Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Recently my buddy Christina of All's Fare Food Blog did a post on an amazing looking apple cheesecake she made.  The post has a VERY funny (although probably not funny to her in the moment) story about her baking adventure, I highly recommend checking it out!

So Christina's cheesecake post reminded me that last week I made my first batch of cheesecake cupcakes, and that I really wanted to blog about them!  These cupcakes were super easy and fast to whip up, and went over extremely well!  I brought them to work for a meeting I was leading, and they were gone before I knew it.   The strawberries on top made them seem kind of summery, but I think the switch to fall-centric sweets will be coming soon.

I went with the cheesecake cupcakes because a coworker of mine asked me if I had ever made them, and I had not!  I figured this meeting was an appropriate time to let my work friends be the taste-testers for my first attempt.  Sad thing- the coworker who asked about them missed the meeting!  (Next time, Nancy!)

Anyway, these cuppies are great crowd pleasers, and the product of my southern love, Miss Paula Deen!  Here's my slightly tweaked version of Paula Deen's Easy Cheesecake Cupcakes.  This recipe is enough for 12 cupcakes.  Enjoy!

Need:
-2 8-oz packages of light cream cheese, softened
-1 cup sugar
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 eggs
-1.5 graham crackers (3 squares)
-1 cup strawberry jam
-6 fresh strawberries

Do:
1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with paper liners
2.  Beat cream cheese until fluffy
3.  Add sugar and vanilla, beat well
4.  Beat in eggs, one at a time
5.  Break each of your three graham cracker squares into four small pieces, place one mini square in the bottom of each cupcake cup
6.  Spoon cream cheese mixture ontop of the graham crackers in each cup
7.  Bake for 20 minutes
8.  Let cupcakes cool completely.  When cool, put a spoonful of strawberry jam ontop, and garnish with half a fresh strawberry

S'More Bars and Operation Baking GALS

I recently learned of a great group online called Operation Baking GALS, and sent off my very first package with the group today!  Operation Baking GALS sends care packages to deployed soldiers to "Give A Little Support."

I signed up for a soldier and his team this month and was so excited to put together a care package for them.  The two baked goods I made were Chocolate Moon Rock cookies (Chocolate cookies with pretzels, oats and chocolate chips mixed in) and S'more Bars!  The S'more Bars are legendary.

I'm talking cookie dough crust, layer of graham crackers and a topping of marshmallows and chocolate.  YUM.  I'm  a little nervous that these will get melty on the way to my soldier, but fingers crossed that they'll be okay!

Soldier is from Maine, so in addition to my home-baked goods I wanted to include some Boston/New England specialties and a few melt-proof treats.  I picked up the day's Herald with TONS of updates on the Boston Bruins, an Improper Bostonian magazine, Stuff Magazine, a Metro (hey, why not), and then a bunch of snacks.  I figured adding in some Fritos, Easy-Mac and BEEF JERKY would be great little extras for a manly-soldier-man.

It was so much fun thinking about some things from home that a deployed soldier would enjoy and I can't wait to do this again next month.  I am SO proud to be an American, and so grateful for our country's brave service-men and women.  Operation Baking GALS is an amazing organization and if you're interested in putting together your own care packages, I highly suggest checking them out!  The other great part of this is that the USPS has military boxes that you can pick up for free, fill up as much as you want, and ship for a flat rate of $12.00.  My box was VERY heavy, definitely worth more than the $12 shipping fee!

Recipe for S'more bars follows, and I'd like to end this post with a big HUG and THANK YOU to USA Military, and a quote from one of my favorites, Zac Brown Band:

"I thank GOD for my life.  For the stars and stripes...may freedom forever fly,  let it ring!  Salute the ones who died, the ones who gave their lives so we don't have to sacrifice all the things we love."


S'more Bars 
From the "Favorite Brand Name 3 books in 1 Cookies, Bars & Muffins" cookbook


Need:
-1 package (18 oz) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
-1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
-3 cups mini marshmallows
-1/2 cup chocolate chips
-2 teaspoons shortening

Do:
-Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 13" x 9" pan, and press cookie dough into pan. (My food store only had 16 oz packages, so I used 1 and a half of those in my pan for a nice, thick cookie base.)

-Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs evenly over cookie dough

-Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  Sprinkle with marshmallows.  Bake 2-3 minutes more or until marshmallows are puffed.  Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

-Combine chocolate chips and shortening in a small resealable food storage bag.  Seal up the bag, and microwave on high for 1 minute.  Knead the bag lightly, mixing chocolate and shortening.  If necessary, microwave another 30 seconds until mixture is soft and combined.  Cut off a small corner of the bag, and drizzle over bars.

-Refrigerate 5-10 minutes of until chocolate is set.  Cut into bars and serve!