In the Jewish religion there is a holiday called Shavuot. One of the customs or traditions associated with this holiday is eating dairy foods such as cheesecake. I'd like to share a few very simple cheesecake recipes with you.
This first recipe is a basic cheesecake:
Ingredients 16 ounces of cream cheese, softened 8 ounces of sour cream 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 8 ounces of Cool Whip 1 graham cracker crust (ready made)
Mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. After it's mixed well, add in the Cool Whip. Pour into pie crusts and chill. If you like fruit on top, you can add cherry pie filling for a wonderful flavor.
We happen to love pumpkin in my house. We always look forward to winter as we know pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread will soon be in our kitchen. This is a simple pumpkin cheesecake recipe using canned pumpkin:
Ingredients 1 graham cracker crust (ready made) 1 egg yolk (to brush the pie crust) 16 ounces of cream cheese, softened 2 eggs 3 /4 cup sugar 1 can of pumpkin 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ginger
Brush the pie crust with the egg yolk. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and eggs. Your filling should be smooth and without lumps. We use an electric mixer to do this. Add in the pumpkin, cinnamon and ginger. Mix well. Pour pumpkin mixture into the pie crust and bake about 45 minutes. Middle should be set. Allow to cool and then refrigerate for several hours. Cut and serve.
We also love lemon. This is one of the simplest lemon cheesecake recipes I've ever seen:
Ingredients 1 graham cracker crust (ready made) 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 1 package instant lemon pudding 2 cups milk
Mix the cream cheese with 1/2 cup of the milk. Your mixture should be creamy. Add in the remaining milk and the pudding. Mix about one minute with an electric mixer. Pour into crust and refrigerate several hours.
And finally, what would Shavuot be without chocolate cheesecake?
Ingredients 1 graham cracker crust (ready made) 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 1 package instant chocolate pudding 1 1/2 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Chocolate chips
In a blender, mix together the cream cheese, pudding, milk and vanilla. Pour filling into pie crust. Generously sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the pie. Chill several hours and serve.
Shavuot truly is known as the "cheesecake holiday." I hope you enjoy these easy to make recipes.
Audreys mom always entertained when she was growing up. Audrey learned to prepare for large groups and has often entertained 15-30 people in her home at a time. You can find more great recipes at http://www.recipe-barn.com.
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It's your child's birthday and you want to surprise him or her with that special treat - a really great tasting chocolate cake that is sure to be a hit with their friends. Try either of these 2 chocolate cake recipes for your kids' birthday.
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar (1 white, 1 dark brown) 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) 2 eggs 1/2 cup Hershey Cocoa 1 TBSP vanilla Pinch of salt 1 TBSP baking soda 1 cup buttermilk (or powdered buttermilk-follow directions on label to equal 1 cup buttermilk) 2 cups sifted flour (measure flour first prior to sifting it) 1/2 cup boiling water
Making the Chocolate Cake: Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, salt, and cocoa. Mix baking soda in buttermilk until it starts to fizz. Pour buttermilk into batter. Stop mixer and add flour.
Then mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add boiling water and mix again.
Pour batter into long cake pan 13 by 9 by 2. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Test if it's done using a toothpick. If toothpick comes out clean, it's done. If it doesn't come out clean, leave in a few more minutes and retest.
Chocolate Cake Icing Ingredients: 1/2 box Powdered Sugar (1 lb. size) 1 stick butter 2 level TBSP Hershey's Cocoa 2 tsp vanilla 1.5 TBSP milk
How to Make the Icing: Place all ingredients into a mixer and beat. The longer you beat it, the creamier it gets. Cool cake first before frosting. For plain vanilla icing, use same recipe but omit cocoa.
Ingredients: 50g/2oz plain flour 60g/21/2oz ground almonds 225g/8oz good quality dark chocolate (at least 70 per cent cocoa solids), broken into pieces 225g/8oz butter 6 free-range eggs, separated 50g/2oz soft brown sugar Grated orange zest (optional) 175g/6oz caster sugar icing sugar, for dusting
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
2. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in loose-bottomed or clip-sided cake tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Sift the flour and almonds into a large bowl.
4. Place the chocolate pieces and butter into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the base of the bowl. Heat while stirring from time to time, until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and allow cooling slightly.
