Creamy Strawberry Cookie Tarts

I'm back! Not that I really went anywhere. Sorry for my absence. I made these yummy strawberry cookie tarts for a work party and thought I would share them with you. I was a little worried about how these would taste with the jello mixture on top of a cookie and all...just seemed odd to me. But everyone at work really liked them, so yay! I mean the way I see it is you can't go wrong with anything that has cream cheese in it...am I right or am I right? I thought so. :o) These were really easy to make and took no time at all. I was thinking they would be really yummy will raspberry jello instead, oh and an Oreo cookie on the bottom...yummers!

Creamy Strawberry Cookie Tarts (from Kraft)
Yields: 12

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin
• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
• 1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
• 12 CHIPS AHOY! Cookies
• 12 small strawberries

1. Stir boiling water into dry gelatin mix in small bowl at least 2 min. until completely dissolved. Cool 5 min., stirring occasionally.
2. Pour gelatin mixture into blender. Add cream cheese; cover. Blend on medium speed 30 to 45 sec. or until well blended; scrape down side of blender container, if needed. Add whipped topping; cover. Blend on low speed 5 sec. or just until blended.
3. Line 12 muffin pan cups with paper liners; spray with cooking spray. Place 1 cookie on bottom of each prepared cup; top evenly with the gelatin mixture. Refrigerate 1 hour 30 min. or until firm. Top each with a strawberry just before serving. Store leftover desserts in refrigerator.

-amanda

Red, White, and Blue!

These are quite possibly my favorite cupcakes that I have ever made. They are festive for the 4th of July, and oh so tasty. Now, the cake itself is not from scratch because I had an extra box of white cake mix laying around for some cake balls that never happened. Plus, I always know that the boxed cake mix will be wonderful, so that only leaves me to worry about how the new icing recipe will turn out. I did however, add some sprinkles to the cake mix to make it festive on in the inside too!

In the picture below are some of the main things
needed to make these cupcakes...sparklers? Yup!

After you make your cake batter, pour in some sprinkles!

The cupcakes waiting to go in the oven...

And they're done!

The icing recipe I used is below, and it is DELICIOUS! It is a white chocolate cream cheese frosting, and my taste testers loved it!

White Chocolate Frosting
Adapted from Taste Duds

• 7oz (approx. 1 heaping cup) white chocolate chips
• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

1. Melt white chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave in 20-second bursts. Cool for about 10 minutes.
2. Cream butter and cream cheese together using an electric mixture (make sure they are both room temperture or they won't cream properly).
3. Add the white chocolate and vanilla and beat until combined.
4. Carefully add in the powdered sugar and beat at low speed until combined.
5. Turn off mixer and give it a good stir to make sure everything is combined.

Then pour into a pastry bag with a large star tip and pipe away! To get the colors in the frosting I took a paint brush and painted red and blue lines inside the pastry bag using the Wilton Icing colors, and then filled the bag with icing. However, it didn't work as well as I had hoped. The first cupcake was pretty much just white then the next ones were really dark and then the color kind of faded away. You may have to add more paint when you refill the bag if you want them all to have similar color, or just use two bags.

(The sparkler was just for photography sake, and any
cupcakes with sparklers in them should not be eaten!)

Enjoy and have a wonderful 4th of July!!
-amanda