Laurel's 13

My baby is OLD. *sob*

Laurel turned 13 on the 29th. We'd been planning her party for a couple of months, mostly because Jay always does something super special (if he's home, that is.) This year he made a Twilight/New Moon version of Jeopardy for the party. He spent a lot of time making an entire game of crazy hard questions. It was spectacular. He used PowerPoint to do the clues, the answers, and even had the Final Jeopardy music playing when that last question came around. He went above and beyond. Laurel's friend Rebecca won the grand prize, the Twilight Trivia game. Jay also baked at Laurel's request, a Brownie Cheese Cake. (From the Rachael Ray Website)

Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

Tags: desserts cookies bake

Submitted by

Plan B Mom

on 05/04/09

These bar cookies are the perfect combination of cheesecake and brownie. They are very rich, so a small square is a satisfying serving.

Brownies:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 squares semisweet chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Cheesecake topping:

• 1 package cream cheese (8 oz.) softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbs. butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbs. milk
• 1 tbs. flour
• 3 squares semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Icing:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 squares semisweet chocolate
• 2 tbs. butter
• pinch of salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 350ºF degrees.

Brownies:

Melt butter and chocolate together, set aside to cool. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Stir in flour and baking soda, and then the chocolate mixture. Mix well and pour into greased 9 inch square pan.

Cheesecake topping:

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar and butter until creamy . Mix in eggs, milk and flour - mix well. Stir in chocolate and spread evely over brownie layer. Bake 40 - 45 minutes. Cool.

Icing:

Combine sugar, cream and vanilla in a small saucepan. Stir to blend. Place pan over medium high heat and bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat and add chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Let sit until mixture is slightly cooled and thick enough to spread.

Pour over cooled cake and chill. Cut into squares and store in refrigerator.

Holy Cow, They're Good!!

The rest of the time we let Laurel, Ben, Miah and Rebecca hang out and watch Twilight and New Moon on Blu-Ray, while Jay and I watched the Food Network upstairs.
Laurel got all kinds of jewelry, vampire t-shirts, and even got a couple of things from Bj, April and the gang. Very cool twilight bag and necklace!
Okay, so now for the few, but silly pictures: