Strawberry Cheesecake Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 Strawberry Cake mix

Ingredients required on box

Cheesecake:

2 (8oz) Pkgs Cream cheese (softened)

⅔ Cup Sugar

Pinch of Salt

2 Large eggs

⅓ Cup sour cream

⅓ Cup Heavy Whipping cream

1 Tsp Vanilla

Frosting:

12 oz Cream cheese (softened)

½ Cup Butter (softened)

2 Tsp Vanilla

¼ Cup Frozen Strawberries (thawed and blended)

1 Tbsp Heavy whipping cream

2-3 Cups Powdered sugar

Directions:

Cheesecake:

1. Preheat oven to 325

2. Place a large roasting pan on the lower third of the oven

3. Set water to boil

4. Prepare a 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray

5. Wrap heavy duty foil around the bottom and up the outside of the pan

6. In large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth

7. Mix in sugar and salt

8. Add eggs, one at a time, blending after each

9. Mix in sour cream, whipping cream, and vanilla. Mix until smooth.

10. Pour batter into prepared pan.

11. Set springform into prepared roasting pan in pre-heated oven

12. Carefully pour boiling water into roasting pan. About an inch high around the springform.

13. Bake for 45 minutes

14. Cool for an hour

15. Once cooled, place in freezer for 4-5 hours

Cake:
1. Prepare per box directions for 2- 9 inch rounds

Frosting:

1. Combine cream cheese and butter, beat until smooth

2. Add vanilla, strawberry puree, and cream.

3. Mix in 2 cups of powdered sugar

4. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar slowly, until you reach desired consistancy

Assembly:

1. Place one cake layer on a plate

2. Remove cheesecake from freezer, release from pan

3. Top cake layer with cheesecake, trim if needed to match size

4. Place second cake layer on top

5. Frost

Print

*Note* I did the best I could with these last two pictures. It's hard to try to get a phone pic in the middle of a kitchen with 100 people around! Gah!

Adapted from: Recipe Girl

Come party with me HERE!

Happy Labor Day 2016

As we should all take a moment and reflect to the true reason for this weekend, we should also rejoice and enjoy the loved ones around us.

For decades, my hubby's aunt and uncle have hosted a small Labor Day party. It's one of the two times a year they have everyone over.
This year is a little bittersweet.

Uncle passed away a few months ago and Aunt decided she really wanted to have one last party at the house before she prepares for selling and moving.
(Thank you for your service Uncle B)

Most everyone is going to be able to attend, the girl child is working all day and another cousin has moved out of state. Pretty good turnout if I do say so myself.

No big surprise, I was asked to bring my eggs and a veggie tray.
Hubby has been craving some braised drumsticks, so I made a big batch and will be bringing some of those too.

Two of the little cousins will be coming from a neighboring state, and we haven't seen them in awhile. One had a birthday in April and the other is later this month...so we picked up a couple of little gifts for them just because.

Looking forward to seeing people!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Happy Labor Day 2013

Happy Labor Day to all!
Most people have today off work to celebrate the strife of historical workers.
To those of you who do have to work, we appreciate your time and effort! Especially all those workers who run the businesses we frequent on a day off. Restaurants. Shopping. Etc.

Today I brushed my teeth. That is about as much effort as I am putting in to it.
Hubby, the girl, and I decided we needed a truly lazy day.
We have some movies we got for Christmas that have not even come out of the plastic wrap, those are big on our list!

Yesterday, we went to the yearly Labor Day cookout at Hubby's aunt and uncle's house. This has been a family tradition since well before I was in the picture.

It was a good sized crew of us: Aunt and Uncle, their 2 grown kids (with spouses) and the 2 grand kids. Hubby's mom and another aunt. A cousin. His 2 sisters, 1 niece, and 1 brother in law.
Some of (host) aunt's daughter-in-law's family as well (did I confuse anyone?).

It was a freaking rainy, gray, thundery, BLAH day.
We all got soaked just trying to get to said cook out. :::sigh:::

Not too long after everyone arrived, the sun started peeking!
The grass was too wet still for our annual croquet tournament or any full contact badminton...but the driveway dried up enough that the littles could go outside and blow off some steam.

The girl child and a couple of the men folk had a cut throat game of H-O-R-S-E going on.

Due to the rain earlier, the mosquitoes were out in full force and the air was oppressively muggy.
But we got to be outside...yay!

As we do every year, there was more food than we could possibly eat.
I brought along with us

Deviled Eggs
Baked Potato Salad
Dirty Salsa
Cookie Dough Dip

I hope everyone celebrated Labor Day in your own, special way!