Happy Birthday Johanna!

Cam, Sam and I were on the road to Corlu by 7:30 a.m. on Johanna's birthday.  Cam had a service appointment booked for the car and Sam decided it was a great day to spend at the mall Christmas shopping. Cam dropped us at the mall shortly after 9 a.m so we waited inside the entrance until the mall officially opened at 10 a.m. We managed to walk the mall by the time Cam came to pick us up about noon, but didn't buy much.  We had lunch in Tekirdag on the way home.  When we got home, Johanna got to open her presents and we enjoyed supper together and the Oreo Cheesecake birthday cake Nicole made at Johanna's request.

Nicole's Yummy Oreo Cheesecake

250  grams  Oreos
75  grams  soft  unsalted butter
1 x  400  grams  jar  Nutella  (at room temperature)
100  grams  chopped toasted  hazelnuts
500  grams  cream cheese  (at room temperature)
60  grams  icing sugar  (sifted)

METHOD

Separate the Oreos into cookies and filling.
Break the cookies into the bowl of a processor, add the butter and a 15ml tablespoon of Nutella, and blitz until it starts to clump. Add 25g/3 tablespoons of the hazelnuts and continue to pulse until you have a damp, sandy mixture.
Tip into a 23cm/9inch round springform and press into the base either using your hands or the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to chill.
Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth and then add the remaining Nutella to the cream cheese mixture, and continue beating until combined. Nicole adds the Oreo filling to this mixture. (The first time Nicole made this she decreased the icing sugar because she added the filling and the second time she didn't add any sugar at all.  Both times it was yummy!)
Take the springform out of the fridge and carefully smooth the Nutella mixture over the base. Scatter the remaining chopped hazelnuts on top to cover and place the tin in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight. Serve straight from the fridge for best results. (Our springform pan is at home in Canada, so Nicole put it in one of the multipurpose round pans we own.)
Additional information - for vegetarians make sure the cream cheese does not contain rennet.

Nicole's Birthday

Nicole's birthday fell on a Turkish holiday, but we were able to find just the right cake

A big breath to make sure all those candles get blown out!

This is Nicole's realization that mom managed to bring from Canada something she wanted!
(Special paper for using a computer printer to make iron on transfers.)

And something she needed - an external hard drive.

S

A Frozen movie poster from Sam

Ray's helping with the candles.

Sam is ready to use the knife!

16 candles and one happy girl!

Birthday supper at Erdogan.  Dad was able to sneak away from supervisory duties at the rig just long enough to join us for supper.

These Road Trip Posts Are Interrupted to Bring You...

Cake!

 For dessert last night we bought a ladybug cake. It was very tasty, it was white cake layered with chocolate icing and cherry bits :) His feet are chocolate as well as his spots and head. The bakery's display case was pretty empty, so we didn't have hard time choosing. The only thing with this cake was that it was rather small, and as a result, hard to cut into 5 equal potions. I always though we should adopt so cutting cake would be easier ;)
- Nicole