From My Perspective

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

What's for Dinner: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

I've been having a major sweet tooth lately. Not exactly sure why.

Although I was still super tired from the trip to Virginia, Monday was one of those days that I needed something sweet. Like at that very moment.

The first thing that popped in my head? Chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake squares. It's something that's been on my "to-do" list for a long while. Half way into the process, I just turned it into a cheesecake. I used my chocolate chip cookie recipe for the cookie dough portion of it.

Here's what you need:
Crust:

1 and 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons of [unsalted] butter, melted
1/2 cup of [milk] chocolate chips

Filling:

2 packages of [8-ounce] cream cheese, softened
2 and 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup of granulated sugar

Cookie dough:

1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 a cup of granulated sugar
1/2 a cup of [packed] light-brown sugar
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of [milk] chocolate chips

To make your Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray your [9-inch] [spring-form] pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Start off with the crust: combine your melted butter and graham cracker crumbs. Add in the chocolate chips. Press your mixture into the bottom [and lower sides if you want] of your pan.
Cream your cream cheese using your mixer before adding in the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Beat the mixture again until it is nice and smooth. Pour your mixture over the pressed crust layer.
Next, start the batter for your cookie dough. I used my homemade chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, but you could use store-bought dough for convenience.
In small amounts, add the cookie dough batter on top of the cream cheese filling layer. You want to do this like a crumbled topping type of way. As the cookie dough bakes, it will spread.
Bake in your preheated oven for 50 minutes. Let it cool before cutting into it so you give the cheesecake time to settle.

I had a little leftover chocolate chip cookie dough, so with that I made cookies.

P.S. This post is a part of my "What's for Dinner" series, where I share what I've been cooking and my recipes. Grab and share my button:

Monday, June 17, 2013

Locked Out

So you know what I did this weekend?

I locked the keys in the car. In the trunk. In a rental. In another state. Ugh.

Oh and I managed to do this the night of my cousin's, Naairah, graduation party.

On the positive side, I guess it was a good thing that we were already at the hall, and we didn't realize the mishap until near the end of the party.

It was an innocent mistake, but I felt terrible. Paraphrasing my brother's words: Niagara falls of tears were shed [by me]. I'm a crier. A big one. Happy moments, sad moments, mad moments. I guess add stupid moments too.

My cousin, the graduate, needed to borrow blush. It was in my luggage in our rental, so I borrowed the keys from Faraz and we headed to car. Opened the trunk, took out bags covering my luggage, somehow managed to set the keys in the trunk in between, opened my luggage and dug out the blush. She used it, we put everything back in it's place, shut the trunk with all my might [it was heavy!] and headed back in.

No keys. Little did I know though at this time.

It wasn't until much later, near the end of the party, when Faraz asked my for the keys. My response? I don't have the keys. His? Yes you do, you took them from me.

Panic mode as I check my belongings and head back to the car. My thinking [or hope]? The trunk wouldn't have locked with the keys in it. I immediately knew it was in the trunk because I remembered not coming back in with it. Especially because I used both hands to shut the trunk door.

Nonetheless, we searched the hall, I retracted my steps, checked the bathroom, told the hotel workers [in case it showed up], etc. Finally, called Triple A who came to the rescue. A couple of hours later.

It doesn't end there though. When they get there, they tell my brother and dad that they don't think the keys are locked in the car because if that was the case the car wouldn't have locked [BMW 2013 model]. Yeah, well, that's what I thought too.

Oh, and the car alarm starts going off as soon as they unlocked the car through the back window. So my brother climbs in, and heads to the trunk, emptying our trunk... until finally: the key is found!

And so all of this. And all because of blush.

This will be a weekend to remember. Not just because my cousin graduated, or how great the keynote speakers were at her graduation (the best I've ever heard), or pretty much the whole family got together, or the crazy weather that first day... or anything like that: but because of the car. and blush.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

What's for Dinner: Yellow Confetti Cake

So the day of Sabih's graduation party? It also happened to be my cousin Naairah's birthday! Thursday we head off to Virginia for her graduation ceremony that day followed by her graduation party on Saturday.

