Cheesecake Central!

Happy 2012 Everyone!! Wanna know what one of my resolutions are this year? Make MORE cupcakes and actually post to my blog on a regular basis! We'll see how that goes... On a side note, I apologize if this entry is a bit long and full of pictures. It's been a busy week, as far as baking goes.

One thing that will help me stick to my resolution is my brand new Kitchen Aid Mixing Stand! That's right everyone, after several years of begging, Mike finally caved and let me buy one. I got the Pro 600 series so that means I can make LOTS of cupcakes, woohoo!

As a result of my new awesome mixer I have been quite the little baker this past week. Not only have I made 2 different cupcakes but I also made some delish chocolate chip cookies. I should also mention that for the past week I have basically lived in my newest apron that my sister-in-law, Tammy, got me for Christmas. I am developing an obsession with cute aprons!

First, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies on Sunday for our book club meeting (yeah yeah I'm in a book club...). I have forever been searching for a chocolate chip cookie that has some substance to it and doesn't flatten out when I bake it. When I was in high school there was a family of girls that all went to my school and they were known for their amazing chocolate chip cookies; it was like this mysterious recipe that we all wanted to get our hands on. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have found it! The funny thing is it was such a basic recipe and I was not at all prepared for how great it would turn out. I read online once that the key to chocolate chip cookies was pastry flour, not just any old flour. Since I decided to make these so last minute I decided to try that theory out later and just stick with a quick and easy recipe. I'll have to use pastry flour next time and compare the two versions.

Next up is the cupcakes! My day off is always a good excuse to bake but this week I had even more incentive: a group of girls from work were getting together for dinner the next night and I volunteered to bring dessert! One of my coworkers had been bugging me for months to make a cupcake that I originally made for her over a year ago so I figured I'd make her happy which brings me to the first of my two cupcakes...

White Chocolate Cheesecake Vanilla Bean Cupcake
That's right folks, I said cheesecake AND cupcake!!! This cupcake didn't come from my Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. When I originally baked this I found a recipe that had a dollop of cheesecake in the center of a cupcake. As delicious as it was, I didn't feel satisfied with the amount of cheesecake that I ended up with in my cupcake; I wanted more! So I decided to try literally combining the two and my result was amazing, if I do say so myself.

First, I baked a basic vanilla bean cupcake (using my homemade vanilla extract - that's right, I said homemade! I'll explain that a little later) but I only filled the liners 1/3 of the way with batter. They didn't rise as much as I had expected (or maybe they did but the weight of the cheesecake smooshed them down a bit) so next time I think I'll try filling them halfway. Once done baking, I let them cool.

While the cupcakes were cooling I began making the cheesecake. Since the cake portion was already cooked I decided to us a "no-bake" type cheesecake. I wanted a flavor that would give the basic vanilla a little pizazz without overwhelming the cake so I went with white chocolate cheesecake. First, I melted some white chocolate over a double broiler. As that was cooling a little I beat together cream cheese, sour cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract (yup, more of the homemade stuff!). Once it was smooth I added in the melted white chocolate. Then I smoothed it onto the top of the cupcakes and put them into the refrigerator to firm up. Before serving them I put a fresh raspberry on top for little pop of flavor and color.

I think they turned out great. In fact, my coworker said they lived up to her high expectations! In the interest of full disclosure, however, I will say that the consistency of the cake was a little different. It wasn't bad, just different if that makes sense. They were much denser then your average cupcake. I'm not sure if that was due to them being chilled in the refrigerator or maybe some of the cheesecake mixture was absorbed into the cake as it was firming. Who know, but regardless I think they were a success!

* How cute are the bottom of these liners?!?!

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake
I was surprised how quickly I finished making the other cupcakes and still felt like baking so I decided to keep on going... Since it's been a while since I made anything from my Martha Stewart cookbook and I had a lot of cream cheese left over I thought it would be a perfect time to make these mini cheesecakes! I'm so glad I did because they were SUPER yummy and extremely easy to make.

First, I put an entire Oreo in the bottom of each cupcake liner as the crust - cute detail! Then I beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Once it was smooth I folded in crumbled up Oreo cookies. I filled each liner with the cheesecake mixture and baked them. After they finished baking I chilled them in the refrigerator (still in the cupcake tin to help them keep their shape until they firmed up) overnight.

I must say these were a hit with all my coworkers! Shannon summed it up by saying "OK, frickin' yum!" HAHAHA, made me laugh... I would definitely recommend that everyone make these for parties, potlucks, etc... I guarantee you they will get eaten up quickly!

Lastly, I said I'd mention my homemade vanilla extract. My mom read about making your own extracts and we decided to give it a try. It is a 3 month project so it does require some patience. All you do is put a few sliced vanilla beans in vodka. A word of advice: buy your vanilla beans in bulk!! My mom and I bought a bunch of them online and divided them up; even with shipping it ends up being a much cheaper price then it would have been at the grocery store. Once a week you need to shake up the jar a little. At the end of 3 months you'll have yourself some awesome vanilla extract. The best part is you can keep topping it off with more vodka as you use it and occasionally swap out a vanilla bean for a new one. We took the idea and ran with it, and also made orange extract and lemon extract.

Day 1

After 1 Month

The Finished Product

Wildflour Cupcakes

It's no secret that I love all things cupcake, so I am constantly looking for new cupcake shoppes to try when I travel. Recently, a new shoppe called Wildflour (get the pun?!?!) Cupcakes opened up a couple minutes away from my house so of course I had to stop by and taste some of their yummy cupcakes!!!

