Jell-o No-Bake Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

Another half-birthday has rolled around, and one of my son's favorite desserts...
Cheesecake!

Last year I made him the Martha Stewart: Cookies and Cream Cheese Cupcakes and they did take a lot of time. This year, to save a lot of time, I am going to try the JELL-O No Bake Cherry Cheesecake, mini style in cupcake liners. I chose mini cheesecakes over a regular sized cheesecake because they are easier to serve and...I love cupcakes!

These mini cherry cheese cakes were very quick to make. I used the foil liners without the papers inside for easy peeling. It did take a little bit longer to press the crust into 12 cupcake liners than the 15 minute box time for a regular sized pie, but it was still less than a half hour prep time. The mini cheesecakes take 1 hour to set up in the refrigerator or can be frozen for 4 hours. I put them in the refrigerator. The cheese cake did very slightly adhere to the foil. To avoid wasting any of this deliciousness, right before serving it does help to put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
I would have to say with the time it takes to prepare, bake, and set a regular cheese cake, I prefer this no-bake cheesecake!
These mini cherry cheesecakes tasted great!

2011 Club Candiquik Contest Finalist Recipes

I was one of the lucky Club Candiquik members to receive a Candiquik sample kit in the mail with enough candy to create each of the 3 recipes to assist in my decision to choose a winner in the CANDIQUIK "Make Our Ad" Recipe Contest!

For more information go to: Club Candiquik Contest Webpage.

First, I wanted to share with you how easy Candiquik candy melts up. I always melt any brand of melting candy in my Wilton Chocolate Pro, absolutely love it! However, for these recipes (since they each called for an entire package), I decided to follow directions on the Candiquik packaging and melt the candy in the microwaveable tray. Let me tell you, it's so easy! This candy melts up smooth and easy in the tray in the microwave and there is NO CLEAN UP! Just throw the tray away when you are done! So, I thought that was pretty cool!

Please Note: There have been updates to this post since originally posted on 6/5/2011.  I have since then added all of the contestants recipes including a recipe correction that was noticed after the recipes were sent out.


The desserts below are listed are in no particular order.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites
*WINNER*

Creator Comments: This is one of my all time favorite recipes! I have adapted it over the years and made it my own. It is easy, quick, no bake, and almost everyone has these 5 ingredients already in their pantry! You can even be trendy and make them into a "Pop" by putting them on a lollipop stick! I love making these in the fall because of their colors and homey feel! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

INGREDIENTS:

2-1/4 cup Crunchy Peanut Butter

1 cup Margarine

7 cups Powder Sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 package Chocolate CANDIQUIK® Candy Coating

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Roll the mixture into tablespoon size balls and set onto wax paper. There should be about 40 balls. Melt the CANDIQUIK®. Dip each ball and set back onto wax paper to dry. Decorate as desired. Recipe is easily halved.

My experience making this recipe:

These are the naked Peanut Butter Bites! I know...I didn't get them perfectly rounded! I actually had a hard time getting these to maintain a round shape, especially upon dipping. The margarine to peanut butter ratio was 1 cup margarine to 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter. I will leave it at that.

(Note: There was a typo in the recipe that I was following...so my experiences will differ from actual "Chocolate Peanut Butter Bite" recipe.)

The hardest part was trying to get them out of the chocolate. I found in the end rolling them from spoon to spoon worked best. I still had a hard time getting each ball to maintain there shape.

As soon as I placed them on wax paper, my little elf placed a peanut half on while the chocolate was still wet.

The recipe concluded with "decorate as desired."

With that noted, we drizzled a little peanut butter on top to help along the peanut butter flavor!

This recipe was made with "Extra Crunchy" Peanut Butter.

These were definately the hardest of the 3 recipes to make once I got beyond mixing the center filling. I had hoped to be able to get the bites into that perfect round shape.

I am definately going to play around with this recipe some in the future!

*** 6/6/2011- I was just contacted by Jen from Jen's Speciality Cupcakes and informed that there was a typo in her recipe that was posted on the Candiquik Webpage for the recipe contest...it should have been 2-1/4 cups of Crunchy Peanut Butter...NOT 1/4 cup. Miss Candiquik worked quick and has already fixed that typo on the website. I hope this doesn't effect Jen's chances in the contest. And here I thought it was me that just had a problem making a round ball!

