Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcake

Enough with the chocolate!  I love fruit flavored desserts and cheesecake, so I created the strawberry cupcake filled with cheesecake frosted with cream cheese whipped cream frosting.  I used a strawberry cupcake recipe I have used before.  It's always gotten good reviews, but I still think I need to work on it.  It calls for strawberry puree.  I think next time I will cook down the strawberries and make more of a jam to add to my batter.  I filled the cupcake tins half way with strawberry batter, made my cheesecake, dollped that on top of the batter, and finally topped the cheesecake layer with more batter.  The cupcakes came out perfect.  They were more dense than usual because of the cheesecake.  Now for the frosting.  I love whipped cream on my strawberry cheesecake, so the trick was to make whipped cream frosting that wouldn't melt at room temperature.  I whipped cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth.  While the whisk was going, I added two cups of heavy cream and whipped it for about a minute.  The result was awesome!  I added some strawberry puree to the frosting, but I didn't add enough so you couldn't taste it. I frosted the cupcakes really high.  These cupcakes were delicious at room temperature, but even better chilled overnight.  I used a fresh strawberry for a garnish and it tasted really good with each bite of cupcake.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake

So it's been a week since I created the Caralel Apple Cupcake.  I gave the first dozen away and decided to make another dozen for the family.  After we polished of that dozen my husband politely asked me not to bake for awhile.  We mutually decided to give up desserts and cocktails during the week.  That lasted about two days, as I made this last cupcake while drinking a Corona!!  To make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake, I first made homemade cookie dough.  I froze 24 cookie "balls" for about two hours.  I baked the remaining dough and got 9 large cookies out of it.  I then made my dark chocolate cupcakes.  I filled the muffin cups about 1/2 full and dropped a frozen cookie "ball" in the middle of each cupcake.  I baked then as I normally would, making sure the cookie part didn't get too dark.  I wanted my cookies to stay "doughy."  They looked perfect after 16 minutes.  When they were cooled, I had a yummy chocolate cupcake with a slightly doughy center and a crispy top.  Russ tasted them without frosting, he loved them.  I needed to frost them though, they looked really ugly!  He suggested a chocolate fudgy frosting.  I settled on a light chocolate buttercream.  The result is fabulous, especially if you're a chocolate fan.  I broke up one of the cookies and used it for the garnish.....YUM!

Caramel Apple Cupcake

These cupcakes were kind of a pain.  My first batch did not turn out well.  We ate them anyway, they kinda tasted like cookies (we only ate the edges)!  I made a couple of changes to the first recipe and the second batch turned out great.  I used applesauce and chopped Jonathan apples in the cake.  I really struggled with choosing the frosting and whether or not I wanted to add a filling.  For some reason I just couldn't decide.  I finally settled for no filling and cream cheese frosting dipped in caramel ganache.  I knew that I wanted the frosting to be pretty stiff so that it could handle being dipped in ganache.  I made the caramel ganache just like I would a chocolate ganache.  I turned out really thin.  If I do it again, I will try to make it a little thicker.  I also didn't wait for the ganache to cool down enough before I dipped the cupcakes.  Even though I chilled the cupcakes, they still melted a little in the warm ganache.  The end result looked pretty cool though.  They are very shiny and swirly.  I put a popcicle stick in one of them for fun.  Next time I might also sprinkle chopped nuts on the ganache.  They tasted very good, I will make them again.

Coffee Cake

I sold two coffe cakes this week-end.  This might be my next cupcake?!?!?!?

