Strawberry Cream-cheese Cupcakes

Sorry for the hiatus. I'M BACK!!! And with a bang too! Because these little cupcakes are by far the best I've ever made and just might be the best I've ever tasted. The best part is, they're easy!!!

I bought a mini cupcake maker off Groupon awhile back and decided to try it out. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It cooks 7 mini cupcakes at a time but only takes 5-7 minutes a batch. It's great for warmer weather since it won't heat up the house.

Ingredients: 

- 1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist yellow cake mix

- 2/3 cup water

- ½ cup sour cream

- 1/3 cup vegetable oil

- 2 eggs

- 3 tablespoons strawberry preserves (I used frozen strawberries thinly sliced instead)

- 1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, cut into 24 pieces

- 1 container Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy cream cheese frosting

- Sliced fresh small strawberries, if desired (for top)

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. In large bowl, mix cake mix, water, sour cream, oil and eggs with spoon until well blended (batter will be thick). Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

2. In small bowl, stir preserves until smooth. Place 1 piece of cream cheese on top of each cupcake; press into batter slightly. Spoon 1/4 measuring teaspoon preserves on top of cream cheese in each cupcake.

      3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly in center (some preserves may show in tops of cupcakes). Cool 10 minutes in pans; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

      4. Spread frosting over cupcakes. Just before serving, garnish each cupcake with strawberry slices. Store covered in refrigerator.

Directions for using cupcake maker:

If you are doing this with a cupcakes maker like mine, the process is considerably easier. Make the recipe as stated. Use cover each cup with cooking spray. Preheat device until ready. Pour the batter into each cupcake cup so that it is 2/3rds full. Lay a slice or two of strawberry (or a ¼ tsp of preserves) and a small square of cream cheese on top of each cupcake and push it in to the batter until no longer visible. Close cupcake maker and check back 5 minutes later (Mine took 6-7 minutes for each batch but I’ve heard that some will cook them in 5 minutes). Remove cupcakes carefully (I used two spoons on either side with light pressure to carefully remove each cupcake).

I made half the box and got 21 mini cupcakes out of it.

Source of original recipe: HERE

Chocolate Spoons for Hot Cocoa

I had seen this idea a couple of times but I'm not sure that they were meant to be swirled in hot milk for the purpose of making hot cocoa. Instead, they were made to be eaten like candy. I am not a big fan of candy myself (although, I do occasionally eat candy if it's the right kind). I am, however, a big fan of hot cocoa. I will go for the chocolate mix in the package if I absolutely have to, but, if given a choice, I'd rather have real chocolate (not some processed powder) in my warm cozy beverage.

These spoons are a great way to give the gift of truly great hot cocoa and they look pretty as well! I gave a couple of tins of assorted baked goods to some friends and I included a few of these spoons with directions on how to use them written on the back of the tag I attached.

I went at this project rather ambitiously by buying a ton of random candies and chocolates. I loved the ones that were made with Hersey's miniatures that were various mint flavored. I tend to favor dark chocolate for these spoons because it gives the drink a richer and fuller taste that is much more difficult to achieve with milk chocolate.

There really is no recipe. Instead it's kind of a wing-it-as-you-go type of situation. What I can provide are tips to make the process more fool-proof and some ideas on what kind of spoons you can make.

Here are the ingredients I had on hand (Although I didn't use most of them):

Okay, so here we go:

Tip 1: Melting the chocolate. You really, really don't want to overheat the chocolate. I filled a mug with chocolate and placed it in the microwave for twenty second intervals, stirring between each heating. Do this until the chocolate is nearly lump free. It really doesn't need to be absolutely and completely smooth, it just needs to be warm enough so that if there are any lumps left, they eventually melt.

Tip 2: when you dump each spoon in to the chocolate, make sure it is overflowing and don't be concerned with neatness. Less chocolate will make for a neater looking spoon but a weaker taste. That is a trade-off I'm not willing to make.

Tip 3: USE WAX PAPER to set filled spoons on. This is kind of a no-brainer for those who bake or cook a lot. For those that don't... seriously, you want to follow this suggestion.

Tip 4: Chill finished spoon in fridge. I placed my spoons on top of wax paper that was spread out on a cookie sheet and slid the cookie sheet on to the bottom shelf of the fridge.

Tip 5: Specify the amount of milk to be used for each spoon to whoever you give it to. I used the ration of one spoon to one cup of very hot milk. Obviously if you use more milk, it will result in a weaker taste.

