It's been a while since I baked a cheesecake, but I think there is no better occasion than a birthday, to bake a delicious treat for others to enjoy. A few weeks ago, my brother turned 17 (I swear he was just a toddler, banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons). He didn't ask for an Oreo cheesecake, but when I saw the soccer themed cupcake liners and decorate picks at Michael's, I knew I had to use them for my soccer loving brother. Soccer balls are black and white, and Oreo cheesecake is black and white - perfect.
The first step is to bake the Oreo cheesecake. Of course I went with cupcake form to create equal portions. I used this recipe, although I changed a few things, so the complete recipe will be at the end of this post. Once the cheesecake was done in the oven, it had to cool in the fridge for about an hour until I started to decorate.
I hope you can tell that the green icing is supposed to look like grass. I used the Wilton tip 233 to get the effect, however, my icing got a bit too soft as I was holding and playing with the piping bag. I used a store bought vanilla icing mix and added an electric green food color paste to get the bright green color. For a more realistic grass, you would need to use a darker shade of green, as well as a firmer icing, such as buttercream.
Next up was the 'dirt'. I separated Oreo cookies but removing the cream and grinding up the wafer parts to create a coarse dirt. This can easily be done by placing the cookies in a zip-loc bag and crushing them with a rolling pin.
- the mess in progress -
Once you complete that messy step, you can decorate the cupcakes with the toothpick decoration. If you can't find these at a craft store, they can easily be made at home with printed soccer balls and a bit of tape or glue in between to tick together.
- sparklers make everything better // happy birthday to you! -
The birthday boy loved them, as did the rest of the family! But, who wouldn't love an Oreo cheesecake cupcake? I was really proud of this theme idea because I thought of it all by myself. My mother even said it was something you could pick up at a special bakery. Aw.
Individual Oreo Cheesecakes Recipe (adapted from recipe found here)
- Makes 18 servings
Ingredients:
- 38 Oreo cookies (18 Whole Oreo cookies + 10 chopped Oreos + 10 wafers only for topping)
- 3 (8oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup of vanilla icing (I used Duncan Hines, but medium consistency butter cream is ideal)
- Lime green food coloring
- Heat oven to 350F.
- Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Place one cookie in each liner.
- Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl with mixer until blended. Add sour cream and vanilla and continue to mix. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed to combine. Fold in chopped Oreos until equally dispersed. Spoon into cupcake liners.
- Bake 20 minutes, or until the centers are almost set.
- Cool for 30 minutes (they cool faster if taken out of metal pan). Refrigerate for 3 hours.
- Add a few drops of lime green food coloring into prepared vanilla icing. Scoop icing into a pastry bag with a Wilton tip 233, secured by a coupler. Refrigerate until decorating cheesecakes.
- After 1 hour, use this technique to get the grass effect.
- Take 10 reserved Oreo wafers, place them into a zip-loc bag and crush with a rolling pin. Take the crumbs and sprinkle them into each cupcake to resemble dirt. Add a final toothpick for decoration.
- Enjoy!
