Pumpkin Cheesecake

Sugar and spice and everything nice - that's what pumpkin cheesecake is made of!  Bonus is it's very easy to make though you do need a good blender or food processor to whirl the tofutti and tofu together silky smooth. I got the recipe from fat-free vegan kitchen though I did go against her advice and used pumpkin pie mix and am really glad I did.  I did mine with organic sugar - I was concerned that agave syrup would make it too runny -- not sure if it would or not but I didn't want to chance it.  I also substituted tapioca starch for the cornstarch - that change didn't seem to effect the outcome as it baked perfectly.

Caramel sauce on top was added by me and I loved the two together.  It's not part of the original recipe from fat-free vegan kitchen - it's the same sauce used on the salted vanilla caramel cupcakes.  If you find that is too sweet for you trying whipping up some coconut creme instead.  I've not tried it myself but I'm sure it would be delicious. I have had coconut cream pudding at Padmanadi Restaurant and it is delightful so I'm pretty confident the whipped coconut cream would be as well. Another nice addition might be a scoop of So Delicious Gourmet Vanilla ice cream. I have some in the freezer and look forward to experimenting :O)  I'm also thinking this pumpkin pie filling would be perfect as mini tarts with a little star piping of whipped coconut cream.  



I found this absolutely spectular pumpkin pie mix by Farmer's Market at Earth's General Store.  It's flavored to perfection for this application. Farmer's Market goes the extra mile by ensuring that the cans that their beautiful organic pumpkin pie mix comes in have BPA- free liners!

This is my second time making this recipe - and it was by request from my DD Nicole who celebrated her 30-something birthday yesterday.  She was my beautiful Christmas surprise in 1979! She was supposed to be my New Year's baby but came a wee bit early and consequently I rushed out of the house with half-baked xmas cookies left in the oven (I did turn it off).  I also had request to make some vanilla cupcakes by my other DD Rachel and I love how they turned out so here's a pic of them and of my two lovely darling daughters!  I used the same recipe as the salted caramel vanilla cupcakes but I took away 2 tablespoons of white flour and subbed with 2 tablespoons of tapioca starch and will do that again for future cupcakes.  I think it makes it a little lighter tasting which I like for vanilla cupcake.  I used Let's Do Confetti Sprinklez for a little added glam!  I used smucker's strawberry topping in the icing to get the delicate pink color - worked nicely and gave it a nice little tang.