5. Separate the eggs into two large bowls. Add the brown sugar to the bowl with the egg yolks and whisk together for a few minutes until frothy. Add the flour mixture, melted chocolate and grated orange zest, if using zest. Fold lightly to mix, using a large metal spoon.
6. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Gradually add the caster sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed.
7. Gently fold the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.
8. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until crisp on top and squidgy inside. Test the cake with a cocktail stick or skewer - it should come out a bit sticky, but not wet. Allow to cool on a wire rack - the cake will sink but that's ok. Carefully peel the paper off when the cake's cold<
9. To serve, dust the cake with icing sugar and cut into slices.
About the Author: Chris is a food fanatic! You can check out his very popular Appetizer Recipes website where he shares some of his Best Appetizer Recipes.
"Are you sure you don't want me to pick up a cake at the ice cream store?" I ask my twenty-five-year-old son on the phone. He whines like a three year old. "You try to talk me out of it every year, Mom. I want you to make me an ice cream cake for my birthday. I want a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. I've told all the guys in the band how great it is. C'mon Mom!"
He's told all his friends. I thought he was over having birthday parties with his friends when he was ten, but apparently not.
In this day and age, it just seems wrong to make a homemade ice cream cake. There are beautifully decorated cakes in the freezer section of the grocery store, not to mention in the local ice cream parlor. I realize that making his ice cream birthday cake is more about reliving his childhood (I've made him ice cream cakes since he was two years old), and I recall baking and freezing a volcano ice cream cake that his friends talked about for years. He was so proud of that cake. (Not of his mom; of the cake.)
"How many friends are coming, Jake?" I ask him, knowing full well that he is going to tell me something like I don't know, Mom. Can you make enough for twenty?
It was easy to make a cake for twenty little freckled faced boys with twenty pairs of dirt-riddled sneakers in the house when he was a kid. It was no problem dealing with the twenty little hands that hide twenty little boogers under the coffee table top instead of using a Kleenex. Twenty little gift bags full of plastic spiders and Jolly Ranchers. And twenty gifts that made Jake so excited that he had to run to the bathroom every fifteen minutes. Ahhh, those were the days.
A cake for twenty nowadays means two cakes in the freezer. This entails my husband taking out all the Lean Cuisines, frozen oat bread, pork chops, and something grey and hairy, and trying to stuff them into the extra fridge in the out building. (You know the extra fridge… It's called the Extra Fridge because it costs an extra thirty bucks a month on the electric bill so he can store two six-packs of grocery store brand diet soda, an empty bottle of mustard, and two half-bottles of ketchup).
We take everything out of the freezer to fit the humungous birthday cakes for Jake. His birthday party is in the evening, so this requires appetizers as well. I pick up ten pounds of Buffalo wings for the band, and another five for the regular folk. My husband goes to Costco and purveys massive amounts of chips and soda. He also comes home with a five CD audio set of John Denver. "It's for Jake." I see through his bald faced lie. "Jake doesn't like John Denver." He smiles and takes the shrink wrap off the CD's. "He doesn't? Well I guess I'll have to listen to them, then. I just hate waste." (Guess he forgot about the Extra Fridge.)
So the cake is ready, the appetizers are in place, the soda is chilling, and there are piles and piles of chips and salsa on the table. The family begins to arrive and mill around while John Denver plays in the background.
Then we hear the tell-tale backfire. We look out the window and watch as the primer-gray serial killer van pulls up. With a little banging and coaxing, the van's side door opens and out tumbles Jake. (The driver door hasn't worked since the Great Wal*Mart Parking Lot Incident of '06.) Then the real show as the van begins to mime the capacity of a clown car; band member after band member emerges with some kind of instrument in hand. The van just doesn't look big enough to hold them all. Yes, Jake is right. There are twenty of them, and they are all heading toward the door. (Except the one who stops by my maple tree and begins to "water" it. He must be the drummer.)
Twenty pairs of dirty Converse sneakers, twenty spiked up, multi-colored hair-dos (or hair-don'ts… depending on how you look at it, I guess…), and twenty outlandish outfits that I think their sisters should be wearing. I have to blink because at that moment I see Jake and his friends as ten-year-olds again. It just happens that these ten year olds eat gobs more and are a lot louder.
