if you enjoy Cheesecake and Strawberries. The only thing I changed was I added sugar to the strawberries. I did not add a lot of sugar and it really could have used a little more. I used unsweetened frozen strawberries, but probably would just use the sweetened kind the next time.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars Recipe


No-Stick Cooking Spray

1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen strawberries, thawed  ( I recommend adding sugar or use sweetened frozen strawberries)

1 tbsp. cornstarch

1 3/4 cups finely crushed cinnamon graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup (4 tbsps.) butter, melted

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1 (14 oz.) can  Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 large eggs

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13 x 9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.

Blend strawberries in blender container until smooth. Transfer to saucepan; add cornstarch. Cook and stir until thickened. Cool.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter in small bowl; press firmly into bottom of prepared pan.

Beat cream cheese until fluffy in large bowl. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add eggs, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Pour over crust.

Drop strawberry mixture by spoonfuls over batter. Gently swirl with knife or spatula.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool. Chill. Cut into bars. Yield: 2 to 3 dozen bars.


I found this recipe here.



Enjoy!

Blueberry Pound Cake

The next Birthday Cake recipe I am going to share with you from this post is Blueberry Pound Cake. I originally found this recipe in the Cooking Light Magazine several years ago. I wrote down the recipe on an index card and eventually lost the magazine. I now see that this recipe was published in 1998.

My oldest son Jeremy has always been fond of this cake. He has requested it several times. He even learned to make it himself. He actually asked me to make it for his birthday last year, but I was rushed for time, so I talked him into me buying him a store-bought cake. I told him I would make it when life wasn't so busy. Time got away from me, so when I thought about it again, I could not find fresh blueberries. I never did make that cake.

Fast Forward to this year and we were out of town for his Birthday. His Birthday is in August and we finally coordinated our schedules for early November. Well, early November is not exactly the best time to find fresh blueberries! I decided to go ahead and use frozen. The frozen work really well too and this cake is light and delicious!


Blueberry Pound Cake


Ingredients:


2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup light butter
1/2 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened (sometimes I use regular cream cheese)

3 large eggs

1 large egg white
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (8-ounce) carton lemon low-fat yogurt ( I use whatever lemon yogurt I can find)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cooking spray

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes).

 Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

 Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.

 Combine 2 tablespoons flour and blueberries in a small bowl, and toss well.

Combine remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

 Fold in blueberry mixture and vanilla; pour cake batter into a 10-inch tube pan coated with cooking spray.

 Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl; drizzle over warm cake. Cut with a serrated knife.

You can also find this recipe here.

The finished product

Banana Cake

I was asked if I was going to share the recipes from my recent  Birthday post.  I had planned on doing it, so here goes. I will do them one at a time.

I will start with The Banana Cake. This cake is usually requested at least once a year, if not more. Tim almost always asks for this one! 
This recipe comes from an old cookbook from the Church I grew up in. It was submitted by a dear woman who was a wonderful cook. I am quite thankful to have this recipe.

My Mom had a recipe from her Grandmother that she thought was the absolute best, but somewhere along the way she lost it. She says this recipe comes very close.

Banana Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of shortening

1 1/2 cups of sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups of sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

3/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 cup of buttermilk

1 cup of mashed bananas ( I usually do a little more, it makes it a little more moist.)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions:

Cream the shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly after each one. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Stir flour mixture in alternately with the milk and bananas. Add vanilla. Pour into two 9 inch greased layer pans or a 13x9 pan and bake 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Cool completely and frost with buttercream frosting.

Here is the recipe I use for Buttercream Frosting. It comes from the Domino Confectioners Sugar box.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1 (1 -lb pkg) of Confectioner's Sugar ( approx. 3 3/4 cups)

1/2 cup of butter or margarine, softened

3 to 4 Tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl with mixer on low speed. Beat on medium speed 1-2 minutes until creamy. If desired, add more milk until frosting is spreading consistency. Makes enough to fill and frost a 2-layer cake, or a 13x9x2-inch sheet cake.

This Buttercream Frosting Recipe can also be found here.

  I do not have any great pictures of this cake, but here is what I have.

Tim and Naomi on his Birthday with the Banana Cake

The icing was a little runny. I put the cake in the fridge and you can see after sitting out for a while, it is starting to run again!

 

  This is a yummy, moist, cake. If you like bananas or banana bread, you will love this cake!

 

 

 

Strawberry-Frosted Banana Brownies

One thing I have enjoyed is trying new recipes. I love cookbooks and could sit and read through one like most people would sit and read a novel. If anyone was ever wanting to give me a present and had no idea what to get, a new cookbook would be perfect!

I like to try recipes for dinner as well as desserts. The dinner recipes are more of a challenge because most of my family will not eat a dish with veggies added in. I love veggies so there are many recipes that look yummy to me but I know won't work out too well for my family.

Dessert recipes are my favorite. I guess one reason is I have a Huge sweet tooth! That works really well with my quest to cut sugar out of my diet! Of course the family is excited when I try a new dessert recipe.

I subscribe to a few sites that send out email newsletters with recipes. Yesterday I decided to try this recipe from  Betty Crocker. You can find the recipe here.


Strawberry-Frosted Banana Brownies

From Betty Crocker

Ingredients:


1 box Betty Crocker® fudge brownie mix

Water, vegetable oil and eggs as called for on brownie mix box

1 banana, mashed (about 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Fresh sliced strawberries, if desired


Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 350° F (325° F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease or spray bottom of 13x9-inch pan.


2. Make brownie batter as directed on box; stir in bananas. Spread into pan. Bake 24 to 26 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool completely.

3. In food processor, process strawberries until pureed. In medium bowl, beat powdered sugar, strawberries, butter and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Spread over cooled brownies. Garnish with strawberry slices, if desired.

