Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Anything and (Nearly) Everything About...CHEESECAKE!

Strawberry Cheesecake : delicious strawberry cheesecake Stock Photo
Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Today's topic, Cheesecake, was requested by Professional Zombie Killer, who lists his address as "earth", and is @dvindsgyz on Twitter.

The earliest references to cheesecake go back 4,000 years ago.  The Greek physician, Aegimus, wrote a book just prior to the 5th century B.C. on the art of making cheesecakes.  Cheesecake was given to athletes for energy in the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C.

Different types of cheeses are used in making cheesecakes in different countries around the world.  For instance, cream cheese is used in the U.S., and ricotta is used in Italy.  For more information click here.

National Cheesecake Day in the U.S. is just around the corner:  July 30.  On this date many restaurants and cheesecake chains, such as The Cheesecake Factory, offer specials on all types of cheesecake, including the dense & rich New York style, and the light & creamy Philadelphia style.  For more information click here.

There is a Cheesecake of the Month Club, that will send to you, or anyone of your choosing, a cheesecake once a month or in other timely installments.  Professional Zombie Killer lists his address as "earth", so I must assume he will have access to the Cheesecake of the Month Club if he so desires it.  While the club won't specify what kind of cheesecake you will receive each month, they list a picture of a Strawberry Cheesecake, PZK's  favorite, so I assume he would receive one sometime in the year, and probably in June or July or August, which is when strawberries are in season.  By the way, chocolate cheesecake is the number one favorite cheesecake in the U.S., followed by strawberry in second place, and pumpkin cheesecake (?!) in third place.   For more information click here.

Thanks to Professional Zombie Killer, @dvindsgyz on Twitter, for requesting today's topic!  What did you learn today?

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas Websites & Baking


Photo courtesy Coolest Christmas Present Cake (click here for recipe)


Photo courtesy Pastry Passion (click here to purchase one of these cakes)

Even though we have a large collection of Christmas cookbooks that we love, we thought we'd see what the internet had to offer this year.  The number of websites devoted only to Christmas is staggering, and the number of sites dedicated to Christmas baking is no less so.  Here are a few of our newly discovered favorites:

Christmas Baking = The home page contains many links to other Christmas sites.

Why Christmas = Written by a Christmas fan in England

All Things Christmas

A Magical Christmas

Christmas Ideas

Christmas Stock Images = Free Christmas Photos!

We'll still bake the Christmas cookies we were taught to bake when growing up:  cookies cut into shapes using Christmas cookie-cutters, then decorated with colored powdered sugar frostings.  We wanted to bake a cake in the shape of some Christmas object or symbol, so we've also decided to bake the cakes pictured above to see if we would like to add them to our Christmas baking repertoire.  We'll use a bundt pan for the wreath cake.  The ideas may seem obvious to you, but we hadn't thought of them and can hardly wait to see them on the sideboard. 

By the way, if you have celiac disease you can do like we do and use a flourless chocolate cake recipe for cakes and cupcakes.  For cookies we put a thin layer of flourless chocolate batter into egg-poaching rings or metal cookie-cutters on a cookie sheet, then bake as usual.

What's coming out of your kitchen this holiday season?