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White Chocolate Cheesecake

December 18, 2017

Cheesecake is a holiday favorite in my family. My mom has been making it for holiday parties longer than I can remember. 

For my office holiday party this year, I kept the family tradition alive and made my own version of mom’s cheesecake by adding a little bit of white chocolate. 

Not only is there white chocolate IN the cheesecake, but there is also white chocolate ON the cheesecake. The white chocolate in the cheesecake is very subtle so the extra chocolate on top helps boost that white chocolate flavor so people aren’t confused about what they are eating. 

How I Made It 

Let’s start with the crust, shall we? Because this is not your ordinary graham cracker crust. Although that would also be very nice. This is a Biscoff cookie crust. You know the cookies Cookie Butter is made out of? The cookies have a nice cinnamon spice flavor to them which is perfect with the white chocolate. 

Like a graham cracker crust, I first smashed them into bits with my handy food processor until the cookies resembled something between breadcrumbs and sand. 


Then I mixed in some butter so that all the crumbs would stick together and poured them into the bottom of a springform pan. 

To evenly distribute the crust around the bottom of the pan, I, first, used my hand to cover the bottom. Then I used the bottom of a heavy glass to tap them down into a smooth crust. 

For the cheesecake itself, I first creamed together the cream cheese and the sugar until they were well combined. 

Then I mixed in the melted white chocolate

Next came the eggs. Cheesecake requires lots of eggs, but I am too impatient to mix them in one at a time. So I just do three at a time.


Last, I added in vanilla (in this case, vanilla bean paste) and sour cream.

Finally, I poured the batter into the pan and evened out the top before popping it in the oven to bake. 

Now, cheesecake takes a little while to bake, so this is typically where I clean up a bit, check email, browse Instagram, etc. until it’s done. 

You will know your cheesecake is done when it is slightly brown around the edges but still has a little wobble in the middle. The center shouldn’t be “wet”, but it will still wobble.

If your cheesecake is browning too much around the edges, then cover it with foil and continue baking. 

After the cheesecake baked, and while it was cooling, I prepared the white chocolate ganache topping. 

I poured hot heavy cream over the white chocolate and let that sit for a bit to begin to melt. 

After a few minutes, I stirred the ganache to make sure all the chocolate pieces had melted. Then I stirred in some butter. 

Once the ganache had cooled to room temperature but was still liquid, I poured it over the cheesecake. 

At this point, my cheesecake had already cooled to room temperature, so it was safe to cover and pop in the fridge. 

You never want to put a warm cheesecake in the fridge, otherwise, the crust and the center will get really soggy and not set properly. 

I let the cheesecake and ganache set overnight in the fridge so that it was ready the next day for the Christmas party.

To dress her up a bit, I added some rosemary, sugared cranberries, and mint around the outside for a holiday wreath look.

Actually, this look was just for photos. When I reassembled the cheesecake at work, I put the cranberries and mint right on top, like you can see here on Instagram. 

Either way, I think it’s a beautiful holiday dessert and it’s delicious, too!

[yumprint-recipe id=’150′]

/ Filed In: Cakes and Cupcakes, Cakes New, Eat
Tagged: Biscoff, cake, cheesecake, Christmas, cream cheese, holiday, white chocolate

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting

January 23, 2017

You may be surprised to know that I am not a huge fan of frosting. Whenever I get a slice of cake, I will typically avoid the frosting completely, or only eat a bit of it. It’s probably why I prefer naked cakes over any other kind of cake. That and they are so much easier to frost!

There is one exception to the rule, however, and that is cream cheese frosting. I love cream cheese frosting! It’s most likely because it’s not super butter or overly sweets. It’s just the right amount of creaminess, tartness, and sweetness. 

I made this particular batch of cream cheese frosting to go along with some red velvet cupcakes, which I will share with you soon! But since I use my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe in a couple other recipes I will be sharing soon, I thought I would kick things off with this one!


If you have never made cream cheese frosting before, it is super simple. All I do is beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. That’s it! Unlike Swiss- or Italian-meringue buttercream, there is no labor intensive step of whipping up a finicky meringue or boiling sugar. Just dump it all into a bowl and mix!

Because I was just making cupcakes, I halved my normal recipe to have just enough frosting for 12 cupcakes (and a little extra for tasting). If I were making a 2 layer cake, I would make a full recipe. And for a 3-4 layer cake, I would have done one and 1/2 to two times the full recipe. Fortunately, this is a very easy recipe to halve or double!

This frosting is not only perfect for red velvet cupcakes, it would also be great on your classic chocolate cupcake for an unexpected twist. It’s also great on carrot cake, hummingbird cake, strawberry cake…really just about anything! Or if you are like me, you can just eat it straight out of the bowl. No cake needed!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:120]

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

/ Filed In: Cakes and Cupcakes, Cakes New, Desserts, Eat
Tagged: cake, cream cheese, cupcakes, frosting, icing

Stuffed French Toast Muffins with Raspberries

January 4, 2017

Every year for Christmas breakfast my mom makes the same things. We have all come to expect her delicious strata and tater tot casserole. My contribution has always been the monkey bread. Of course I am responsible for the sweets!

