Mississippi Mud Pie

For my sister's boyfriend's birthday, I made a Mississippi Mud Pie to celebrate.  The pie tasted a lot better than it looked.  It was impossible to get a clean slice; I can't imagine how they did it in Baked Explorations.

This cake was quite labor extensive but definitely worth it for the chocolate lover in your life.  It starts with a chocolate cookie crust.  Then a flourless chocolate cake.  Followed by the chocolate pudding.  Finished with whipped cream.  It was a very dense and rich pie.

Happy Pi Day!

I absolutely love pie.  Especially after  I finally mustered enough courage and learned to make my own pie dough from scratch.  Below are a few of my favorite pie recipes in honor of "Pi" Day!

Apple Pie Bars

Cherry Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Banana Cream Pie

Peach and Raspberry Crumb Pie


Peach and Blueberry Crumb Pie


Pecan Topped Pumpkin Pie 
 

Pecan Pie Bars

Strawberry Cheesecake Cake

 

I have been meaning to do another "cheesecake" cake since the very first time it was featured here on my blog.  I finally got a chance to make another version for my dad's birthday cake.  This time around, it was a strawberry cheesecake shortcake.  Cheesecake and stabilized whipped cream frosting was from my favorite cheesecake book, Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook while the white cake was from one of my go to recipes.

 Layer one - Half of a white cake layer + whipped cream frosting + fresh chopped strawberries

 Layer two - Strawberry cheesecake

 Layer three - More whipped cream frosting + chopped strawberries

 Layer 3.5 - Other half of the white cake layer

Lastly, cover in a stabilized whipped cream frosting and decorate as desired.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

This past weekend, I made a quick batch of cupcakes for my friend's purple and black themed bachlorette party.  I even made a matching cupcake tower using Annie's simple and easy directions here.  However, instead of gluing two cake boards together and then covering it in construction paper, I used silver cake drums.  Definitely helped cut my time in half.

The chocolate chip cupcakes were adapted from my favorite white cake go to recipe.  Frosting was made from Pastry Pride non dairy whipping cream dyed purple.  The cupcakes were topped off with the remaining mini chocolate chips.

Banana Cream Pie

Naturally, I offer to bring dessert to a dinner party at a friend's house.  I knew I wanted to make a banana cream pie after finding a basic pie crust recipe in my new cookbook, Ad Hoc At Home.  (Spent last weekend in Napa and was very fortunate to be at Ad Hoc on the day they were serving Chicken and Waffles.. best I ever had!  Had to pick up a copy of their cookbook which was already signed by Chef Thomas Keller but then Chef Dave Cruz signed and dated it that day as well.  So awesome!)  Already prepared with a bunch of bananas, a go to pastry cream recipe (adapted from All Recipes), and a go to whipped cream frosting recipe, this was very easy to put together the day of.

 

Bake a basic pie crust

Layer with bananas

Cover in pastry cream

Add whipped cream frosting

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Source: Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook