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!

Caramel Cake

I am still alive! Well, at least I think I am! The kids keep us pretty busy and something is always going on! As I look at the calendar, the next few months seem like they will be busier than ever! Blogging could be pretty sporadic!

The past 2 weekends have been JBQ and TBQ State competitions. I am proud to report that our kids did really well. Our JBQ A-League team (which includes Anna and Sammy) was in a 3 way tie for second place. So it ends up that they were 4th in the gold division. That was good enough for them to go on to Regionals! Anna came in 3rd place individually! She is pretty competitive and she has worked really hard! I should also mention her teammate Tyler came in fourth! They did so well, and we are so proud of them!


The B-League team also did really well. It is an all girl team and they came in first place in the silver division. Micah and Luke are in C-League and they did awesome too! They came in first place in the gold division. Luke worked harder at the end, so he answered more questions than he has before! I believe it has help to build his confidence! He got 8th place individually and was so excited to get a trophy!

Our TBQ teams did awesome too! Rebekah's team came in first and Rebekah got First place individually! This is her Senior year, so what a wonderful way to end her TBQ career! She will be going to Regionals next month with her team. Victoria's team came in second place! So Awesome! They too, will be going to Regionals!

Matthew is on the Middle School Team and they came in First in their division. His Team will be going to Regionals as well!

So, as you can see, there are some of the things that are on our upcoming agenda, not to mention the possibility of Anna and Sammy's team, Rebekah's team, and Victoria's team advancing to Nationals! I will also have to be running our kids to practices every week for our Church's Musical. There are actually 2 different musicals for 2 different age groups. I will have 3 kids in one and 4 in the other. Their practices are on different nights, so it will be a lot of transporting going on. The performances are in August with each group having two performances each. I would also like to fit in a trip to Virginia so that I can visit my Mom and the rest of my extended family.

To add to all of that, Rebekah and Josh will be starting College in the Fall. We will have to help them get ready for that and do all the necessary preparations! I personally find having older kids a bit more challenging than the little ones!

Recently Hubby celebrated his Birthday. I made his cake this year. He pretty much said that he would like any cake except chocolate. I scoured through recipes and decided on a Caramel Cake. Looking through so many recipes on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that most of the recipes were of a yellow cake with a Caramel Frosting. So, I decided to cheat just a little!

I used a yellow cake mix and mixed it up according to the directions and then stirred in some melted butterscotch chips. Originally I made a layered cake, but evidently left the cakes in the pans too long or something. When I tried to take them out, they were completely stuck! I had sprayed the pans with PAM, so that was not the problem. In the process of trying to get them out of the pans, one of the layers broke into pieces.

Yeah, so I mixed up 2 cake mixes and stirred in some melted butterscotch chips and poured it into a large pan. I am not sure of the dimensions, but it is a lot bigger than a 13x9 pan. I thought that since it was such a large cake that I probably should double the recipe for the Frosting. Well, in all actuality it probably wasn't needed. The Frosting was sort of like fudge and in the middle it was at least as thick as the cake! It was really yummy and the kids did not complain about too much Frosting! I wish I had taken pictures after it was cut so that you could see how thick the icing was!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Here is the Recipe for the Frosting!



Caramel Frosting From Scratch

2 sticks butter

2 cups light brown sugar

1/2 cup Pet's Evaporated Milk

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar



Melt butter and brown sugar and evaporated milk. Cook two minutes over medium heat (no longer than two minutes). Add vanilla. Remove immediately from heat. Add powdered sugar. Beat until smooth.. Will frost a three layer cake!



I found this recipe here along with a cake recipe.



Warning: It will give you a major sugar rush!







Have a Great Weekend Everyone!