I had the idea for an upsidedown cheesecake. Thinking it would have more fruit and less crust. The crust could be just a sprinkle of a nice crumb on the top. I didn't find a recipe I wanted to try, most were for pineapple upsidedown cheesecake, looking like a flip on an outdated idea with pineapples and cherries. Still, it would be a start to trying the idea with different fruit.

I did find a recipe for apple pie cheesecake which looks really good. I only wonder how the pie crust on the bottom is cooked, and not burnt. I think that would be the tricky part. I will try the recipe sometime with my niece. Leaving myself the link and the recipe here so I know where to get it.

APPLES: The best apples to use for baking include Honey Crisp or Granny Smith. Apples should be peeled and sliced.

CHEESECAKE: Just like our homemade cheesecake, this layer needs just 4 ingredients. Cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, and eggs. Simply mix and pour.

Cheesecake:

• 24 ounces cream cheese softened, 3 x 8oz packages
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, room temperature

Make Cheesecake Layer: Combine cream cheese mixture & fill the pie crust.

Make Apple Mixture: In a separate bowl, combine apple filling. Gently place on top of cream cheese mixture.

Add Crust: Top apples with second pie crust. Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7 tablespoons unsalted cold butter cubed
• 7 tablespoons shortening cubed
• ⅔ to 1 cup ice cold water

Instructions Combine flour and salt in a large bowl with a whisk. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter and shortening until the mixture resembles the size of peas.

Add ice cold water a tablespoon at a time to one area of the dough and mix with a fork. Move to one side of the bowl and continue adding water just until dough is moistened (you don't want it to be sticky). Once mixed use your hands to quickly and gently fold over the dough a couple of times. Divide into two balls. Roll one of the balls into a 12" circle on a lightly floured surface. Gently roll the dough onto a rolling pin and unroll over a 9" pie pan. Cut the edges so you have about ½" overhang. Crimp the edges and bake according to recipe directions.

Tips for perfect pie crust

• Make sure the butter is COLD for the flakiest crust.
• Use just enough water to hold together.
• Mix only until the fat pieces are pea sized.
• Handle the dough as little as possible.
• If time allows, chill the dough before rolling.

Bake (per recipe below) & serve. VARIATIONS: Sprinkle with a few pecans, and drizzle with this homemade easy caramel sauce. Or, serve with ice cream! Skip the top crust and use an apple crumble topping instead.

Tips for Perfection

• Cream cheese should be softened to room temperature.
• Don’t overmix the cream cheese mixture.
• Ensure the apples are thinly sliced so they cook through.
• Be sure to cut slits in the top crust so that steam can escape.
• For a glossy crust, combine one egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Wisk until combined and brush over the crust.
• Depending on your apples, the pie can sometimes bubble over so place the pie plate on a pan lined with parchment to save my oven any mess.

They did have their own unique way. Loads of butter and not being too fussy about how pristine everything was. Just like real people versus the over friendly and sterile stuff on most cooking shows now.

What can two fat ladies do? In this world where women are valued when they are young and skinny – what possible interest could two fat ladies from the UK have and how could they have published cookbooks and star in their own popular cooking show (1996 to 1999)?

Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright were the Two Fat Ladies

I loved the Two Fat Ladies because there dared to do things I would like to do. But, they dared to do them on TV, with people watching and they laughed too.

You can paralyze yourself with fear, make it hard just to get out of bed each morning. Out of bed it’s time to start thinking about how you look and how other people will see you. People with bad teeth won’t smile. People with bad hair wear a hat or shave it off. People who are fat can’t hide so well. Instead we think about how fat we look and we don’t smile, or talk much to other people. In short, many people are so self-conscious they do all they can to escape notice, stay in the background and go about doing what they must, living their own lives like ghosts. Living faded, in the background.

The Two Fat Ladies stepped out of the background and laughed about it.

They cooked with cream, butter, red meat and booze and they were not worried about dipping their fingers in or cooking in pristine conditions. They were biker babes riding a Triumph Thunderbird motorbike driven by Jennifer with Clarissa in the sidecar. The Two Fat Ladies were themselves and they let the rest of us see them that way too. I was proud of them and happy for them.

RIP Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright - You are missed.

Making cookies is a great thing to do around the holidays. But, you can make any kind of cookie you want to design all year round. With the right cookie cutter, some icing and a little know-how you can become a creative cookie designer.

My Grandmother had aluminum cookie cutters. She gave them to my Mother at some point. I can remember using the gingerbread man, the angel, the holly leaf and the holly wreath as we made Christmas cookies each year.

Making cookies is a great thing to do around the holidays. But, you can make any kind of cookie you want to design all year round. With the right cookie cutter, some icing and a little know-how you can become a creative cookie designer.

I'd Like to Be a Cookie Decorating Designer

Usually, I can find a cookie cutter for any shape I'm thinking of. But, I tend to stick with the standard gingerbread people, snow men and women, a house, an angel and round cookies which I can add some icing and sparkles. I'd love to try something like the cookies you see looking so perfect in the magazines and on the shelves at the local coffee shop.

