Cookies and Cheesecake, how could this be? My little girl just turned 3!

I did it. I made the mistake of blinking, and now I've got a three year old. And I've got a house full of balloons and sugar cookies to prove it. Not to mention, a little whip of a girl dishing out some serious sass.

I decided that this year, I would make my child's birthday cake instead of picking up the usual cupcake cake from Safeway. For me to make a cake for a bunch of people, you know it has got to be quick and simple. You may recognize these mini cheesecakes I posted about last week. I came across the recipe at Real Mom Kitchen and made the chocolate swirl variation. They turned out great!

I dressed them up with this cute idea from the Lovely Paper Blog. I scrapbook (or at least I did, before I took up parenting and blogging), so I have a ton of scrap paper lying around. This put all that scrap to perfect pretty use!

                                                                  

    

I just love simple prettifying ideas like these. You can reuse them too. 

Other menu items (which you'll soon be seeing) included sugar cookies, refried bean dip, and cranberry almond punch (the rest I picked up at my trusty local Safeway). 

Mini Cheesecakes

 Ease: 3.5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 4/5

Look how precious THESE are:

I came across this fun twist on cheesecake at Real Mom Kitchen. They are just the right serving amount. They would be perfect for a kid's birthday party. I made them for my mother-in-law's birthday, and they were a hit.

What you'll need:

• 2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese (I used light)
• 3/4 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• vanilla wafers (I broke up graham crackers I had left over from making s'mores) and/or oreo cookies
• 18-20 cupcake liners
• pie filling, fresh fruit, or chocolate chips (I used whole blueberries,  whole raspberries, and chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream the cheese and sugar together. Add eggs and lemon juice. Beat until smooth.

Line cupcake pan with liners. Scrape the filling off the oreos. Place oreos and/or wafers flat side down in each liner. 

Fill liners 3/4 full with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 6 minutes. At this point I added the fruit or chocolate to the cheesecakes (4-5 blueberries or 2-3 raspberries or 4-5 chocolate chips. If adding chocolate chips, swirl them around in the batter with a toothpick). Continue baking for 9-14 minutes or until golden brown. 

Allow cheese cakes to cool and store in the fridge. Before serving, I topped them with 3 blueberries, 1 raspberry or 4 chocolate chips, depending on what I had added to the batter (my daughter had fun topping them). You could also top these with pie filling before serving (can also be frozen prior to topping. To serve, thaw and top with fruit, chocolate chips or pie-filling).  Made 20. So good! Real Mom Kitchen also provides a Turtle Variation that sounds awesome.

Lastly, a special hello to fellow Friday Followers!