When I make brownies I usually double the recipe and bake them in a pan that is larger than a 9x13 but not exactly double the size either. I do not know the size of the pan, but it is a blue lasagna pan I got from Pampered Chef many years ago. I absolutely love this pan and wish I could find another like just like it!

Anyway, I doubled this recipe also and baked it in my blue pan. I actually used the Pillsbury brand brownie mix!(shame on me, I know!) I stock up on those because Walmart will have them on sale for a dollar. Another thing I do is add chocolate chips to my brownies. I do a half cup per box of brownie mix.  So I added a cup to this recipe since I doubled it!

I served  the brownies with sliced strawberries and drizzled chocolate syrup on top. I wanted to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but we did not have enough for everyone. I should have planned ahead!

The flavor was very yummy! I like my brownies gooey, but these were a little more cake like. I wonder if making this with cake mix would  would turn out well?

Strawberries and Bananas are some of my favorites and the pureed strawberries in the icing was very yummy! I give this recipe a thumbs up!

Double Chocolate Layer Cake

My first daughter, and fourth child, Rebekah, just recently turned 17! Wow! Where does the time go?

The day she was born I was on cloud nine! Finally a girl after having three boys! She wore a lot of pink and headbands. I even had her ears pierced when she was 9 months old. I did not want anyone to ever mistake her for a boy! Believe it or not, I still had an older man call her a boy!

Rebekah is now a beautiful, 17 year old, young woman, inside and out! She is very hard working. She will be a senior next year and also is in TBQ (Teen Bible Quiz) and studies very hard! Her team is going to the National Competition soon! She works at Chick-fil-A to earn money for college and maybe a car. I am so proud of all her hard work, but I am especially proud of her dedication to the Lord and living her life for Him! 

Rebekah with Anna 

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

I usually order a cake from Walmart for most of the Birthdays around here. As the children have gotten older they seem to appreciate a home made cake a bit more.  Rebekah wanted a special chocolate cake, so I found this recipe.  I decided to make a white cream filling to go in the middle instead, so there would not be too much chocolate, (if there is such a thing!).

Well, things did not go as planned! About 20 minutes into baking, Luke comes in and asks "what is that horrible smell"? Chocolate Cake Baking is not supposed to smell horrible!

One minor detail that I overlooked is that I was supposed to put the batter into two 10 inch pans and not 9 inch pans. The batter was overflowing all over the oven! It was burning on the burners. Yikes!

Well, I decided to let it keep baking and see if I could salvage anything. It seemed a bit crispy on top. I decided to put in an emergency call to Leigh, Jeremy's girlfriend. She works at the Bakery at Walmart and is an amazing cake decorator. She made a beautiful cake for Rebekah.

Rebekah and Anna being very silly!

I eventually made the icing and the cream center and put the cake together.  It was falling apart a bit, and crumbs were everywhere when I put the icing on. It was a little sorry looking, but it tasted amazing!

This is their version.

Mine

Yummo!

 I will have to try it again using the right size pans! This cake was very yummy and the Chocolate Ganache Icing is almost like eating Fudge! We really enjoyed the white cream center to break it up a bit!

Have An Awesome Weekend!

MckLinky Blog Hop ~ Strawberry Pretzel Jello

This is a recipe that I received originally from my cousin several years ago. I had not made this in a few years but I was reintroduced to it recently by a friend from church. She brings it to most potluck dinners and it is usually gone really fast. I try to get some of this before any other food because it is so good and I want to make sure I can get some!

The only difference in my cousin's recipe and my friend's recipe is the first layer. My cousin uses 2 cups of pretzels and my friend's uses 1 cup of pretzels and 1 cup of pecans. I borrowed this picture to show you what it looks like. It is a pretty dessert and oh so yummy! I need to start taking pictures of the food I prepare in case I want to share the recipe. Anyway, Enjoy!

Strawberry Pretzel Jello

First Layer:

1 Cup of Crushed Pretzels

1 Cup of Finely Crushed Pecans

3 Tablespoons of Sugar

1 Stick of Butter (melted)

Combine together and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool completely then add second layer.


Second Layer:

1 (8 Ounce) Package of Cream Cheese (room temperature)

1 Cup of Powdered Sugar

8 Ounces of Cool Whip

Cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar then stir in the cool whip.


Third Layer:

2 (10 Ounce) Packages of Sweetened Frozen Strawberries (thawed)

1 (6 Ounce) Package of Strawberry Jello

2 Cups of Boiling Water

Dissolve the jello in the boiling water. Stir in the Strawberries. Put in Refrigerator until partially set then add on top of second layer. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.









Blessings,

MckLinky Blog Hop ~ Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Today on the McLinky blog hop we are sharing one of our favorite recipes. This recipe became one of my favorites recently. A friend shared it on Facebook and she got it from Bakerella. It originally came from Betty Crocker. It is so easy to prepare. It calls for using canned icing, but I like to make the chocolate ganache that Bakarella mentions. Be prepared for Yummy Chocolatey Goodness!





Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies


1 Box Betty Crocker Original Supreme brownie mix (with chocolate syrup pouch)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® chocolate chip cookie mix

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

1 container Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy chocolate frosting

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray, or grease with shortening. Make brownie mix as directed on box, using oil, water and 2 eggs. Spread in pan.

2. Make cookie mix as directed on pouch, using butter and 1 egg. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls evenly onto brownie batter; press down lightly.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool on cooling rack 30 minutes. Frost with frosting. For brownies, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows.


Chocolate Ganache

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

6 Tbsp butter

In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage.

Pour over the chocolate morsels.

Let stand about 20 seconds and stir until smooth.

Pour over brownies and let set before cutting.