Dirt Cake Garden Tea Party

You'll need six, new, 3 or 4-inch terra-cotta (clay) glazed flower pots, thoroughly washed. (I used 4 inch pots from Home Depot.) Even with glazed pots, I think I'd line the inside of the pot with aluminum foil, just to be safe. Another option would be to use plastic cups, inside, cutting them down to the right height.

You also need 6 flowers, either real or faux....gerbera daisies work really well. I opted for faux flowers and bought a big bunch for $1 at Dollar Tree. (Important: If you use real flowers, make sure they are pesticide free.)

You'll need 3 boxes of the cheesecake mix if you use 4 inch pots. While your cheesecake mix is mixing away, place a cookie in the bottom of each clay pot to cover the little hole, if you didn't line the pots with aluminum foil. Most recipes suggest using vanilla wafers, but I used little shortbread cookies since I like them better. Spoon your cheesecake mixture into each pot, stopping 1/2 inch from the top.

Now, the recipes I found said to use a plastic straw for this next part, but I found these cute little cereal straws and thought they would be more fun...plus, they are edible! :-) If you use real flowers, you may want to opt for the plastic straw. One cereal straw, when cut in half, was the perfect height for the pot...so it only took 3 straws for all 6 pots. Just press the straw down into the center of the cheesecake mixture. If you find one is a tad tall, just take your kitchen scissors and snip off the top a bit.

Now, for the fun part! (insert evil laugh here) I bought some gummy worms at Dollar Tree...just take a worm and position him on your cheesecake...like he's slithering right out of the pot. :-)

You'll probably only need one bag of Oreos for this next part, that was all I used. I broke up the Oreos before putting them into my mini-Cuisinart. I used my little Cuisinart to crush them, instead of my big one. It took 3 batches in the mini one; if you use a full size Cuisinart, you could probably do the whole bag at once.

Sprinkle your "dirt" over the top of your pots. Then chill them in the frig until you are ready to serve.

At serving time, just poke the little flower stem down into the cereal straw and your done! Just place a worm or two on the saucer of the pot for some added fun. :-)

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