Good Bite and Real Women of Philadelphia
April 2, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Announcements
I’ve been keeping a bit of news under wraps, waiting for the right time to announce it, and today is the day…
I recently joined the cast of contributors at GoodBite.com and I am thrilled to be a part of it. Good Bite and Philadelphia Cream Cheese asked me to participate in the Real Women of Philadelphia campaign to promote this fun opportunity. Paula Deen is looking for the next big cooking stars, and enthusiastic home cooks are encouraged to submit videos of you making your favorite dish with cream cheese. I made my own cooking video featuring one of my favorite cream cheese recipes, which you can view below and on GoodBite.com (recipe on Good Bite). Four women will be selected to be the Real Women of Philadelphia and win $25,000 plus a chance to meet Paula Deen. Read more
Bourbon Pumpkin Marble Cheesecake
Pumpkin cheesecake is one of my favorite holiday desserts and marbling the pumpkin filling with a bourbon vanilla filling takes it over the top for me. The recipe is my riff on the classic pumpkin marble cheesecake from the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cheesecakes book published in 1989. I found a wire bound copy years ago at a yard sale for 50 cents and picked it right up. The recipes aren’t fussy, just simple and good, with a mix of baked and no-bake cheesecakes. I’ve made a number of cheesecakes from the book over the years and we enjoyed them all. Read more
The Daring Bakers Make Cheesecake: Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Cheesecake
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
The infamous cheesecake recipe comes from Jenny’s friend Abbey, and in this challenge we were given lots of room for creativity. We had to use the cheesecake recipe as is, though we could flavor it any way we wanted to. We also had freedom to choose the crust and anything else to go with it. I chose to make a variation on my mini chocolate pecan pies and spotted a recipe in one of my mother’s cookbooks that gave me the idea for how to put it together. Bourbon and pecans are a classic combination, so it seemed natural to flavor the cheesecake and the pecan topping with bourbon.
After being on hiatus for several months, I was glad to get back into the fun of the challenges and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially since cheesecake is my favorite dessert. We liked the combination of flavors, and the cheesecake was a hit with all my neighborhood friends. Read more
The Daring Bakers Make Cheesecake Pops
Cheesecake on a stick! How fun is that? I love cheesecake any way I can get it and few desserts in this world capture my imagination more than a rich, luscious, baked cheesecake. If I order dessert in a restaurant, it’s likely to be cheesecake, and I love sampling all the flavors at The Cheesecake Factory. But I do have a dirty little secret to share…I haven’t made one in several years (which is why you’ve never seen one on this blog) because I have no self control when it comes to cheesecake. If I make a cheesecake, especially one with booze or tricked out with all sorts of extra yummies like chocolate and caramel, you might as well slap a “Wide Load” sign on my behind because I’m done for. I did eventually realize I could make a full size batch but bake it in mini or half-size pans or muffin tins and freeze the extra or share with friends, and that helped my addiction. Somewhat.
I knew The Daring Bakers would eventually tackle cheesecakes in some form, and I got very excited when I saw this month’s challenge was cheesecake pops because they were a perfect mini size and they are so adorable! Of course we had to follow all the regular rules, but as always we were given some leeway for creativity. We could substitute another flavor for the vanilla extract and we could use whatever type of chocolate and decorations we liked. The pops just had to be made with the basic cheesecake recipe, rolled into 2-ounce balls, dipped in chocolate, and served on a stick. For my variations, I chose to flavor the cheesecake with Kahlua and rolled the coated pops in hazelnuts, toffee bits, and even sprinkles just for the kids. Read more
Mardi Gras Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Bourbon and Pecans
Mardi Gras king cakes make a festive centerpiece for any Mardi Gras celebration. The traditional cake is made from a soft yeast dough that is risen, rolled, and often filled with cream cheese, fruit, or a pecan praline mixture. Many people have fun celebrating Mardi Gras, even if they don’t go to New Orleans, but I’ve heard friends say that they want a cake that is easier to make. After mulling the idea for a bit I decided that I would make both a traditional rolled king cake and a simple pound cake and decorate both in the traditional Mardi Gras colors to show that a festive Mardi Gras cake can be easier to make. I knew that I wanted to have pecans in the cake in some way, perhaps like a streusel, so off I went in search of the perfect pound cake with pecans for my Mardi Gras cake. I stopped searching when I found this recipe from Southern Living.
The cream cheese makes the texture moist and rich, and the bourbon adds just a touch of flavor that makes it feel a little more decadent without being obvious. Actually I was worried about the bourbon since I don’t care for the flavor by itself, but once I had a taste of the batter, I felt we had a winner. Bourbon has a strong taste, but once mixed in with the rest of the ingredients, the strong flavor disappears and leaves behind a perfume that works nicely. To top it off, I added a simple cream cheese glaze and the Mardi Gras colored sugars. Read more
Red Velvet Cake
A name like Red Velvet suggests something decadent, luxurious, perhaps even a little naughty, such as a slinky red velvet party dress or a Red Velvet cocktail, and the classic Southern Red Velvet Cake is all of the above. The cake’s history is not entirely clear, though both Canada and the U.S. have laid claim to its origins. It has been the subject of an urban legend claiming that the recipe comes from the famous Waldorf-Astoria hotel and a customer was charged US$350 for the recipe. Another popular myth concerns the unnatural red color, thought to be caused by the reaction of the baking soda and chocolate, but it is actually achieved through copious amounts of food coloring.
Last year I did not have a birthday cake and instead enjoyed a slice of cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory in Virginia Beach. We had just put our house on the market and of course we were trying to keep it as clean as possible, so the thought of the kitchen devastation I tend to wreak while baking and the ensuing clean up just didn’t thrill me. This year we said I would definitely have a cake, and when Michael asked me what kind of cake I wanted, I didn’t hesitate: I wanted to make one of the Daring Bakers cake challenges that they had done before I joined. There were four cakes to choose from, and initially I was drawn to the flourless chocolate cake, but I decided that I should make this one because I am from the South and (sheepish grin) I’ve never made one. Time to rectify that situation!
I had plenty of inspiration because at the time of the challenge in March 2007 the Daring Bakers were still a small group of just fifteen intrepid bakers and they had decided to let everyone use the red velvet cake recipe of their choice. I chose to try the recipe posted by Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms, though I was not as creative as she was with her adorable Daring Baker decorations! Read more