For her, I made a confetti cake. I used the same homemade yellow cake base recipe as I did for the basketball cake for Sabih, except I threw in some sprinkles into the batter.

Here's the end product:

I made a homemade yellow cake as the base [that was absolutely delicious]. Here's what you need:

2 cups of [all-purpose] flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of [unsalted] butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of [1%] milk
[about] 1/4 cup of sprinkles*

*Note: I wasn't sure how well my decorating sprinkles would work inside the batter for the cake once it baked off -- whether they would stay whole and clump, whether the colors would fade, whether it would just ruin the inside of my cake... you get the picture... so I tested out the sprinkles in one cupcake first and it worked wonderfully.

The no oil part in this cake? Love it!

To make the cake:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a [non-stick] 9-inch spring-form pan with non-stick cooking spray for extra precaution.
In a mixing bowl, mix together your flour, baking powder, and salt.
Next, cream your softened butter and sugar together until they are nicely incorporated together. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until completely combines.
Combine your wet and dry ingredients together into one bowl. Add in the milk. Beat your mixture together until the batter is mixed together and smooth.
Add in the sprinkles. Fold/Mix into the batter.
Transfer into your baking pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes back clean.

Tip: Make sure to let the cake cool completely before you attempt to frost. Makes a world of a difference, I'm telling you.

For the frosting? I used store-bought creamy "classic vanilla" frosting today. From the [Oreo] Buttercream Frosting from this post back in April I learned my lesson the hard way: no more homemade frosting UNTIL I get a stand mixer. Why are they so darn expensive?! Would make my life so much easier!

I used this fun decorating kit I bought a few months [called "Wilton's Dessert Decorator Pro"] ago to decorate the top of the cake. I think my right hand and arm are still sore from it.

P.S. This post is a part of my "What's for Dinner" series, where I share what I've been cooking and my recipes. Grab and share my button:

Sunday, June 9, 2013

What's for Dinner: Basketball Cake

On May 30th my cousin, Sabih, graduated from college and yesterday we celebrated!

He loves basketball - and when I came across a similar idea a very long time ago, I had immediately thought at that time that I have to make this for Sabih! Fortunately, I remembered last week and decided to try it out this week.

Here's the end product:

I made a homemade yellow cake as the base [that was absolutely delicious]. Here's what you need:

2 cups of [all-purpose] flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of [unsalted] butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of [1%] milk

The no oil part in this cake? Love it!

To make the cake:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a [non-stick] 9-inch spring-form pan with non-stick cooking spray for extra precaution.
In a mixing bowl, mix together your flour, baking powder, and salt.
Next, cream your softened butter and sugar together until they are nicely incorporated together. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until completely combines.
Combine your wet and dry ingredients together into one bowl. Add in the milk. Beat your mixture together until the batter is mixed together and smooth.
Transfer into your baking pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes back clean.

For the frosting? I used store-bought [milk] chocolate frosting today. From the [Oreo] Buttercream Frosting from this post back in April I learned my lesson the hard way: no more homemade frosting UNTIL I get a stand mixer. Why are they so darn expensive?! Would make my life so much easier!

Tip: Make sure to let the cake cool completely before you attempt to frost. Makes a world of a difference, I'm telling you.

After I frosted the cake, I separated the orange and brown candies from a bag of Reese's Pieces to use to decorate the top of the cake.

Using the brown candies, I first used them to draw a line straight down the middle.
Turn the cake 90 degrees, and do the same. You should now have the cake divided in 4 sections and a visible "+" sign.
Next, again using the brown candies, I drew two half circles on either end.
Finally, fill in all of the areas where the frosting is still visible with the orange colored candies.

Tip: I can't emphasize enough how much laying pieces of parchment paper underneath makes a difference in the end result.

I thought about doing this cake with M&Ms originally, but a) who wants to separate all the oranges and blacks from I don't even know how many bags of M&Ms I would need b) I've already made a cake with M&Ms before and c) half the fun is experimenting!