I will remake these Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites in the future to the proper directions...so look for them on my blog again someday! Not sure when yet, I have made so many sweets over the past weekend, I need to de-sweet a few days! ***

***Be sure to view my remake of these Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites!***

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Mini Apple Pies with Edible Pie "Plate"
*Runner Up*

INGREDIENTS:

1 package Vanilla CANDIQUIK® Candy Coating

1 can of Apple Pie Filling

Crushed Sugar Cookies or Graham Crackers

Decorations for Top (optional)

Mini Cupcake Liners (not pretty ones as they will be discarded)

DIRECTIONS:

After melting CANDIQUIK®, take about a teaspoon full and pour into mini cupcake liner. With the back of a small spoon, push melted CANDIQUIK® up the sides of the cupcake liner as far as it will go. Let dry. Then spoon crumbled cookies or graham crackers on the bottom. Gently spoon about a teaspoon or so of pie filling onto of the cookies. Then spoon more CANDIQUIK® over the top of the apple/cookie combo. Let dry. When dry, you can decorate with candy writers (apple as shown in picture) or edible markers (as shown in picture with "stripes"). When completely dry, gently rip off cupcake liner.Enjoy!

My experience making this recipe:

Making these went really quick. The first step was to paint the inside of a mini cupcake liner with the Candiquik Vanilla Candy, let dry.  Then cover the bottom with graham cracker or cookie crumbs, followed by apple pie filling...or any filling you wish as the author of this recipe stated on the Candiquik Facebook page.

The top of the pie is covered with more of the melted candy.

This is the finished Mini Apple Pie before decorating.

The original pies were decorating with edible candy writers and pens. She decorated some with an apple and some with a lattice pattern.

I just used what I already had on hand...Royal Icing, with a little green flower sprinkle.

This is a picture of the inside...the picture doesn't do it justice!

I could really see myself using this recipe with cut up fresh berries from my garden.

These could really fill these with anything, it's a pretty neat idea!

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Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Creator Comments: These are delicious for any event and any time of year. My guests always love them and are impressed, if only they knew how easy they are! Fun, easy, delicious, and I used the CANDIQUIK® no-bake cheesecake recipe to fill them with!

INGREDIENTS:

1 package Chocolate CANDIQUIK® Candy Coating

1 package Vanilla CANDIQUIK® Candy Coating

24 strawberries

2 packages cream cheese - room temperature

1 box Jell-O® cheesecake flavored pudding

1 container Cool Whip® - thawed

DIRECTIONS:

Using a knife, cut out the center of each strawberry, as deep as you can without going out the bottom. Melt Chocolate CANDIQUIK®. Dip each strawberry in CANDIQUIK®. Set on wax paper. Melt Vanilla CANDIQUIK®. In a medium bowl, mix the room temperature cream cheese, pudding mix, and Vanilla CANDIQUIK®. Slowly mix in the cool whip. Spoon the cheesecake mixture into a piping bag (or a plastic sandwich bag - cut one corner off) and pipe the cheesecake into each strawberry! Yum!

My experience making this recipe:

These were very easy and quick to make!

I started with fresh strawberries, all different sizes and shapes!

Cutting the centers out just took a few minutes.

I dipped the strawberries in the chocolate and let that set up a few minutes.

I piped in the cheesecake filling with the Wilton 1M tip.

To finish, I drizzled the Vanilla flavored candy over the chocolate!

The flavors complimented each other very well!

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 Now, I have until June 11th to submit my vote!

I am still sampling and trying to decide which of these is my personal favorite! I can't wait to see who the winner is!

Each contestant has put a lot of time and effort into there recipe and each recipe brings something different to the table. They should all be applauded just for making it to the top 3!

Congratulations to all 3 of you!

(If any of the contestants happen to be reading my blog and would like me to include your picture of your creation in this post...please contact me via Mrs. Fox's Sweets Facebook Page, I would love to do so!)

I also want to thank my teenage daughter for her helping me on each of these recipes! I couldn't have done them so quick without her! She is amazing in the kitchen! I encourage each and everyone of my readers to get your kids in the kitchen with you, no matter what age! Not only are you teaching your children life skills, but it is wonderful together time!

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*UPDATE 6/16/2011*

Jennifer's "Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites" was the winner in the 2011 Candiquik Recipe Contest!

CONGRATULATIONS! JENNIFER!

Debbie's "Mini Apple Pie's with Edible Pie Plate" was runner-up!

CONGRATULATIONS DEBBIE!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL 3 OF YOU!

Past Adventures in Oreo!

It's Flashback Friday!

Okay, I haven't even reached my one week anniversary blogging yet and have already shared with you some of the sweets that I have already made in 2011...pre-blog...and then the cupcakes that started my new adventures in baking from November 2009. Well, I thought it would be fun to show you one of my older adventures or disasters, every Friday until we are all caught up to current times!

Now onto this weeks...

Past Adventures in Oreo!