Peach Cobbler Cupcake

I've been staring at my fruit bowl full of peaches for several days now.  I know I make a mean peach cobbler, but could I make a decent peach cobbler cupcake?  I've seen it done on Cupcake Wars, but my internet search for a recipe was unimpressive.  I ended up using a sour cream spice cake recipe into which I folded fresh peaches.  I tasted it as soon as it was cool enough to handle....it was very good, even though I burned my tongue on the super hot peach chunks!  Now for the frosting.  I settled on a brown sugar frosting.  I melted butter, brown sugar until bubbly and then stirred in a little milk.  I let that cool and then beat in 2 cups powdered sugar.  It tasted great on the cupcake, but I was still missing the taste of whipped cream.  I had a tub of Cool Whip in the fidge and added a dollup of it to the last few bites of my cupcake.  Two words...DE LISH!  How in the world am I going to get whipped cream onto the cupcake?  The cupcake in the picture shows a Mini Nilla Wafer dipped in Cool Whip garnished on the top along with a fresh peach slice.  It will work if I am serving this cupcake right away.  These cupcakes do not taste good cold from the fridge.  They are OK at room temperature, but taste the best when warm.  I'm thinking about folding fresh whipped cream into the frosting next time.

Carrot Cake

I did a lot of baking this weekend.  My husband wanted something sweet Saturday night, so I whipped up a shortcake.  It's the world's best recipe given to me from his mom.  I have only given it to two people, it's not one I like to share!  I had arleady made a pecan filling for the Carrot cake that I needed to have ready for Sunday.  Sunday morning I made gluten free banana muffins and the carrot cake.  Today I made a vanilla cheesecake....yummy!

Red Velvet Cupcake with a twist

Since I was so bummed about the Tiramisu cupcake, I decided to make another cupcake today.  I know my red velvet is delicious, but I wanted to do something different.  Red velvet has a subtle hint of cocoa, so I made a chocolate ganache and dipped the tops of hte cupcakes in the ganache before I frosted them with a cream cheese/marshmallow frosting.  I garnished with a sour cherry ball.  They ended up looking like an ice cream sundae.  They were very good.  The ganache was the perfect touch.

Tiramisu Cupcake

Yesterday I decided to bake a Tiramisu Cupcake.  It was really complicated and I had to buy two ingredients that cost a total of $12.00.  The end result was disappointing.  The coffee "syrup" didn't soak all the way into the cupcake and there was an distinct salty taste.  I had my doubts about using coarse salt, which is what the recipe called for, but I used it anyway.  It didn't work!  The frosting was the best part.  If you only ate the top 1/4 of the cupcake you would think it was delish.  If I attempt this cupcake again, I will use table salt and somehow inject the syrup into the cake so that the whole thing is soaked.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting

So here is the the Chocolate Salted Caramel cupcake with Peanut Butter frosting. I really need to shorten the name....any ideas? I made the salted caramel from scratch. I've never made it before. It's very interesting. You basically boil sugar and water until the temp reaches 360 degrees. Then you add heavy cream and sea salt. The kids would love watching this process...it's very cool! It leaves quite a mess in the pan, but it is so worth it! The salt adds the perfect salty to the sweet of the caramel. The peanut butter frosting is to die for. Very light and not too sweet. Russ, Briley, Haven and my neighbor tasted it....two thumbs up!!




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Cupcake Insomnia

A couple of weeks ago I couldn't sleep.  The family and I had been watching Cupcake Wars on the Food Network and I had cupcakes on my brain.  I grabbed a pad of paper and a pen, tiptoed into the bathroom, sat on the toilet (lid down) and began to write down all of my cupcake ideas.  When I was done I had 26 cupcake ideas and 6 pages of names for a storefront!  Since then, I have decided to make one of the cupcakes from the list each week.  So far I have made a Carrot Cake cupcake and a S'mores cupcake.  They both turned out really well.  This week I am creating a Chocolate Caramel cupcake with Peanut Butter frosting and a Caramel Popcorn garnish.  I will post recipes and pictures soon.....

Growing up, I always love to bake.  I wore out my Easy Bake oven when I was little and with enough persistance I got permission to use the real oven.  I started with boxed cake mixes and three or four ingredient recipes like Rice Crispy Treats and dump cake.  I really taught myself how to bake in college when I had my own little kitchen.  It was then that I perfected the Peanut Butter cookie.  I only had two bowls, a set of measuring cups a set of measuring spoons, a hand mixer, a 9x13 pan, a cookie sheet a spoon and a spatula.