"Well, Well, Well, What Have We Here?"

I think we're all painfully aware at this point that 2020 is pretty much a sack filled with horrors (all things considered, I'm extremely glad murder hornets didn't become a bigger problem). I also happen to be a huge fan of another stitched up sack of gross curiosities- Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas. I found myself singing "Oogie Boogie's Song" last week and realized that it's probably THE theme song for this year...for a multitude of reasons. Anyway, when a giant sack filled with worms and spiders tells you to watch out, you should definitely take heed. And while Jack Skellington will always own my heart (no, it's not weird that I have a lifelong crush on a cartoon skeleton- he's suave, creative, and smartly dressed), I feel like if any year deserves to be the year of the Boogie Man, it's this one.

This is not filled with spiders--just topped with them. Big difference.

Guys, it could realistically be none more black than this...and that's thanks to the magic ingredient: black cocoa powder. I can finally give you a visual reference to the color of my heart and soul, and it's thanks to chocolate. This is both the definition of irony and totally appropriate. This black velvet cake and tribute to the Oogie Boogie Man is filled with black cocoa powder both in the cake and in the chocolate cream cheese frosting (I am addicted to it). It tastes EXACTLY LIKE A GIANT OREO. I am convinced the folks at Nabisco have been harboring this as a secret, but black cocoa gives a richness that truly tastes exactly like everyone's favorite sandwich cookie--except mine is in cake form (and gluten free), making it at least 75% better than an Oreo. It's also only 280 calories a slice (9 slices total), or the equivalent of a meager 4 Oreo cookies. Black velvet cake is now a staple recipe in this house.

The hardest part of baking this cake is finding black cocoa powder.

It's awesome that this is so easy to throw together because I'm going to need to make one of these a month until I die. You need:

• 1 1/4 cups Lakanto monkfruit or Swerve Granular
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  
• 2 eggs at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• A dash of salt
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup + 2 TBS buttermilk (omit the 2 TBS if you're using regular flour; the gluten free flour needs a little more moisture)
• 1/2 cup of hot water (I used my Keurig to brew hot water, but a sauce pan or microwave will work)
• 1/2 cup of black cocoa (link above to purchase on Amazon) 
• 1 1/2 cups of Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour Blend (or All Purpose if you're fortunate enough to not have a stomach that revolts near bread)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 and greasing two 8-inch round or square pans and lining with Parchment paper...I tried making this in only one 8-inch square pan, and it took forever to cook and my edges got dry and crumbly, so definitely split this into two pans. Blend the applesauce and sugar on medium-high in a stand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture looks a little fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, blending til fully incorporated. Then add in the extract, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

While things are mixing together, in a separate bowl, whisk together the hot water and buttermilk. Then whisk in the black cocoa powder until absolutely no lumps remain. Measure out your flour in another bowl.

Now, add 1/3 of the flour to your stand mixer bowl, blending until fully mixed in. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add 1/2 of the cocoa mix, blending on low so you don't make a huge mess. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add another 1/3 of flour, blend, then the remaining 1/2 of the cocoa mix, blend, and finish with the last of the flour. Mix until things have come together nicely on medium-high. Pour into your 2 prepared pans.

See, same color as an Oreo.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, testing with a toothpick. If you only have a few crumbs, remove from the oven. If the toothpick is still very wet with batter, continue baking another 3-5 minutes. Keeping the cakes in the pans, place onto a cooling rack for 10 minutes before running an angled spatula or dull knife around the edges of the pan before turning out on the cooling racks to cool completely. I placed my cake in the freeze for 15 minutes before leveling since it domed up on me (again, too much batter for one single pan, don't make the same mistake).

It looks a little sad with half of its head cut off, but look at that black cocoa magic!

Now, set this aside to finish cooling completely while you make what is, quite literally, the best chocolate frosting that ever existed.

Seriously, my only regret is it took 33 years to find out about black cocoa powder.

