Spiced Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

There isn't a big story to these muffins, other than fall is here and I LOVE pumpkin. Canned pumpkin was on sale this week so we picked up a few. For the ladies at the bank I needed to make something to go with their coffee. My mom was at Starbucks and she saw their version of a cream cheese filled muffin. I haven't ever tried one, but have wanted too. Until then, I am very happy with my own version!


OH OH OH!!! Check out my Cricut Cupcake Wrappers! It only took me 2 1/2 hours to make those 3 :D They aren't that great for muffins, but I was dying to make them!

Spiced Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins
14 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or all purpose)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 15 oz can, canned pumpkin
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 1/4 brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces, 125 grams cream cheese, room temperature
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Pre-heat oven 350•F, line muffin tins with 14 liners.

In a small bowl combine the cream cheese, sugar, spice and vanilla until smooth. Set aside

In a medium bowl whisk the pumpkin and eggs. There is no oil because the amount of pumpkin is so large, it makes them very moist.

In a large bowl whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, spice, sugar and salt. Make a well in the middle (a shallow hole). Add the wet ingredients and stir until JUST combined. Don't over mix!!!

Put a heaping table spoon of pumpkin batter in the bottom of each muffin liner. Using a mini icecream scoop or teaspoon, put in a small amount of cream cheese. Top with a regular icecream scoop of batter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating once. Remove when toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes and cool completely on a wired rack.

Feels like fall with these muffins!

Halloween Is Coming...

And I am way too excited.

It is one of my FAVORITE times of the year. When else can you dress up and decorate your house ridiculously and still be considered 'normal' because everyone else does it? I couldn't think of another time too.

But it's not the candy that gets me excited.
It's planning my Halloween Party!!!

2011 will be my third one, and they are hard to live up to! Last year we had SO MUCH FUN. Until we watched The Grudge 3... *shivers* I think I'll need a better movie choice this year.
Anyways! I have the toughest time ever trying to choose what to bake. So that's why I've already began planning! Not to mention buying all the candy melts from Winners... Sorry about that!

So here are my ideas for this year, which will most likely change soon :D Let me know if you'd like any recipes :)

Eats:

Frankenstein Brain Dip with Halloween Chips. AMAZING cheese dip.


Pumpkin Puffs. They sound really good!


Backbone Roll Ups. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE tortilla roll ups, so these are perfect.


Halloween Sparkle Punch

Sweets:
This is where it gets hard to choose...


Yummy Mummy Cookies (I don't think anyone will come unless I make these)


Giant Halloween Cupcake. I like the idea of this one, but mine will be different :)


CAKEPOPS.
omg. I am having THE HARDEST TIME EVER. I know I'm making the witch ones for the ladies at my mom's bank...

And that's it for my party! But I'm making these for school because they are apart of my costume... a 50's Baker LOL!

Thank goodness for my Martha Stewart's Cupcake book :D

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

...pure heaven.

So here's the story, I'm in band and we do fundraising for trips at the end of the year. Of course my mom does not want to pay for the entire trip so I have to raise some money myself. Well, my favorite way to do so is selling cookie dough. As much fun as it is selling to others, I enjoy the dough quite a bit myself. Yes! I could make my own cookies, but come on! These are really good cookies! Now I'm not talking about the oatmeal or the candy ones. The only kind my family bought are the white chocolate macadamia nut ones. Oh my goodness. These have been my FAVORITE cookies forever.
Until now.
Because I have a recipe that blows the socks off of those cookies!
Do cookies wear socks? No, but oh well! And why haven't I made them before? Well those nuts are darn expensive and hard to find!
... they are 5.99 for 250 grams at Quality Foods.

And if you have no idea what cookie dough cookies I'm talking about, they are the English Bay. You can get them in vending machines, at Costco, Quality Foods and at Subway. (Yes those giant cookies that everyone gets with a sandwich)

But you shall never have to buy frozen cookie dough again after making these!!!
So print this recipe, and start making them!!!


unbaked cookies...so tempting.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
2 1/2 dozen

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups allpurpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 salt (I didn't use my salt because my nuts were already salted)
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup white chocolate chunks

Preparation

Pre heat oven 350•F, line cookies sheets with parchment paper, grease or use a nifty silicon mat. (THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING) I love my purple one and plan to buy another one very soon.

In a medium sized bowl stir flour and baking soda. Salt if using.

In a large bowl beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, and beat until light. Beat in vanilla.

Add flour and beat on low until a soft dough forms. Stir in white chocolate chunks and nuts.


Using an ice cream scoop or two spoons place 12 balls of dough on a baking sheet, 1 1/2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.



Bake for 5 minutes, then rotate pans. Bake for 5 more minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on the sheets for 5 minutes. Move to wire racks and cool completely.


Hmjofsdiojkra.
Ah.
Yum.

These will be gone in 2 days garenteed.

I made them last night and this morning I got an order to make some more. Yay!
Enjoy!!!

Pretty Strawberry Frosted Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes today for a lady who works with my brother. It is a different version of my strawberry dream cloud cupcakes, and I think I like it a bit better! It's the same cake and filling but with a strawberry whipped cream frosting.
o.m.g.
it is amazing.
I plan on making them at Valentines day...


