Specially made for my mother's birthday.
So here I was running around trying to remember everything to get ready for my mother’s surprise birthday party. Every time I remembered something from the list in my mind, I still had this nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. Ok so I went down the list in my head and one by one I checked them off. Still I couldn’t figure out what I was forgetting. So I settled down to take a break before heading to her party. Oh, it was about 20 minutes and all of a sudden Bingo! I remembered that I forgot to make my mothers’ favorite cheesecake.
Usually I make my cheesecakes the night before so they can be totally set up for the next day and you won’t have to eat them with a spoon. Haha
There I was scrambling around gathering my ingredients and looking at the clock, I had 1 hour to get the cheesecakes ready to go, put in the refrigerator to set up and get out the door. It was a couple hours’ drive and I didn’t want to be late. Ut Oh, looking in my refrigerator I found out I was out of cream cheese. Ok now I’m thinking, time to get a list together and rush to the store.
On my way out to the store I remembered I didn’t have any pie crusts ready to go either. With the time ticking away I figured I would just grab some store bought crusts. And away I went to the grocery store. With list in hand I head to the baking isle first to get the crusts. Well that didn’t quite work out since the store shelves were completely empty of pie crusts. They must have had a big sale on them, and I missed it. :(
I got this; I thought to myself, I will just make them myself. Remembering I didn’t have any graham crackers, I went to the other end of the store to pick up some of them. Then I remembered I needed sugar, back to the baking isle I went. This is back on the opposite side of the store. By now I remembered I needed cream cheese, which is at the other end again, two isles over from the graham crackers.
Usually I am pretty good at making an efficient route through the grocery store but not this time. I looked like I had no idea what I was doing by zigzagging back and forth. Before I was ready to go to the checkout I believe I made four back and forth passes through the store. Whew! Finally finished the shopping and heading home to get started making the cheesecakes.
I think I hit the super speed button getting everything ready because I was running out of time. Got all the ingredients ready and decided to make mini cheesecakes instead of several 8” cheesecakes for everyone at the party, after my mother got hers of course.
You can use any pie filling for these little mini cakes or pies the crust works very well with an unlimited variety of fruits and fillings. As I said I made them with my cheesecake because my mother loves them.
First I crushed up three packs of graham crackers with my food processor. Then I melted 1 cup of butter. I mixed the butter into the graham crackers mix until it was well blended and could stick together nicely for the crusts. I lined the cupcake papers with the graham cracker mix and pressed it firmly down to make the crust for each. Then I filled each one with my cheesecake, topped them with cherry filling and whipped topping on top and put in the refrigerator to chill until I was ready to go. These work great for chocolate mousse mini pies too. This made 28 mini cheesecakes.
My mother was happy and surprised by her birthday party. Everyone had a great time at dinner, visiting with each other. And of course, she got her cheesecake. As well as her birthday cake. In our family we have a tradition that the birthday person gets a piece in the face first thing. She was a good sport about it and laughed along with everyone. What could be better; Family, food and fun. I Love You Mom :)
Hope you enjoy the story. Keep smiling :)