Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake

This one is a keeper for sure! I am not a big pound cake fan because I don't like more butter taste than sweet taste in my cupcakes but this one has it all... the denseness that you like from pound cake, moistness from the cream cheese, and of course the added strawberry stripe. I really liked the cupcake. I topped it first with cream cheese ice cream which was a first for me both eating and making. I think I should have let the cream cheese soften a tiny bit more or whipped it longer but it is amazingly rich and not overly sweet. I also used xylitol instead of granulated sugar. I do this a lot because I try to avoid sugar ( Ha Ha Ha ) and this makes me feel better about taste testing. Finally the cupcake has a Grand Mariner Ricotta Cream and Grand Mariner soaked strawberries. I love using Grand Mariner in my glazes and for soaking my berries. YUM is the best adjective for this baby. And it was just as much fun to photo as it was to bake and eat.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

this made 6 large/jumbo cupcakes

1 4 oz package cream cheese - room temp
3/4 cup butter - room temp
1.5 cups white sugar
3 eggs - room temp
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and sugar 6 jumbo cupcake tins or a 10 inch tube pan.
In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth; take your time creaming the mixture. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy; about 3-5 min.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Beat for about 2 min after last egg Add the flour all at once and mix in just until incorporated ; don't over mix. Add vanilla.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 325 for 31-34 min with jumbo tins or for 1 hour and 20 minutes with tube pan. With tube pan check for doneness at 1 hour. Cool for 5 min in tin and then to rack to cool completely.


Cream Cheese Ice Cream

8 oz cream cheese - softened
1.5 cups milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Transfer to ice cream maker and freeze according to directions. Let harden in freezer two hours before enjoying

Grand Mariner infused Ricotta Cream


1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 Tbsp light brown sugar
2 Tbsp Grand Marnier
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/4 cup pistachios, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)

Place the ricotta in a small strainer set over a bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes to drain the excess liquid. Transfer the drained ricotta to a food processor or blender, add the brown sugar and Grand Mariner; process until smooth. The ricotta mixture can be made up to 8 hours in advance, covered and kept refrigerated.

Maple Pumpkin Cupcake

Maple Pumpkin Cupcake

This was a fun one to bake. I tried my best to incorporate my favorite fall flavors in this one. I also baked these in my "giant" cupcake tin so the recipe yields 6 huge cupcakes. They were so moist and flavorful. Definitely one to make for Thanksgiving week treats (yea...I can eat for a week prepping for Turkey Day) I loved the mixing of raisins, maple, pumpkin, and cream cheese. I thought the cream cheese filling added a cool "stripe" in the cupcake too.

Pumpkin Batter

2 cups AP flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp nutmeg

pinch allspice

1 stick butter, room temp

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup rum soaked raisins ( I used Captain Morgan Spiced Rum ) YUM!

1/2 cup chopped pecans ( I omitted these with regret now )

1/3 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds for topping ( I omitted these too )

Cream Cheese Filling

1 (8 oz. pkg.) cream cheese, softened

1/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. cornstarch

1 egg

2 Tbs. Heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

In medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Blend in sugar and cornstarch until well blended. Add egg, cream and vanilla; beat on low speed until well blended.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

3 TBSP unsalted butter

1 tsp maple extract

1 cup powdered sugar

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine all the ingredients and beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400. Line tins with liners or Pam. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. With stand mixer and paddle, beat butter on med until soft. Add both sugars and continue to beat until light and smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating one min after adding each, add vanilla. Lower the mixer speed to low and mix in pumpkin and buttermilk. Add dry ingredients in a steady stream only until they disappear. Avoid over mixing. Stir in raisins and nuts. Add 1/2 batter to tins, top with cream cheese filling, top with remaining 1/2 of mixture to get tins about 3/4 or completely full if you want a large "muffin top". Sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Bake about 25 min or until done. Leave in tin 5 min and then transfer to rack to cool completely. Once totally cooled, Ice cupcake and garnish with chopped pecans and raisins. ENJOY!

MacCheesy Cuppie

MacCheesy Cuppie

So...what makes a cupcake a cupcake..is it size or sweetness? I wondered this when I was attempting to be creative in this month's Iron Cupcake Challenge:Cheese. I didn't want to do the typical cream cheese cupcake. So this was my idea for the "unique" cupcake entry. I added the bacon to the top for garnish of course but it sure did pair well with the mac n cheese. The kids enjoyed them. Lexi was very sceptical of these babies but I crumbled them up in a bowl and then she really liked them. Guess that speaks for the recipe and not just the looks of them huh.

