before frosting

So for the cupcake, I decided to use Strawberry Jam. Yes, jam. Why? Well, strawberries aren’t exactly very cheap here and I don’t want them to go all moldy in the fridge because I have the tendency to forget about them.. Hehe.. Now as for the frosting, I had to use Whipped Cream from the can as the heavy cream brand I used and I think the only one available is apparently made in China and you know with all the milk scandal and stuff .

Well anyway, I also made some variations on the cupcake like the graham cracker-creamcheese and the cake batter on top and vice versa, as well as just the strawberry batter and a dollop of creamcheese in the middle. Yes, I’m a rather big put-directly-into-the-batter kind of person (remember this?).

Either way you assemble it, the cupcake taste GOOOOOOOD! The cake really tastes like strawberries plus the creamcheese is just delightful and don’t forget that extra crunch from the graham crackers!

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:::

Cake batter:

1/4 cup strawberry jam
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup oil

Graham Cracker Crust:
1/2 cup graham crackers, crushed (may need more)
1/4 cup butter, melted

Cream cheese filling:

1 cup (1 8 oz. package) cream cheese, room temp.
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon milk

-Preheat oven to 180C
-In a small bowl, heat strawberry jam and milk in microwave for about 30 seconds. Mash the jam and set aside.
-In another small bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt.
-Whisk together butter and sugar. Add egg then vanilla and milk.
-Fold half of dry ingredients. Add oil. Fold rest of dry ingredients. Fold in strawberry-milk mixture.
-Mix melted butter and graham crackers.
-Cream cream cheese. Add sugar and milk.

-Bake for 15 minutes.

Assembly #1: (graham-cheese-batter)
-Mold 1 tbsp of graham crackers onto bottom of cupcake liner.
-Take 1 1/2 tbsp of creamcheese and place it on top of the graham cracker layer.
-Pour about 2 tbsp of strawberry batter on top or until it’s filled.

Assembly #2: (batter-grahams/cheese)

-Pour batter halfway into the liner. Sprinkle some crushed grahams and add a dollop of the creamcheese.

FROSTING:

1/4 cup strawberry jam
Your favorite ready whipped cream in a can

-Heat jam until very soft, let cool.
-Spray whipped cream on the cupcake. Drizzle a bit of the strawberry mixture and garnish with crushed grahams.

So if you like my entry, you can vote for me (;D) on October 26 over at No One Puts A Cupcake In The Corner. And just before you leave, if you’re interested in entering, you have a chance on winning these fabulous prizes:

ETSY artist ART ON THE MENU with her awesome little cardboard cupcake, her link is: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5738002 and a pair of cupcake earrings from Lots of Sprinkles at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281. As an added bonus for October only we have a sassy and sweet T from Bakelove Bakewear, http://www.bakelove.com/cupcake_t-shirt.html. 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; the CUPCAKE COURIER http://www.cupcakecourier.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

One word: DELICIOUS.

I only changed one thing which was the shrimp to sausage, because I didn’t have any. But either way, the taste is fabulous.

Here’s the link to the food network page, just follow the arrow —–> JAMBALAYA. xDD

PIZZA DOUGH (taken from From Whence the Sweet Bird Sang)
Makes two twelve inch rounds

1 pkg. (2 1/4 tsp.) dry active yeast
3/4 cup warm water (110 F)
1/4 cup cool water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
pinch sea salt

1. In a mixing bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add the cool water, oil, and salt.

2. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, blending until smooth after each addition. Dust clean surface with at least 1/2 cup flour and knead dough 5-10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.

3. Coat a bowl with oil, place the dough ball inside and roll to coat in oil. Cover bowl with saran wrap and then a towel and set in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Heat oven to 500 F, place stoneware baking sheet or pizza stone in oven to preheat, at least 30 minutes.

4. Punch down dough and divide into two balls. Let rest 10 minutes. Pat out dough balls on a floured surface to twelve inches round. Let rest 15 minutes. Pat down, and top with sauce and toppings.

5. Place pizza directly on pizza stone, it should be hot enough to sizzle immediately upon contact. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is dark brown in spots.

The taste was pretty good, strong coffee flavor maybe a tad bit on the dry side maybe because I left it a little too long =.= but still good with the softness of the toasted mallows and a little crunch from the crushed grahams and of course that bit of chocolatyness.

Caramel Chili Cupcakes (triple C’s woohoo!) with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Now for the taste, the cake is moist and has a nice crunch when you bite it from the caramel. The chili flavor is more of an aftertaste since you can only taste it until after you swallow and then you can feel your tongue and throat getting hot. The frosting goes pretty well with the cake too.

Makes 6 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup AP flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cream

2 egg yolks

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 tablespoon vinegar

2 chilis (I used a local chili called, Sili Labuyong)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS:

In a small saucepan, heat milk and sugar until it boils while stirring occassionaly. Lower the heat until it thickens. Turn of heat and let cool.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Place cream in a mug and heat in microwave til boiling (make sure to cover the mug).

Whisk egg yolks, brown sugar and vanilla. While, whisking continuously, pour hot cream into egg mixture.

In a small bowl, split open chili and mix with vinegar. Discard the chili and the seeds.

Pour vinegar-chili mixture to the egg mixture. Pour the caramel mixture to the egg mixture. Add oil and milk. Add dry ingredients.

Pour batter until 3/4 full into liners. Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Banana Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup bananas, mashed

Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and bananas.