Tip 6: This is probably pretty common sense, but I'll say it just in case this post is confusing. You'll want to add any toppings to chocolate while chocolate is hot. I added marshmallows, sprinkles, and crushed candy canes to mine.

I made three different kinds of spoons. The first used dark chocolate melties as the base and marshmallows and sprinkles as the toppings. The second was the same dark chocolate but with crushed candy canes as the topping. The third, I used Hershey's dark chocolate miniature mint

squares as my base and added little red sprinkles to the top. The third was by far my favorite and gave the richest taste of them all.

Happy spoon making!

Easiest Christmas Snacks Ever!

I had seen a couple of ideas for how to make these on Pinterest and other sites but decided to get some different types of candy from the store and experiment a bit. I have to say, these were by far the easiest Christmas candies/cookies ever! Oh, and they all tasted awesome. I made three different types and couldn't decide which was my favorite =)

AND... I did it all in the microwave!!!!

Rolo Turtle Pretzels

Ingredients:

- Rolos

- Pretzels

- Pecan halves

Peppermint Kisses Pretzels

- Peppermint flavored kisses

- Pretzels

- Green and red M&Ms

Dark Chocolate M&M Pretzels

- Dark chocolate melts (or chocolate kisses can be used if milk chocolate is preferred)

- Pretzels

- Green and red M&Ms

Directions:

Step one: place pretzels on plate covered in parchment paper. Top each with chosen candy (either Rolo, Kisses, or Chocolate Melts).

Step two: Place in microwave and heat at 50% power for 20 seconds. Check to see if candies are melted enough that they are soft and formable throughout.

Step three: top each with chosen candy (M&M or pecan) and push down into melted candy. Place in freezer or fridge to harden and remove from parchment paper.

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

I currently have this wonderful cheesecake baking in my oven. I will include pictures with this recipe later, after it has baked and cooled in the fridge overnight. The original recipe can be found here on one of my favorite sites, Allrecipes.com.

I did try the cheesecake filling before adding the eggs and could tell that when done, this cheesecake would be AMAZING.

Here's the photo from Allrecipes until I upload my own photos (Update: I horribly overcooked this cheesecake and, although it tasted great, it looked really, really brown...):

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

Servings: 16 (small slices)

Time to prepare: 30 mins. Time to cook: 1 hour 30 mins. Time to chill: 4 hours

Ingredients:

- 38 Ginger Snaps, finely crushed

- 1/4 cup finely chopped Pecans (I omitted due to nut allergy)

- 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted (I did half and half)

- 4 (8 ounce) packages Cream Cheese, softened

- 1 cup sugar

- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin

- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 4 eggs

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F

2. Mix crumbs, nuts and butter; press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 9-inch springform pan.

3. Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add pumpkin, spice and vanilla; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour into crust.

4. Bake 1 hour 20 min. to 1 hour 30 min. or until center is almost set. LEAVE OUT UNTIL COMPLETELY COOL (I missed this step). Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.

UPDATES: 1 hour and 20 minutes was too long at 325. Next time I will lower the temp AND remove sooner. Once the cake is done, don't throw it into the fridge immediately. Wait for it to completely cool to room temperature and then place in fridge. Some people swear by water baths for cheesecakes. It seems complicated though since a springform pan will let the water in.

Phyllo Pumpkin Pie Bites

These were truly amazing. The phyllo adds a wonderful crunchy textural juxtaposition to the creamy pumpkin filling. I only made four as a test batch and couldn't help but gobble them all down in under 5 minutes. These had a nice and rich sweetness to them which made it different than yesterday's post on Pumpkin Dip for Gingersnaps.

And, I found pre-made miniature phyllo bowls (found at Fresh and Easy) so I didn't have to spend the time handling the phyllo dough myself.

Phyllo Pumpkin Pie Bites (original recipe here)

Servings: 8 bites

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

- 8 phyllo dough sheets (or pre-made phyllo bowls if you can find them)

- 1 cup pumpkin puree

- 1/4 cup white sugar

- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spices

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/4 cup milk (I used whole milk but the original author used 1%)

Directions:

1. Thaw phyllo dough sheets according to directions. Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin pan.

2. Mix all ingredients besides phyllo dough together in a medium bowl.

3. Layer two sheets of dough on top of each other. Cut in half. Then fold that half in half so that you have a square. Line muffin cup with square shaped phyllo dough and spoon about 2 tablespoons of mixture into cup. Continue this process until dough is used up. This recipe makes enough for 8 cups/bites but is easily increased if you have more pumpkin.

