Mocha Cheesecakes

Mocha Cheesecakes

Cheesecake: my eternal go-to for a quick, elegant cupcake. So easy! and everyone likes them so much! That said, I did get some complaints about the strength of the coffee flavor. If you are not a coffee fan, or prefer it to be a bit milder, you may want to adjust the amount of coffee you put in the recipe.

Crust:

1 1/2 cup chocolate graham crackers, finely ground (about 1 sleeve)

3 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Mix together all the ingredients until slightly moist. Press a thin layer into the bottom of your prepared cupcake liners.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Sour Cream Mixture:

1 1/2 cup sour cream

2 tsp coffee powder

3 tbsp sugar

Mix together until the coffee powder has dissolved fully into the mixture.

Set aside.

Cheesecakes:

3 tsp instant coffee/espresso powder

1 lb cream cheese (2 8-oz packages)

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

2 tbsp flour

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Leave oven at 325 F.

Mix the coffee powder with 2 tsp of warm water and set aside.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one a a time. Add sour cream and flour, and mix until well-combined. Add the espresso mixture and the chocolate.

Fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 full. 

Bake for ten minutes, then remove and top with sour cream mixture. 

Bake another 10 minutes. When the cupcakes are done, turn off the oven and let them stand in it for another 25 minutes.

Remove cupcakes from the oven and sprinkle with cocoa powder.

Garnish as desired. Makes 30.

Adapted for cupcakes from rightathome.com

Bonus: This weekend I made fifty mint-chocolate whoopie pies for a library fundraiser!

Honey Cupcakes with Peaches

Honey Cupcakes with Peaches

I wanted to try out my new bee stencils, and these cupcakes were the perfect candidates. Peaches are in season, and the fruit helps balance the cake and keep things moist, as well as being tasty.

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup (1 stick butter), soft

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour your cupcake tin.

Beat butter and sugar. Add in eggs, one at a time. In another bowl, mix together buttermilk, honey, and vanilla. Stir into the butter mixture, alternating by sifting in the flour and baking powder.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake for 9 minutes, turn, bake 10 minutes.

Let cool. Remove from tins.

Makes 12.

To complete:

2 large ripe peaches

xxx sugar

Slice the cupcakes in half using a serrated knife. Slice the peaches into thin rounds. Using a round cookie cutter, cut the peach slices to the size of the cupcakes. Sandwich them between the two halves of the cupcake.

Turn cupcakes over. If you have no stencil, sift xxx sugar over the top of each cupcake. If you have a stencil, place it over the cupcake firmly:

Sift sugar over until well covered:

then lift away carefully.

Cupcakes adapted from TheCakeBlog.com.

Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes

 

Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes

Once again I was traveling this week! These cupcakes are actually an old favorite, and can be made in a single bowl, which makes them ideal for an on-the-road recipe. Since I didn't want to bring my baking tins with me, I decided to use my silicon cups. This is definitely the best experience I've had baking with them; incidentally, it's also the one where I took the time to butter and flour them. Make a huge difference. I should have known.

This recipe is also great with blueberries or other fresh berries.

Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

7 tbsp (nearly one stick) of butter, melted and cooled

At least 1 cup of fresh or canned blackberries

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and butter; be sure the butter is cool enough not to cook the eggs, and that the buttermilk is room temperature enough not to curdle the butter.

Sift flour, cornmeal, baking powder and sugar into the butter mixture. Whisk until combined. Mix in 1 cup berries.

Pour batter into baking tins or silicone molds. These cupcakes don't rise much, so you can fill them about as full as you like. Place several berries on top of each portion of batter.

Bake for 12 minutes, turn, bake 12 minutes (10 each if using silicone molds, which are smaller).

Let cool.

Makes 15.

These cupcakes can be eaten as snacks or crumbled over ice cream; they're good warm or cold. The perfect on-the-go cupcake!

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Black Raspberry Shortcakes

Black Raspberry Shortcakes

These super delicious cupcakes are also very low on sugar, if you're cooking for someone who is trying to avoid refined sugars. I used black raspberries because I want to take advantage of the season, but obviously any other fresh seasonal fruit would be great.

Cupcakes:

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 tbsp almond extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 425 F.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, and baking powder. Cut in the butter. You can do this either with a pastry cutter or your hands, mushing it together until it forms coarse crumbs. If you have ever made pie dough, this is the same idea.

Stir in whipping cream, almond extract, and eggs, using a fork or bread hook, until dough forms.

Roll medium-sized balls of dough and place into the bottom of lined cupcake tins. They should fit evenly into the tins.

