Layer upon Layer of Cheesecake Goodness with some cake too!

Hello Cheesecake lover's! I know I don't post often.  How much can one write about cheesecake? Don't answer that....just keep reading please.

I recently made a carrot cake cheesecake layer for a client. I have made the layer cakes before, but not the carrot cake.  Mostly because I am not a big fan of it and well, it has cream cheese frosting. AND, we all know that I don't care for cream cheese.  That is how I can make cheesecake and not eat it!!

Luckily for me, I have a wonderful friend who was more than willing to share her carrot cake recipe with me.  I only tweaked a few things, as I usually do with most recipes that are not my own. With this recipe, it was only with the spices.  I must say I am now a carrot cake convert, but only with this recipe and still without the frosting.

I made two 6 inch layer cakes and I also made two 6 inch cheesecakes. The cheesecakes were about half of their usual thickness. When doing the practice cakes, I learned that I could not do full cake pans of anything. I ended up with very tall cake and cheesecake cannot structurally handle the weight....even with internal supports. This was a few months ago.

So, I made a very light, creamy, and sweet cream cheese frosting to hold all of the layers together and stacked. The key for all of this goodness is very cool cakes and cold and steady hands! It was layer of cake, frosting, cheesecake, cake, frosting, cake, frosting, cheesecake and frosting!  (It also has a few internal structural pieces to keep all together. You would never know, huh?) I debated on whether or not to frost the sides, but it would have been SUGAR overload.

The cake was a big hit and surprise for the client's husband birthday! He had TWO pieces. I would call that one a success!!

Here are some pictures of the cake.  Sorry I don't have more of the actual process, but I was alone and my hands were a little messy!!

Make every bite memorable!

What's up at Little Kelly Cakes

Hello cheesecake lovers! My kitchen has been busy lately. I want to share with you some of the things that I have created.
I made a Caramel Cheesecake for my friend Julie and her mom for their 31 party.  Caramel is one of my favorite flavors and I make my own caramel sauce for the cheesecake.  It is time-consuming to make home-made caramel sauce, but well-worth the effort in the end for the flavor you get. You can taste the difference and who wants to unwrap all of the caramels anyway?  If I had to unwrap them, I would end up eating them because they are my favorite! YIKES!!  This beauty filled the house with a buttery caramel aroma when it was baking that it was hard for even me to resist, but it was already sold.

I was invited to the 31 party, so I got to see and hear people's reaction when they ate what I created. It makes me happy to please someone through food. I love to see my friend Denise in action.  She was the 31 consultant for the party and she has encouraged me to pursue my dreams for Little Kelly Cakes.

As you can see, this was also the first cheesecake that I "decorated." While this was fun and I do want to learn more about decorating, I will continue to send folks to Cakes Infinity for sculpted cakes and decorated cakes. Not my thing~Cheesecakes is what I am MOSTLY about. I don't have the patience for decorating and you have to have patience.

I recently made a Pumpkin Cheesecake for a birthday celebration. Here's the funny thing.  All of those cheesecakes I made at Thanksgiving, not a single pumpkin one in the bunch, all of them were Betty's Slice of Heaven or Sweet Potato Cheesecake. Yes, there is a big difference.  While this was one baking, I had a strange craving for turkey. The cheesecake was a surprise for the husband for his birthday and pumpkin is his favorite flavor.  It was a huge success!

One of the things that I offer is a layered cheesecake, which is a base layer of cheesecake, layer of cake, layer of cheesecake, layer of cake. Now, I made one of these at Thanksgiving with a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. These are hard work and there is no room for error. I learned that at Thanksgiving. I learned that the PUDC could only be three layers as you see because of the weight cake. The cheesecake could not hold it.  All of the other layer cakes are 4 layers

 I have been working on my red velvet cake recipe and now, it's PERFECT. Moist, delicate, light.....just what you want in Red Velvet Cake. After baking this, I know what I need to do. Less batter in the pans because the layers were just too big! My taste testers said that I needed more frosting, but I can tell you the flavor combination was DIVINE!  I use a cooked frosting, not a cream cheese frosting for my red velvet. True red velvet cake has a cooked frosting with flour and milk then combined sugar and butter

I have also been baking breads. This is such a great stress reliever for me with the kneading that comes with it.  If anyone wants to purchase any breads, just let me know. We can work something out.  I have made: Italian bread, bread bowls (for soup), Challah bread, wheat bread for sandwiches

 Challah Bread

 Challah Bread

 Wheat Bread

 Bread Bowl

 Bread Bowl

Biscuit 

Italian Bread

So these are some of the things that I have been working on....now I have to start walking to burn some calories! I do like fresh bread!

Make every bite memorable!!

The Oven is On~Come on In!!!

Hello friends of Little Kelly Cake’s. After the rush of the holidays, I needed to take some time off to focus on my health, both physical and emotional well-being. To be very brief, I have searched for a very long time, almost ten years in fact, trying to find out what is wrong with me. So, the past few months I have been travelling to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I went for a few days in January and then, I had to go back in February for surgery.  The good news is I finally have a diagnosis.  I have also discovered a new passion: writing.  If you would like to know more and would like to read/follow, please visit my website. You will need to enter your email and a password to read the entries and post messages. http://www.carepages.com/ My website name is shoediva. The Little Kelly Cakes blog is not really the place for me to discuss what happened, but it is the place for me to make money to pay for the trip!!

