Strawberry Jello Cake

This recipe is kind of two fold... today, on my way to get my nails filled, I expressed to A the desire to bake something, and asked him what he wanted.  He said Strawberry Jello Cake.  Uh, say what?!  I've never even heard of Strawberry Jello Cake.  He sent me a recipe for one.  Okay - it looked easy enough AND it would help fulfill one of my January goals to try a new recipe.  I grabbed the ingredients and headed home.

He sent me the recipe from Chef Shell's Catering & Roadside Cafe... from Michigan, nonetheless, which if you knew A would shock you that he'd dare send a recipe from somewhere in Michigan.  Here's the direct link... Strawberry Jello Cake.

In typical ME fashion - the first attempt... A DISASTER!  I did exactly as the recipe said to do... put the "crust" in the oven at 375* for 30-35 minutes.  My "crust" looked more like a disc you'd throw in track, and I'm fairly certain just as hard.  So back to the store I went for a second cake mix.

Here's the recipe with my modifications...

Cake Crust

1 16.5 ounce Strawberry Cake Mix (none of the cake mixes I found were 18.5 ounces)

1 Stick of Butter (Melted)

1 Egg

Filing

2 cup Boiling Water

1 6 ounce Package Strawberry Jell-o

20 ounces Frozen Strawberries (Thawed) (For this, I ended up buying a 24 ounce container of frozen strawberries, and using the additional 4 ounces for the topping)

1/4 cup Sugar

Topping

1 8 ounce Cream Cheese (room temp)

1/4 cup Sugar

1 12 oz Whipped Topping

4 ounces Frozen Strawberries

Pre-heat oven to 375*.  

In a large bowl, mix cake mix, melted butter and egg until blended.  Press into a greased 9 x 13 cake pan.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.  Let cool.

Dissolve jell-o and sugar in boiling water.  Make sure it is completely dissolved before adding the strawberries.  (Cool slightly.)  (Mine was completely cool before I poured it over the cake, due to having to make the 2nd crust.)  Pour strawberries over cake and refrigerate until set.    

With an electric hand blender or stand mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar, and frozen strawberries until well blended.  Add whipped topping and continue to whip until smooth and creamy.  Top cake and chill for 3 - 4 hours.  

The recipe as a whole was super easy, once I figured out the length of time to bake the crust.  

D

I will update with a final determination on taste one it's completely chilled, as well as additional pictures.  The good news is that A is happy because he'll get his Strawberry Jello Cake, and I'm happy because I met ONE of my January goals.  :-)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

It’s almost funny to me that I’m posting recipes on my new blog.  I’ve never been much for cooking and certainly never tried new recipes that someone didn’t teach me how to make first.  But, I figure now is as good of time as any – and it’s always helpful when I have someone there to eat it with me aka A.  Plus, he likes my cooking… sucker!  

I get wild ideas sometimes.  Most people start small… not me.  I wanted to bake a pumpkin cheesecake, so I did.  I found this recipe on Pinterest (surprise, surprise!) and decided to go for it.  I ordered a springform pan, bought all of my ingredients, and sat out to tackle this challenge.  (It may not be a challenge for anyone else, but for me, CHALLENGE!)

Here’s the recipe…

Adapted from Beautiful Flight

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 tbsp margarine or butter

2 tbsp sugar

Mix the ingredients together and put in the bottom of a spring-foam pan.  Tightly wrap the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil to prevent water from leaking into the spring-foam pan and bake in a water bath for 10 minutes.  Cool completely on wire rack. 

Filling

2 – 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

16 oz. solid pack, canned pumpkin

¾ cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

¼ tsp salt

4 large eggs

Beat the cream cheese.  Add the remainder of the ingredients except the eggs.  After the ingredients are mixed together, add one egg at a time.  Do not over beat.  Pour mixture into cooled crust.  Place the spring-foam pan inside another pan.  Add boiling water to the pan until it comes up one inch of the sides of the spring-foam pan.  Baker for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the center barely jiggles.

Topping

1 cup sour cream

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

After the cheesecake is removed from the water bath, spread the topping on the top of the cheesecake.  Bake for another 5 minutes.  Place completed cheesecake on wire rack.  Loosen the sides of the cheesecake.  Refrigerate at least six hours or overnight.

So now that you have the recipe – let’s talk about what happened to me.  Hah.  I always have to have a story.  So I crush up my graham crackers, add the sugar, and butter and put the crush in the bottom of my spring-foam pan.  Awesome, right?!  I even cover the pan with aluminum foil like I’m supposed to.  Apparently, my foil had a leak, because not more than 30 seconds after I sat the crust in the water bath, the pan was full of water.  So I called Carie, who gave me some quick instructions on how NOT to do it the second time. 

Here’s what I did differently…

I added 1 more tbsp of butter to the crust.  I don’t know why.  I just did.  I probably shouldn’t have, but it turned out okay either way. 

Instead of using allspice and cinnamon – I just put 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice into the mixture.  It was one less spice I had to buy.  I’m cheap.

I did the topping on this cheesecake, but I don’t think it really adds anything to it.  Next time, I’ll leave it off. 

All in all – my first cheesecake experience was a good one, and holy crap, this cheesecake is good!  A and I have already eaten ½ of it.  In one day.  Because we’re just that AWESOME.  J