Blueberry Cheesecake

I don't make a ton of cheesecake, due to the fact that I don't like it. However it's not all about me all the time. I offered to make dessert for a good friend's baby shower, and she asked for cheesecake. Don't get me wrong I make a good cheesecake, I think it's rather easy. As long as you follow the directions. With baking you can't always fly by the seat of your pants and just add a bunch of crazy stuff, like you can in cooking. It's more chemestry. I personaly didn't do well in chemistry, but I do well in baking and that's all my employers care about. I can read and do math. . I made this cheesecake in 1 hour and 45 min. That includes looking through my books for recipes. There were none for blueberry cheesecake, all of them had the blueberries on top. I was planning on doing that as well as making sure that every single bite had a punch of blueberries. Plus I had a bunch of blueberries to use up.
Lights Camera Cheese-Cake!
For the crust: 
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/3 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 cup Butter cold
Combine everything till the butter is pea sized. Press the mix into the bottom of a  8 inch spring form pan, or muffin cups in a muffin tin. If using a spring form pan place foil along the bottom and sides to keep water out while baking.  Bake 350* for 8-10 mins.
For the filling:
2 pounds cream cheese at room temp
1 cup sugar
3 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 eggs - at room temp
 1 cup Blueberries chopped
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat the oven at 325*
Combine blueberries and 1/4 cup sugar.
In the mixer beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add 1 cup sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla beat until blended. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time just enough to blend thoroughly fold in the blueberry sugar mix. Pour into prepared crust. Place on a larger pan with sides. Pour hot water into the pan so there is 1 inch.  Bake until the top of the cake is golden about 1 1/2 hours for the 8 inch pan, about 45 min for muffin cup size. Let cool in the pan, run a knife along the rim to loosen the crust. Let set 4 hours before serving.

Blueberry Topping:
1 1/2 cups Blueberries
1 TBS Honey
1TBS Sugar
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Combine everything and cook over low heat for 5-7 minutes until the berries release some liquid but keep their shape. Set aside until ready to top the cheesecake and serve.

Orange Poppyseed cake

In my house we have a ton of oranges. It's only fitting to make this whole orange poppyseed cake. Yes whole orange. Pretty cool huh? I got the recipe from the Sweet Mellisa baking book. She has so many great recipes. I have added it to my amazon store,  I get a small profit from sales from the store so check it out, along with any adds on my blog.  Ok enough promoting- Let them eat cake!


Whole Orange Poppyseed Cake:
adapted from Sweet Melissa's Baking book
1 whole orange, washed
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

for the glaze:
2 Tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup powdered sugar


Preheat the oven to 350* Lightly butter and flour a large bunt pan- I used 4 mini bunt pans. Cut the orange into medium chunks. In a food processor  or blender, pulse the orange pieces (skin and all!) and 1/2 cup of the sugar until pureed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, so that no large orange skin pieces in sight. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Stir in the orange pulp. whisk in the melted butter to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds to combine. Sprinkle over the orange mixture  gently fold until just combined. Pour the batter into the pans(s). Bake for 30 minutes, rotate and bake another 30 min. It all depends on the size of the pan. The cake is done when a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool 20 min or so then invert the pans. TO make the glaze combine the orange juice, lemon juice, and sugar in a bowl and whisk till smooth it it's too thick add a little more juice, if too thin add more sugar.  Using a spoon drench the warm cake with glaze. Enjoy!

Energy Bars

I came across this recipe when flipping through cookbooks at the library. Wow so great! This energy bar is full of protein and nutrients. The best part is you can add any kind of nuts and dried fruit. I kept it pretty traditional with raisins and almonds this time. Next time I plan to use figs and pecans.

Raisins, Oat, Almonds, Honey, Butter

Energy Bars:
Adapted from Green Market Baking Book
1/4 cup Salted Butter
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup Milk
1 TBS vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups oat flakes
1 cup chopped almonds
2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey

Preheat the oven to 350*

Toasted Oats and Almonds

Spray the sides and bottom of a square baking dish.  Rehydrate the raisins in the milk and vanilla let sit till plump about 15 min.  Melt the butter in a large pan on medium heat, add the oats and almonds toss to toast for about 5 min-  make sure to keep stirring. Add the cinnamon and cook for 1 min longer. Pull off the heat.  Add the eggs and honey to raisin mixture, mix well, then add to the oat raisin mixture. Stir till evenly combined. Spread the mixture into the baking dish, and bake till golden brown and pulling away from the sides about 20 - 30 minutes. Cool before cutting. They will keep for 1 week. I know they won't last that long here!