Cherry Popsicles With Homemade Magic Shell
It’s August and here in Sydney that means it’s the middle of winter. Wait, what? The middle of winter? Then why have we been walking around in skirts and shorts and short-sleeved shirts? Read more
Posts tagged ‘cherry’
Aug 4
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Frozen Cherry Yogurt Pops
My 3-year-old loves frozen smoothie pops, so when I saw this recipe recently for frozen cherry and yogurt pops I knew she would love it.
It simply consists of frozen cherries and vanilla yogurt. What I especially love about this recipe is that half of the cherries are totally pureed with the yogurt to make it smooth. This is set aside, and the other half of the cherries are chunkily chopped in the blender, then folded into the smooth mixture. The chunks of cherry give it a bit more texture.
It’s been quite warm and humid here the past couple of days, so these healthy treats help to cool us off after a trip to the playground!
Apr 13
Iron Cupcake Earth: Cherry 7UP Cupcakes
When voting for the Iron Cupcake: Earth ingredient for April, I voted for herbs & spices! I wasn’t very interested in a cupcake made from soda pop. But since I didn’t enter last month’s competition, I decided I could come up with something for this month.
I chose to do something with the new Cherry 7UP. I have seen these done before from NZ Cupcake Queen, but she didn’t post her recipe. Hers are very pretty!
I chose to alter a Mountain Dew cupcake recipe I had found online. I replaced the Mountain Dew with Cherry 7UP, replaced the lemon extract with maraschino cherry juice and omitted the lemon and lime zest in both the cupcake and buttercream recipe. I also drizzled the cupcakes with fresh Cherry 7UP after baking, which made the cake very moist.
Note: It’s cloudy and rainy today – when you rely on natural light to take your pictures inside the house, cloudy days are not good, hence the grayish cast to this photo!
Surprisingly, this cupcake does not taste much of cherry or 7UP (although the drizzling of fresh Cherry 7UP gave it a tiny hint)! I’m a little disappointed. But they do make a nice sweet dessert, and they are pretty cute.
Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
- A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16748
- a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
- a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
- PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .
Now, the recipes…
Cherry 7UP Cupcakes
Adapted from Quirky Cupcake
Makes 12-14Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup Cherry 7UP
3/4 teaspoons maraschino cherry juice or syrup
1 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Extra Cherry 7UP for drizzlingMethod
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.Beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time; scrape the sides of the bowl between each addition.
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture. Mix on low for 5 seconds.
Add Chery 7 UP and cherry juice or syrup. Mix to combine.
Fill cupcake liners evenly with batter, about 2/3′s full (I actually went about 3/4′s full).
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Immediately after baking, poke deep holes – but not all the way through – each cupcake with toothpick or fork, and slowly drizzle approximately one teaspoon over cupcake. Let sit to absorb and completely cool before frosting.
Cherry 7UP Buttercream
Adapted from Quirky Cupcake
Frosts 12-14 cupcakesIngredients
1/2 cup butter
2-2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon Cherry 7UP
1 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice or syrup
Red food coloring gel (optional)Method
Sift confectioners’ sugar into a bowl or onto parchment paper.Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add half of the sugar, mix on low for 5 seconds.
Add Cherry 7UP and cherry juice or syrup. Beat until combined.
Add food coloring, if desired, for a pinker hue.
Gradually add remaining sugar until a proper consistency and sweetness is reached.
Feb 15
Valentine's Day Goodies
I got a huge surprise for Valentine’s Day from my husband; a chocolate stash.
I love the little Starbucks Chocolate Tasting Squares, they are so cute!
All those Ghirardelli bars will be used in the future to make cupcakes, brownies and/or cookies!
Now, on to our Valentine’s Day cupcakes. They did not turn out how I planned. I planned for nice, fluffy, high-rising chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes with cherry cream cheese frosting. But three things went wrong. 1) I forgot to put in the chocoalte chips!; 2) the cupcakes didn’t rise very much at all; 3) I wanted to use heart sprinkles, but didn’t have any. I think they didn’t rise because I cut the recipe into thirds and perhaps it messed up the properties of the baking soda and baking powder. I’m not sure. Anyhow, they still taste nice.
