Key Lime Cheesecake

Are you ready to start drooling?

This is probably the best thing you will ever put in your mouth. And I'm gonna tell you how to make it. Huzzah! (Check out the original recipe here)
Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs, 5 tablespoons melted butter, 3 (8 ounce) packages softened cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 6 tablespoons key lime juice, 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons sour cream
Directions: Leave the cream cheese and eggs on the counter overnight to come to room temperature. Trust me, this is a key step. Room temp is essential.

Stick the graham crackers in a food processor and grind until all are in crumbs. Add butter and mix. Put in the bottom of an 8 inch spring form pan and press down. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar, beating until smooth. Add vanilla and key lime juice and mix thoroughly. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined after each egg. Gently mix in sour cream. Pour mix into a greased spring form pan.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes (cheesecake should still jiggle a little in the center). When baking, put a pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven to create a steam bath for the oven. After the 40-45 minutes, turn the oven off and crack the oven door open about 4 inches and leave the cake in there for 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven and cool to room temperature on wire rack. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

When removing from the spring form pan, you may find it easier to transfer the bottom of the pan to your hand and slide the side down along your arm rather than up over the top of the cake. I recommend decorating with several dollops of whipped cream and slices of key lime.Isn't it pretty? And I promise it tastes just as good as it looks.

Road Trip Cake

I have a good friend who is leaving for college. She'll be driving across the country to attend university, and I wanted to make her a special cake to say goodbye and good luck. Here's what I came up with:

I depicted her road trip using food. Yu-um! Let me tell you how I did it.
I baked a plain 'ole cake. Then, I used granola bars to criss-cross the cake, as if it was a road. I iced both sides of the cake. and covered the left side with coconut. (I dyed it green by putting it in a Tupperware container with a bit of food coloring and shaking it.)

I took some small brownie bites and laid them on the far right side as rolling hills. I cut some ice cream cones in half, dipped them in icing, and then dipped them in the coconut.
For the car, I took a Twinkie and cut a piece of the front to make it look like the front of a car. I did the same with a much smaller piece on the back. I dipped this in chocolate and put it in the freezer until it hardened.I used icing for the windows and purple Froot Loops for the tires. I stuck it on the gravel road with icing and then iced a dotted line along the path.

It was a super fun cake to make, though it did take forever. She loved it and was so excited to see it waiting at work for her. She'll do great, though we'll sure miss her!