MacCheey Cuppie

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon margarine
1 egg, beaten
1 cup skim milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup planko (seasoned bread crumbs)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin (I used mini bundt tin) with nonstick cooking spray. In a small bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, olive oil and salt; set aside.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook until al dente. Remove from the heat, drain and return to the pan; stir in the butter and egg until pasta is evenly coated. Reserve 1/2 cup of Cheddar cheese and stir the remaining Cheddar cheese, milk and mozzarella cheese into the pasta. Sprinkle the reserved cheese and the bread crumb mixture in the mini bundt tins. Spoon into prepared muffin tin.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the topping is nicely browned. Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan. This will allow the cheese to set and they will hold their muffin shape.

Adapted from allrecipes

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins

I enjoyed making these muffins. I love muffins and cupcakes and anything in the same category as "mini". I made a few adjustments to the recipe. I didn't add the sunflower seeds and in retrospect I wished I would have because I have some chocolate covered Halloween colored seeds and they would have looked cool. I also soaked the raisins in Captain Morgan Spiced Rum before I added them (yum!) And the last change, as you can probably see, is I added a cream cheese filling to the muffins. The cream cheese addition was pretty good. Bailey was giving me a hard time about how he would never eat cheesecake and i tricked him with the filling...he liked it as I thought. When he discovered it was cream cheese the initial response was "that's gross" and then he finished the rest of the muffin with a smile. They are best eaten warm in my opinion but the pumpkin was great and the timing of this muffin was great too. Here is the cream cheese filling recipe if you want to add to yours next time...

Cream Cheese Filling

1 (8 oz. pkg.) cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 egg
2 Tbs. Heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream cheese batter: In medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Blend in sugar and cornstarch until well blended. Add egg, cream and vanilla; beat on low speed until well blended. Preparation: Line 12 large muffin cups with papers. Fill approximately 1/4- to 1/2-full with pumpkin batter. Pour 1 heaping Tablespoon cream cheese batter over top. Cover the cream cheese batter with a little more of the pumpkin batter.

Happy Fall Baking Y'all! oh and I wanted to get a good pic of my photo assistant in there too.

The Princess Continues to Recieve

So....my husbands birthday is next week and we, once again, we be celebrating solo. This has been a common thread throughout our lives together. When I was nursing and he was a cop we were always on opposite shifts so we could be with the kids and not have to have babysitters. A sacrifice we both agreed to. Much like what we are facing now. We haven't spent a Christmas together in 6 years...this year we finally get to. He is coming home a week before Christmas and I can't tell you how excited I already am. Back to my original thought ( I can quickly get off track even in writing I guess ) for Chris' birthday he couldn't think of anything he wanted/needed that he could have in Iraq so he thought and thought and came up with asking for a bread maker. Now...Ladies reading this... Is this not equivalent to a woman asking for a gun to have at home while they are away that the husband can keep "safe" for you until you need it. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am the luckiest lady alive to have a husband that would ask for a gift that is really for me and not him on his birthday. Now..he knows I will be making tons of bread and sending it to him with high hopes of little mold (hasn't worked so far) but I was once again amazed by how generous my soul mate is. I know that some people go through life with others that they tolerate or love some but could live without or just exist together because they have kids or a mortgage or just don't want to be alone. I am not this girl...I have found something that people search and search their whole life for. We were made for each other. I am so lucky. So...as the long winded post continues I want to say thanks so much to my mother in law who got the bitchin' bread maker; it's so cool! Cuisinart Baby! And it's a beautiful stainless steel. My mother in law has always rocked at gift giving. And a big kiss to Chris who follows my blog religiously mostly for a good laugh I'm sure. I wished I was with him on this approaching big day...wish we were on a beach with one of those fancy umbrella drinks and a freakn' huge ass cupcake with cool whip on the side (this would not be used for the cupcake )

Maybe next year.....

Taste Testing

The Cupcakes were a hit!!!

Lenox Almond Biscotti

My First Biscotti

I must say in the beginning... I was a biscotti hater. And it even more dumb than that is; I have never eaten one. I always thought...yuck...why would anyone want to eat an overbaked biscuit? I was SOOO wrong. These were delicious. I was blown away at how great they were and more importantly how ignorant I have been. They were very easy to make and the smell was great. I made these late one night while on the phone with Chris and I must say this is my favorite thing to do. I love to be on the phone with him and be able to bake and hopefully share some of my joys with him. (Long Distance Relationships Suck by the way!!!)

Although I really liked the naked version I thought I would spice um up a bit and added some white chocolate and Halloween sprinkles. The chocolate was a great addition. I thought they turned out perfect and were very simple. I am going to try the spiced version next being as the Fall Baking is upon us. And perhaps I won't be so judgemental when it comes to overbaked biscuits anymore...