This year she threw a wrench into the whole plan. Three days before Christmas she said, “why don’t we make something different this year for Christmas breakfast.”

Excuse me, what now? Break tradition?? 

Part of me was a bit sad to lose some of our Christmas favorites (I mean, what is better than tater tots and cheese?!). But the other part of me (the blogger, baker, recipe experimenter part of me) was excited to try something new! And I am so glad we did because I ended up making a delicious French Toast casserole. 

We went through dozens of recipes on Pinterest to find the perfect one and settled on a blueberry french toast casserole, but swapped in raspberries. It was a good first try, but afterwards I was eager to go home and make the recipe my way. And by that, I mean stuffed with cream cheese. 


I started by cubing up a loaf of Challah bread. I hands down prefer Challah bread for French toast because its a tad sweeter and so light and fluffy. It’s delicious on it’s own and even better as French toast. 



Next I mixed up some eggs, milk, vanilla, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Then I added in all the cubes of bread and gave them a good toss until the bread had completely soaked up all the liquid. 

Because I did this the night before, I let the bread sit in the bowl overnight (in the fridge). If you did this the morning of, you could transfer this immediately to a casserole dish or a muffin tin.


Once I was ready to bake my French toast, I took about 3-4 cubes of bread and pressed them into the bottom of a muffin tin. I then topped that layer with pieces of frozen raspberries.

Side Note: When I made this on Christmas Day, I used fresh raspberries, which I nestled in between the cubes of bread. After making this recipe with frozen raspberries, I will never go back! I love that I was able to basically pound them into tiny pieces that I could just sprinkle over top. That way I had little bits of raspberry in every bite. But, if you don’t like raspberries, you can add blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, or just leave them plain! Fine by me!

On top of the raspberry layer I added more cubes of bread. Then I topped everything off with a generous amount of strussel topping. I know it looks messy, but it’s worth it!


The icing on in the cake is the cream cheese filling!

One of the things I thought was missing from the recipe I made on Christmas day was something creamy to off set the soggy bread and crunchy topping. The best approach I could come up with to stuff the stuffed French toast muffins was to just pipe the filling right in there after they had baked. 

Using a piping bag with a large round piping tip, I nestled the tip into one of the crevasses between the bread cubes then piped the filling while slowly lifting the piping bag up and out. 

If you don’t have a piping bag and tip, you can use a zip top bag and just use a paring knife to help create a seam for the tip of the bag to fit in. 

Raspberry French Toast Muffins

The best way, in my opinion to finish off these stuffed French toast muffins is with a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Because, you know, these muffins need more sugar. 

But holy moly they were incredible! Honestly, this version was so much better than the recipe I made on Christmas Day. In large part due to that creamy cream cheese center. But also I loved that the raspberries were interspersed in every bite. 

Now, this exact same recipe can be made in a casserole form. If my mom wants to make this recipe again next year, that’s probably what I will do. Instead of piping the cream cheese filling into each muffin, I would pipe it randomly into the casserole using the same method, or thin it down a bit to make a nice cream cheese icing. 

But I think the muffins are way more fun and they ensure the perfect bit of French toast every time! A little bit of that crunchy, caramelized edge with the soft and soggy center. Just like your classic French toast!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:112]

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

/ Filed In: Breakfast, Eat, Other Sweets New
Tagged: breakfast, casserole, cream cheese, french toast, muffins, raspberries

Cookies and Cream Brownies

September 2, 2016

Cookies and Cream Brownies

This is going to be a pretty quick post because as I sit here writing this we are waiting for our Uber to pick us up and take us to the airport and this is the last post I wanted to get scheduled before I go. Where are we?? Well, if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you probably already know. We start our trip in Berlin, but by the time you read this we will be in Prague. 

So I apologize for the short post, but these brownies pretty much speak for themselves. I don’t have to tell you how good they are because they look delicious! I know they were delicious because my husband, who lacks a sweet tooth, devoured about half the batch in 2 days.


I started with my favorite brownie mix (Ghirardelli) and mixed in some crushed Oreos. Then I made a cream cheese mixture and folded in some more Oreos. 

Cookies and Creme Brownies-4

I then poured the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter and swirled it all together. I should note, I would have loved to add more cookies on top, but my husband ate a few too many Oreos before I could make these. Silly boy.

Cookies and Creme Brownies-5

I baked these following the same instructions on the back of the brownie mix box and they turned out perfectly. It was a struggle to let them cool all the way before I cut into them. Clearly I didn’t wait to long before digging in. 

Cookies and Creme Brownies-8

The brownies along are amazing. Ghirardelli seriously makes the best brownie mix. Like I don’t even bother making them from scratch because it’s so much easier to mix up their batter. But with the pieces of cookies and the creamy swirl that almost tastes like cheesecake, these brownies are delish! It is just such an easy way to take a basic brownie and make it even better.  

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:74]

/ Filed In: Desserts, Eat
Tagged: brownies, chocolate, cookies and cream, cream cheese, Oreos

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Hey There!

Hey there, I'm Lindsey. I'm a number cruncher by day and a home cook and baker by night. While I love to eat healthy and find fresh and healthy alternatives for my favorite foods, I will never turn down dessert! Life is all about moderation, right?

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