Halloween Cheesecake

Of all of the holidays, Halloween has to be my least favorite.  I just can't get into skulls, gore, monsters and spiders.  Honestly I might even prefer President's Day and Columbus Day.  Serious.  Maybe I'm a fun-hater.

That being said, I recently saw really cute spider cookies on Pinterest.  (Um, I just used 'cute' and 'spider' in the same sentence.  Yikes.)  Eli loved them and campaigned to make them, but I don't have any meringue powder to make royal icing.  Izaak, on the other hand, has been requesting cheesecake.  And then I had an epiphany.  A Halloween cheesecake.  

I can't bring myself to call this creation a spider cheesecake, or a spiderweb cheesecake, because how unappetizing does that sound?

Unappetizing.

People who like spiders and spiderwebs should come over and visit my barn in August to see the real deal.  We're authentic around these parts. 

So this is a Halloween cheesecake.  I started with the Ultimate Cheesecake Recipe from Tyler Florence of the Food Network.  Heads up - it called for 45 minutes of bake time, but could have used 50.  The bad thing about cheesecake is that it's hard to tell when it's done just by looking at the top.  But no cracks on the top, and that's always a good thing! 

   
After the cheesecake chilled overnight I made a ganache, of sorts.  I couldn't melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips with heavy whipping cream because I didn't have any so I went with something better anyway.  Peanut butter.

For the spiderweb I went with melted almond bark because I had a few bricks left from a different project.  I'm sure melted white chocolate chips would have been fine, too.

I love those squeeze bottles.  You can get them at WalMart for like $2, and they're fabulous for projects like this.  Use the squeeze bottle to draw circles on the top of the chocolate.  If you don't have a squeeze bottle, just put the melted almond bark in a zip-loc baggie, cut a tiny bit of one corner off and squeeze it out of that.

Then you'll need another specialized tool.  A toothpick.  Starting at the center, just drag a toothpick to the outside all around the cheesecake and walla, a web!

 

 
Since it's a spiderweb, it seemed a little empty without an occupant....

 

He's made out of a Hershey's Spice Kiss and some black licorice.  Since he's so very obviously not life-like, he's not disgusting and doesn't ruin the cheesecake.  Why anyone makes life-like bugs and eyeballs and chopped off fingers out of food is really beyond me.  I just don't get it.

But this, I get.

 

Let me tell you, I reached rock-star-mom status with this thing.  Our 15-year old took a picture with his iPhone.  To show his friends.  For real.  (Disclaimer: This is the same boy who hates cream cheese and can detect it in anything.  He wouldn't eat this cheesecake, he just admired its construction.)

He missed out.  It was as good as it was cute.  Even with a web and a spider.

 

How-To:

For the cheesecake, use the recipe linked above.  

For the chocolate topping, I used a 1/2 cup peanut butter and a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted in the microwave for one minute.  I spread it on the chilled cheesecake while it was still in the springform pan.

For the almond bark I melted about 3 bricks out of the package and had leftovers.  Melted almond bark went into a squeeze bottle to draw the circles.  Make certain you draw your circles and then drag the lines with the toothpick quickly, because the almond bark firms up fast and if it solidifies you won't get a web, you'll get broken pieces of almond bark.

The spider was a Hershey's Spice Kiss with black licorice.

Chill the cheesecake after you do the chocolate top and web until the chocolate hardens.  Remove the sides of the springform pan, then enjoy!