Sweetheart Cheesecake

I can’t believe that another month has already flown by. It’s June in a few days! All the days have really been blending together and now with the kitchen being worked on, it seems like it has been a very long time since I last baked anything or had a kitchen to use.

A little while back, I think it was for Easter, I made my chocolate cheesecake, or Sweetheart cheesecake. I hadn’t made it in ages but I had a craving and I thought it might be a yummy dessert for an isolating Easter dinner and it definitely was. It was so good, yet another cake that I could eat for breakfast, haha. So take a look below and see how I made Sweetheart cheesecake and try one out while you isolate and to ring in the month of June!  

Sweetheart Cheesecake Recipe

Crust:

1 cup of graham wafers

3-3  ½ tsp. of cocoa powder

2 tbsp. of sugar

3-3 ½ tsp. of melted butter

Filling:

3 pkgs. (250g) of cream cheese

1 cup of sugar

3eggs

½ cup of cocoa powder

Whipping cream for the top

Combine the crumbs along with the sugar, butter, and cocoa. 

Mix well and press into 1.5 l spring form pan. I suggest lining the bottom with parchment paper first.

Now in your mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Then beat in the sugar gradually.

Now add in the eggs one at a time at a low speed.

Add in cocoa and beat until smooth.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes. It usually take a few minutes longer. You want it to be moist-ish but not dry and cracked. Mine does always tend to crack but I hide it with whipped cream and it’s fine.

Allow it to cool. I like to make this the day before. This cake is best served nice and cold. You can top it with whipped cream and berries (strawberries and raspberries are the best). I also added on some white chocolate shavings for an extra added touch.

DIY Key Chains for Dad

It’s the end of May already! Thinking ahead to Father’s Day, we are going to do a couple of posts all for dad, and this week we are going to show you how to make some key chains. We made these with dad in mind but you can make them for anyone at any time!

The first type was painted. We found some wooden cubes.  The ones we chose had holes already in them which was perfect for the last step of our project. You can pick other shapes as well and then drill holes in them before you paint them.

We painted the cubes. Now we decided to do three for each chain but you can do more. The more you do, the bigger the chain so I’d probably stick to 3-5. We chose some nice colour combos for the three chains that we made. Then we painted.

You probably want to do a couple of coats and then let them completely dry overnight.

Next we wrote on the cubes. I always like to lightly sketch the letter/design with a pencil first before I commit to a final design.

We used a Sharpie, but you can use paint with a really fine tip paint brush, and we traced over our pencil.

Write on all the sides or on just one, two, or three. Do whatever you like. We did a mix.

Since it’s for Father’s Day, we did a couple that say dad and one that says “I ♥ U”.

Lastly we attached some twine to the actual key ring, then the cubes together with the twine.

We connected a couple by knotting the twine between the cubes and then the other one we just put them all on a strand and knotted the ends so they didn’t fall off.

For the second key ring that we did we used hot glue!

First of all you’ll need to pick the paper that you want for the two sides. We decided on a pattern piece along with a solid piece that matched the pattern. Pick whatever you like. You’ll also want to decide on a shape and cut that out with scissors, a punch, or a cutting machine. Make sure the shape is slightly larger than the key ring you are going to use. You’ll need two no matter what size and what type of paper you use.

Lay out some parchment paper to glue on so that the glued piece is easy to remove.

Hot glue over the entire shape being careful not to go off the edges, and do that for both of the matching shapes.

Let it dry completely. Ours warped a bit so we flattened them under heavy books.

We then took some floral wire that we had left over from another project and twisted it into a loop with a “tail.” You can use a different easily bendable wire that you have or you can buy pre-made eye hooks.

Once the two sides are flat and you have your wire/hook ready, then put hot glue on the straight part of the wire/”tail” and stick it down on the inside of one of the sides.

Take the second side and put a thin layer of hot glue and stick them together.

Attach the key ring to the hook.

The finished products...

Yukon - Midnight Sun

This week...the Yukon!

Midnight Sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the Yukon each year. It occurs in the summer months and the sun stays out until midnight on some nights (usually around June 11-July1); toward the poles the midnight sun sticks around for more days. Around the summer solstice each year it stays light out for 24 hours! If you visit the Yukon during these days you’ll be able to stay out longer, see more sights, and go on more adventures.

Here are some midnight sun adventures that you can partake in:

The 24 Hours of Light Mountain Bike Festival which occurs during the midnight sun days each year. It’s the only 24 hour bike race where lights are not allowed.

The Midnight Sun Golf Tournament tees off at midnight and you play until the morning!

The 30 Mile Historic Yukon River Tour.

You could go on midnight hikes on many of the trails located in the Yukon.

Try camping during the midnight sun.

There’s even a two week road trip through the Yukon which lasts the duration of the midnight sun. On this tour you will explore the Klondike, Dawson, The Kluane Mountain Range, Miles Canyon, and the Southern Lakes.  

Here is a link to the Yukon Tourism website with many things that you can see and do in the Yukon during the midnight sun weeks or you can of course do them in at different times as well.

And take a look at some of the cool midnight sun photos that I found.