All Hallows Eve: Here Come the Treats

My family celebrated early since three family members (Paul, Tim, and Ashley) have fall birthdays.  We met up in Escondido for the event.  Naturally we needed three desserts.  There was a Lime Cheesecake, Chocolate Brownies and Pumpkin Parfaits.  

The table was artfully decorated with a rubber rat for the toddlers and dead twigs for a centerpiece and we twisted wire "ribbons" for napkin rings.  A few of the guests opened their napkins and used the "ribbon" as body jewelry.

Keith wore his as "ear decor"

"The desserts flowed". The first was Lime Cheesecake.  It had a typical graham cracker crust.  Over the crust was a "custard" with lime juice and grated lime peel.  On top of that was a cream cheese filling- also with lime juice and grated peel added.  A sour cream topping was added after the cheesecake had baked for 45 minutes. The sweetened sour cream was then placed on top and the cheesecake went back in the oven for another 10 minutes.  Then it was refrigerated overnight.  Lime leaves from the orchard were used as decoration.  

The Brownies were decorated with garden nasturtiums and wrestling candles.

The final desserts were pumpkin parfaits- a recipe from the November issue of Food and Wine magazine.  Pumpkin puree was combined with sweetened mascarpone cheese for the first layer.  The second layer consisted of heavy cream, mascarpone, and powdered sugar.  The third layer was simply crushed chocolate wafers.  The layers were then repeated with the cream piped on.