Last week for Thanksgiving my oldest daughter, who is 10, REALLY wanted to make a no bake dessert. So, this week bear with me as I share a “proud mama” moment and a recipe for Super Simple Cheesecake.
I’m going to be honest with you guys… I typically am the mom that says “out of the kitchen please!” Mostly it’s because I’m multitasking, getting dinner ready, helping with homework, baking for an event of some kind, you get the picture. I’ve been trying to be very conscious of getting the kids to help me because as many of us moms know… we are only one person. And let’s not forget that it teaches them responsibility and how to do for themselves. It also is an exercise on my letting go of the “control-freak”. LOL
Oddly enough my mom was the EXACT same way with us a lot of times. She usually wasn’t a fan of having more than just her in the kitchen, except for my dad… somehow they didn’t trip over each other. My mom was the executive chef and my dad her sous chef. She did let us explore in the kitchen though and there were those times where she wasn’t “in a hurry” that we got to be her sous chefs. All of my siblings and I can cook tasty food and I distinctly remember being allowed to bake by myself when I was 11. 😉
I’m sure that you could guess that I had my own little taste of karma helping my daughter with this cheesecake. Allow me to paint a picture for you… 10 year old sees one YouTube video on how to make said cheesecake, she gets the idea of “I can totally do that!”, 10 year old asks mom to make the cake by HERSELF, mom has to pull back the reins and say “whoa… you’re forgetting steps. Let me help you do this”, 10 year old (did I mention she’s also the first born?) says “NO MOM! You’re just going to take over!” L… O… L! I used to say that very thing to my mom when I was little.
So here it is… allow me to gush for a bit. She did in fact do everything by herself. I just supervised because she was using a mini food processor for the first time and the blender too. She even used a disposable piping bag to decorate her cheesecake with melted chocolate. I warned her that melted chocolate is pretty crazy… that it’s usually easier to do more free form designs. I was very surprised that she wrote the message “We are thankful for each other”. Of course she noted the difficulty that writing with melted chocolate presents, hence a little misspelling. 🙂 Needless to say everyone LOVED her cheesecake! Her uncle barely got the last piece.
So grab your mini chef and have some fun letting go of your inner perfectionist for one evening and enjoy a nice slice of Super Simple Cheesecake.
xox – Roxana
PS Please pardon our less than stellar pics. My baby wants to make this again so we promise to update you all with prettier pictures. I just was too eager to share her first ever dessert that she made by herself. 😉 The first pic is the same recipe where I made little parfait cups using graham crackers instead of Oreos and cherry filling for my sister’s baby shower a couple years ago.
*UPDATE: Finally we have prettier pictures to share. We made this recipe again for Easter, but as a trifle. We just crushed 10 – 12 cinnamon graham crackers for each layer (20 – 24 total) and used fresh cut strawberries. The graham crackers did soften some, if you prefer them to be more crunchy then definitely crush them and mix them with melted butter before layering them in the trifle.
- 1½ c Oreos, crushed
- ⅓ c butter, melted
- 2 - 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 2 c heavy whipping cream
- ⅓ c sugar
- ¼ c chocolate chips, melted for drizzling
- 1 c strawberries (fresh or frozen, thawed)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 - 4 Tbsp sugar (to taste)
- Prepare a 9" springform pan by lining the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, crush the Oreos until they are fine. Add the melted butter and pulse until mixed.
- Press an even layer of crushed Oreos into the bottom of the prepared pan and put in the refrigerator while you prepare the cheesecake filling.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and lemon juice until well blended.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the vanilla and heavy cream and beat well, gradually increasing the speed to medium high.
- Scrape down the sides again, add the sugar and beat until the mixture becomes stiff.
- Pour filling over the chilled crust and place in the refrigerator to firm up. You can also put it in the freezer for a couple hours then transfer to the fridge to keep it firm.
- Place the strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar in a blender and puree. Add sugar if you desire a less tart puree.
- In a small microwave safe bowl, heat the chocolate chips for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir, if necessary heat for an additional 10 seconds to melt the chips completely. Do not over heat!
- Remove the sides of the pan and the parchment paper. Place the melted chocolate into a disposable piping bag and snip the end (a small snip, you can always snip more to increase the flow). Drizzle the chocolate over the cold cheesecake.
- You can drizzle the strawberry puree over the the cheesecake or serve it on the side.
- Keep the cheesecake and the puree in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
So, so awesome! Marley loves to be in the kitchen, but like your mini-me, she can’t stand for me to help! I do have a tendency to take over, though, so I’ll give her that. We’ve already discussed the fact that she’ll take over dinner duty at least one night each week in the new year. She’ll be 14 in February so momma gets a break! WOOT! 🙂
Tell your sweet girl she did an awesome job! I’m sure it tasted fabulous!
Thanks hon!! Oooo I have something to look forward to… assigning my oldest to dinner duty once a week. 😉