[Foodie Friday] Birthday Cakes

This year I decided to make a chocolate pumpkin marble cheesecake with a spiced oreo crust for my birthday. I got inspired by The Brown Eyed Baker. Last year I made a chocolate pumpkin layer cake because I wanted a festively colored cake, and mixing chocolate and pumpkin again seemed like a great way to keep that festive spirit alive. You can go to Michelle’s food blog to get the recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake batter — I only cut it in half to accommodate my recipe. I created a recipe for chocolate cheesecake based on recipes by Nigella Lawson, The Joy of Baking, and Smitten Kitchen.

To make the crust:

14 ounces of oreos or chocolate wafers
2 tbsps light brown sugar
6 tbsps melted butter
dash cinnamon
dash cloves

Put the cookies, sugar, and spices into the bowl of a food processor. Turn on the food processor to pulverize the cookies. Pour melted butter through the tube. Stop the food processor once the crumbs pull together. Press them into the bottom of a greased spring form pan. (Don’t make the mistake of lining the pan with foil like I did!) Bake the crust at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 7 minutes.

16 ounces cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
9 oz melted 60% cocoa chocolate chips (or any chocolate you desire)
2 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tbsp vanilla

Whip the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in the sour cream, melted chocolate, and each egg, one at a time. Add the cream and vanilla, and beat until fluffy and smooth. Pour the batters into the pan, altering between each batter after each addition. Swirl the batters with a flat spatula or knife. You can either put the pan into a water bath or simply put a pan of water on the rack below the cheesecake. (My spring form pan was too big to fit into any of my other pans, so I did the latter.) Bake at 350 for 65 to 70 minutes. Let the cheesecake cool for about an hour before storing it in the refrigerator overnight.

In addition to making my own cake, a sweet co-worker baked me a beautiful, delicious red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. She made a perfect frosting as it wasn’t too sweet like most frostings. She also topped it with crushed walnuts.

And because yesterday was my son’s second birthday, we ordered him a cupcake pull-apart cake featuring Diego — his favorite Nick Jr. character. Even though there was a mistake (they gave us white cake instead of chocolate), he really seemed to enjoy the cake toppers.