The recipe for the cupcake was Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake, and the cream cheese frosting recipe comes from How To Eat A Cupcake (and I also cut her recipe in half). I just added a tiny dollop of red gel food coloring, and approximately 3-4 tablespoons of chopped maraschino cherries to her recipe.
Feb 4
Cherry Swirl Brownies
I found this recipe on the back of a Betty Crocker Ultimate Fudge brownie box mix. It looked extremely tempting, so I cut out the recipe to give it a try later on. Yesterday I pulled out the recipe again and ended up with this…
Betty Crocker Ultimate Fudge brownie box mix with a layer of cherry cream cheese in the middle.
They are very yummy and gooey. Some problems I had with the recipe was that if I had had a 9×9-inch pan, I would have used it so that the brownies wouldn’t have been so thick. As it was, I used an 8×8-inch pan and had to bake over the recommended time by a little less than 10 minutes. The top of the brownies became quite crunchy, which I wasn’t too fond of.
Another problem I had was that of mixing an egg with the cream cheese mixture. I presume this was to make the cream cheese layer puff up a bit, but while it tastes just fine and cream cheesey, the close-up texture looks like that of a baked egg, which sort of puts me off a little bit!
The recipe can be found at the Betty Crocker website.
The only thing I did differently with the recipe was with the cream cheese mixture – I mixed the chopped cherries into the cream cheese mixture last so that I wouldn’t squash and smoosh the cherries.
I personally think that the brownies taste best straight from the refrigerator, rather than straight from the oven or at room temperature. But try it out, and see what you think!
Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes
Today I took six more cupcakes out of the freezer from the box cake mix that I made last week. I made the vanilla frosting from this recipe (but divided the recipe in half) and coated the frosting with sweetened shredded coconut.
And of course a bright red maraschino cherry sits on top. Once again, you can use any chocolate cupcake recipe to make these cupcakes, and also any vanilla frosting. It might even be a good idea to replace the milk in the vanilla frosting with coconut milk for extra coconut flavor.
Oct 15
Iron Cupcake Earth: Cheese
I almost opted out of this month’s Iron Cupcake Earth challenge because of the bizarre ingredient. True, I could have just used cream cheese, but that wouldn’t have been quite so challenging. I wanted a cheese in both the cupcake and frosting, but I knew I didn’t want the average cream cheese… and well, I knew I didn’t want to make a savory cupcake. Hence, this was born…
A chocolate cupcake with a cherry ricotta center and frosted with mascarpone frosting. A dusting of cocoa powder sits on top, accompanied by a cherry. I can’t believe that it actually tastes quite nice! It’s the first time I’ve ever eaten a sweet ricotta, as well as the first time I’ve ever tasted mascarpone.
I’m quite proud of this cupcake, much more so than my entry last month for the basil challenge.
This month, the prizes for winning Iron Cupcake Earth are from Etsy artist Art On The Menu, Etsy artist Lots of Sprinkles, Bakelove Bakewear, Fiesta Products, Hello, Cupcake, Jessie Steele Aprons, Cupcake Courier and Taste of Home. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.
Here are the recipes…
Martha Stewart’s One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
-recipe cut into thirds
Cherry Ricotta Filling
Ingredients
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 heaping tablespoons cherry pie filling (without cherries)
2 heaping tablespoons cherry pie filling cherries, choppedPreparation
Drain ricotta cheese if watery through a cheesecloth for 30-60 minutes. Mix ricotta, sugar, vanilla, cherry pie filling and cherries with a spoon until combined. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.
When cupcakes are completely cool, fill them with cherry ricotta filling using the cone method.
Mascarpone Frosting
Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
4 ounces mascarpone cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extractPreparation
Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. Then mix in cold mascarpone cheese until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes.
Sep 19
First Cupcakes Made With The Kitchenaid
Today I made my first cupcakes with the Kitchenaid mixer that I got earlier this week. I made a mistake with the first batch, the chocolate ones, by not mixing it enough. I realized this after they were done baking. I did better with the vanilla ones. I have to say that the Kitchenaid does a fantastic job with whipping cream and buttercream.