So year after year I have found some sort of Oreo dessert for my sons birthday, he never has really wanted an actual birthday cake and this may have been because of his first and second birthday cakes which were total disasters and because of that I didnt even attempt to bake again until he was almost 15.  In the past, I had either ordered him a giant cookie, found some sort of Oreo Dessert in the grocery store bakery, and twice made him a boxed Oreo Cheesecake, No Bake, I believe. As you can see, they weren't exactly beautiful when I got finished with them! I apparently couldn't even follow the directions right!!! (and...I am still always trying to change everything up...I use applesauce intead of oil or butter in my cakes, and always try to substitute ingredients to make everything as low calorie and low fat as possible!)

Feb. 2006

Feb. 2009

As of his 2010 birthday, I had still only baked successfully once, and once again purchased a store bought dessert for him. Well, come his 15-1/2 birthday...I was baking and it was the perfect excuse to bake for him! (we had never actually celebrated a half birthday until last year)

Because he likes Oreos and Cheesecake and I like Cupcakes...

I used a recipe called "Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes" in the Martha Stewart Cupcake Book for his 15-1/2 birthday dessert in August 2009

These were the Oreo cupcake/cheesecakes right after they came out of the oven.  I have a picture of them before the oven, but it pretty much looked the same. Making the filling using the recipe, burned out my little handmixer, my husband actually finished mixing them by hand....and I am happy to say last year on our Anniversary my hubby got me a beautiful red Kitchen Aid Artisan, which has made life much simpler!

This was the cupcake/cheesecake peeled and turned upside down so you can see the actual Oreo.

This is the cheesecake/cupcake cut in half revealing the yummy Oreo once again!  I did use a fat free cream cheese so that may have changed the texture, I don't know never made them with regular cream cheese! I love eating the stuff as much as making it, so try and make everything as figure friendly as possible!

Now moving on to this year, February 2011...

well, I ended up buying him a 14 flavor cheesecake from...yes...a store, I wasn't about to attempt 14 flavors on my own, but I did bake him some Oreo Cupcakes as well!

Here is what you will need

Oreo Cookies- regular size bag

Mini Oreo Cookies- regular size bag

Favorite cake mix- I used a devils food cake mix

Buttercream frosting- I use Wiltons Buttercream Recipe

Wilton Cookie Icing  (if you wish to personalize the Mini Oreos like I did)

I first lined 24 cupcake wrappers each with a full size Oreo cookie. With the Oreos I had left, I put them in a large zipper bag and took the rolling pin to them...then I mixed the crushed Oreo cookies in my cake batter,  which I had prepared according to regular instructions. I put the batter in the Oreo lined liners and baked as usual. Some cupcakes ended up with bigger chunks of Oreo than others, in the future I may not crush them all at the same time.

While the cupcakes were cooking, I used the Wilton Cookie Icing to write "16" on 24 of the Mini Oreo Cookies so they could begin drying.  I took the rest of the mini Oreos and crushed them, I little coarser this time and these were for the Icing.

I made my usual buttercream icing and thinned it with about tablespoon more of milk than the recipe calls for. Then I hand mixed in the Mini Oreos that I had crushed up. I had hoped to pipe these on with my usual 1M swirl. I couldn't get the Oreos through the tip so just cut off the end of a fresh piping bag and used that. Topped each with a "16" Mini Oreo Cookie. These were really quick and easy to do and tasted great!

My knife wasn't quite sharp enough to cut through the Oreo perfectly, but below is the inside.

I still had plenty of Oreo Icing left, so a couple days later when all the cupcakes were gone, I made a Vegan Chocolate Cupcake. I used the Martha Stewart Vegan Cupcake recipe from her Cupcake book, the recipe only makes about 12 which was the perfect number I needed to finish the Oreo Icing! I use this recipe a lot and really like it, perfect for people with egg allergies too or if you are just out of eggs! Anyway the Cupcakes looked a little plain and I was out of Mini Oreos so I put a Wilton Chocolate Candy Melt upside down on the top. Below is what the bonus Oreo Cupcakes looked like.

So while everything isn't totally beautiful yet, I have come a long way since the beginning in my adventures in baking!

Upcoming New Adventures

In the upcoming week, I plan on baking and decorating Shamrock cookies with my daughter...she always makes the actual cookie part, I hate making and rolling and cutting the dough, too messy! So I just decorate! I may let her do this whole project though. I am really enjoying the Wilton Cookie Icings and I haven't been sharing very well, I should offer her a turn! Our cookies haven't always looked the best, not knowing the right  icing to use. I will show you some of our past cookies one day! We have come a long way in that department too and looking forward to maybe one day looking as good as some of the cookie blogs I follow!

For St. Patricks Day- I am going to be making cupcakes, which I am hoping to turn out cute, although already having to change them up a bit...we dont have candy stores around here! With these I will show you a step by step on homemade fondant...I think, that is the route I plan on going as of today...it may change!

And in the next week or two, I am going make some more of Bakerella's Cake Pops!