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You say it’s your birthday….

…it’s my birthday too.
So THE day is finally here. 37. Since you all know I have a long list of things to accomplish on my birthday today, I will try and make it quick.
One can not help but reflect on the past as one looks towards the future. It got me thinking about foods I loved as a kid. Some I still love and some, not so much.

Not so much: Spaghetti O’s with Franks. Those candy dots that you end up eating more paper than candy. Those wax bottles that have liquid in them. Pop rocks (how is this a smart idea…food that explodes in  your mouth). Magic Shell (things just shouldn’t harden like that…well, at least not food). Capri Sun (those damn things always squirted me). Chicken McNuggets (pressed chicken parts…enough said). Fun Dip (sweetened chalk that you dip into sour powder). Hawaiian Punch (I can still actually drink it and like the taste…I just always seem to spill it and that crap don’t come out).

Still love: Anything from the ice cream man (especially a Drumstick). Gummy anything (though I am not a fan of the bug forms). Red Vines. Jello (all flavors…because there is always room). Count Chocula (though ever since they changed it to whole grain it isn’t as good). Almond Roca (which I only got at Christmas each year). Big Red Soda. Kool Aid (Purplesaurus Rex was my favorite, they discontinued it. It was a Grape Lemonade flavor, yum!). And of course…Circus Animal Cookies.

Did you know they are back? They are, they are. While walking down the grocery aisle this last week I noticed a sign saying New Item. I look and there are the Mother’s Cookies (new item my ass) there on the shelves. And more importantly, my little pink and white frosted covered friends. I squealed with delight and through some in the cart.

Since only one person, other than my mother, has baked me a birthday cake, I knew I would be on my own. I saw a Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcake in the Martha Stewart Cupcake cookbook and decided to change it up and use my favorite preservative filled cookies instead and use that as my birthday cake(s). They turned out great and the thing is these have tons of possibilities for other flavors, which I plan to experiment with.

Hope you all had a nice Canada Day yesterday (for those who celebrate) and hope you all do something fun on this glorious day. 🙂

Peabody’s 37th Birthday Circus Animal Cookie Cheesecake “Cupcakes”

16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
¼ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup Greek yogurt (2%)
1 bag Circus Animal Cookies

Preheat oven to 275F.
Line muffin tins with cupcake liners (preferably white). Place a pink (they show up better…cookie racist perhaps?) cookie at the bottom of each cupcake, sprinkle side down. Set aside.
Using a stand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating for about 1 minutes. Scrape down the bowl after each addition.
Add vanilla and Greek yogurt, beat until incorporated.
Crush up remaining Circus Cookies. You can use as many or as much as you want. I just used the rest of the bag because I really like the cookies. Add them to the cheesecake batter and mix until the cookies are throughout the batter evenly.
Pour into prepared cupcake liners.
Bake for 22 minutes, rotating half way through.
Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Chill in fridge in muffin tins for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Recipe makes about 14.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes by Martha Stewart

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Comments

  2. happy happy birthday dearest pea! wishing you the best. you bring a few of these and i’ll bring those choc martinis – then we can crash out on the porch and have a real blast! hugs!

    Reply

  3. Happy Birthday and may you have a wonderful day!

    Those “cupcakes” look delicious! i’m a sucker for anything cheesecakey!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply

  4. Mmm lovely cakes and wishing you a wonderful b’day! May all your dreams come true and may your days be filled with love and peace !

    Reply

  5. Hope your Canada Day was amazing. The sun was shining, the beach hot…couldn’t have asked for a better day for fireworks. Belated Happy birthday to you as well:D

    Reply

  7. Happy Birthday! Since this is my 2-year-old’s favorite song right now, I’ll have her sing a chorus to you today!

    Reply

  8. Happy birthday!!! I too love Drumsticks. They are the best!

    I just bought the Martha Stewart Cupcake book. I can’t wait to make some of them. 🙂

    Reply

  18. I love those cookies too! They never stopped selling them in my area. Although I can’t buy them very often because it’s hard to stop eating them. I never thought to bake with them – fun idea! Happy Birthday!

    Reply

  21. Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day.
    Also want to say that I so appreciate your sense of humor and your sarcasm!
    Enjoy your day – and your cupcakes!

    Reply

  22. I never wouldn’ve thought to put cookies in cheesecake. They look so cool! I remember those candies dot with the paper. I did eat more paper than candy, but it was so much fun to peel off!

