Layered Turtle Cheesecake

LAYERED TURTLE CHEESECAKE

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, chopped

FILLING:

• 4 packages (8 ounces each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese (softened or cubed), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans

GANACHE:

• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped pecans
• Optional garnish: pecan halves and additional caramel ice cream topping

DIRECTIONS:

• Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan.
• In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and pecans; cut in butter until crumbly. Press onto the bottom of prepared pan. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 325° for 12-15 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack.
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugars until smooth. Beat in 1/4 cup flour, cream and vanilla. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Remove 1 cup batter to a small bowl; stir in melted chocolate until blended. Spread over crust.
• Combine caramel topping and remaining flour; stir in pecans. Drop by tablespoonfuls over chocolate batter. Top with remaining batter. Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan.
• Bake at 325° for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.
• Place chips in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chips; whisk until smooth. Cool slightly, stirring occasionally.
• Spread over cheesecake. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Refrigerate until set. Remove sides of pan. Garnish with pecan halves and additional caramel topping if desired. 

When I say that this was a hit, I am totally not kidding. In fact, Stephen took the leftovers to work because we did not need to eat them at home gain 10 pounds and the guys gobbled it up. One of the fellas even told Stephen that he thinks I missed my calling. Ha. Why thank you, I will take that compliment!

I will say though, that this cheesecake was not a walk in the park to make. It took lots of time and several days, and my arm may have cramped up a couple times from mixing things. Yes, I have a kitchenaid, but I needed man power for some parts of this delicious desert. Was it worth it? Totally. While this will probably not make my list of easy things to throw together for parties, it will (and has) made my list of things to serve on special occasions.

So, enjoy and let me know if you give it a try! I would love to hear how it turns out!

There once was a wedding watched around the world...

Did you know today was the royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Price William? If not, you must be living under a very large rock or in the dark ages perhaps.

The hype has been being built up for months it seems and I had heard enough of it. I honestly did not think I would be interested in watching said wedding, but boy was I wrong. I am totally and completely captivated by the coverage provided by CNN and MSN. Seriously, I cannot stop looking at the pictures. Oh, and did you see the cake!?!

 Oh my!

During the hours that I have spent reading recaps and browsing pictures I have found my favorite:

via: Today

Please take a look at the little girl on Kate's right. She is covering her ears because of the loud cheering happening below. I just think it is precious and such a sweet photo!

I am also loving the pictures of Kate. Her dress was so beautiful and timely. I never thought I would like a wedding dress with sleeves but hers are so elegant.

I would also like to say that I love all the hats that I have seen while looking at photos. I would love to wear some of them, but I think I might get some odd looks from people here in the US of A...I will have to think about that!

Congratulations Prince William and Kate!

On another wedding related note: I was at the nail salon getting a pedicure last night (heaven!) when I heard women talking about their plans for today. Apparently they had taken the day off work and were having a sleepover and getting up to watch all the coverage of the Royal Wedding. They planned on wearing their wedding dresses and crowns while drinking tea and eating scones. I laughed to myself at the plans of these grown women though now I wish I could have joined them. What about you-did you have any crazy or fun viewing parties?

Weekend Wrap Up & Easter!

Our Easter weekend was pretty low key and relaxing, which was just what we needed after Stephen having his wisdom teeth out on Thursday. He was able to take Thursday and Friday off work, but I only took Thursday off.  Since Thursday was a pretty eventful day, it only makes sense to start this recap there!

Thursday morning we were able to sleep in a little bit before Stephen's surgery. I felt so bad for him because it was obvious how nervous he was. When we made it to the OS (oral surgeon) office, he had the chills and could not get warmed up...I knew it was nerves. I really was not nervous at this point because I was looking forward to getting some reading done. When they called him back I stayed in my chair in the waiting room until they asked me to come back with him. At this point, I might have started getting a little nervous. Umm hello, I wanted to read my book and not be in the room while my husband has teeth cut out. Anyways, after they took all his vitals and had him hooked up they took me back to the waiting room...to wait...for an hour. When they called me back Stephen was laying on a cot in recovery and not looking good...I knew it was going to be a long day! After an hour in recovery when he felt like he could stand we hit the door and headed to CVS to pick up his narcotics...the good stuff! Next stop was for a milkshake and then home.

Thursday after noon was very long and bloody. For your sake, I will not go into details!

Friday I was able to go to work and have a relatively predictable day. Sorry there is nothing to report there!

Saturday the weather here was great. We were able to get out of the house and do some shopping in Fort Wayne. The best part? We were jacketless. Without jackets people!?! Woohoo! We also grabbed lunch a Chic-Fil-A which will always be my favorite fast food place! We had some coupons to use and I got some great purchases! I was excited to get home though because I knew I had baking to do! Our family here in IN was getting together on Easter Sunday for a big dinner and I was bringing the cake. Of course :)

Sunday morning we got up way earlier than I would have liked to attend a pie breakfast at church before the combined morning service. The service was great as was the music that my SIL picked for the day. All the songs were uplifting and so fitting for Easter Sunday. After church it was time for our shin-dig. Can you believe we did not take tons of pictures? I am going to blame it on the fact that Stephen was still not feeling 100% and may have been a little swollen. Also, it was kind of cold in the morning. Anyways, the only pictures I got were of the cake. It looked beautiful and I will admit that I was totally proud:

White Rose Cake

Beautiful and delicious? I'd have to say yes!