For the blackest of black, so-dark-it-could-be-an-endless-void cream cheese frosting, you need:

• 8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1/2 cup of light butter at room temp (I used Land O Lakes)
• 4 cups of Lakanto powdered monkfruit (or regular powdered sugar if you aren't watching your intake)
  
• 1/2 cup of black cocoa powder
• 1 TBS of vanilla
• 2-3 TBS skim milk
• Black and lime green gel dyes

You're going to be splitting this frosting up to dye two different colors, so keep that in mind. Begin by mixing the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy, for about 3 minutes. Add in 2 cups of powdered monkfruit, mixing on low at first to avoid an explosion, then switch to medium-high until blended. Add in the vanilla extract and remaining powdered monkfruit, blending well. Now, take about 1/3 of the frosting and put it aside in a bowl, this will need to get several drops of  lime green gel dye mixed into it for Ooogie Boogie. Cover with a paper towel until ready to use. Now, turn your attention back to the rest of the frosting. Add in the black cocoa powder and at least 2 TBS of skim milk to thin this out so it is a spreadable consistency. Mix well, and if you see it's still incredibly thick (hard to stir with a spatula by hand), add another TBS of skim milk. Then add in a few drops of black gel dye to make this frosting so black you could lose an entire coven of witches in it. Now, on to the knives!

It's a Boogie Man cake, of course we're going to play with knives to create it.

A face only Lock, Shock, and Barrel could love.

For my Oogie Boogie, I sketched him out on Parchment paper with the help of an Oogie Boogie pumpkin carving template sized down to fit the top of my cake. You're also going to need an X-acto knife, scissors, fun Halloween sprinkles (Spooky Sprinkles!), and either a few palette knives or angled spatulas to make Oogie, boogie, to life. I really wanted to use some gummy worms with this cake, but I could only find Trolli's, and they look absolutely NOTHING like real worms, so consider me very disappointed. Sorry, Oogie.

He's no Jack Skellington, but he's a handsome devil in his own right.

Put your template down on a cutting mat or board, and use the X-acto knife to cut out his mouth, eyes, and the inside of the O'S and the G. Save these pieces!! You need them later. You also need to cut out the rest of the letters, but you don't need to keep these. Also cut out his silhouette (I used scissors because I considered it extremely fortunate I hadn't lost the tip of a finger to the X-acto at this point). You should pretty much have a reverse image:

"You're jokin', you're jokin'
I can't believe my eyes!"

You can set this aside while you frost the completely cooled cake with the blacker-than-a-black-hole portion of frosting. Since you'll have two layers, place one layer down on a cake board before spread a decent amount of frosting on the top of it, then add the second layer, and completely cover the entire cake in the black frosting. You'll probably use all of the black frosting (and will lick the bowl for the rest). This does crust, so if you want to smooth it out with the paper towel trick, you totally can. I kept things a little messy because this is a cake tribute to a creature that vomits worms, so neatness was not my concern.

Time to get sprinkly!

Now, place your cake on a large baking tray so you don't get sprinkles EVERYWHERE. I cleaned my house the day after I made this, and not gonna lie, I found sprinkles in a 100-foot radius of my kitchen, but I sprinkle with gusto.

I needed a bigger tray, apparently.

I used a Halloween mix of sprinkles, all by Wilton and found at a craft store. I used a mix of black, purple, and green sprinkles, pouring a handful into my palm before gently pressing on the sides of the cake. Once I was done with that, I came back in and gently placed skull sprinkles at the top of the border:

I mean, look at that frosting. Black velvet, indeed.

Once you're done making a mess your dogs will be so happy to help you clean up, place your template on top of the cake.

I was giddy with delight at this point.

I used toothpicks to help nail down my template, and to help me keep track of where the smaller pieces like the eyes, mouth, and insides of the letters were placed on my cake. I also used a paintbrush and an angled spatula to push my template down into the frosting a bit. You just want to make sure there are ZERO gaps (ah Zero, easily the best character of Nightmare Before Christmas). I put my cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow my black frosting to crust up so it wouldn't bleed too much into the green.

I think I also found the Nickelodeon slime recipe?

Using a very skinny palette knife, I slathered a thick layer of green frosting over OOGIE, only marginally spreading to even it out. Again, a sack of horrors cake does not require smoothed perfection, but if you're feeling twitchy about that, use an angled spatula to swipe everything perfectly even...I will always make an exception for OCD.

Definitely slime. The jig is up, Nick.

Come back in with more green frosting and gently spread over the rest of Oogie's body, eyes, and mouth. You want to apply minimal pressure while you're spreading out the green frosting so you don't disrupt the template. Now comes the terrifyingly fun part!

Oh we're getting spooky, alright.