"Hey Mrs. M," shouts Jake's lifelong friend, Sam. "Did you make one of your awesome ice cream cakes?"
"No, Sam, I made two."
"Right on," he casually replies as he beelines past me for the ranch dip and the Fritos.
By night's end, the house has transformed into a waste site filled with dip-smeared paper plates, empty chip bags, and enough aluminum soda cans to build a Toyota. There are also smashed chips in the carpet, and droopy Mohawks on these future captains of industry. I also find it amusing to see the boys listening to John Denver with Jake's Dad. Jake actually looks interested in what my husband is saying. I think they actually like John Denver.
The band isn't so bad; they sing and play a punk-reggae-fusion version of Happy Birthday for Jake. And as the party wound down, Jake came over to me and gave me a big hug. "Thanks Mom for making my cake. And thanks for letting the band come, too. You're a great Mom."
It was all worth it until next year.
Ice Cream Cake Recipe
Ingredients 2 boxes of cake mix (any flavor)
2 to 3 containers of Cool Whip
1 gallon of ice cream in a rectangle box (any flavor)
2 to 3 cans of frosting (any flavor)
Make the cakes as directed on the box, use two 9 x 12 pans to bake the cakes. Let the cakes cool. Put one of the cakes on a covered with foil cookie sheet. Open up the ice cream box completely so that you have a brick of ice cream and slice the brick into 6 even slices. On the top of the first cake, lay each ice cream slice on top of the cake, side by side so that it covers the whole top of the cake and pinch each slice into the next so you have a solid layer of ice cream.
Next, take a half of a can of frosting and spread it over the ice cream evenly. Try to do the frosting quickly because the ice cream will begin to melt. Next, use one of your Cool Whips and spread half the container on top of the frosting and spread evenly. Now take your second cake, and lay it over the top of the ice cream/frosting/Cool Whip layer. Cover in saran wrap and stick it in the freezer for an hour.
After freezing for an hour take the cake out and completely frost the whole cake. After frosting the cake, put a whole nice thick layer of Cool Whip over the frosting as if the Cool Whip is the frosting. Then put back in the freezer for eight hours.
When you serve, pull cake out of freezer about 15 minutes before slicing.
This cake will serve 12-24 people depending on how you slice the pieces, or how big the band is!
About the Author: Beth McCain is an author and writer of many genres. Beth, and her husband, Lee are instructors and lecturers in applying the Law of Attraction to everyday life. If you would like to contact Beth, please visit: http://www.bethandleemccain.com
Ingredients 1 1/2 cups brown or white sugar 1/2 teaspoon cloves, allspice or mace 2 cups hot water 1/2 pkg raisins 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 tablespoons shortening (butter or Crisco)
Combine the above ingredients and boil for 5 minutes. Let mixture cool, then add:
3 cups sifted flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 350°F. Turn batter out into a 9" tube or Bundt pan or an 8" square cake pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour. Allow to cool before frosting with white, lemon or vanilla frosting or use White Frosting
More recipes for old fashion cake from Grandma's recipe box. This Prune Cake Recipe starts with a yellow cake mix and uses lemon filling.
Old Fashioned Prune Cake
1 box yellow cake mix 3 eggs 1 / 2 cup cooking oil 1 / 2 cup water 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 / 4 teaspoon nutmeg 1 cup cut-up pitted, uncooked Prunes 1 cup chopped nuts Your favorite lemon filling Whipped cream
Cover prunes with boiling water and let sit for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a jellyroll pan; set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the eggs, oil, and water; mix thoroughly. Drain the prunes and add to the mixture. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle the nuts over the batter.
Bake about 35 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, at 350 degrees. Cool cake completely then cut in half crosswise. Place one piece on a serving plate.
Cover the top with your favorite lemon filling. Pipe whipped cream around the top edge of the cake with a smaller circle of whipped cream in the center. Garnish with some nut halves, if desired. Also pipe whipped cream around the bottom edge of the cake, if desired.
Have fun!
About the Author
Grandma Linda is a collector of vintage recipes. She enjoys sharing these old-time recipes on her blog at http://grandmasvintagerecipes.blogspot.com
