Getting Over My Fear of Cheesecakes: Bakeover II

I hear you out there. You're surprised that I'm scared of making a cheesecake. That's ok, you can be surprised. Or you can laugh at me. I'm cool with that. But, I am.

Or I was.

Maybe it was the waterbath, or the fact that cheesecake can crack and I hate imperfections. I don't know what it was. I love eating cheesecake, so it wasn't the taste that's kept me from baking one for so long.

When I told Danger Kitten about my fear of cheesecakes and admitted my desire to bake the Raspberry Cheesecake cupcakes (from Martha's Cupcake book), she told me she'd help me out. See, she also wanted to bake those cupcakes. Unlike myself, however, she had baked a cheesecake before.

Two weeks ago Danger Kitten, her husband, our friend L, and her husband all came over. The boys (my husband included) were bottling up three kinds of beer (that they brewed a while back- you can read more about that at Brewfus Alewise's blog, he's Danger Kitten's husband) so we ladies decided to have another Bakeover.

Danger Kitten and L walked me through the crust process. Once the crusts were ready, we doled out the cheesecake and raspberry concoction. It was a nice little assembly line. Look at those beauties up there. Mmmm.

Too bad, as a cheesecake novice, I didn't realize they had to chill in the fridge for FOUR HOURS after baking to set. Whoops. The boys? They were a little disappointed. Thankfully, I had Cake Truffles to soothe their needs for sweets and Danger Kitten had brought Vanilla cupcakes.

These little raspberry cheesecake cupcakes came out just delightful. Totally worth the process. And they helped ease me into cheesecakes. They were somehow less scary because of their size.

I didn't manage to snap any good pictures of them after they were baked and set, sorry about that. But I think you can see from the "pre-baking" photos how delicious they were.

And because this was still during the Olympics, I decorated one in theme.

Bakeover with Danger Kitten

Cheese Crackers
Originally uploaded by Cup O'Cake Designs

Life has been hectic for me this summer, I know I've mentioned that before. I've been very careful to leave time for baking because if I go too long without it, I start to feel like I'll never pick it back up again.

About a week ago, my husband made plans to attend a Beer Festival with Danger Kitten's husband, Brewfus. Danger Kitten & I had zero desire to attend said festival, but I thought a bakeover would be a great idea. I'd been wanting to get together with her for a while now that she's moved back to the state, but hadn't had the opportunity.

While the boys went off to taste who knows how many Belgian Ales, we baked our little hearts out. And it was fantastic.

I made Cheese Crackers, two ways. First I made them as called for in the recipe- with two cups of Cheddar Cheese. However, I love a little spice to my cheese, so for my second batch I used a Chipotle Cheese.

In the future, I think I'll roll the dough much thinner, because I prefer a crispy cracker. These were delicious, but a little soft for my tastes. The Chipotle crackers were addictive, and the Cheddar crackers were quite yummy as well.

Danger Kitten baked Black Bottom Cupcakes and Raspberry Lemon Thumbprints. I didn't have a chance to eat either fresh out of the oven- but they were both delicious. I had a hard time keeping myself from eating too much of the cookie dough. The addition of lemon (juice & zest) made them the perfect summer afternoon treat.

We also had our friend Linda along. She baked some wonderful peanut butter chocolate brownies. Mmm.

I had so much fun doing this, that I'm hoping we can make it a monthly event.

Looking to get out of a baking rut? Looking for an excuse to try out a recipe you keep putting off? Find some friends and host a bakeover. I promise you'll have fun.

You can see more pictures (mostly "in progress" shots) at my flickr.