4. Bake at 375 for 15-17 minutes until phyllo dough is browned on the edges and pumpkin mixture is just set. Let cool in muffin pan for at least 10 minutes to set.

*These are best enjoyed the day they are made otherwise the phyllo will get a bit soggy even though the pumpkin pie inside will still taste fine.

Enjoy and be sure to make enough so that everyone gets a few. Trust me; you can't just have one!

Pumpkin Dip for Gingersnaps

This was really, really good. It tasted almost like pumpkin pie but had the zing of the gingersnaps to make it something uniquely special.

I didn't have electric beaters so I used a whisk and sheer womanly strength to make it as creamy as possible. Still, there were small pieces of cream cheese throughout which didn't affect the taste but did make the presentation less awesome. So, use electric beaters or an electric mixer for this if you have them!

Pumpkin Dip for Gingersnaps

Servings: Dip for around 6-8 people as an appetizer or snack

Time to prepare: about 5-10 minutes (if you have electric beaters or an electric mixer, longer if whisking)

Ingredients:

- 4 ou. cream cheese, softened

- 1 cup powdered sugar

- 1/4 cup heavy cream (I used half and half since I am not a big fan of the richness of heavy cream)

- 3/4 cup pureed canned pumpkin

- 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spices

- 1 TBSP maple syrup, plus more to top

- lots of gingersnaps (around 40-50)

Directions:

1. Using beaters or an electric mixer, whip together cream cheese, pumpkin, powdered sugar, and heavy cream for about 2-3 minutes.

2. Add pie spices and maple syrup and whip 2-3 more minutes until smooth. The longer you whip, the more fluffy it becomes.

3. Pour into serving bowl and top with maple syrup and a crushed gingersnap. Dip gingersnaps in and enjoy!

Pineapple Upside Down Tea Cakes

Pineapple upside down cake was not a favorite of mine growing up. It wasn't until I gave it another chance in adulthood that I realized how awesome it really is.

Like I've said before, it's just me and my fiancee in our home so we don't need a whole cake to ourselves. So, I went on a search to find individual sized cakes. This recipe utilizes a muffin pan to make miniature versions of upside down cake. It is quite yummy and pretty easy as well =)

I got the original recipe from here. The original recipe uses Splenda. I personally choose to never use artificial sweeteners in any of my cooking. Aritificial sweeteners are usually chemically modified and have been linked to a number of health problems. I'd rather stick with using granulated sugar in moderation.

Pineapple Upside Down Tea Cakes

Time: 15 minutes to prepare 15-20 minutes to bake

Servings: (6-8 tea cakes)

Ingredients:

- 1 egg

- 1/4 cup yogurt (no fat free/low fat or will be drier)

- 3 TBSP butter, melted

- Dash of vanilla

- 1/2 cup flour

- 6 TBSP sugar

- 1/2 tsp baking Powder

- 1/8 tsp baking soda

- 1 can crushed pineapple (the smallest you can find because you will not use it all)

- melted butter and brown sugar for top of cake (about 1 tsp per cupcake cup)

- pinch of salt

- candied cherries (glace cherries) OR blueberries with confectioners' sugar.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 degrees C)

2. Brush melted butter in muffin pan. Sprinkle each cup with 1 tsp brown sugar. Add a cherry (if you are using blueberries, wait until cakes are baked to add to top), followed by 1 tsp crushed pineapple.

3. Whisk together egg, yogurt, vanilla, and melted butter. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and pinch of salt. Whisk well.

4. Divide mixture evenly into cups.

5. Bake at 350 degrees (or about 25 degrees lower in a gas oven) for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool after removing from oven.

6. Carefully remove tea cakes from greased cups (I used cupcake molds which made the process much easier). If using blueberries, top each cake with blueberry and confectioners' sugar.

Enjoy!

Check out my other dessert recipes:

Banana Cinnamon Muffins! Yum!

Better than Sex Cupcakes… the name speaks for itself!

Swedish Pancakes with Berries. Great for breakfast or dessert!

Fruit dip that can be used to make a wonderful dessert or appetizer!

The Best Snickerdoodle Cookies

Fall is Here. Let's bake!

