Posts tagged ‘cream cheese’

Aug 25

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

My baby boy, Miles, turned 1 year old yesterday. I can hardly believe it. He’s been the sweetest, most easy-going baby I’ve dealt with so far. His only problem is that he still only has two teeth. I’ve been reluctant to try too many different foods, like the chewier or harder kinds, because of this. He doesn’t like a lot of the solid food that I give him, but so far he likes French fries (I know, worst food ever!), bread, crackers, cheese, yogurt and cucumbers. Bananas and strawberries and apples, not so much.

He doesn’t like pureed food. I believe it’s because he has to be spoon-fed to eat it properly, and when he sees his older sister and brother eating with their fingers or a fork or spoon, he wants to eat like they are. After all, spoon-feeding is for babies!

Recently I went shopping for bigger clothes for Miles with my mother-in-law and bought him a couple of outfits. You’d think that he could just wear clothes that his 3-year-old brother had grown out of, but don’t forget that we moved to the Southern Hemisphere – the summery clothes that fit his older brother when he was 1 year old will not do in winter Down Under! Our seasons are completely opposite and this has been a little annoying, as we’ve had to basically buy all new clothing for the baby. Ah well, it’s not all bad though – shopping for baby clothes is so fun (and terribly addicting)!

For Miles’ first birthday celebration I planned on making a simple batch of colorful cupcakes. I decided on chocolate-on-chocolate cupcakes with mini rainbow chocolate chip decorations.

Feb 7

17 Comments

Nutella Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

As you may know, February 5 was World Nutella Day. I submitted my entry, a fried Nutella and banana sandwich with cinnamon sugar crust, but a comment on that entry inspired me to make a Nutella fruit dip. It’s basically a variation of this peanut butter dip, which I have made before and absolutely loved. I replaced the peanut butter with Nutella, omitted the brown sugar and added a pinch of salt instead.

It tastes amazing! We used apples to dip into it, but it would taste great with bananas and strawberries as well.

This is my bonus World Nutella Day recipe for all you Nutella-lovers!

Nutella Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
Adapted from In Mama’s Kitchen
Print this recipe via Tasty Kitchen
Makes approx. 1/2 cup

Ingredients
3 tablespoons Nutella
3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk

Method
Thoroughly mix Nutella, cream cheese and salt until no streaks of cream cheese remain. Mixture may be a little grainy-looking. Slowly add milk a bit at a time and stir until milk is thoroughly mixed in. You should end up with a nice smooth, creamy dip for your fruit. Store in refrigerator. To soften up the dip after removing from the refrigerator, just stick it in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds.

Jan 31

5 Comments

Lemon Myrtle And Coconut Cupcakes

One of the many things that I love about Australia is its native wildlife – kangaroos, emus, koalas, echidnas, bandicoots, wallabies, cockatoos and much more. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of these animals in their natural habitats while driving through the Outback in 1999 and 2002, and every day I hear the sound of cockatoos screeching past our windows. Australia is such a beautiful place with so many interesting and extreme places. I’m so glad to be living here.

Being a foodie, I also really love Australia’s native herbs and spices, such as wattleseed, lemon myrtle, mountain pepper and bush tomato, to name a few. I’ve never cooked with any of these native spices before but now that I’m here for good I would really love to experience these herbs and spices that you can only find in Australia.

Luckily, my husband grows a variety of plants in the garden, including a lemon myrtle tree. He picked some leaves from the tree earlier this week for my first experiment in baking with Australian native spices.

I thought I’d have to wait weeks for the leaves to dry, but I found a very helpful post from Simple Daily Recipes on how to dry basil in the microwave. It looked so easy and quick that I decided to try this on the lemon myrtle leaves.

Nov 14

12 Comments

Apple Cupcakes

It astounds me when I see all the different varieties of apples that there are in the store. My favorite for eating is usually Pink Ladies, and my least favorite is Red Delicious. For baking though, there’s usually one main choice, Granny Smith apples. These apples are what I used in my entry for Iron Cupcake: Earth; the challenge ingredient this month is apples.

