Halloween Cheesecake

Happy Tuesday everybody! Melissa here with another fun tutorial. Normally I do a craft project for my posts. This week I wanted to switch it up and do something sweet. I have a mean sweet tooth that always gets what it wants. After debating over a few different options, I decided to do a Halloween themed cheesecake. OMG cheesecake!!! Love, love, love it!! Plus all hallows eve is right around the corner. Time to get those creative juices flowing so you can show off for your family and friends. 

What you'll need:
- 8 inch cake pan or tin pie pan
- Chocolate Graham Crackers ( They were out of crackers at the store, so I picked up Teddy Grahams instead.)
- Cheesecake Filling (Jell-O No Bake) 
- Food Coloring 
- Dark Chocolate Chips
- Approx. 5 tbsp butter

First you will need to make the Graham Cracker crust. I used a little over half of the box. Place in plastic baggie.

Now for the fun part...SMASHING THEM TO PIECES! Too gory? It is a "Halloween" Cheesecake after all. Mwahahahahaha! Okay I started crushing them by hand until my boyfriend mentioned it might be quicker if I used the blender. I gave in and what you'll need to do is make sure they are blended/crushed to a powder consistency. 

Then you will need to melt approximately 5 tbsp of butter and mix that into the Graham Crackers. The butter helps hold it all together. 

Now spread your crust in your cake pan. Make sure it's not too thin. 

After this is done set it aside and start working on your cheesecake filling. I normally just use the Jell-O No Bake. It's faster, easier, and tastes just as delicious. Prepare the cheesecake filling as directed on the box. Half way through mixing it, pour in your food coloring. They didn't have orange food coloring at the store. I ended up mixing red and yellow together. At first it looked really red in the dish. Silly me, I didn't think about the cheesecake being white. Once I mixed it in the color turned out to be a nice Pumpkin orange. 

Pour your cheesecake filling into your pan and spread it out evenly. 

The last step is to melt your chocolate chips. Use about a cup and microwave on high for 10 seconds. Stir it and microwave it again in 10 second intervals until it is a nice smooth consistency. 

Unfortunately I didn't snap any photos of me creating the spider web. But what you'll want to do is take the melted chocolate and swirl it around the middle, creating a circle. Make a second circle inside of that. Then add lines going across. I used a spoon to do this. Works great! 

So there you have it folks. A delicious Halloween treat that is sure to impress. You can really play with the idea too. Add different designs, etc. Oh and the crust actually holds together really well. My boyfriend and I just tried a slice. ERMAHGERD! Delicious!!