Snickerdoodles are probably my favorite kind of cookie. For some reason, I've never made them from scratch before. Today, it was cold in the house and nothing beats the warmth of an oven baking something you know is going to be awesome!

I found this particular recipe here. It had lots of great reviews. The only thing I did differently was to substitute margarine for the shortening. I don't care for shortening and don't like cooking with it unless it's necessary to the recipe.

These were awesome right out of the oven. The outside was slightly crisp but the inside was warm and soft. This recipe is going straight to my favorites!

Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles

Servings: makes 48 cookies (I halved the recipe)

Time: 15-20 mins. to prepare 7-10 mins. to bake

Ingredients:

- 1/2 C. Butter

- 1/2 C. Shortening or Margarine

- 1-1/2 C. White Sugar

- 2 Eggs

- 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

- 2-3/4 C. Flour

- 2 tsp. Cream of Tartar

- 1 tsp. Baking Soda

- 1/4 tsp. Salt

- 2 TBSP White Sugar

- 2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)

2. Cream together first five ingredients (butter, Shortening or margarine, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract). Blend in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

3. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

4. Combine 2 TBSP sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. Roll balls in sugar mixture.

5. Place balls onto greased baking sheet and bake 7-10 minutes, or until set but not hard. Remove from baking sheet immediately. (I turned down my oven about 15 degrees since gas ovens can often run hotter than electric... it took about 7 minutes for my cookies to bake).

I would recommend eating one hot out of the oven with a cold glass of milk. YUM!!! ;)

For more recipes, Check out my other posts:

Herb Broiled Rainbow Trout with Creamed Spinach

Banana Cinnamon Muffins! Yum!

Better than Sex Cupcakes… the name speaks for itself!

Swedish Pancakes with Berries. Great for breakfast or dessert!

Fruit dip that can be used to make a wonderful dessert or appetizer!

Curry Chicken Pot Pie. A personal Favorite.

Banana Cinnamon Bread Muffins

When life gives you old bananas, make banana bread!

I got this recipe from Here.

I buy bananas for my fiancee but this time I bought too many for him to eat before they got bruised and dark. So, I looked up recipes for banana bread. It's still pretty warm in So. Cal. right now, so I've been avoiding using the oven and decided I wanted to make muffins rather than a full loaf of bread. These were really, really, really good.

Banana Cinnamon Bread Muffins

Servings: 10-12 muffins

Time: To prepare- 20 mins. To bake: 15-20 mins (per batch)

Ingredients:

- 1-1/2 C. flour

- 1 tsp Baking powder

- 1 tsp Baking soda

- 1/2 tsp. Salt

- 3 Bananas, mashed

- 3/4 C. White sugar

- 1 large egg, lightly beaten

- 1/3 C. Canola or vegetable oil

- 3/4 tsp. Vanilla extract

- 1 C. walnuts (optional)

For the topping:

- 1/3 C. brown sugar

- 2 TBSP flour

- 1/8 tsp. Ground cinnamon

- 1 TBSP Butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 degrees C).

2. Line 10 muffin cups with muffin liners (or grease muffin pan if you prefer not to use liners).

3. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt (first 4 ingredients listed). In another large bowl, beat together banana, white sugar, egg, and vanilla (and nuts if you wish).

4. Stir banana mixture into flour mix until just moistened. Spoon batter into muffin cups.

5. In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients for topping except butter. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle over tops of muffins.

6. Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out of muffin clean. Makes 10-12 muffins.

For more recipes, Check out my other posts:

Herb Broiled Rainbow Trout with Creamed Spinach

Banana Cinnamon Muffins! Yum!

Better than Sex Cupcakes… the name speaks for itself!

Swedish Pancakes with Berries. Great for breakfast or dessert!

Fruit dip that can be used to make a wonderful dessert or appetizer!

Curry Chicken Pot Pie. A personal Favorite.

Better than Sex Cupcakes

The name speaks for itself ;)

I found a recipe for better than sex cake on allrecipes.com. I wanted to make them into cupcakes and decided to give it a try. It took a few batches (I did three at a time) but I finally got something that tastes pretty close to the original cake.

Since it's just my fiancee and me, I tend to not bake cakes or anything that's too large for us to eat by ourselves. I found really cute single silicon cupcake cups to use for baking as few (or as many) cupcakes as I want. Here's a link to some.

These guys are pretty easy to make and don't require that many ingredients. They are sloppy but delicious.