Using the toothpicks, gently wiggle the templates straight up and away so as not to disturb the green frosting. I also used a very pointy palette knife to help with larger pieces. Repeat until you unmask the Boogie Man in all his grotesque glory:

Oh heeeyyyy, nightmare fuel.

I ended up not using the Trolli's since they looked more like pencils than worms, but if you can find real gummy worms, you could stick one coming out of Oogie's mouth, and then spread some around the top of the cake. I ended up using the leftover green frosting to outfit Oogie in his second favorite critter, spiders.

He needs them to bake a special batch of his snake and spider stew.

I put a coupler on a piping bag, filled it with my green frosting, and alternated between a round 12, 5, and 2 tip to make my spiders. Starting with the #12 tip, I piped little circular blobs around the cake.

Only in the month of October do I condone "spidering" your baked goods.

Switch over to the #5 tip, then add little blobs in front of the body to make the spider's head.

But wait, there's gore more!

To finish, switch to the #2 tip and pipe 8 little legs on each spider in straight-ish lines.

He's...cute?

To make them less terrifying (I have to eat this cake after all, and I HATE SPIDERS), I used little individual sprinkles to give my spiders TWO, ONLY TWO eyes. They're far less shiver-inducing with only two ojos and not eight. Although I do admire the symmetry of having eight legs and eight eyes, this is where my respect for spiders ends.

Oh, good sir, you are delightfully awful.

I am SO happy with a multitude of things about this cake: it is so black it could use a nightlight, Oogie is so creepy he could spring off the cake to gamble with you (or your life), and it tastes like the world's greatest Oreo. *Insert any color* velvet cakes are always so dense, and this is definitely no exception. I don't make velvet cakes often since I do prefer a lighter sponge, but since this cake tastes exactly like an Oreo, it pairs excellently with a glass of milk to wash it down. I went on and on in the last blog about a regular chocolate cream cheese frosting, but black cocoa powder makes that batch the poor man's chocolate cream cheese frosting for sure. This is silky, creamy, and deeply chocolately. It isn't like a light cocoa vs dark cocoa flavor; black cocoa frosting is not at all bitter like a bar of dark chocolate. It gives a real richness that pretty much makes the frosting and cake party on your taste buds. Since trick-or-treating is probably out this year (the true horror here is 2020, not my terrible puns), you could just make this cake instead and reluctantly share it with your children. Definitely keep your cake in the fridge for as long as it lasts to keep the cream cheese frosting firm.

I, on the other hand, refuse to share.

I had to put a few slices in the freezer while my husband is out of town this week...there's no way it would still exist anywhere else but in my stomach if I didn't, and I want him to have the giant Oreo cake experience because although I am evil, I'm not mean...there is a difference. It's the thinnest of lines, but even villains have their moments of kindness. You know, like when Oogie didn't actually kill Santa Claus. He just sang about how he wanted to instead; see, thin line. 'Til next time my fellow eaters!

If I eat another slice, "I might just split a seam..."

Owl About Cupcakes

 It's October, which means I can be as creepy and weird as I want and it's just considered festive, unlike the rest of the year when my dark sense of humor and love of the color black are totally lost on most. After suffering through 2020, it's possible to be dead inside but still really excited about something, and for me, nothing brings greater joy than Halloween baking. Ghouls just wanna have fun, after all. I decided I wanted to make some cupcakes that were fun Halloween-y and not flat out creepy. You know, starting by gingerly getting my feet wet (or webbed?), but don't worry, your Hallow-queen has some tricks up her sleeve later this month. For now, take a look at these adorable black forest cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting!

You could say I'm owl about how cute these are.

Aren't these an absolute hoot? I am trying so. hard. to reel in the terrible puns, but these just bring me so much happiness. They are cute but also slightly spooky, and a dozen owls make up my parliament. The other dozen cupcakes were supposed to be bats, but Oreo's prove to be extremely hard to separate while retaining pretty cream-side canvases, so before I was driven, well, completely batty by trying and failing at getting Oreos to play nice, I busted into my spooky sprinkle collection (it is large) and did simple swirls topped with ghosts and skulls. I love how they all turned out, and I assume these would be easy to make as a family with the kids for a fun treat. I mean, I have the same willpower around Reese's and Oreo's as a six year old, and I only ate a third of my body weight in candy while making these. Good thing they're VERY low cal (the owls are 191 calories each; the swirls are only 118 calories each). I swear, all treats, no tricks, with this recipe...these are a rich devil's food cake filled with sweet cherries and finished with a tart chocolate cream cheese frosting. They are to die for *cue evil laughter.*

But unlike most evil villains, I have no long, convoluted plan. These are SO easy to make.

