Funfetti Cake Dip Ball

For our New Year's Eve party I made 3 delicious dessert cheese balls to serve for dessert.  They were all a huge hit.  Here is one of them.  This one was a most popular with the kids which was no big surprise because It tastes like birthday cake.  This is a fun and different dessert idea for any celebration.  You can serve just about anything with it from pretzels, cookies, graham crackers etc.  Just use your imagination!  I found this recipe on Pinterest and you can find the original recipe here at What's Cooking Love?


Ingredients:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups funfetti cake mix,dry

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar 

1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles

Vanilla Wafers, pretzels, graham crackers, or other cookies for dipping

 

Preparation:

 

In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer beat the cream cheese and butter together until combined. Add in the Funfetti cake mix, sugar, and powdered sugar and beat until combined.   Mixture will seem extremely dry and you will think it will never get creamy but I assure you it will.  Just keep beating it together and have patience.

Place the mixture on a large piece of plastic wrap.  Bring up all the corners of the plastic wrap and wrap into a ball.  Refrigerate the ball for about 1 hour or until it is firm enough to keep its shape.  You can also put it in the freezer for quicker results.

Place the rainbow sprinkles on a flat plate and roll the unwrapped cheese ball in the sprinkles.  Make sure to press the sprinkles into the cheese ball until it is fully covered.

 

Place the ball on a serving dish, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.  The cheese ball will be very firm straight out of the refrigerator so let stand for about 10-15 min before serving.  Also you may want to place a few small spreaders on the platter to make it easier to serve. 

 

 

Cookie Dough Dip

My new favorite thing to serve for pretty much any event is a dessert dip!  I have 4 recipes that I will be posting over the next week or so.  These dips are so good and so much fun.  Every time I've served one at a party people just flipped over them.   It's great for a big crowd and very easy to throw together quickly. Original recipe found here at Add a Pinch

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup toffee bits

 

Preparation:

 

In a large bowl with a hand mixer (or a spoon with a lot of muscle) beat together cream cheese and butter.  Add sugars and vanilla and beat to combine well.  Next add chocolate chips and toffee bits and mix until incorporated evenly.  Transfer to a smaller serving bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to set.  Serve with pretzels, graham crackers, cookies or whatever you would like to dip into it.  Honestly EVERYTHING would taste good dipped into this.

 

Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Cheescake

I created my own recipe for a savory cheesecake and served it at a birthday brunch that Ellen and I hosted for ourselves this past weekend. I used fat free cream cheese and fat free sour cream and you just can't tell. It is a smooth, creamy, and flavorful cheesecake that is good on bread, bagels, crackers, veggies or just about anything!

Ingredients:

2 8 oz tubs of fat free cream cheese
3/4 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 cup prepared pesto
10-12 sun dried tomatoes chopped
2 eggs


Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (yes, 425). In a mixer blend all ingredients. Pour into greased spring form pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and open oven door slightly. Let bake for an additional 1 1/2 hours. Refrigerate overnight (don't skip the refrigerating step. It needs to fully chill to be set). Un-mold from spring form pan before serving

Award Winning Blueberry Cheesecake

 This recipe is from my mother. It has won awards. My sister Susan entered it in her Girl Scout bake-off contest and it won first place!! Hey an award is an award. Although it was actually a cherry cheesecake, not blueberry. My son Jack loves blueberry topping so, we switched it up. But you still get a very rich and creamy cheesecake. The recipe is very interesting since you bake it for a short time at a high heat and then let it sit in the turned off oven for an hour an a half to set up Of course you can make your own graham cracker crust and put it in a spring form pan but I didn't want to be bothered with all of that. I instead opted for a  prepared graham cracker pie crust since it's faster and easier.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Philadelphia cream cheese (2 8 oz blocks)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sour cream
1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
1 can of blueberry Comstock pie filling (original recipe made with Cherry)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (yes, 425). In a mixer blend all ingredients. Pour into crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and open oven door slightly. Let bake for an additional 1 1/2 hours. Cover top with Comstock pie filling of your choice. Refrigerate overnight (don't skip the refrigerating step.  It needs to fully chill to be set).

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