Better Than Sex Cupcakes

Serves: 24-36

Time: 15 mins to prepare + baking time (will depend upon how many cupcakes baked at once).

Ingredients:

- 1 box devil's food cake mix (+ ingredients needed to make cake as listed on box)

- 1/2 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

- 1 jar (6 ounces) caramel ice cream topping

- 2-3 bars chocolate covered toffee, crushed into small pieces

- 1 tub (8 ounces) whipped cream topping

- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

1. Prepare cake mix as directed on box (see note in step 5 if you're planning to serve these well after being made). Pour into cupcake cups ONLY halfway up (you will need plenty of room for the topping). Bake for about 2/3rds of the time as directed on the box (or until a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean).

2. While cupcakes bake, combine condensed milk and caramel in a small saucepan over low heat until mixture is hot (don't boil).

3. Cut slits into top of cupcakes and pour caramel mixture over top so that it sinks into slits. Sprinkle about half of the toffee pieces on tops of cupcakes.

4. Using a freezer zip bag, add rest of toffee and half of chocolate chips plus whipped topping into bag. Mix together by squeezing bag and then cut a corner (about 3/4 inch wide) off the bag (if you're not using individual cupake cups, remove from cups now, otherwise, serve in cups for easier eating). Use bag to pipe topping onto cupcakes. Top cupcakes with remaining chocolate chips.

5. Serve immediately or refrigerate for later. I've heard this recipe can get soggy if left too long. If you pan on waiting to serve it, you may want to cut down the oil in the cake mix to make a denser cake.

For more recipes, Check out my other posts:

Herb Broiled Rainbow Trout with Creamed Spinach

Banana Cinnamon Muffins! Yum!

Better than Sex Cupcakes… the name speaks for itself!

Swedish Pancakes with Berries. Great for breakfast or dessert!

Fruit dip that can be used to make a wonderful dessert or appetizer!

Curry Chicken Pot Pie. A personal Favorite.

Swedish Pancakes with Strawberries and Cream

For the Sweet Breakfast Lover in You!

These are similar to crepes. In fact, I'm not entirely sure how they differ (besides maybe the butter content?). They're really really yummy with the right additions!

I got the pancake recipe out of a Food Network magazine (Aug/Sept 2009). The strawberries and cream are something I've been doing ever since I woke up and decided one day that I wanted sweet pancakes.

Servings: about 10-12 pancakes
Time: about 25 minutes

Ingredients for Pancakes:
- 8 TBSP unsalted butter
- 1 Cup all-purpose flour
- 1-3/4 Cups whole milk
- 3 Large eggs
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt

For strawberries (or fruit of choice)
- 1 pint of strawberries, chopped (or other fresh fruit)
- 1 pinch of sugar or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For cream:
- 1 Cup sour cream (can use light)
- 1-1/4 Cups whipped cream (comes in a tub)

Directions:

1. melt 4 Tbsp butter in 10-inch nonstick skillet. Wisk flour, milk, eggs, melted butter, vanilla extract, and salt in large bowl (or can be placed in blender) until smooth and all lumps are gone.

2. Warm skillet over medium heat until a drop of water bounces and sizzles. Add 1 TBSP butter. When melted, swirl pan so butter covers the bottom. Pour in 1/3 cup of batter and swirl the pan immediately to spread pancake out evenly (took two tries for me to get this right). Cook until pancake sets (a minute or two) and then carefully lift pancake by edges and flip. Cook until lightly golden brown (another minute or so).

3. Repeat with remaining batter until finished. Move to oven or microwave to keep warm.

4. Add strawberries to small saucepan over medium low heat and mash. Add sugar (or vanilla extract) and bring to a simmer. Let simmer a few minutes.

5. While strawberries are cooking, mix whipped cream and sour cream together until smooth.

6. Remove strawberries from heat. Top each pancake with a dallop of both strawberries and cream. Or alternatively, you can wrap it. Now that I think of it, wrappig it would've made a prettier picture.

7. Eat it up! =)

Check out my other recipes:

Herb Broiled Rainbow Trout with Creamed Spinach

Banana Cinnamon Muffins! Yum!

Better than Sex Cupcakes… the name speaks for itself!

Swedish Pancakes with Berries. Great for breakfast or dessert!

Fruit dip that can be used to make a wonderful dessert or appetizer!

Curry Chicken Pot Pie. A personal Favorite.