We had a great recovery weekend and enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of our Lord with family. The grave is empty, he isn't there. He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! Praise God!





Weekend Wrap Up & a Monday, too! :)

Allow me to explain my lack of blog posting yesterday. I was am sick. I am busy at work. And well, I just did not feel like it. So, now on Tuesday you get one super, duper long and picture heavy post. Ready. Set. Go!

Our weekend started early on Friday. I was able to escape get off work at 3pm Friday afternoon in order to head to my in-law's house and meet the hubs. He had already been there since he got off work much earlier than me. I had been looking forward to the hour drive alone to listen to some country music and wear my new Vera sunglasses. Wouldn't you know that it was raining and gloomy...so no sunglasses for me. I did sneak in some country music though! :) Once I made it, Stephen needed to shower (he could not before, because I had our overnight bag with fresh clothes in it). After getting cleaned up, we were out the door in search of dinner and gifts for the bridal shower on Saturday. We decided to eat at Outback, which is always delicious.  I had seen some commercials on television recently for their pineapple mango salsa...which they no longer carry, so strike out there. Afterwards we stopped for some baking supplies at Hobby Lobby and then went to print the wedding registries. After making our gift purchases we headed home and I was ready to bake, bake, bake...

Around 1am when I finished baking and Stephen and I finally were in bed. Let me tell you , that alarm went off way to early on Saturday...I knew I needed to get up early so I would have time before the shower to get all the decorating and icing done, but all I wanted to do was sleep! After a couple stressful hours all turned out well and beautiful! I was proud!

The rest of the morning was spent preparing for my future sister-in-law's bridal shower and getting the food together. I'll let the pictures tell you about our Saturday:

Ainsley and Emma working hard to make Robin pretty pom-poms!

Finished products!

Melissa working to make the sandwiches for the party and Stephen working to eat one :)

How cute are these? We used cookie cutters to make sea shell, sea horse, and palm tree shaped sandwiches!

Hadley posing for the camera-love her!

Food table...

Hadley providing entertainment, as always :)

Ainsley too :)

Fruit pizza that was SO good!

Cake table...

...again

They looked so pretty :)

White butter cake, topped with homemade vanilla buttercream and Belgian chocolate shells...btw, have you had those? They are so good!

The bride arrived right on time. Of course, anytime she arrived would have been right on time since it is her party! Robin's Mom was able to be there too and of course we took advantage of the photo opportunities:

The beautiful bride Robin who is getting married in Mexico at a destination wedding in June with her Mom and soon to be mother-in-law :)

Mother Daughter shot :)

After playing some fun shower games thanks to my creative SIL, Melissa, eating the yummy food, and Robin opening her gifts it was finally time to cut the cake. I was excited to see the layers inside and also get reactions from people as they tasted it. The cake was beautiful and delicious, though a bit hard to serve!

The kids at church on Palm Sunday waved Palms and it was so precious. Pastor Kelly preached a great message and we really enjoyed it :) After church we all headed to our favorite Mexican place before...going back to the Vera show!!

Yep, that's right! We went back to the Vera show! Emma really wanted to go and we all gave in. Okay, okay- I really wanted to go too, even though I was already feeling a little icky. Regardless, we had a great time. Throughout the show they mark prices down on certain items, so by Sunday most of the stuff is really cheap! I was actually surprised at exactly how cheap. I added it up, and on Sunday I bought 5 things that would retail for $354.00 and I paid $42.00. Holy cow that is a lot of savings! I am considering only going on Sunday next year...we did not have to wait in line or anything!

 

Pretty blue sky in Indiana!

So excited to be driving to the Vera show!!!

Some of our purchases...

Emma and her shopping bags-note her Vera purse :)

Cool kids in the back of the van!

That concluded our Sunday for the most part. Stephen and I did make a few other stops before beading home, but I really was not feeling good. I was home and in bed (after a bubble bath) by around 7pm and I was still tired on Monday!

Speaking of Monday...look what we got in the mail from my parents in Florida:

Our Easter baskets via US Mail :) This made my evening brighter and made me feel better. Gotta love having a Mom who still thinks it is important to give her grown and married children Easter gifts! Inside our "baskets" were: 3 movies, PJ's for me, Polo for The Mr., 3 movies, Heaven is For Real (can't wait to read it), hand sanitizer and a super cute bracelet. Thanks Mom! We loved it!

What do you think we had after dinner on Monday? You guessed it...

CUPCAKES!