These are the chocolate ones. They’re not as pretty as I wanted them to be, but they are definitely tasty. They’re chocolate cupcakes, filled with whipped cream and frosted with a Lindt chocolate ganache.
See the inside of this cupcake here.
I really like how the vanilla cherry ones look. They’re vanilla cupcakes, filled with whipped cream, frosted with vanilla buttercream and topped with a maraschino cherry.
This is the first time I’ve ever baked with nut & party cups and I have to say that I liked it! I think that the cupcakes are generally bigger with the nut & party cups. I also cut a small slit at the top of the cup before I filled them up so that it could be easily unwrapped. See the inside of this cupcake here.
I used Wilton’s bismark tip for filling the cupcakes (which is a brand new toy), and found that this made it incredibly easy to fill them.
Now I know what you’re saying, I should be putting my efforts into this month’s Iron Cupcake Earth challenge, but I’m finding the challenge ingredient to be pretty difficult! I don’t have many days left now, so I’ve really got to get to work if I want to be a part of the competition this month.
Sep 14
Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper Cupcakes
These cupcakes were a total spur of the moment decision. I had a bottle of Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper and I remembered having seen this recipe recently. I’m not sure if Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper or just plain Dr. Pepper is supposed to be used in this recipe, but I used the chocolate cherry one. I did know right away, however, that I would be using a different frosting (I originally wanted a white chocolate cherry ganache frosting, but couldn’t work out how to make that and couldn’t find a recipe for it!).
In reviewing this cupcake, I have to say right away that these are the moistest and softest cupcake I have ever eaten. The cake itself could have just melted in my mouth. It is absolutely delicious and does indeed taste like Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper.
I had to make some changes to the recipe to suit my ingredients. First, I wanted to cut the recipe into fourths, since the original recipe is for 30 cupcakes and I am only one person! I wanted to make about 7 or 8 to share with the family though, so using this calculator I cut the recipe into fourths. Isn’t it strange though that I ended up with 15 cupcakes! The reason is, I believe, that I didn’t fill the cupcake liners up as much as I should have. I found out through trial and error that the liners should be over 3/4 full of batter in order for the cupcake to rise into a nice dome above the top rim of the liner.
My substitutions of ingredients were as follows, since I didn’t have all the ingredients called for in the recipe:
* I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour.
* I used a melted chocolate substitute for the unsweetened chocolate. 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder mixed with 1 tablespoon of oil equals 1 ounce of an unsweetened chocolate bar. I used this substitution, but I added it to the batter right after I let the Dr. Pepper and butter mix set for 10 minutes, then whisked in the chocolate substitution.
* I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream.
* Note that this batter is very runny; I used a measuring cup to pour it into the liners.
* As for the frosting, I decided to use a different recipe because I’ve recently had an experience using an egg white-based frosting and I didn’t have much luck, so I used a basic vanilla buttercream recipe (recipe here). Instead of using 1 tablespoon of milk in the buttercream, I used 1 tablespoon of maraschino cherry syrup and I also added one drop of pink food coloring to give the frosting a nicer pink coloring. There was only a very very slight taste of cherry in the frosting.
I decided to use the pink and purple sugar sprinkles like the photo in the original recipe because for some reason those two colors remind me of soda, so I think it adds a nice touch. The cherry on top is a must, too; wouldn’t be complete without it.
Final word – these are SO good, and like I said, extremely moist! Such a nice treat on a rainy Sunday afternoon, like today!
Updated later: On the second day, these cupcakes taste even better and are still more moist than any cupcake I’ve eaten. I do notice that on the second day the cherry taste of the cake is stronger than it was right after I made them. These little cakes are so flavorful that I dare say they don’t even need frosting; a scoop of ice cream and a cherry would suit these cupcakes just fine, I’m sure!
Nigella's Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes
This is a recipe I was just dying to try out from Nigella Lawson’s book How To Be A Domestic Goddess. This is one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever tasted. The chocolate ganache frosting is a perfect topping to this cupcake. I did have a problem finding natural colored glace cherries, so had to use the bright red ones. Didn’t subtract from the sinful flavor of these cupcakes though!
You can find this recipe on Nigella.com.