    Happy Birthday!!

    Reply

  26. Happy Birthday! You’re one of my favorite sites, with the best recipes, and the most fantastic pictures. In addition, you are a wonderful, witty and creative writer. You are a true hat-trick!!! Great food, photos and comentary! Keep up the great work.

    Reply

  27. Happy Big 37 to you!
    How awesome and fun with the animal crackers! They used to make them with “holiday” colors. Red, white and blue would be festive! Love the animals on the bottom!

    And speaking of Magic Shell ice cream topping, not only is it strange, but that crap has 16 grams of fat per 2 T. What? It’s just about 100% hydrogenated oil! Okay, sorry, you got me on the subject! 😉

    Have a great day!

    Reply

  28. happy day of birth to you! and wow–what a phenomenal use for animal cookies. so colorful, so festive and fun, so delicious. bravo!

    Reply

  32. Bon anniversaire mademoiselle!

    The problem with Capri Sin was trying to poke a hole through the damn thing. As for Kool Aid, Did you ever try dying your My Little Pony’s mane with it? Bad idea. 🙂

    Have a wonderful day!

    Reply

  34. Happy Birthday Pea!
    I never got magic shell. Never mind what it does, it tastes awful!
    Those cheesecupcakes, though, are an entirely different matter. Lemmeatem! 🙂

    Reply

  35. Hey, it is my birthday too! ok, well, not for a couple more days. Thanks for the comment. 🙂

    Happy Birthday to you!

    Btw, I <3 pop rocks!

    Reply

  37. Happy Birthday! I love how fantastically pink those are – and you can never go wrong with cheesecake.

    Reply

  38. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

    I love those cookies! YUM! Very cute cupcakes.

    Enjoy your day as much as we all enjoy your lovely blog!

    Reply

  42. Happy Birthday Peabody! My mom used to make me a cherry chip cake for my birthday. These look a lot like that cake. I love frosted animal cookies but I’d never thought of using them as the cookies in a cookies and cream recipe. Great idea!

    Reply

  43. I saw thes eon Bake or Break last week and decided to make them! I’m making these this wekend for my cousins birthdays.

    Love the pink in yours- happy birthday!

    Reply

  48. Happy Birthday, Peabody! I hear they’re going to have some fireworks in your honor Saturday. Hope your birthday is everything you want it to be.

    Reply

  50. Happy Birthday! That dessert cannot be beat in my book, I love those cookies. My birthday is tomorrow, so I was excited that we’re both July babies! Enjoy your day:)

    Reply

  54. Purplesaurus Rex koolaid was my favorite too many years ago (I’m thinking roughly 18-20 years ago)! That stuff was awesome. Tropical punch is my runner up.

    Reply

  58. Happy B’day Peabody! And happy belated Canada Day too … from a fellow Canadian .. whoz been transplanted to the States for a while now!

    Reply

  59. Happy Birthday!!

    I LOVE those cookies and once ate an entire bag in one sitting in college on a dare! Your cheesecake cupcakes look fantastic – yum!

    Reply

  61. Happy birthday!! Those were my favorite, FAVORITE cookies when I was a kid!. I used to lick off all the frosting and then crunch down on the cookie. I haven’t had them for years! i gotta go get me some!

    Reply

  62. Happy 37th Birthday Peabody!!!!
    i love colorful cakes! they’re so fun to look at!
    Hope your bday is a blast, and have fun doing all those things on your list, just because you can!

    Reply

  64. I must say I love your list–I think Hawaiian Punch owes me big time for all of the shirts I stained as a child with that brightly-colored stuff!

    A happy squeeze of a juice box in your birthday direction!

    Reply

  65. Took me a minute to figure out why you had a picture of these upside down…ah! The animal crackers. 🙂 Looks fun. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

    Reply

  70. Love the cuppys! Happy happy birthday to you. May your week be filled with butterfly’s and buttercream. Hope its the best! 🙂

    Reply

  74. Happy 37th Birthday!!
    (I’m secretly wishing that I was 37 again. Good year!)

    I loved those Circus Animal Cookies, but, I never would have thought to put them in cupcakes! Great idea!

    Enjoy your day!!

