A sweet surprise party for Caketopia styled by Sweet Art

 I have made some lovely friends over the years through my blog.

Many of them are overseas or interstate, like old fashioned pen pals but with new fangled high speed internet chat.

But sometimes they are closer than I know,  one day on my way to drop the kids at their classroom one of the other mums asked me if my name was Linda, and to my surprise I found out that she was a super talented cake decorator the owner of Caketopia that I 'knew' from a cake forum.

Yup right there at the school drop off carpark. Since then we have become great friends as we chat about cakey - and not so cakey related stuff on the long walk up the hill to pick up our young children.

So when Sweet Art Cakes contacted me to ask if I would like to come along to a surprise party celebrating the opening of Caketopia's new kitchen and studio of course I had to come.

Quite a number of people contributed to the dessert table for the party, which was honestly one of the prettiest I have seen. Kellie from Sweet Art Cakes styled the table and I just adored so many of the touches, including the hand painted 'cake shop window' and the gorgeous light boxes she created which each had an internal light and held a single cupcake (which by the way were little works of art deserving of the treatment).

Kellie's table and the other contributors treats were so lovely that the party was a guest feature on Amy Atlas

I made raspberry gelee macarons in pink and aqua - Click here for the recipe

A wonderful time was had by all.

Sweet Surprise Party for the opening of Caketopia

 

Table Design: Sweet Art Cakes

Cake, cookies, mousse and tarts: Sweet Art Cakes

Cupcakes: Crumbs of Comfort Cake Design

Macarons: Bubble & Sweet

Cakepops & Chocolate Pretzel Rods: Megan’s Cakes by Design

Mini Chocolates and Tags: Cupcakes by Haley 

 

 

If this is wrong I don't want to be right chocolate peanut butter baked cheesecakes

Peanut Butter. Chocolate. Cheesecake. Oreo.

It sounds so wrong, but it tastes sooooo right.

I'm continuing on with my mini Cheesecake love with a super rich version which is based on one of my favorite flavor combinations....peanut butter and chocolate.

At first I thought I might just pop a whole Peanut Butter Cup into the cheesecake on top of the Oreo, y'know make it super easy, and if you look carefully at the picture below you can see that is exactly what I did to the one on the left side - see the little layer of chocolate in between the peanut and cheesecake. But for my tastes I found that section of the cheesecake a little crumbly and dry, don't get me wrong it was good, but not quite what I was hoping for. So I did a google search around and found this cheat recipe and decided to modify it a bit for use in the cheesecake.

Not only is the filling creamier - it's more cost effective plus I could make it a bit smaller than the shop bought one so I got a little bit more cheesecake in.

Soooooo Right.

(.......also just in case you missed my previous post I would like to clarify mostly for Mr Sweet's sake that the statement in the photo is not true - I pretty much always want to be right.)

Peanut Butter Baked Cheesecake

makes 14 large Texas muffin sized cheesecakes. For the pictures I poured over some melted chocolate peanut ganache and added chopped mini Reece's Peanut Butter Cups.

Peanut Butter Filling

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar) sifted
2tbsp + 1 tsp unsalted butter or 45g (3 US Tbsp or 1 1/2 oz)
pinch salt

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined. If it's a very hot day you may like to place the 7oz that will be used in the cheesecakes in the fridge to make it easier to handle.

Cheesecake

14 Oreo Cookies
7oz of the Peanut Butter Filling (see recipe above)
625g (21oz) cream cheese at room temperature
1 tin condensed milk
3 large eggs at room temperature
14 large muffin papers (I bought these ones from woolies)


Preheat oven to 140C (280 F)

Line the muffin tins with the muffin/cupcake papers. Place one single oreo in the bottom of each paper.

Top each Oreo with 3 tsp (1 US Tbsp) of peanut butter mixture and press down onto the top of the Oreo cookie.

In a large bowl beat the cream cheese using a mixer at medium speed until just smooth, add the condensed milk and mix until combined. Reduce speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into the large muffin papers dividing mixture evenly between the papers using a scant 1/3 cup to each to make 14.

Place the tray into the oven and bake until the mixture is just setting in the center, around 16- 20 mins

Allow to cool in the trays for 10-15min and then pop in an airtight container in the fridge until chilled.

Top each cheesecake with a swirl of Peanut Chocolate Ganache (recipe follows).

Peanut Chocolate Ganache

4oz Dark or Semi Sweet Chocolate 
1 oz cream

4 oz Peanut Butter Filling

20g (3/4 oz) unsalted butter at room temperature

Chop the chocolate into fine pieces. Place in a microwave safe bowl with the cream and heat in the microwave at medium low heat for 1 minute bursts until melted. Make sure you do not overheat the chocolate. 

Cover and allow to set at room temperature until firm.

Beat the chocolate mixture on high for a couple of minutes until it lightens in color. Add the Peanut Butter Filling and mix well at medium speed, add the butter and continue to beat at medium speed until the mixture comes together, do not over mix.

 

Blue Ruffle Ombre Macaron

This is just a quick post, maybe to counter balance the time it takes to make these blue ruffle ombre macarons.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

To make your own, mix up a batch of macaron mixture (CLICK HERE for Recipe) and after mixing in the almond meal/sugar/egg white divide into half. Color one half light blue and the other half dark blue and then mix until the correct consistency has been achieved, then continue to follow the recipe.

Make up a batch of filling and mix in food colour until a shade which is inbetween your 2 different blues is achieved, I used buttercream however you could use white chocolate ganache which is always a favorite for taste.

Match up a light and dark blue macaron half.and pipe filling into the center. If you are using buttercream you can pipe using a star tip for the ruffle look center.