The oven is back on at Little Kelly Cakes and I am ready to BAKE!!  Actually, I have been baking already.  I tried out a new flavor before I had my surgery. Now, I have made it pretty clear that I don’t like cheesecake, but I think this one is an exception……a BIG exception. I made this for my W.O.W (Women of Worth) ladies life group. Good thing we were at a bible study because cheesecake was sinfully good and we could ask for forgiveness!! OK, already, I have kept you in suspense long enough.  It was a Chocolate Mocha Mint Cheesecake……the only thing it didn’t have in there was the kitchen sink!!  Seriously, there was milk, semi, dark chocolate; cocoa; coffee; kahlua; fudge mint cookies; and oh yeah cream cheese~you have to cream cheese. I think my eyes rolled back in my head when I ate this.  The mix of all the chocolates is just right and the mocha flavor enhances the chocolate without being to bold and overpowering. The same goes for the mint. It is like a Hint o’ Mint! You know that it is there in the background, not hitting you over the head. It was definitely enjoyed by the ladies. Of course, that made my day and I will be adding that one to the menu selection.

 See bits of the ccokie in the cheesecake!

I have been baking bread which is SOOOOOO therapeutic for me.  No, I do NOT own a bread machine. I do most of it by hand. I don’t have any pictures of any of the loaves(pics will be posted later this week when I make the next one), but here is a picture of the bread bowl I made. I learned my lesson on that day…should have made 4 bowls, not just 2. Why you ask~we ate way too much bread!!!!  If you are interested in purchasing the bread, contact me.  We can work out the details. I also make sandwich bread with whole wheat flour and oatmeal. The soup of the day was my version Baja Chicken Tortilla Soup....VERY spicy!!

This week I will be practicing on cupcakes filled with cheesecake.  The cuppies are a new baking venture for me, but something that I have wanted to try for a while. First in the oven~red velvet cupcakes! I also have some ideas for some others too.  Keep your eyes posted for blog entries and pics!

It is SOOOOOOOOOOO great to be back in the kitchen and baking again.

Make every bite memorable!

Oh, What a Year!

2010 is coming to a close and I am using this sleepless night to reflect back on all that's happened since I started Little Kelly Cakes. Wow! That is the word that keeps popping into my head.

It is amazing how God works in our lives. I never thought that I would be baking cheesecakes for extra money! I go to a graduation party back in June where I take 2 cheesecakes because there are going to be a lot of people. They were a big hit.  Several people asked me if I made cheesecakes to sell.  I told them if they order, I will sell! (OMG...did I just say that? What was thinking?)

A few days later, I was sitting out by the pool in our community and I got my FIRST order. I was so happy. This family will always hold a special place in my heart because they placed the first order.  I didn't have a business name yet, but they fanned the flame for a business that was about to be born! (OK, it was smoldering!)

I must say there was A LOT of self-doubt and I almost didn't do any of it. It is one thing to bake for family and friends and the occasional office party, but when you bake for money, whether family, friend, or stranger, it has to be spot-on.  I was having some BIG self-doubt moments. Could I do this?

God places the right people in your life just for you at the right time just for you! Thank you Denise Kelly for the encouragement, for WOW bible study, and for the laughs!  Denise provided the encouragement and support that I needed in launching a home-based business.  She even got me a few orders.  She is my driver to and from our bible study. I love her so much that I named a cheesecake after her~Neesey's Peanut Butter Cup.

I am little out of sync now with the progression of the year, but that's ok.  The post is getting a little long anyway and I don't want you to get bored.  The taste testing party was a success.  Many thanks to Rosann Kelly for suggesting it and many thanks to all who came out and ordered!  The Thanksgiving holiday....I think I made 30 cheesecakes. The Christmas holiday, it was more spread out, but I think around 30 cheesecakes.  The big hit of the season was the peppermint bark cheesecake.  Of course, it uses a whole package of white chocolate chips!

I think my favorite thing of all year is my family coming for Christmas and trying my cheesecake for the first time.  My niece Maddy said the cheesecakes were delicious. Of course, that's all I ever need.

*New for 2011~cupcakes filled with cheesecake
*I am looking for ideas for seasonal-Valentine's cheesecake flavor....email me!!

Make every bite memorable!!
Happy New Year!!

Thelma and Louise

Did the title catch your attention? Read on!!
Since my successful tasting party, my husband suggested that we invest in another mixer. I was a little hesitant.  It would make things easier right now with all of the orders I have right now, but what about after the holidays?  More orders came in for Thanksgiving and I was seduced by the speed of KitchenAid Pro.  The secret to my cheesecakes is not the ingredients, but how I mix them up. So, he found the best price and ordered it for me.  I came home from my bible study on Wednesday and my husband was unpacking it for me. Thank goodness for that because it weighs in at a whopping 30 pounds!! Not exactly the workout I want to get ~moving that around~I probably would throw my back out! It was placed on the counter beside my KitchenAid Classic.

Now, I have to give kudos to my Classic.  She has put out some seriously good eats~cheesecake(duh), brownie pudding, Turtle Cake, Hershey Cake and my mama's pound cake recipe~chocolate, of course. Do you see the theme? I may not eat cheesecake, but I eat chocolate desserts or chocolate cake!!

I was looking at the two mixers sitting side-by-side and I knew that I had to give them a name! I thought of historical and famous pairs or rather, was drawing a blank.  Aren't they beautiful?!

You know, when you need something, you can never think of it. Then, VOILA, it came to me. Thelma and Louise. They are going to be great friends! They are going to work hard together, and the reward will be worth it. I have already made a couple of cheesecakes with them and it did save some time. I love having 2 mixers. They are going to go the distance with each other, kinda like Thelma and Louise. Makes me think of me and my bestie, Julie.  Here we are enjoying one of the last days of the summer.

Well, I must put Thelma and Louise to work in order to fill all of the Thanksgiving orders!!

Make every bite memorable!