Andy's sister is getting married next month and to help her celebrate the upcoming nuptials I threw her a shower. No, I didn't attempt to host it at our place... what with the Babies 'R Us explosion that has occurred here recently... but I was super excited to plan out the menu according to her wedding colors: pink and green.
The two main events at the sweet and salty buffet were both new recipes I was eager to try. The first, pink, dish was Southern Living's strawberry swirl cream cheese pound cake. It looked so pretty in last month's magazine! The second dish, green, stems from a personal favorite of mine whenever I eat at The Cheesecake Factory but in miniature proportions - mini key lime cheesecakes! YUM, right?
Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake
The magazine that inspired it all: Southern Living!
While I have a lovely bundt pan, I can only count on one hand (perhaps one finger!) the number of times I have attempted to make pound cake. My Southern Grandmother made many a delicious variety of the dense cake, so it was with her in mind that I ventured forth in my pink-cake-for-the-bridal-shower pursuits.
The Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
- 6 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup strawberry glaze
- 1 (6-inch) wooden skewer
I love any chance I get to use our Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It not only does a fabulous job, but it's super cute and matches my red kitchen! Here, the pound cake batter starts to thicken. Of course I sampled some and boy was it good. I have a theory that you can instantly tell if something is going to be tasty just by sampling the batter. Perhaps that's just my excuse...
You basically mix everything together and pour into a tube pan in thirds, dropping dollops of strawberry glaze over the bottom two thirds and swirling with a wooden skewer, but before you pour make sure the pan is greased and lightly floured.
Now insert my shameless plug for Pillsbury's Baking Spray with Flour. I generously sprayed my bundt pan with this stuff for fear of my cake sticking and falling apart when I tried to remove it from the pan. IT WORKED WONDERS! So before you attempt this recipe, go buy some of this great stuff. I assure you, it works for all your baking needs.
After playing with the skewer and swirling strawberry glaze into the batter to my heart's content, I finally put the cake in the oven and then worried what the Rocky Mountain high altitude of Denver might due to the baking of this beautiful, Southern recipe. So I called Mom. We agreed to keep the baking temperature at 350 degrees for now and just cover with foil so it wouldn't burn with the added baking time. Indeed, it needed 10-15 minutes extra in the oven.
After almost 1.5 hours, it was time to flip the pan and hope the cake came out alright! I was so anxious! Andy kindly told me that in the event that it totally flopped, we could always go to the store and buy a cake for the shower.
Ta-DA!!!
It's beautiful! Whew!
Using fresh strawberries made decorating this beautiful cake a cinch.
And if I do say so myself... it was GOOD!!!
Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes
Now for something green...
I decided to stay with the spring feel and flavor of the party and thought that my favorite kind of cheesecake, key lime, would be perfect. Usually I like to make simple mini cheesecakes topped with cherries for special occasions, so I thought there must be a recipe out there for making a key lime variety. I went with a recipe I found on another blog!
Instead of making my own crusts, though, I wimped out and used Nilla wafers. Perhaps these delicious vanilla cookies used to be smaller and better fit in the bottom of my mini muffin tins, but on this day I had to break around each cookie to squeeze them into place. A bit high maintenance if you ask me. I seem to remember finding miniature Nilla wafers the last time I attempted making mini cheesecakes. Yes, it had been that long since I'd done it!
The Ingredients
- 16 oz cream cheese, at room temp.
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 4 oz key lime juice
- pinch of salt
These wonderful treats turned out to be just as easy as could be. The recipe called for all the ingredients to be added to a blender and mixed that way. I was skeptical, but it turned out to be convenient so you had a spout to pour the filling into the mini muffin tins after blending!
What I didn't realize was just how many mini cheesecakes this recipe would make. I made 60, but there was plenty of filling and Nilla wafers left for more!
Muffin tins of mini key lime cheesecakes filled all counter space in our kitchen!
Now to decorate, I toyed with the idea of using those gummy limes but they were too big. Then I thought I could use green jelly beans instead! To hold up under their weight, I would use a dollop of vanilla icing. Andy and I sampled some before the party and I realized that the jelly beans I'd purchased were green apple, not lime! Not the best flavor combination. So, we decided to stick with the vanilla frosting and zest some fresh limes over top.
Andy did the decorating honors and here's how they turned out! They weren't especially green in appearance, but the garnish added a nice pop of color and boy were they DELICIOUS! We had tons left over afterwards (forgot one of the tins in the back of the fridge!) and they tasted good days later.
All in all, this pink and green food experience was a true success!
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