Mocha Cadbury Egg Cheesecake

Posted in Sunday Supper Series by

We are having some visitors this weekend  – Luke’s buddy from Florida and a couple of my friends from San Francisco. I decided I wanted to bake something yummy to have in the house for a post-skiing treat that also would help us get into the Easter spirit.

My concept? Mocha Caramel Cadbury Egg Cheesecake.

Easter Candy Cheesecake

This dessert is a perfect mix of my favorite Easter candy – Cadbury Eggs – and the flavor combination of coffee, chocolate and caramel.

Crust Ingredients:
18 chocolate creme cookies
5 tbsp of butter melted
2 tsp of instant coffee dissolved in 2 tsp of boiling water

Filling Ingredients:
Four 8 oz packages of cream cheese
Four large eggs
1/4 – 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tbsp of corn starch
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 tbsp of boiling water
8 oz melted dark or semi-sweet chocolate

Topping Ingredients:
10 Caramel Cadbury Eggs
Hard shell chocolate sauce

Directions:
Set out the eggs, cream cheese and sour cream until they are room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 inch springform pan.
Place the cookies in a sealed plastic bag and smash them until they are small crumbs. Then combine the crumbs with the melted butter and dissolved instant coffee and mix well. Using your fingers, press the crumb mixture into the bottom of a greased springform pan.

Chocolate Cookie Crust

Bake the crust for 10 minutes until it is set.

For the filling, beat the cream cheese, sugar and corn starch together until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, dissolved instant coffee and the sour cream until combined.
Mocha Cheeseckae
Beat in the eggs one at a time making sure each one is mixed in through before adding the next. Then mix in the melted chocolate.
Mocha Cheesecake filling Mocha Cheesecake

Pour the batter on top of the finished crust and smooth out so it’s evenly distributed. Now it’s time for the fun part- the Cadbury Egg Topping!

Unwrap nine (save one for later) caramel Cadbury Eggs and place on a cutting board. Using a steak knife, cut each egg into smaller pieces and place in a bowl.

Cadbury Egg Cake
By hand, place the smaller pieces onto the top of your uncooked cheesecake until the top is covered with gooey caramel and crunchy chocolate (you can lick your fingers too).

Cadbury Egg Dessert
Place a cookie sheet in your oven and put the cheesecake on top of it. Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Then, without opening your oven door, turn the temperature down to 200 degrees and bake for two hours.

After two hours, turn the oven off, remove the cheesecake and run a knife around the edge to release it from the pan. This will help prevent your cheesecake from cracking as it cools. Return it to the oven to gradually cool for another two hours. Then place it in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, decorate your cheesecake by cutting one Cadbury egg  in half using a knife and placing it on top of your cake.

Cadbury Egg Recipe

Then drizzle the hard chocolate shell topping all over to recreate the crunchiness of the Cadbury shell.

Easter Cheesecake Easter Cheesecake

This Cheesecake is sooooo decadent and delicious. The Mocha flavors are just strong enough in the filling to break through during every bite. The Cadbury Egg topping is a real winner too. It gets crunchy and caramelized as it bakes adding amazing texture to each bite.

I would highly recommend you make this recipe this weekend. It will most definitely be a hit at a brunch, lunch supper or even midnight snack.

Have a joyous Easter weekend!

One Year As “Mrs. Batman”

Posted in Liz's Life, Married Life, Wedding Planning by

Well, one year of wedding bliss is behind us. This past Sunday was one year to the day from when we said “I Do” in downtown Chicago. And what a whirlwind year it’s been!

St. Vincent DePaul Chicago Wedding

Before I got married people told me that the first year was the hardest, so I braced myself for an adjustment period and maybe a few arguments. Looking back on this year though, I must say this year has been nothing but happiness!

In fact, it dawned on me when a friend was telling me about her relationship woes, that I have not cried once this entire year. And I am a pretty emotional person who used to have a good cry about once every 1-2 months. Realizing that I have not shed a single tear (and it wasn’t an “easy” 12 months with our move and starting a new job)  just shows me how truly happy Luke makes me.

The same friend who was crying to me about her guy asked me for my one year of marital “wisdom.” I thought this was funny. What could I possibly know of value after just one year? But I thought about it and decided that my advice would be this:

Marry the right person.

