A couple weekends ago the Bachelorette season finale was on. Of course I invited some girls over to watch it with me and it turned into the first “party” we’d hosted so far in the new place! It was all kinds of fun….and I made a few desserts and some Sangria for refreshments.

First, I found these yummy things and had to try them since they seemed so appropriate for a “Bachelorette” party (and um, they looked delicious for obvious reasons)!

These Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies were just as amazing as the blogger said they would be. Be sure to make them in advance though as they do take quite some time with chilling and rolling and all….

So here’s the recipe which I stole from Culinary Couture and Two Peas & Their Pod (credit and big props go to them!). Notice again that you’ll need to freeze the cream cheese filling for 2 hours and chill the dough for at least 2 hours, so be sure to leave yourself enough time! I never read all the way through a recipe about the chilling part until it’s too late, which is why I’m calling it out here again!

What You’ll Need:

For the cookies–

• 1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• pinch of vanilla powder (I threw in a little bit of vanilla extract since I didn’t have any powder on hand, and they turned out fine!)

For the cheesecake filling–

• 4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• pinch of vanilla powder (again, I used vanilla extract)

For the white chocolate drizzle
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

Instructions:
For the cookies
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix and flour. Whisk together until clumps disappear. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cake mix with the flour, eggs, oil and vanilla and mix until smooth. The dough will be really oily (that’s normal!). Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

For the cheesecake filling
Using a hand mixer, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out balls of cheesecake filling and place on a plate. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 10. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours. (I started off making teaspoon balls and realized halfway that I was going to have a lot of filling left over, so I made my balls bigger. If you do this, make sure to use enough dough to completely cover the balls of filling so it doesn’t leak out. You can also just make more than 10 teaspoon balls, and consequently, make smaller cookies to use up all of the balls.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray, or line it with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup of red velvet cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Be ready to get messy! Place a ball of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. (If the dough starts to crack when you’re wrapping it around the filling, don’t worry, just press it all together by cupping the dough between both your palms…). Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Only bake 3-4 cookies at a time because the cookies are pretty big and will spread.

Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes or until they begin to crackle. Let them cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies.

To go along with the Sangria I made, I wanted to add a little more red to the glasses, so I made these “Wine glass Tags” – my version of wine glass charms that most people use to keep track of and distinguish people’s glasses. I thought it added a little more “Bachelorette” to the night.

Hope you enjoyed this post! Now let me know if you have any other creative ideas for wine glass charms/tags. And let me know what you think of those cookies if you decide to try making them!