The store front itself is actually really cute and pretty similar to how I would want to decorate my store (if I'm ever fortunate enough to open my own bakery). I really like the chandeliers and molding on the walls, it really adds character and charm. I also love the little details like the pink chairs and chalk board menu board. My only complaint with the physical store is the location. While it is in a great area and near a lot of other stores that get plenty of business (Starbucks, Pinkberry, Chipotle...) it is in the back of the shopping center behind the main row of stores so you can't see it and wouldn't even know it was there if not for the sign on the corner of the street.

Now for the important part: THE CUPCAKES! There wasn't a whole lot of options to choose from but then again, this isn't Sprinkles. I actually went to their website when I got home and found out that they do have a pretty wide selection of cupcakes that they rotate throughout the week. I decided to choose four flavors and came home with Red Velvet (of course, my favorite), Oreo Truffle (looked interesting and chocolatey enough to satisfy Mike), Pumpkin, and Carrot. The cupcakes looked exactly how I would have expected them to with the typical dollop of  frosting and small fondant flower decorations, but never the less they looked yummy. The girl behind the counter packaged them up for me in a clear plastic container that held all four cupcakes and put a sticker with their logo on the top. If it were my shoppe I would have used boxes, but that's just me...

Overall, I really enjoyed the cupcakes. They were flavorful and moist, very tasty; and the frostings weren't too sweet. I liked the Oreo buttercream frosting with the chocolate ganache coating on the Oreo Truffle Cupcake. The Pumpkin Cupcake was delicious!!!My only critique would be there was A LOT of frosting. I know some people are into frosting and can't get enough, but this felt like I was eating frosting with a side of cake, if you know what I mean. Regardless, I'm glad I tried the shoppe and will definitely return again!

It's Good To Be Back!

It's been a while since I've posted anything or baked anything for that matter. In fact, my last post was in May! What have I been up to, you may wonder? Well, June is the busiest month in the whole year for me. My birthday, both my in-law's birthday's and Father's Day all happen to be in the same month so pretty much every weekend in June is fully booked with family events. In July Mike and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary (woohoo!) and went on a mini vacation. The rest of the summer Mike and I spent as much time as possible outside enjoying our pool which left me no time for baking. But I have to admit I have missed baking and playing around with different recipes so not only did i decided to start up my cupcake project again but i baked two different cupcakes in one week.

First I decided to make a lemon cupcake. A coworker of mine (who we shall call Yenifeeeer for anonymity  purposes) asked for a lemon cupcake for her birthday. Her exact request was a lemon cupcake that was definitely lemon, but not too lemony. She wanted something that would make her say "mmm, lemon" (her words,  not mine) :)

Lemon Cupcake
I was at the store with my mom getting everything I needed for the lemon cupcakes when my mom noticed they were selling Meyer Lemons. Apparently they aren't very commonly sold at grocery stores here in California (at least not at my grocery store). If you are like me then you probably don't know what a Meyer Lemon is and how it differs from a regular lemon. Luckily for me my mom is an endless pit of knowledge (seriously, I would list her as my phone-a-friend in a heartbeat!) Meyer Lemons are thought to be a cross between a lemon and a tangerine which is why their peels have an orange tinge to them. They also have a strong aroma and tend to be sweeter and less acidic tasting, which makes them great for cooking. I decided to trust my mom and give them a shot which is a good thing because their flavor won me over!

For the cake I decided to use a pretty basic vanilla cake recipe but added in fresh lemon juice and zest from one whole lemon. A little tip I learned from my mom is to always roll a lemon on the counter before cutting it open to juice it. This loosens up the juice and you will get A LOT more juice out of it. The cake turned out really good; it was light and fluffy. The only problem I encountered was that a few of the cakes sort of exploded out of the liner. Exploded isn't really the best word to describe it but I just don't know how to better say it. I could be totally wrong but I think it had something to do with the lemon juice. If it ever happens again I'll take a picture of it. Anyways, I decided to taste one of the semi-exploded cakes before tossing it to see what kind of "mmm, lemon" flavor i was dealing with. It did have a nice lemon flavor but was definitely more on the subtle side so I decided to core out the center and fill it with a lemon curd filling.

Once the centers were filled with the lemon curd it was time to move on to the frosting. I decided to make a lemon butter cream. Again, i used fresh lemon juice and zest. Can I just say this was quite possibly one of my favorite butter creams that I have ever made! It's taken me a while to find a good butter cream recipe that didn't taste too buttery or too sickly sweet and now I've found it. Unfortunately, I was baking at my mom's house so I didn't have all my supplies with me, including my piping bags and tips, so I wasn't able to pipe the frosting on and make it pretty and had to settle for using a spatula. Lastly, i sprinkled edible gold dust on for a finishing touch.

That's the finished product, what do you think? I'm not usually one to toot my own horn but I have to say this was a very good lemon cupcake. Even Mike, who admittedly doesn't like lemon flavored anything, thought it was really good.

Caramel Apple Cupcake

Later in the week Mike and I were having his family over for a BBQ and I decided to make.....CUPCAKES!! Big surprise, right? I came across a recipe that used fresh apples and home made caramel that sounded yummy so I thought I'd give it a try. The cakes were actually a brown sugar apple cake. I used my food processor to finely dice up 4 Granny Smith apples and mixed them into the batter. The cakes turned out really tasty but definitely weren't super sweet. They actually would be really good on their own as a muffin.

Now for the fun part: home made caramel! A word of advice, avoid the urge to sample the caramel as soon as it's made!!! Even though I knew it was super hot I couldn't resist myself and dipped the tip of my finger in the caramel. It felt like the skin was melting off my finger, no joke!

After letting the caramel cool completely (about an hour), i mixed in powdered sugar and had some delicious, though very sweet caramel frosting! And this time I was home and excited to be able to use my piping bags to put on the frosting.

They were yummy and I was very surprised at how much it actually tasted like a caramel apple!