Peanut Butter Fudge Cheesecake

Birthdays are a big deal at work. And for some people, it's a huge deal. My friend Hetty's birthday is always at the start of the school year and sometimes it gets too busy to make a big hurrah so I was determined to make a really special dessert.

And maybe she'd stop whining. Hahahahaha!

This cheesecake was a big deal. Lots of compliments, lots of oohs and ahhs. It was really special. I'm so glad!! It's a great recipe. It seems complicated but it wasn't. Cheesecakes are pretty easy. This one had a few extra little details, but nothing too hard.

The oreo crust was made with chocolate (cream) oreos. That was topped with a fudge sauce (lots of melted chocolate with cream) and chopped mini peanut butter cups.

The peanut butter cheesecake filling is pretty straighforward. Lots of cream cheese, creamy peanut butter, eggs, vanilla. It baked for an hour and then chilled prettily overnight.

The next morning I made the quick ganache for the final layer- more chocolate and cream. Mmmm. I used mini peanut butter cups for decoration because why not?

I didn't even get a picture of a slice. Of the inside. It went quickly in the staff lounge though we had some seriously strong people with self-control (diets/lifestyle changes).. I'm sorry we tempted you on the other side of the lunch table :)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge Cheesecake.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

I'm not Irish but we like beer here so I picked up a six pack of Guinness, knowing I had an easy cake recipe that I saved on Facebook.

The cake was actually very easy to make and it came together very quickly. Melting butter with beer, adding sugar and cocoa, whipping in the combined sour cream, eggs and vanilla, and then finally whipping in flour and baking soda. All in a saucepan!

I made the frosting while the cake was baking and well, I guess a few spoonfuls went missing. I don't love frosting but this one is oozy and just slightly sweet. Yum!

I think the frosting is meant to look like foam on top of a very dark beer.

The outside of the cake, where it baked against the springform pan, is slightly crusty but the rest of the cake is moist and delicious. Deep, dark chocolate. Not at all boozy.

Now I hope we can eat it all!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Guinness Cake.

Pot Pie Soup with Crust Crackers

Chrissy Teigen can do no wrong. Do you follow her on Instagram? Snapchat? HILARIOUS! I didn't know how seriously to take her cookbook but so far every recipe has been a hit. Comfort food!

ooooh and crust crackers! I cheated this time with premade refrigerated crust. I would make my own next time.

This soup earned rave reviews from my husband. I loved that it was pretty easy once the chopping and prepwork was done. This made following the steps quite easy. First, preheat oven and get the pie crust in. Start broth and milk simmering. Chop. Measure out. Start recipe... Melt butter and make the roux. Etc. It's all about time management and I have a deep satisfaction when things go smoothly. It's like baking, my therapy.

I brought the leftovers to work today and it was even better then. I let some of my coworkers dip some crust in my soup for a taste and they want the recipe :)

I own Chrissy's cookbook but I found the recipe online for you.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pot Pie Soup with Crust Crackers.

Sour Cream Coffeecake with Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl

Happy Birthday to my M-O-M! We celebrated my Mom this morning with a fabulous brunch at my sister's place in Minneapolis. I offered to bring the sweets, which included this coffee cake and some cupcakes (a later post?)

Hmmm, maybe I should have taken a picture of the entire coffee cake?

I took several pieces over to my sister's for sharing, but knew the entire 9x13 monster cake was too much. We shared it with my mother-in-law and selfishly kept a few pieces for ourselves!

Here's my piece later on tonight...

So it turned out very "m" (moist) and flavorful. I thought the chocolate swirl would be a bit more pronounced but I wasn't unhappy with it. It was enough. I'm not super fond of pecans but they were ground up in the crumb topping and were fine. My food processor blade is on recall so I used the blender. Worked great.

This was a good recipe and I'm glad it worked out. How can you go wrong with so much butter, sugar and sour cream?? AND IT MAKES A TON. Great for a crowd!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Sour Cream Coffee Cake Heaven.