Bake for 8 minutes, turn, bake for 7 minutes. Let cool.

Makes 22.

Black Raspberry Whipped Cream:

1 1/2 cups fresh black raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup whipping cream

Wash black raspberries and mix with sugar. Let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Whip the cream until it gains body and forms stiff peaks. Be careful not to whip for too long or you will get butter!

Drain the raspberries of any residual liquid, then stir into the whipped cream.

To finish:

3/4 cup fresh black raspberries

Remove the shortcakes from their wrappers and slice them in half using a serrated knife. Top each bottom half generously with the whipped cream, then replace the top. Add fresh black raspberries to garnish.

Adapted from Betty Crocker.

Black Walnut Cupcakes

Black Walnut Cupcakes

This week I'm traveling! I had to borrow a friend's kitchen, and I'm always a little out of my depth when I'm not in my own baking stuff. So I picked a really easy recipe (one bowl) that can be topped with an ice cream of your preferred flavor.

Cupcakes:

1/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup cake flour (or regular flour, sifted three times)

2/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup walnuts

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream shortening and sugars until fluffy. Beat in eggs one by one. Sift together flour, baking soda, and nutmeg in a bowl, then add to batter alternating with buttermilk. Add in walnuts and vanilla.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes, turn, bake for 15 minutes. 

Makes 14.

While cupcakes are still warm, remove from wrappers and top with a scoop of ice cream (I used cookie dough at the request of a housemate). The subtle crunch of the walnuts contrasting with the fluffy cupcakes is a great texture, and the ice cream kind of gets everything soggy in a delicious way.

Adapted from Cooks.com.

Cherry Crumble Mini Cupcakes

Cherry Crumble Mini Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
3/4 cup butter, soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup regular flour
1/2 cup canned plum juice (substitute 1/2 cup milk for juice if unavailable)
1 cup canned or fresh sweet cherries, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line mini cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners.

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift in the flours and milk/juice. Mix in the cherries by hand; do not overmix.

Crumble:
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup chopped pecans, if desired.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, using your hands, until the mixtures resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle crumble over the tops of the cupcakes, covering them well.

Bake for 10 minutes, turn pan, and bake for another 10 minutes.

This is another recipe that lied to me about quantity. It claims to make 24 mini cupcakes, but in reality there were 48. Also, regarding the plum juice. The original recipe calls for plums rather than cherries, and I picked it to use up some canned plums I had in the basement. However, although the juice was perfectly fine, the plums more or less disintegrated as soon as I took them out of the jar. I substituted the cherries because I happened to have them on hand.

I would not recommend switching in cherry juice because it's a lot stronger than plum juice, which is more or less just a simple syrup in which the plums have been floating -- so the taste is very mild. If you have a mild fruit juice on hand, maybe a pear juice even orange juice, that would probably be an all right substitute. On the other hand, milk should meet the requirements for a liquid just as well without having to worry about interfering with the taste of the cupcakes.

Adapted from Anneka Manning's Cupcakes.

Peanut-Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Peanut-butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Cupcakes:

2/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces

4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Whisk together flour and bp. Put butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water -- I used my stainless steel mixing bowl and a small saucepan -- and stir until the ingredients melt together. Remove from heat and let cool somewhat.

Whisk in sugar, then add eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture.

Peanut Butter Filling:

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, melted

1/2 cup xxx sugar, sifted

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk ingredients together until smooth.

Put a few spoonfuls of batter in your tins, then add a spoonful of the peanut butter mixture; top with more batter to cover.

Bake for 20 minutes, then turn, and bake for another 20.

I used my silicon baking cups for this recipe, which bumped the number of cupcakes up from 12 to 16 (the cups are slightly smaller than a normal cupcake tin), but they worked pretty well. On the other hand, the filling caused these cupcakes to separate  somewhat -- the tops came off really easily, which made it difficult to take them out of the cups, meaning you more or less have to eat them with a spoon or fork out of the cup. So given that structural deficiency, I think in the future I'd tend to do them in a regular wrapper, and save the silicups for something with more overall structural integrity.

My dad, who loves chocolate-peanut butter, and was the target audience for these cupcakes (bleahhhh is my personal opinion on the subject), said they nonetheless tasted great. He described the cupcake itself as being brownie-like, and then added "you won't have any trouble getting me to eat them". So I guess we can consider these a success!

A final note: the recipe also called for 2 oz unsweet chocolate added to the semisweet chocolate in the batter, but I didn't notice and left it out. The cupcakes don't seem to have suffered any, but if you like a more chocolate flavor you may want to add this back in.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.