    Reply

  75. Dear Long Lost Peabody twin,

    I hope you had a wonderful day! (Stupid phone co. cut off our internet!!) 37 seems like an important number, more important than 33, even 🙂

    Oh man, Capri-Sun! That was very special, not-of-this-planet orange taste. Blast from my childhood yesterday: local superstore suddenly carrying grenadilla (passion fruit) pop/soda! Haven’t seen that stuff in North America at ALL ’til yesterday! Nearly bought a case. Nearly 😉

    Are those circus animal cookies the ones with the “blue swans”??? I would have fallen over in the aisle!

    Reply

  76. Hope you had a great birthday! My grandma tap danced until she was 85, so age is just a number. Don’t let it get you down! “They say it’s your birthday…going to have a good time!” ; )

    Reply

  77. OMG, I loved those cookies! I was so sad when I heard Mother’s was being discontinued, the thought of those circus animals and the taffy cookies being gone forever was too much to handle, even if I can’t indulge.

    Happy belated Birthday!

    Reply

  80. Happy birthday Peabody. Your desserts are rich as all get-out, yet fun and not too fussy, and full of your personality and sense of humor. I’ve so enjoyed getting to know you over them. Here’s to many more even sweeter birthdays!

    Reply

  83. happy birthday, peabody! July 2 is a very special day…it also happens to be my wedding anniversary! hope it was a great one for you!

    Reply

  85. Well leave it to me, Gracie. I wish you a happy birthday BEFORE the day arrives.. and again AFTER the day has passed. 🙂 But I hope it was a fantastic day!

    These look creamy and crunchy all at the same time. I love this idea! Every since you started talking about these cookies, I’ve looked everywhere for them.. must be a west coast thing? At the very least it’s not a NE Ohio thing. Boo. But Archway makes a pretty decent preservative filled frosted animal cracker so I’ll have to try them!

    Hugs and mucho grande lurve!
    xoxoxxoxoxoxo

    Reply

  86. Happy Birthday!

    My favorite was always purplesaurus rex too, but whenever I tell people that, I get the strangest looks.

    Reply

  91. Happy Birthday! I stumbled across your blog and am very glad I did. Your recipes and photography are simply amazing!

    And I did have a very happy Canada Day. Are you Canadian too?

    Reply

  94. Belated happy day to you! I did make something for you online party but didn’t get a picture of it until today. Hope you had a great one.

    Reply

  95. Belated Happy Birthday…just got the computer mess straightened out…and those cookies are perfect for a birthday ‘cupcake’! Hope it was a great one!!

    Reply

  97. Pea –

    Good afternoon. Sorry I am late but Happy Birthday! I hope that all of your wishes came true.

    Reply

  98. Hi and Happy Happy Birthday to You!

    I am so glad that you are continuing to write your blog! AND good news … I’d like to offer you anything you choose for no charge from Chocolate.com. We have lots of chocolate things, but we also have baking chocolate ingredients if you would rather have those, it’s up to you. Consider it a B I R T H D A Y present and a thank-you-for-blogging gift. So what do you think?

    Best to You!

    Ann
    amenking@chocolate.com

    Reply

  103. Happy birthday to you!! I’m sure it was great because with these cupcakes, how could it not be?

    Oh – I saw the circus animal cookies back in the store the other day too. Hip Hooray!

    Reply

  106. Must have lost some e-mail during the computer melt down, but you absolutley want to see the birthday goodies, made to celebrate your 37th, to be found at Tanna’s My Kitchen in Half Cups and at Jenny’s All Things Edible. Both have known and love you and your blog a long while and we all three wish a a happy happy.

    Reply

  107. Happy Birthday!
    Kool Aid’s selection of flavors has dwindled significantly – Berry Blue was my favorite.

    Reply

  115. Happy (very belated) birthday! I couldn’t resist commenting on the fact that you mentioned pop rocks – my boyfriend just went to Israel for 2 weeks and came back with a bar of chocolate with POP ROCKS in the chocolate. It’s a really, really strange candy bar…

    Reply

  116. I was going to make the oreo cheesecake “cupcakes” from Martha’s book, but then I stumbled upon this recipe. I used to LOVE Mother’s Circus Animals when I was a kid (those and the frosted molasses cookies), and I decided I had to try your twist on the oreo recipe. I served these at a party last night, and they were a huge hit. The cookies got kind of gooey in the baking process, but the overall finished product was way good. Thanks for the colorful and fun alternative.

    Reply

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