So don’t forget and go mark your calendars! The last day to get your entries in is August 29th! And if you wanna join, you can head over to Iron Cupcake:Earth and sign up! You can win COOL prizes like:

Cupcake Courier

Fiesta Products (Head Chefs)

Hello, Cupcake!
by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson

Jessie Steele

Taste of Home Books

Voting begins on August 31, so if you like my entry, vote for me! LOL But if not, that’s okay! Hahahaha xD

As for the taste, they lacked a bit of chocolateyness but the frosting is awesome~!

On a side note, I’m pretty sure I got the frosting recipe somewhere only, I can’t seem to find it anymore >_< Sorry. x___x

^ I thought that the cookie would sink as it gets baked. Well, you see the result. xD

INGREDIENTS: (makes 7)

1/2 cup AP flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup oil

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons sourcream

1/4 cup milk

oreo cookies

-Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

-Sift and mix flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and baking soda.

-Whisk together, eggs, vanilla, oil, sourcream and water.

-Add half of dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Pour milk. Add the rest of the dry ingredients.

-Pour 2/3 into each cupcake liner. Drop 1 oreo cookie into each well. Press til submerged.

-Bake for 18-20 minutes, til tester comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (only made enough for that 1st picture above. *g*)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup powdered sugar

-Cream butter and vanilla. Add sugar til well incorporated.

PS. If you love cupcakes and would like to participate in a cupcake competition, head on over to Iron Cupcake: Earth and join now! Don’t forget to say I referred you

It turned out pretty great!

It was finished within 24 hours and my mom kept bugging me to make another one and so I did and this time I took pics. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

crushed graham crackers for crust + 2 tbsp. melted butter

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I used 1 teaspoon)

2 eggs

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare 8-inch spring form pan. ( I used two 4-inch pans)

Mix crushed graham crackers and melted butter.

Beat cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Add vanilla.

Add eggs one at a time.

Pour onto crust. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Turn off oven and prop open the oven door and leave cheesecake for 30 minutes. Refrigerate overnight.

The second I saw the Cupcake Hero theme for July, I immediately started brainstorming for my cupcake. I ended up picking a White Chocolate Cupcake (although you couldn’t taste the white chocolate at all -.-)  with Blueberry Filling, White Ganache (in red) and Cream Cheese Frosting *whew*. One thing I learnt while making this was to be patient when melting white chocolate. The first time, I melted the chocolate on a double boiler and waited for forever and decided to place it in the microwave for 50 seconds. Big Mistake. After 50 seconds, a big brown blob was in the middle of the chocolate. Heh.

I’m not sure if its legal in the rules, but I made the ganache in two colors, red and white to be more with the theme and planned to do the same to the frosting. However, my little helper’s, aka my sister’s, face scrunched up and didn’t like the idea of red ganache and how much more, the frosting xD Aaaand as you can see, I’m not the neatest person you’ll ever meet but I try. xDDD The ganache is pretty much dripping and smudged everywhere. Haha.

The taste, you ask? As mentioned above, the cake didn’t have a  white chocolate taste to it but still tasted quite good. As for the blueberry filling, I have to say it lacked a bit of flavor, somewhat disappointing but that’s just another learning experience . The white/red ganache gives it the white chocolate kick. And who doesn’t love a good cream cheese frosting, eh?  Overall, it was a bit too sweet but it did taste pretty good even with the lack of some flavors xD.

For the recipes, I got the recipe for the cupcake here, and the blueberry filling here.

White Ganache

2/3 cup white chocolate chips

1/4 cup cream

Em’s Magnificent Cream Cheese Icing
adapted form the 06/98 Epicurious.com Cream Cheese Icing recipe
1 8oz pkg of cream cheese – room temperature, divided in three parts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter – COLD
1 tablespoon shortening
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

I was browsing through my cookbooks thinking of what to bake next aaand I found this. A Warm Mocha Truffle Cake from Melanie Barnard’s Short & Sweet. It looked sooo good in the picture in the book so I just had to try it out! I decided to quarter the recipe (xD) since my family’s been complaining that all I’ve been baking are making them bigger and they want me to start learning how to cook food-food (so expect some chicken/fish recipes in the next couple of weeks!). So anyway, the quartered (is that even a word?) recipe made enough to fill two 2oz. ramekins.

The result? It was really good! It was really soft, somewhere between fudgy and cakey. Hahaha but still really yummy! Don’t forget to top it off with vanilla/coffee ice cream! I, however, didn’t have any vanilla ice cream but had this what we call here, a double dutch ice cream which is basically vanilla with chocolate chunks, nuts and marshmallows but it still worked well.

Here’s the full recipe for you:

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into small pieces

8 tablespoons (or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter

2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon coffee liqueur (I used instant coffee, since I don’t have any liqueurs and stuff xD)

ice cream

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter six 5-ounce ramekins. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring often, until the chocolate is nearly melted. Remove from heat and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, yolks and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture is thick and pale in color, about 4 minutes. Beat in flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add liqueur and the chocolate mixture and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes more.

Divide the batter among the ramekins and bake until the tops of the cakes are just firm and rounded and the cakes begin to pull away from the sides of the ramekins, about 18-20 minutes. Let the cakes stand for a few minutes, then run a knift around the edges to loosen them. Invert the cakes onto dessert plates. Serve immediately with a small (or big if you like!) scoop of ice cream on top of the cakes.

ENJOY!!!