For the black forest cupcakes, you'll need:

• 1 box of sugar free devil's food cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 1/4 cup of fat free milk
• 1 1/4 cup of lite cherry pie filling (about half a can)

Preheat your oven to 325 and line two muffin tins with festive Halloween cupcake liners (not optional). Dump the cake mix, whites, applesauce, and milk in a stand mixer, and blend on medium-high for 2 minutes. Once well mixed, use a large cookie scoop to plop one and a half spoonfuls into each cupcake liner. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean, then still in the tin, place on the counter for 5 minutes before removing to completely cool on a cooling rack. 

Your house will smell sinfully delicious.

You want to let these get pretty cool before coring and adding the cherries, so plop into the fridge for a half hour to speed things up. A speedy spooky timeline is a real must for busy witches like me.

Now, get ready to core!

Take a large frosting tip (I used a 1M), and gently press into the center of each cupcake, twisting until you get about 75% of the tip into the center of the cupcake. Remove, and you should have a decent hole for burying the bodies for the cherry filling.

They do look a little sinister and murdery this way. 10/10 would haunt.

I used a 1/2 TBS to scoop cherries and plop into the center of each cupcake. They should hold about 3-4 cherries each. Once done, you can try to put the cupcake cores back in, save for cakepops, or eat by the handful (you'll never guess which one I chose...). Place your cupcakes into the fridge so the filling can firm up while you make your frosting.

This recipe is a game changer.

Chocolate cream cheese frosting might not be the traditional black forest cake topper, but this just works on so many levels. Super easy to throw together (more time for eating cupcake core remnants), all you need is:

• 1/2 cup of reduced fat butter at room temp
• 8 ounces of reduced fat cream cheese at room temp
• 4 cups of Lakanto powdered monkfruit sweeteneer
• 1/2 cup of cocoa (dark cocoa would probably also be fang-tastic)
• 1 TBS of vanilla extract
• If needed, 1 TBS of skim milk to thin out for decorating
• Brown gel dye (optional)
  

Whip the butter and cream cheese together for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add in half of the monkfruit sweetener and the vanilla, blending well. Add in the cocoa, the rest of the sweetener, and milk if you're piping and not just slathering these on top of the cupcakes. I also added several drops of brown gel dye to get the owls a little closer in color to the Oreo's. Mix well, but be careful not to over mix or it will thin out the cream cheese frosting. If this happens, just pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm back up before frosting.

Thanks to this recipe, I now have enough candy to build a house in the woods with to lure children to their impending doom.

To make the owls, you will need Reese's pieces or M&M's, Oreo mini, and regular Oreo's.

Each owl will need the cream side of 2 Oreo's, two Reese's of the same color for eyes, one orange Reese's for a nose, and 1 side of a mini Oreo for eyebrows? Eyebrow feathers? You know what I mean.

Those eyes look as confused as I am right now.

Put the Reese's gently on the cream side of each Oreo, then snap a mini Oreo in half, and grab those cupcakes from the fridge. I just slathered on a layer of chocolate frosting on top of each cupcake, then placed the eyes about in the middle of the cupcake:

It is the angriest bird. Poor thing has resting owl face.

Drop the orange Reese's a little below the eyes for a beak, and position the mini Oreo's above the eyes to form what we're now calling eyebrow feathers. Let's just say how you position these can make the owl look like "Awww" or "Oh God, it wants to kill me." You could call it here, but I loaded up a piping bag with a #352 leaf tip and piped little feathers. To do this, you want to hold the bag so the piping tip is sideways, and then gently press a little frosting out of the bag while lifting back toward you to form feathers:

Yep, this bird is trying to steal my soul with its rage.

Repeat for as many cupcakes as you'd like, and then store them in the fridge to firm up for an hour before eating. The frosting will crust up a bit, so your owl's feathers will look more defined.

Let's take a look at a finished owl with eyes that say, "I would gladly tell you how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop," and not "I will haunt your every dream."

Look at his ADORABLE LITTLE OWL FACE. For the remaining dozen cupcakes, I used a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip to create a traditional cupcake swirl before topping with Spooky Sprinkles (TM).

