Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake

My favorite food blog is The Smitten Kitchen. I love her sense of humor, beautiful pictures, and yummy recipes. I've made a few of her recipes and today I'll share my most recent...Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake.

As soon as I read the post on her Blog I knew I had to make it asap. Since there are only two of us I had to wait until the right time (I didn't want to have leftover cheesecake tempting me for a week). Some of my family came in town for Labor Day weekend and I finally had my chance.

My pictures aren't as beautiful as Deb's (a.ka. Smitten Kitchen), but I'll share none the less.


I followed Deb's recipe and it was so yummy (including the chocolate Teddy Grahams for the crust). I got lots of positive feedback from my family too.

Next time I make this cheesecake I'll use a different brownie recipe. I prefer the one in The Best Recipe (I'll share it with you the next time I make Brownies).

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy...

For my niece, Megan's, 3rd Birthday I made her the below Fish Cake. I saw the idea on a Food Network show (but that was 8 years ago and I don't remember which one so I can't really give credit where credit's due). I also made this cake a second time for Brendan's 4th Birthday, but I can't find a picture of it.


Directions: Bake a cake in a 9x13 pan. Carve a large oval out of the center and use the remaining corner pieces to make the fins/tail. Here is a rough diagram (click to enlarge):
Use Necco wafers for the scales. I used a peppermint patty for the eye on this cake, but on Brendan's cake I used round jelly candies and cut a small hole in a white one and put a small piece of a green one in the hole. Use a star tip with any color frostings to decorate the face, fins, and tails. Finally, the mouth is a swedish fish.

A few recipes...

Here are a couple of my standard recipes...

I admit that I almost always use a box cake mix. A few times I've made cakes from scratch, but the box mixes work just fine for me (I'm not even brand loyal). I like to take the shortcut of the box mix since I spend at least a couple hours doing the decorations.

Side Note: My husband, Patrick, has an aunt who decorated cakes while he was growing up. He remembers her crying almost every time because something didn't work out. When I first started making cakes Patrick made me promise I wouldn't cry. And if I did cry I wasn't allowed to decorate cakes any more. I've upheld my promise and haven't cried yet :)

Cookies and Cream Cake
1 white box cake mix
1 cup chopped Oreos (I like to have pieces of Oreos in the cake so I don't crush them all the way to crumbs)

Make the cake mix according to the box directions. Fold in the Oreos to the batter before pouring into cake pans and bake as directed.

***I think this cake has the perfect balance of chocolate.

Buttercream Icing

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with stand mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

YIELD: Makes about 3 cups.

***Don't be afraid to really beat the icing in the stand mixer. You want the sugar to dissolve in the fat and it to be light and fluffy. This recipe is easy to increase by half or double depending on how much decorations your doing for the cake.

My First Post...My First Cake

It all started a little over nine years ago. I took a cooking class one semester at college and one of the days was cake decorating. I don't have a picture of the cake I made in class, but I remember it had Oreos on top. A few months later was my nephew's first birthday and I offered to make his cake.

My sister-in-law and I went to the local baking store and looked through the Wilton yearbook and found this cake. I bought the necessary supplies and Sesame Street toppers and went to town.

I remember my brother coming home and looking at the cake. He said "I think you spelled his name wrong." I was adamant that I spelled it correctly. Ever heard the saying you can't see the forest through the trees? That was me...because in fact I had spelled his name wrong (it's Brendan not Brednan). I carefully scraped off the two flip-flopped letters and re-iced them on in the correct order.