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This is just your average apple cupcake, baked with chopped apples inside, a filling of dulce de leche for a rich caramel taste, and cream cheese frosting. A pecan sits on top. Read more

Aug 5

11 Comments

Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes

I was this close to entering July’s Iron Cupcake: Earth herb challenge, but couldn’t find the herbs I wanted – I wanted them fresh. But I decided to go ahead and try the cupcake I wanted to make, but without the herbs, just for fun. It ended up being one of my favorite cupcakes that I’ve made thus far.

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And it certainly is pretty! It’s a devil’s food cupcake, frosted with lemon cream cheese frosting and decorated with a homemade candied lemon peel.

The cupcake recipe I chose is from Martha Stewart. It’s the second time I’ve used this particular recipe and I decided that I really like it enough to be my current favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. It uses sour cream in the batter, which gives the batter a beautiful-looking creamy texture. The cake itself bakes up soft and moist, but still firm.

I’ve never eaten lemon cream cheese frosting, and I am admittedly not a fan at all of cream cheese. But if it’s sweetened enough I think it tastes really nice as a frosting. I found the recipe at allrecipes.com. I ended up not having to use all of the confectioners’ sugar; I believe I only used 4 cups, rather than the full 5 cups. It is really creamy and lemony; if I ever need a lemon frosting recipe again, I’ll definitely be choosing this one.

What really put the lemon in the cake, though, was the homemade candied lemon peel. I found the recipe for this from Whole Foods Market. These turned out extremely lemony and tasted great on the cupcakes.

The main inspiration for these lemon chocolate cupcakes came from a memory of eating a Lindt lemon chocolate bar. It’s pretty crazy because I cannot find that Lindt lemon chocolate bar anymore, but I’m pretty sure that they did exist and that I did eat one!

May 13

5 Comments

Carrot Cake Cupcakes With Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these cupcakes on impulse! Only one day after I made the s’mores cupcakes! The first reason I made these cupcakes was because I wanted to use the rest of the cream cheese leftover from my mint Oreo truffles. The second reason I made these cupcakes was because we had a bag of fresh carrots in the refrigerator.

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This is the first recipe I’ve made from smittenkitchen.com, although I want to try all of Deb’s recipes. The recipe for these carrot cake cupcakes are posted here on her website.

I had to do one substitution, and that was because we have no regular granulated sugar. Luckily, brown sugar can be substituted, in equal amounts, for granulated sugar. I had seen carrot cakes use all brown sugar instead of white sugar, so this is what I decided to do. I used light brown sugar.

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When Deb said in her post that this was a killer recipe, she was totally right! This carrot cake is so moist and flavorful, it’s just unbelievable. I don’t think I will ever make any other carrot cake recipe again – this one is a keeper.

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The frosting is really full of maple flavor, and I’d recommend not going overboard with this frosting. By that I mean, don’t pile on this frosting; just a little swirl or thin layer will do, else it might be a little overpowering and drown out the taste of that wonderful carrot cake.

I think these make a great breakfast cupcake as well. I had one this morning, after a quick round in the microwave (about 9 seconds) to warm it up, with coffee, and it was very nice. :)

Feb 15

1 Comment

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

1 Comment

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!

Nov 12

4 Comments

Jupiter Cupcakes

These are Jupiter cupcakes for the solar system cupcake contest!

The cake is chocolate with a kick of cayenne pepper to represent the heat of Jupiter’s core, and the center of the cupcake is filled with a soft whipped cream to represent the many layers of clouds on Jupiter. The frosting is a cream cheese/chocolate buttercream swirl in colors similar to Jupiter’s. Hanging above the Jupiter cupcakes are the 4 Galilean moons of Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto, formed from homemade playdough.

Thank you Cupcakes Take The Cake for posting my Jupiter cupcakes on your blog!

Recipes:

Chocolate cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (use more or less to suit your taste)
1 large eggs
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cayenne pepper and salt. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Whipped cream filling
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Chill stainless steel bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer in freezer for about 10-20 minutes. Combine all ingredients in steel bowl and use whisk attachment at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fill cupcakes when the cupcakes are completely cool.