Vauge, I know. So how do you know when it’s the right person? Well in my opinion, it’s about three things:

1. Sharing similar values and interests and dreams.

2. Finding someone who compliments your strengths and weaknesses and personality.

3. Choosing someone who you genuinely love to be around…. a lot. Someone you can have interesting conversations with, who makes you laugh, who is kind, considerate and who you don’t argue with often.

Oh, and it also helps if you think they’re super hot. :)

Now thinking back on our wedding, there’s one part that I smile most when I remember that day….our wedding swing dance! Here it is again for your viewing pleasure- don’t miss Luke’s big moment around 1.18.

Happy anniversary Luke! I am the luckiest girl in the world to have spent even one year as your wife. Love you to pieces.

Honey, I’m Home!

Posted in Liz's Life by

Have you ever been part of a couple and find yourself doing quirky things that only the two of you understand? Things like pet names. Or ongoing jokes no one but you gets?

Luke and I have a lot of little things that from an outsider’s perspective would probably be viewed as strange, but to us is totally normal. Most of the time it’s me acting weird and Luke laughing at me- but that is to be expected.

One of these little routines happens every day when we get home from work. It started when I asked Luke if we could get a dog and he immediately shot the idea down. While making my case about why dogs are awesome, I think one of my arguments was that they are soooo excited to greet you when you get home, which is fun.

Luke didn’t think this was a very convincing reason to buy an animal, so I decided to show him just how nice it can be to have someone be SUPER excited to see you when you walk in the door.

The next day Luke got home from work and I ran to the top of the landing, started jumping up and down and yelled:

“MY BABY IS HOOOOOOOOME!!! HE’S HERE!!! YAY!!”

Then I stood there with a huge excited look on my face, bouncing up and down with my arms outstretched. Luke immediately cracked up and gave me a hug. I was so amused by his reaction that it became a nightly routine.

Of course it’s evolved as most things between couples do. Here’s a typical night…

Luke: *door opens*

Me: “MY BABY IS HOOOOOOME! HE’S HERE!! OH BOY OH BOY!”

*yelled from couch. Too lazy to get up anymore*

Luke: I’m NOT a baby!

Me: YES. YOU. ARE. and you’re HOOOOOME!

Luke: *walks over and kisses my forehead*

lol. Or if he’s on the road like this week, it goes like this:

*ring, ring*

Luke: Hello?

Me: My baby is NOT HOOOOOOME! He’s not HERE!”

Luke: Once again- not a baby.

Yeah…we’re pretty weird over here in the Batman house. :) I don’t know why I love this ritual of ours so much. It just makes me smile and also realize how happy I really am each night when he comes home.

What funny/weird/unique things do you do with your significant other?

 

Only I Would Get Hurt at Yoga / Handmade Heating Packs

Posted in Gift Ideas, Liz's Life by

Soooo, yeah. Remember last week when I blogged that I took my first yoga class and loved it!? Well, that love has quickly turned into hate. I hurt my back during my second class!

I know, I know….who gets injured doing yoga???

I took a class last Tuesday that involved a lot of twisting and stretching of my back. Appartenly the athlete in me didn’t realize that yoga is about bringing balance to your body and NOT pushing each stretch to the absolute limit until you’re hurt.

The odd thing was that during and after the class I felt fine. The next morning I felt fine. Then around 11 am things started to go downhill quickly.

My whole back tightened all the way up my neck, so I could hardly look left or right. The next morning was even worse- I could hardly get out of bed and almost started crying while trying to wash my hair.

Six days, several ice packs, heating pads, husband massages and IB Profuen tablets later, and I’m finally starting to feel somewhat normal again. It probably didn’t help that I skied three days in a row during our trip to Breckenridge, but there was NO  WAY I was sitting out due to a yoga injury!

Luckily, right before this little mishap, I had purchased a homemade heating pad off etsy.

Filled with rice and flax, this wrap provided 45 minutes of soothing heat to my stiff neck and shoulders after just 45 seconds in the microwave. Plus it traveled really well.

These heating pads have become my go-to gift for friends/family who are feeling stressed out. They’re in expensive and very useful. My best friend (and big cat lover) Julia just got this Kitty Heating Pad in the mail from me after she went through a crazy time in her residency.

I laugh every time I think about her wearing a giant cat around her neck. lol!

Anyway, I’m glad I had one of these on hand during my little injury or poor Luke would have likely heard “my back hurts!” even more than he did this week. ;)

I hope you all had a more pain-free weekend.