Ghosts & Bones (sounds like the next Mumford and Son's album title) for everyone!

I had so much skele-fun putting these last dozen together. Were there sprinkles everywhere? Yes. Any regrets? No. This is why I have dogs to clean my floors.

This owl is also giving me puppy dog eyes.

Try as I might, most of my owls ended up being completely evil.

But at least there's a cherry on topish.

Delicious chocolate cupcake paired with cherry filling? There's a reason chocolate-covered cherries are a thing, and black forest cupcakes remind you exactly why. These aren't too rich or too sweet thanks to the chocolate cream cheese frosting offering a little tang to take the edge off the cherries. Everything is firing on all cylinders in this recipe, so I feel like an evil genius for concocting my first of many Spooktober bakes! It's always nice to get to share my bakes with family and friends, and these are being eaten with much fervor while my parents are visiting this weekend...I froze half to send on my parent's journey up to my brother's house for my niece and nephew, but I can hear those owls screeching my name from the other room, so I better learn to practice some willpower lest I become "the witchy aunt who literally takes candy from children." Never fear, I am just getting started...this blog will be my regular haunt all month long. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

I can feel it in my bones--gonna be a great month for baking.

This Dessert Brought to You By Another Hurricane

 Well, it appears my baking schedule has aligned with yet another hurricane, so I'm either slowly gaining control of the climate or 2020 is still just ripe with unlimited possibilities when it comes to disasters. Baking allows me to go to my happy place, where Pandora's Box, 2020 Edition, is not allowed to be opened. I decided it was time for another cheesecake because baking in my happy place also allows me to partake in my favorite time of the day: when dessert is served. Since we're still very much in the middle of summer temps here in Florida, I wanted a light, fruity cheesecake, and so I mashed up two fruits that hardly ever get to shine center stage together: lemon and blackberry. I find blackberries to be a highly underrated fruit (and cell phone...RIP easiest texting capabilities ever), and I am constantly finding new ways to add them to cupcakes, cakes, and now cheesecakes:

Swirl patterns similar to that of a hurricane. I do see the irony, yes.

This is THE cheesecake of my dreams. It's tart, it's creamy, and unlike most things in 2020, it isn't actively trying to kill me. It starts with a buttery gluten free graham cracker crust and ends with a melding of citrus and berries. It isn't too sweet; it leans more toward the sharp side thanks to the lemon, and in a testament to my will to eat dessert nightly, it's only 244 calories a slice (10 servings total). A piece of cheesecake for fewer calories than a granola bar, people! It's also a straightforward bake minus some citrus zesting (my poor knuckles). 

I still think Kinnikinnick is the most ridiculous brand name I've ever seen.

Before we do anything else, we better start with the crust. You could bake it without one, but that would just be sad and weird, and I'm pretty sure we've had enough of sad and weird at this point. So, for the crust, you need:

• 3 TBS low fat butter, cut into chunks (cold)
• 2 TBS Lakanto monkfruit sweetener or Swerve granular
• 1 cup of Kinnikinnick or other gluten free graham cracker crumbs (if not gluten free, use 1 cup of regular graham cracker crumbs and add 1 TBS of water to your crust ingredients)

Preheat your oven to 375, blend all ingredients together in a food processor, then line an 8" springform pan with Parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Press the crust evenly into the pan...this isn't a huge amount of crust, so if you like a cheesecake that has crust all the way up the sides, double the recipe. Bake for 10-12 minutes until nice and golden. Set this in the fridge to cool and turn your oven down to 350 degrees.

And now, to make puree!

Admittedly, you could probably thin out some blackberry jam with a few teaspoons of water, but making puree from scratch isn't super tricky. Start by dumping 6 ounces of blackberries, 1/4 cup of water, and 1/4 cup of Swerve granular or Lakanto monkfruit sweetener into a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil over medium heat, stirring often for 10 minutes, until the berries are pretty much falling apart.

Steamy!

Then, place a strainer over a bowl, and pour your berry mix on top. Use a spoon or spatula to press the berries down and drain the juices. Things will probably be pretty watery, but if you want a thicker consistency for your swirl, pour back into the saucepan and bring to a boil again for a few minutes. You can also make a slurry with 1/2 TBS cornstarch and 1/2 TBS of water mixed together, then added into the berry mix while boiling to thicken. You don't want to make it too thick, or your swirl will sink into the cheesecake. Think honey/syrup consistency at most, and egg white consistency at least to find that happy medium between the two. Set this in the fridge to cool.