Cream cheese frosting
Makes enough for 1-2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients
8 ounches cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

Method
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating continously until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate frosting for 2-3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using.

Chocolate buttercream
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa powder. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount of additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

To make swirled frosting, spoon an amount of each color individually into a piping bag so that the colors are side by side. Squeeze out the frosting over a bowl first until all the colors start coming out, then start swirling!

Nov 9

12 Comments

Iron Cupcake Earth: Cranberry

I’m going to admit first thing that I do not like the taste of cranberries, so I was a bit apprehensive about creating a cupcake for this particular Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge. It didn’t deter me, however, from my first entry into the cranberry challenge (I will submitting another entry this month); my green tea cupcakes, filled with cranberry cream cheese filling and frosted with cranberry buttercream with a drizzle of white chocolate.

I think the green tea and cranberry is a nice pairing. The overall taste of the cupcake is very sweet; the cranberry taste of the frosting is very subtle, while the strongest cranberry taste comes from the filling. I will also note that I used a small amount of red food coloring in the cranberry parts of the cupcake.

The Iron Cupcake: Earth prizes this month are from Etsy artists Lollipop Workshop, Cookie Sunshine, Lots of Sprinkles and Cakespy. Corporate prizes are from Fiesta Products, Hello, Cupcake, Jessie Steele, Cupcake Courier, and Taste of Home. For this month only we have an added bonus from Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery and Cupcakery Supply.

Iron Cupcake: Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

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Recipes:

Green Tea Cupcakes
based on Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla cupcake, and the same cupcake recipe I used for my my green tea cupcakes. What I did differently was divide the recipe by thirds; I ended up with eight cupcakes. For the green tea, add 1.5 teaspoons of green tea (matcha) powder to the flour mix.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
* 1.5 ounces cream cheese
* 2 tablespoons cranberry sauce
* pinch of salt
* 6 ounces confectioners’ sugar

Method
Soften cream cheese and cranberry sauce together in medium sized bowl. Add salt. Gradually add sugar, beating with electric mixer until creamy. Add red food coloring, if desired, for a brighter color.

Cranberry Buttercream

Ingredients
* 1/2 cup cranberry juice
* 1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries
* 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, more if desired for firmer texture
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
In a small saucepan, combine the juice and cranberries. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until softened. Let cool and either strain cranberry juice, pressing the berries until most of the juice is gone, or chop the cranberries finley.

In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Beat in the cranberries. Add more confectioners’ sugar for a firmer texture, if desired. Add red food coloring, if desired, for a brighter color.

White Chocolate Drizzle

Ingredients
* 2-3 squares Ghirardelli White Chocolate

Method
Melt white chocolate in small microwave safe bowl, microwaving in short bursts of 15 seconds, stirring after each 15 seconds. Shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds total. Spoon into sturdy sandwich bag, or piping bag, cut off a small tip of one corner and squeeze white chocolate in a quick sweeping motion on top of frosted cupcakes. Top each cupcake with a fresh cranberry, if desired.

Oct 13

5 Comments

Pumpkin Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

I am a member of a neighborhood women’s group that meets every month. This month’s meeting has an Autumn theme and members can bring their favorite Autumn foods. Of course, I had to bake pumpkin cupcakes!

These pumpkin cupcakes are absolutely delicious, soft and moist. I am so pleased with the way they turned out. The original recipe called for fresh nutmeg, but I used ground nutmeg instead. Also, the recipe called for coarse salt, but I decided to use regular table salt instead – instead of the 1 tablespoon coarse salt, I used a little less than 1/2 teaspoon salt. The recipe is from Martha Stewart – and warning about that recipe, it says it makes 18 cupcakes, but the actual yield is closer to 30.

I decided to use a cinnamon cream cheese frosting on these cupcakes and this recipe can be found at Recipezaar. This is a really nice frosting as well. I used just a pinch more cinnamon than the recipe called for.