Charlie’s absolute favorite dessert is cheesecake. If it is offered on the menu, he always chooses it. So, my Easy Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake Pie is just for him to start off the month of October leading up to Halloween!
It was inspired by my sister-in-law, Missy, who sent home a cream cheese cake recipe along with many of her other favorite recipes. She bakes her version in the oven and I’ll make it for the blog soon. But, when reading her recipe, the first thing that popped into my mind is that her recipe would be good for Halloween, if I dyed it orange. Then, I took it down a completely different path and decided to make a no-bake version.
So, thanks, Missy! I’ll make yours soon!
This Easy Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake Pie just takes a few minutes to whip together, a tiny bit of extra effort to make the Jack-O-Lantern stencil and then about 2 hours in the refrigerator and voila’ – a special dessert without too much exertion! Plus, if you are having a Halloween party, this can be made several days ahead and keeps well in the refrigerator, checking off one more thing from your party checklist.
Speaking of party checklist, I created one earlier this year, so if you need one for the holiday parties you are planning this year, here are links to help you out:
42 Things to do when Planning Your Next Party
42 Party Supplies for Your Next Party
And, guess what? I made you a Jack-O-Lantern stencil in PicMonkey for your Easy Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake Pie! Here it is:
Just print it out from this link: Jack-O-Lantern Template for Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake Pie. Using scissors, cut out the circle following the border, then cut the eyes, nose and mouth. Lay it on top of your cheesecake and use a small spoon to sprinkle black sugar on the cut-out areas. Then carefully remove the stencil so that no black sugar bits mar the rest of the jack-o-lantern’s face.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself! First you have to make the cheesecake! It’s so easy, really…made with a pre-made Oreo Pie Crust, you mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar and Cool Whip with an electric mixer. Add drops of orange gel food coloring until you get the right shade of orange, still beating with the electric mix. Scrape the cheesecake mixture into the pre-made pie crust, smooth with a spatula, lay down the stencil, sprinkle the sugar, remove the stencil and you are done!
Two hours in the refrigerator and you are ready to cut that grinning bad boy – well, you’ll probably have a little angst in doing that because, after all, you did go to the trouble of making him so cute! By the way, I blew the extra black sugar off the stencil BEFORE I removed the stencil. I did this over my kitchen sink so that black sugar didn’t fly everywhere. Huffing and puffing…
I had to think about this a bit, because sometimes I’m not the sharpest tack in the toolbox and have been known to do stupid things. Want to know what some of those stupid things are? Read these posts {grin}:
- Attack of the Amazon Elves
- Brown Sugar Pineapple Ham: A Cautionary Tale of a Pinterest Failure
- Cake Batter Fudge Bars
- Foil-wrapped Roasted Turkey
- Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
- Of Messes in Pots
- Running on Empty
- Strawberry Cake
- The Leprechaun Cake Wreck Caper
- Witch’s Brew
Gosh! That’s a lot! I’m going to leave it at that about my vast, numerous, incredible failures {grin}!
Anyway, I used a toothpick to “pick up” the bits of black sugar that ended up in places that I didn’t want them. The black sugar will “bleed” into the orange cheesecake.
I sweated over cutting my Easy Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake Pie because I had “no back-up plan”, i.e., I didn’t make two! But, I decided to just do it so that I could photograph it and after several moments of indecision as to WHERE I should cut into his face, I chose his mouth!
I worried so much about WHERE to cut my Easy Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake Pie, that I didn’t think to put a dollop of Cool Whip on top! So, add a dollop on yours when you make this, k?
Wanda the Witch sends greetings!
Here’s the recipe:
Easy Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake Pie
Creamy and deliciously light, this no-bake cheesecake is easy to make.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 – 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
- 1 – 8 ounce carton of Cool Whip
- Several drops of orange gel food coloring
- 1 – 8 1/2” pre-made Oreo pie crust
- 3/4 ounce of black decorating sugar
- Jack-O-Lantern stencil
- Extra Cool Whip, for garnish
Instructions
- Print jack-o-lantern stencil and cut out into circle along lines plus cut out eyes, nose and mouth.
- Remove packaging from pre-made Oreo pie crust.
- In a mixing bowl, blend together cream cheese, powdered sugar and Cool Whip with an electric mixer.
- Add orange gel food coloring a few drops at a time, mixing with electric mixer until you get the desired shade of orange.
- With a spatula, scrape cream cheese mixture into pre-made pie crust and smooth with spatula.
- Lay stencil over cream cheese.
- Use a small spoon to spread black decorating sugar into cut-out areas of stencil.
- If necessary, blow extra sugar off of stencil (do this over your sink), so that when you remove the stencil, the excess sugar doesn’t ruin your pie!
- Carefully remove stencil and discard.
- Use a toothpick to remove any stray black decorating sugar from the orange cheesecake.
- Refrigerator a least 2 hours or overnight.
- Slice and serve with an extra dollop of Cool Whip, if desired.
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other pie recipes)
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