And now for the magic.

For the cheesecake itself, you need:

• 16 ounces of reduced fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1/2 cup Swerve granular or Lakanto monkfruit sweetener
• 1 TBS lemon zest
• 1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs at room temp
• 2-4 TBS fresh lemon juice to taste (if you want a sweeter cheesecake, go with less lemon juice)
• For topping: Cool Whip Free and 4 ounces of blackberries

With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, blend the cream cheese and sugar replacement on medium-high until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the zest, extract, and sour cream, and blend well. Then, on low speed, add each egg, one a at time, totally blending in one egg to the batter before adding the next. Do not mix at a high speed; this adds air with the egg whites and could cause cracking and deflated cheesecake sadness later. Finally, add the lemon juice to taste. I happen to still love eating things like Warheads, fresh limes, and Sour Patch kids, so I went with the full 4 tablespoons--this was the perfect amount of lemon juice for me and my also sour-obsessed husband. If your idea of a sour food is a bag of Skittles, don't use this much lemon juice. Go with 1 tablespoon at a time, tasting after you mix in each to get things to your liking.

Ah yes, the classic tinfoil hat.

Once your batter is made, grab your crust out of the fridge and tie a crockpot liner around it. Then wrap the pan in several layers of foil...this will all prevent any water from the water bath getting into the pan and sogging the crust.

And then pour in the cheesecake batter!

Now comes the absolutely fun part where you get to pretend you're an abstract painter. Take the cooled blackberry puree and dollop spoonfuls over the top of the cheesecake batter:

Not blood. Just wait...October is around the corner...

Now, use a knife to gently trace through the blackberry puree in an S pattern:

Things still look spooky at this point, and I'm more than okay with it.

Don't swirl too much, or you risk spreading the puree too thin. Now, grab a roasting pan and put your cheesecake inside it. Fill the pan with VERY HOT, STEAMING water. I use 6 cups of water.

The water should come about halfway up your springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake in the middle of the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes. The center will still be wobbly, but the sides should very clearly be set. If you poke at the roasting pan with a pot holder and nothing shakes but the middle of the cheesecake, it's done. Now, turn off the oven and crack the door. Let the cheesecake finish baking with the oven door cracked for 1 hour.

Okay, now it's less spooky and more ohhhhh-y.

After that hour, remove from the roasting pan and place on a cooling rack. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan to loosen any bits of the side that might be stuck to the sides. Let this cool to room temp before placing plastic wrap on top and refrigerating for at least 4 hours in the pan if not overnight. I always let my cheesecakes set overnight, so good rule of thumb is to make this a day or two ahead of when you need/want it. Which is kind of a Catch-22 because when don't you need/want cheesecake, really?

If I could only eat one dessert for the rest of my life, cheesecake just might be that dessert.

The next day, remove the springform pan and place on your preferred serving plate. You could call it a day here because really, it's a very pretty and delicate-looking cheesecake, but when have you ever known me not to add sprinkles or swirls to the top of a dessert?!

It's like lip gloss and eyeliner, but for dessert.

I used 40 grams of Cool Whip Free, placed into a piping bag fitted with a 2D tip, simply piping stars around the border of the cheesecake:

It does hide a little of the swirl, but I needed a platform in which to add MORE BLACKBERRIES.

And I did just that.

Because even on their own, blackberries are also really quite cute. Like a little connect the dots of deliciousness.

Pretty? Pretty fruity? Pretty yummy? All of the above. This strikes the right balance of how creamy and smooth a cheesecake should be while the blackberry swirl gives a hint of tart and sweet that blends with it perfectly. I will say the creaminess of this cheesecake is really the thing that stands out the most, even over the lemon. It is still a nice tart zip at the end of each bite, but if you need MORE lemon, you could definitely serve this with a spoonful of lemon curd on each slice as well. I think that might just be the most perfect thing ever...which we all truly deserve due to *gestures wildly* all this. Don't forget to treat yourself. You've made it 9 months into a year that is going to make any company that publishes history books absolute trillions. If that hasn't earned you a slice of cheesecake, I don't know what does. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters! 

I long for the days when I could eat dessert without using it as a coping mechanism...