Alicia Cermak

I am proud to announce that I have completed Wilton Course 1, and that I will be starting Wilton Course 2 next Thursday! My classmate dropped out, so it was just me and Fran, but that’s cool. I’m not going to complain about one-on-one training.

Here’s my final project:

Proof of my successful completion, as evidenced by my Certificate of Merit:

Fran did come prepared with two certificates of ‘Participation’, so clearly this means I did ok.

For the past few years, every time I’d go to Michael’s I’d look at the class schedule and think about taking a Wilton cake decorating class, but would decide against it due to whatever excuse was convenient. Well, this weekend I ran out of excuses and finally took the plunge.

Yesterday was the first day of class. December is a quiet month for classes, so it’s just me, a 10th grader, and our instructor Fran. The small group made me really nervous, but Fran is really really nice, so that didn’t last long!

Our first session consisted of learning about different types of icing, how to frost a cake, our toolkit, how to use the #16 star tip, and a few Christmas decorating ideas:

I’m excited for next week!

I am kind of embarrassed to admit this, but today I made my FIRST cheesecake EVER (… I know, right?)

This morning I was cleaning out Ryan’s freezer, and I realized that we had frozen 3 packages of cream cheese that we bought months (years?) ago with the intention of making guacamole. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of things that freeze well, cream cheese isn’t on my list…

Aaaanyway, by the time the cream cheese thawed, I was inspired. I did a quick search on RecipeZaar, found Yooper’s Cappuccino Cheesecake recipe, and fell in love.

* 8 whole graham crackers, crushed
* 5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1/2 cup whipping cream
* 4 teaspoons instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
* 4 large eggs
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
* chocolate, shaved into curls (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Mix crackers, butter and 1/4 cup sugar in medium bowl; press onto bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with 2 3/4-inch high sides.
3. Bake crust 10 minutes.
4. Cool.
5. Maintain oven temperature.
6. Combine cream, espresso powder or coffee and vanilla in small bowl; set aside.
7. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese in large bowl until smooth.
8. Gradually beat in remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar, then eggs 1 at a time.
9. Beat in flour.
10. Stir espresso mixture until power dissolves, beat into cream cheese mixture.
11. Stir in chocolate chips.
12. Pour batter over crust.
13. Bake cake until edges are puffed and beginning to crack and center is just set, about 1 hour 5 minutes.
14. Cool on rack for 30 minutes; chill, uncovered for 6 hours.
15. Cut around cake to loosen.
16. Release pan sides.
17. Top with chocolate curls, if desired.

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As those who know me might expect, I used about a cup and a half of chocolate chips, and slightly more espresso powder to make this less cappuccino-ey and more mocha-ey. I also ended up skipping the homemade graham cracker crust due to time constraints, and instead purchased one standard graham cracker crust, one oreo crust, and a package of six mini crusts.

The mini cheesecakes were a pretty big hit:

Well, closing isn’t happening on Friday. The loan program I’m using has a bunch of requirements my lender didn’t tell me about until this week, so closing is going to be delayed awhile while we sort all of that out.

However! Not closing on time doesn’t mean we’re not invited to the neighborhood barbecue! Tomorrow Ryan and I are headed over to the new ‘hood to meet some of our soon to be neighbors. I’m really excited to see what everyone is like. I think it’ll be a good time.
It is customary to bring something along to these sorts of events, so of course, I did what any budding domestic goddess in training would do …

I made ridiculous cupcakes.

♥ Leesha