Oreos and Cheesecake in a Cupcake. . . What Could Be Better?????

I had been saving this recipe/blog entry by Grace @ Graces Sweet Life for a recipe called Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes for quite some time now.  It popped up on my Stumble site and is now a favorite.  Actually, Grace says it's from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes recipe book.

One look at those cheesecakes and my girls and I KNEW these would have to happen at our house.  I waited until my daughter's graduation (her name is Gracie, too!) to try them out. I choose to ignore the cardinal rule of always trying out recipes before major entertaining events.  I know this rule.  I have been burned when neglecting it on more than one occasion.  However, I chose to ignore it due to time constraints.  I am a procrastinator at heart.  Don't do that.

The recipe was a sinch.  One batch made more than I thought, so I ended up only making three batches instead of my intended five.  Thank goodness. . . I was pressed for time as graduation was the next day.

The only glitch was the presentation.  The latter part of the recipe calls for a squirt of canned whipping cream and a chunk of oreo.  We had to prepare these ahead of time, but by the time company arrived, the whipping cream had melted to a puddle.  Ughhh. . . not a pretty site.  I was in dispair.  The broken oreo lay there in the puddle a top the cheesecake.  I had even put them in the fridge to help maintain the shape of the whipping cream.

Still yummy of course, but not very appetizing to the naked eye.  I asked my mother-in-law what could have happened and she asked if I used real whipping cream.  Heavens.  I don't know!  I ran to the can to check.  The can said it contained REAL whipping cream, so maybe that was not the issue.  What a mystery.

I scraped the whipping cream off and did a fresh squirt of cream and stuck them in the freezer till serving time.  This worked okay, but still, not the same.  Needless to say,  I have several dozen leftover little cheesecakes frozen in the freezer as I write.  I'm not sure how I will use them. . . maybe I'll pull them out after meals and reintroduce them to my family as something new.  Or, I could chop them up and put them in something else. . . ice cream???  Between layers of chocolate cake?  Who knows where my mind will take them?

Ideas for next time would be to use cake frosting for the top of the cheesecakes. . . maybe butter cream frosting shaped and formed with a cake decorating tool.  It would hold it's shape and be way yummy.  Or, maybe, just make sure to put the whipping cream on just before serving.

Regardless, I will make these again.  They are way to easy not to.  And we are all cheesecake and oreo cookie lovers at my house. Workin out the kinks is part of life!  And figuring out what to do with mistakes is just as fun. :-)

Shari