So this season, I'm going to whip up another batch of my sugar cookie recipe and then follow the instructions to become a cookie decorating designer. I'd especially like to work on houses. I could turn them all into any season or style I can dream up. They would be a great way to work out the technique and, probably, let me hide at least some of my mistakes.

Be Your Own Tinsmith and Make Your Own Cookie Cutters

I think making your own cookie cutters would be a great new project. There would be a trick to planning the design to be just an outline yet still make sense. Also, it has to be something you can cut cookie dough without having it stick or come off with tiny pieces still stuck to the cookie cutter. I'd start with extra simple designs, like a cartoon with easy, basic lines.

Unique Ways to Use Cookie Cutters

Don't just use your cookie cutters for cutting cookie dough into shapes.

Keep your cookie cutters handy next time you feel like getting a bit fancy:

• mozzarella cheese for pizza toppings.
• sandwiches for kids.
• set melted chocolate in cookie cutters.
• rolled dough for mini pizzas.
• jack-o-lanterns.
• marshmallows for hot chocolate.
• fruit for salad.
• mini pie crusts.
• ice cream to be added to hot pie.
• fry an egg inside a cookie cutter.
• cook a pancake inside a cookie cutter.

Cookie cutters can be used for crafts to cut out fabric shapes for wreaths and other projects. You can also tie or glue a selection of cookie cutters to make a holiday wreath.

See More Cookie Cutters

People collect vintage cookie cutters especially. But some just like finding something interesting and unique. Not all of these groups will be active but I found them all to have something worth the visit.

A photo of a few of my own cookie cutters.

The first time I read about this doughnut baking pan was on a website I didn't keep track of. She was making such cute creations, pretty and yummy too. As I read I thought how clever or brave she was to make so many small doughnuts. Then... I read enough of her recipe to realize all her doughnuts were baked - not fried!

Have you ever tried making your own DIY doughnuts? I have made them with my sister. The part I don't like is the pan full of hot oil. It's dangerous. I do still have the doughnut cutters we used. They have sentimental value more than practical value because I've never tried making doughnuts again. But, I'd like to.

You can make doughnuts with a doughnut cutter, like a cookie cutter with an extra circle inside to cut out the doughnut hole in the middle. But, this requires frying them in oil. This method adds fat and more risk of danger with the large amount of bubbling hot oil on the stove. It's also less expensive (I think) to make baked doughnuts because you don't have to throw away all that oil (you can only reuse it a couple of times).

Doughnuts are more fun to make and decorate than cupcakes I think. Cupcakes are just a rounded bump but doughnuts are round circles with a hole in their middle. You can ignore the hole or decorate it - you can even make doughnuts from just the holes.If you miss the cupcake wrappers you can use them for doughnuts too. Just flatten them out or cut up circles of pretty paper from whatever you like. Left over gift wrapping paper is a great idea.

I also enjoy doughnuts because they can be a bit crispy compared to all cake-like.

Baking doughnuts in the oven is such a sensible idea. Grease the pan and let them cook into the doughnut shape while you wait. Nice and simple. Look for a recipe for baked doughnuts versus the traditional fried doughnuts. As you get the hang of it you can adapt recipes yourself.

Spelling Doughnut versus Donut

Doughnut is still the correct spelling. Donut began in the US. Eventually donut is likely to become the accepted spelling but for now it is more like a short form of the true word.

My favourite thing about family holidays has always been the family getting together and baking. Most holidays we made pies, bread/ rolls and the odd new-fangled concept which seemed to always work out, some how. Those days are a bit lost now as we move from the old generation into the new. But, I still like holiday baking and Halloween is one of my favourite three holidays. I like these gingerbread men because they bring something new to an old Christmas tradition and something new to Halloween. Halloween gingerbread men are a good combination. Plus, tasty treats too.

Of course, most of these are based on the zombie idea. It's so trendy these days with zombie walks popping up in so many places. Gingerbread men (gingerbread people) in the zombie style tend to come with parts missing, gore and so on. Of course, you could just eat the odd leg - but that's a bit too much like double dipping. Frowned upon.

Then there's the skeleton gingerbread guy. Will you pick out the bones first or risk just crunching them between your teeth, in real gruesome Halloween style?

Why not continue on with all the standard Halloween characters in gingerbread, the ghost, the witch, the vampire, the Frankenstein monster and the mummy too. You can get tin, some snips and create your own cookie cutter designs. If you really want to go all out with the idea of gingerbread characters for Halloween.

Decorating the gingerbread men would be a bit challenging. I wouldn't like to use a lot of black icing so I'd get creative and turn them into colourful characters. Bring in more green and orange, black isn't the only traditional Halloween colour. Why should cookies be so darkly Gothic?

Pick a recipe for a basic or simple sugar cookie. These are the type which you can roll out, cut and decorate. Not every recipe will be roller friendly so if you try a new recipe read it all the way through first. Some may need refrigeration, some may be crispy and likely to break and snap once they are baked. Martha Stewart has a basic sugar cookie recipe, but if you have a family favourite stick with that!

Ghastly, spooky, creepy ideas in cookie cutting (and decorating) for Halloween.

Decorating cookies is a great way to make your best creative notions as edible creations. Use a simple cookie recipe, cut out the cookie shapes, decorate them, bake them and share them with family, friends and whoever wears the best costume.