Cream Cheese Brownies

I made these brownies mostly because I happened to have all the ingredients on hand and I needed a dessert for company. The recipe is from Let Them Eat Cake by Susan Purdy with some minor altitude adjustments for my mile-high location. I've put the original in too for you folks who are altitudanally challenged. :-) Also, I used full-fat cream cheese - because that is what I had. Purdy has written some of my favorite baking cookbooks: Have Your Cake and Eat it, Too (a healthier baking book like Let Them Eat Cake), The Family Baker, and an excellent high-altitude baking book called Pie in the Sky. Her recipes are well-tested and most are totally doable by novice bakers.

Cream Cheese Brownies
(makes 16, one 9x9" pan)

Cheesecake Cupcakes, the decorated version

One of my first posts was about cheesecake cupcakes, a recipe I inherited from my mom. It also happens to be my daughter's favorite recipe to bake. Her friends devour these things whenever she makes them. Traditionally, she makes them at least every February for her friend Celeste's birthday. I thought I would share her awesome decorating  from the latest batch. Can you guess the theme*? She uses a toothpick as the brush and supermarket food coloring. A couple of years ago, she painted on the NY Yankees logo and baseballs. I have to say the kid has talent with food coloring!

Check out the recipe. It's so delicious and simple. It's getting cheesecake without having to make a whole cheesecake. Nice little bite-sized cheesecakes. Highly recommended for Valentine's Day!

Link to PDF of cheesecake cupcakes

*They are flags from countries in South America. Celeste had visited them all during a gap year. Except the US flag, of course. But, as a proud American, my daughter had to throw that one in too.