Cream Cheese Competition Prep

The day of the cream cheese festival has finally arrived! This is my second year entering and I feel a lot more prepared this year. Last year I entered the caramel apple cheesecake that is requested quite often among my family, but I didn't win anything. I was probably a lot more disappointed than I should have been, but I'm back at it again this year. I decided to enter all three categories this time around since I have a better grasp of what I need to do. I thought I'd share my kitchen process yesterday just for the fun of it. And because I'm wasting time, trying to ignore how nervous I am for the competition to start in a few hours!

On Thursday night I had to make the peanut butter cheesecake layer for my cake. It needs a lot of time to chill. I also only have one good cheesecake pan, so I had to get this part out of the way first!

Despite how much I had to do, I decided to make some buttermilk biscuits for breakfast. Mostly because I had a huge container of buttermilk in the fridge that expired yesterday, so I figured I better use up what I could.

Very good!

Next, the chocolate oreo crust for the raspberry cheesecake.

My cheesecake! It's chocolate with a hint of raspberry. I got the idea for this cheesecake the day after the competition last year and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

Here is my finished dip entry. I decided to call it Zippy Pig and Stink Dip. It's filled with caramelized onions, an entire package of crispy bacon, cayenne pepper, and crushed black pepper. I did a trial run of this a few weeks ago and thought it was good. I tasted it yesterday after my adjustments and it was delicious. 

The chocolate cakes turned out beautifully!

I took another detour and made Greg some chocolate peanut butter chip cookies to celebrate his awesome review and raise at work. It's kind of sad that chocolate chip cookies are pretty much the only dessert I can think of that my husband actually enjoys eating.

Getting the raspberries cleaned and picked out for the top of the cheesecake.

I decided to add something to my original recipe for this cake by throwing in some chocolate frosting. I made this frosting for Shepard's birthday cakes and I am totally in love with it. I'm not sure if this will help or hurt the overall recipe since it's yet another non-cream cheese component. But it's seriously so delicious I'm hoping it will help!

The layers!

Friday is pizza night, so this week I decided to make a Thai Chicken pizza. I've been wanting to try out a peanut sauce recipe and thought this was a good opportunity. Too bad Greg really does hate peanut sauce (I thought I could get away with it on a loaded pizza!) and I was too full from munching all day that I wasn't very hungry for dinner.

Surprisingly, Shepard, who doesn't normally eat pizza these days, gobbled it up. At least it looks pretty!

The cookies! They were GIGANTIC.

Finally, the peanut butter cream cheese frosting for the cake. Shepard ran out of his bath and immediately closed in for a taste.

Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake. We get more points for creative names, but I couldn't really think of anything for this one. I also can't believe I forgot to take pictures of my chocolate curl attempts. That literally took me about half the day. I was getting pretty angry by the end. Three whole bags of chocolate chips and this is what I got. Not at all what I wanted, but good enough, I guess.

I did a trial run of this for Valentine's Day and it was delicious. I really hope the second try is just as good!

Pretty!

This cake is my entry for the "New Cream Cheese Recipe" category. I figured I could enter it because it has a cheesecake layer in the middle and a peanut butter cream cheese frosting. There are so many components I wasn't sure what to call it. This is what I ended up with: "It's a Mouthful" Never Enough Peanut Butter Fully Loaded Chocolate Surprise Cake. It works.

I was having a ton of trouble with the chocolate ganache too. This is my second attempt.

And I topped the cake with shaved melted peanut butter chips, hoping for a little more aesthetic value. It'll do.

And now I'm off to the competition! Wish me luck!!