I’ve had a love affair with cheesecake practically my whole life, but, would you believe this is my first time ever making cheesecake? It is my absolute favorite dessert, hands down, but for some reason I’ve always left the cheesecake making up to everyone else.

I should have known that once I actually made cheesecake for the first time, it’d be a dangerous thing. And of course, in making cheesecake, I knew if I turned to the Philadelphia Cream Cheese, who has been making America’s favorite cream cheese since 1872, I would be thrilled with my results. Now that I know how easy these Philadelphia Cheesecake Minis are, I won’t likely be stopped!

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There’s a little something I want to share with you, and it has to do with making your travel dreams come true. We all want to make our dreams come true, right?

Philadelphia Cream Cheese has a thriving online community of home cooks (like us!) called The Real Women of Philadelphia (RWOP). This community, with more than 66,000 registered users, has become a place for people to share recipe ideas, talk about life in general and help make dreams come true. It’s a platform for creativity that offers women a place to share their real recipes, real conversations and real dreams throughout the entire year.

This year, Philadelphia Cream Cheese has several contests for the dreamer in all of us. In fact, throughout the season, PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese will be giving away more than $100,000 in prizes, including a kitchen makeover and various other dream prizes. To start, Kraft Foods has announced its Real Women of Philadelphia contest called “Delicious Dream Trips” – a contest designed for the Real Women of Philadelphia community to submit their recipe and video of their own region-inspired dish for a chance to win one of THREE  separate dream trips to Italy, France or Greece. Three places I know I dream about going. How about you?

To enter, just register to join the Real Women of Philadelphia community and submit an original recipe (including PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, of course)  and video inspired by one of the countries (France, Italy or Greece), for a chance to win a dream getaway to France, Italy or Greece.  The winner will embark on a delicious dream trip where they’ll experience local cuisine and culture and enjoy scenic tours, wine tastings, and wonderful dining at gourmet restaurants. If you win will you please pack me in your suitcase? It sounds amazing!

When I think about traveling to France or Italy, I think of sitting outside at little cafe’s, drinking coffee or wine and eating the most delicious breads and pastries. When I think about pastries and bread and Philadelphia Cream Cheese, I think about one of my favorite, fruit muffin recipes with cream cheese as one of the ingredients. It’s not a cream cheese filled muffin, but instead a rich, indulgent muffin with cream cheese included in the batter. The cream cheese makes the difference between an ordinary muffin and these muffins.

Make up a batch of these muffins, sit down, and start dreaming up recipes that inspire you. You never know, entering your recipe in the RWOP “Delicious Dream Trips” contest might be all it takes to make your travel dreams come true. Good luck!

I have been selected by Kraft Foods to be an ambassador for the Real Women of Philadelphia. While I have been compensated for my time, my opinions are my own, and I have not been paid to post positive comments.

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Philadelphia Cream Chese Blueberry Muffins

A rich and decadent blueberry muffin recipe, made even better with the addition of Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 ounces Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 cup buttermilk I use buttermilk substitute... 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Line muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Place cream cheese, lemon zest and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer. Blend until smooth.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated.
• Slowly add melted butter and milk, blending for just a few seconds.
• Add the flour mixture, one cup at a time, and continue mixing until all ingredients are just incorporated (do not over mix).
• With a spoon, fold in blueberries.
• Pour an equal amount of batter into each lined muffin cup, filling about 3/4 full.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• (Note - I have a picky kid who will not eat blueberry muffins if the blueberries are on top. I simply halve the batter and add blueberries to one half. Fill the muffin cups half way with the blueberry batter and then fill the top portion with the non-blueberry batter.)

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