Thanksgiving baking fest

After the holiday I realize it's beyond time to update this blog.  Those of you close to me know I love to bake and you probably know I was also in charge of dessert for Thanksgiving.  When I got the assignment I was pumped! Getting to bake for more than just myself! wooh! and that means I'll be baking more than one thing too! double wooh!! If anyone has made a big dinner or hosted Thanksgiving or Christmas etc one of the biggest fears a person has is running out of food.  I was no exception.  So I started my baking on Monday night once I was off of work... Monday night's baking consisted of peppermint bark, andy's mint bark, and white chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. 

Here's the before and after of the white-chocolate cheesecake... the top ended up cracking... so I'm still on the hunt for the perfectly perfected cheesecake.  The flavors were pretty standard, although I would have liked more of a 'white chocolate' flavor.. whatever that may or may not be..

Next on the list is the Andy's mint bark. Probably one of my favorites from this weekend! A layer of dark chocolate (melted) and chocolate cookies pressed into the melted dark chocolate.. cooled.. then white chocolate (with a little bit of green food coloring) melted down and spread over the top- then Andys mints on top of that! It tasted exactly like the Girl Scout's thin mints! (this will be made again!)

 The last thing I made Monday night was this peppermint bark.. I opted for just white chocolate and crushed candy canes, but I think it might have been better if I had put a layer of dark chocolate under it all.. but it was still delicious and it still got eaten!

Day Two of Baking started with pumpkin-pie angel food cake.  I had made this earlier in the year and since it turned out so well i wanted to make it again.  It was one of those "I know this is going to be good" desserts.  I had no idea how the cheesecake was going to turn out- so this was a safe bet for the feast.  The first photo is whipping the egg-whites and the second is me mixing in the pumpkin deliciousness

 Once it was mixed, poured, and baked I left it in the pan to cool while I started making my mini-pecan pies.. The pecan pies were something I've never made (and had been requested) so i couldn't disappoint and not make it! I even made some of the crust from scratch... The recipe was pretty simple and these too turned out pretty well.  The hardest part was getting the pies out of the pans!!

The last two items on my baking list were a pumpkin pie (also requested) and an almond bark no-bake thing.  The pumpkin pie was another thing I had never made before (i ended up using pre-made pie crust for this one) but it was a pretty simple thing to do. mix canned pumpkin and evaporated milk spices and in the oven it goes.  The almond bark stuff was super easy and is something i've made billions of times.. again it was a success and people said they liked everything I had made... there were even a few questions/suggestions about why i didn't go to culinary school. i just laughed. (i probably should have!) 

The night ended with jumbling towers (i lost), old maid (i lost), and other board games I've been accused of memorizing.  :) it was a good day spent with good people, good food, good times, and good memories. A success!