Happy Valentine's Day!

So it's Valentine's Day today, and I thought I would share with you a simple and lovely dessert that anyone could fall in love with:

Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

The recipe I found the other day while browsing Bakerella's site and thought it would be the perfect addition to our family Valentine's meal that we had last night. Here's a breakdown of the super easy recipe:

2 pkg. (8oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix.

vanilla wafers

2″ aluminum mini baking cups

Cherry Pie Filling

Place a vanilla wafer in the bottom of each mini baking cup.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, cool and then top with cherry pie filling.

Tips:

-When the recipe calls for "room temperature" cream cheese, you might want to slowly warm it in the microwave at 50% power, or let it sit out for awhile to make sure it's extra creamy and soft or your cheesecake mixture won't mix very well and be chunky.

-I just used whatever foil baking cups the store had, they fit my muffin tins, but this recipe is actually for "mini" cheesecakes, but I just cooked mine a little closer to 20min, and it made 24 instead of this recipe's intended 48. But who really wants 48 of these devilish things just hanging out at your house!!

So go ahead and try this recipe sometime! If you are a cheesecake lover like me, you will find any excuse or holiday to make/eat/devoureverysinglemorsel.......

Okay, you get the point, happy baking!

I tried it!

I gathered up my supplies and some plain t-shirts and tried the craft project I poster earlier.

Here are my supplies ready to go:

Now, I realized that I didn't have the EXACT supplies that were mentioned in the blog, but I figured I was fine. Turns out I was not!!!

Words of wisdom - if you are going to try this this weekend USE THE SAME FABRIC PAINT she uses on the blog. Also buy yourself one of those paint rollers. And another tip - go for white or light colored t-shirts! These two were the only ones I had on hand.

After trying to do my shirt the way that the directions told, I figured out that the paint was just not transferring thick enough to show up on my shirt and the detail wasn't right. I then improvised and decided to do more of a stenciling approach to save my shirt. Instead of painting the doily and pressing it, I just put the doily down onto the shirt in one spot and painted in the negative space and some around the edges (think of it like making a negative of the original design). The results are as follows:

So, as you can see, not exactly as easy as I thought it would be, but you will never know unless you try! I would say it's not a total disaster, and I will probably wear my shirt along with my daughter on Valentines day. And I didn't really lose any money, I already had the shirts, the paint, and the brush, the doilies I bought today for $1.75.

The lesson for today is this : Who cares if your stuff doesn't turn out perfect! Just try it if you want to try it!!! You will be surprised how much you learn from every crafting experience :)

Valentine's Day Craft

Okay, so I know my first actual crafty post probably shouldn't be something that I haven't actually made, but hey, I intend to try and make this on the weekend if I have time and some plain t-shirts. We've been iced/snowed in a few times and I've been too busy to get out and get the supplies.

But really, this craft looks fun, and easy, and SUPER CUTE!! One of my friends has already tried it with great success, so if you are looking for something unique to make for your sweeties check out this craft that I found:

HEART DOILY TSHIRTS!

You can find all of the instructions on The Artful Parent Blog .

And if I ever get around to making some for me and my daughter this weekend I will be sure to post pictures!