Moody Mini Cheesecakes - for Krista's Goth Party

When charged with bringing a dish for a Goth theme party, how do you reflect that in the food? Same way you turn regular hair and makeup goth, dye it black, of course!



Moody Mini Cheesecakes:

I took the super easy route, and used Philadelphia Cream Cheese's ready-to-eat cheesecake filling, which I first tried for the Wicked Wonderland party and found to be a huge time saver (and still tasty). I dripped a few drops of black food coloring into the container and stirred.



And a few more drops. And more. And at around 50 drops I got worried about the effects of that much coloring and decided that an angsty grey color was just fine too:



I set it back in the fridge to firm up before piping, and worked on the graham cracker crust. I followed the directions on the back of the graham cracker crumb box (definitely use pre-ground graham cracker crumbs, in the baking aisle by the ready made crusts. Both Keebler and Honeymaid make them, huge time saver). It's a very easy combination of crumbs, sugar, and butter. I scooped a heaping teaspoon into each foil mini muffin cup (foil is necessary to come off clean - don't use paper), then pressed it down till it was hard.



I baked them at 350 for 10 mins, until golden brown, then cooled completely in the fridge:



Then I used a pastry bag with a large star tip to pipe a swirl into each cup:



and topped each with a fresh raspberry.



This is a super easy treat, sort of the "half homemade" style of baking that minimizes time use without just buying something off the shelves. I think they look pretty cute and obviously you could dye them to match other party themes as well.