Heeheehee!!! They are so cute! Strawberries in the shape of a heart


Pretty, pale pink colour is perfectly contrasted with the bright ripe red berries.

Strawberry Whipped Cream Frosting
Enough for 12 cupcakes (about 2 cups)

1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup finely chopped strawberries.

Chill beaters and a 500 ml liquid measure until cool. Add the whipping cream, sugar and vanilla. Beat until just beginning to thicken. Add the strawberries and beat on high speed until quite thick. Pipe onto cupcakes.

Try it! You'll love it!

Anne's Banana Bread

Well, last week at SuperStore bananas were only 46 cents each and my mom went a little crazy. We already had 2 bunches at home but she then bought another 3! So here we had 30 bananas sitting on our kitchen table. I LOVE bananas but they don't like me so I can only eat them once and a while. Although that's not the case with my brother and dad, they don't want to live off them. So anyways! Last weekend I made these cookies using up one banana, muffins used up 3 bananas and by yesterday there was only 9 bananas left. You would think that we would be swinging along vines in a jungle by now. But no, there are still some left! So I felt the need to use some more up. And there is no better way than in our family's favourite loaf. It has tons of flavour and it's very tender. The recipe is from my Grandma's cookbook and it's from one of her friend's named Anne. That's where the name comes from. But we're kind of on a diet so I substituted some of the all purpose flour for whole wheat. I could have replaced the butter with applesauce but I didn't want to. There are no spices in this recipe and that's why we like it so much; your getting a no-frill-pure-banana-taste bread. Give it a try, it's probably the easiest recipe in the world! It doesn't last more than 2 days in our house.



Anne's Banana Bread
8 slices

1/2 cup margarine, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
2 cups all purpose flour (or half whole wheat, the loaf will be denser)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preparation

Preheat oven 375•F and grease a loaf pan

Put all the wet ingredients in a medium large bowl and beat until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix until completely combined. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

Leave in pan until completely cool and remove with a knife. I like to warm mine up in the microwave and top it with butter. Enjoy!

A weekend of Cakes

What a busy weekend! I had 2 BIG orders. Well I actually had 3 but I couldn't make the cheesecake because I knew I would be taking a long time to decorate these cakes. What cakes? STRAWBERRY DREAM CLOUD CAKES! If you would like the recipe, here is the link.

I just wanted to share all the new pictures I have.

Cake number 1:

Belgium Chocolate dipped Strawberries
Bavarian Cream atop a lovely light vanilla cake
Layers of delicious cake! Strawberry Filling too

The finished cake! It is just a tinsy bit funny shaped, but that's okay!

Cake number two!
Better shape

I like this view!

Cake number 3! It's so funny because I made the first cake and the lady who got it, wanted another! That made me feel so good! She said nobody believed a teenager made this. She also doesn't eat cake, and she said she'll eat this cake any day! What a compliment!

I loved the roses, so I put them together.

That's all until October when I make my mom's birthday cake... shes so excited!

Breakfast or "Energy" Cookies

I've been having a major urge to make cookies lately, so stay tuned for lots of new recipes! I found this one a few days ago, and I knew I needed to make it. It's a lot healthier than your typical cookie, so I'm in love with it's nutrition and taste. It's got bananas, pecans, oats, whole wheat flour and raisins that provide amazing texture. I edited the original version by adding some spices. Unfortunately... I forgot the butter. I had put them in the oven for one minute, and was like OMG. I forgot the freaking butter! Apparently my grandma used to do this all the time. But not to worry! I managed to mix it in, and produce a very yummy end product! Yes, they are kind of ugly. But no, they don't taste bad! I prefer 'trail-mix' cookies over chocolate chip cookies, so I replaced those with raisins. (Which also provide even more nutrition.)I highly suggest these! I'm going to use them this week as my energy boosters for dance!

I'm also working on a Strawberry Dream Cloud Cake right now... whipping cream and beaters are chilling in the fridge. Look for pictures tomorrow!
OH... and this week... White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies... they might be gone before I can even take a picture. And no I won't forget the butter this time ;)



Breakfast or Energy Cookies
Adapted from this lovely recipe
Makes 1 dozen BIG cookies. Like HUGE. And I like em that way.

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup BUTTER, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I always omit salt)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon gingerbread
*I'm thinking 1/4 teaspoon of cloves would be good too
3/4 raisins (milk chocolate chips if you prefer)
3/4 pecans (I just broke the halves into smaller pieces with my hands)

Preparation

Pre-heat oven 350•F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium sized bowl beat the banana, sugar and butter. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg. Set aside.

In another medium sized bowl combine the whole wheat flour, oats, baking soda, salt, (if using) spices, pecans and raisins or chocolate chips.

Using a spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Using an ice cream scoop, make large round balls on the baking sheet. 12. Your sheet should be pretty full, but the cookies don't spread much.

Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.



Yum yum in my tum tum! Enjoy!

Blackberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

HAPPY LABOUR DAY!!! I hope everyone has had a super summer! I know I have! From riding the sand dunes in Oregon, to soaking up sun beside my pool, this vacation has been the best to date! Although the weather didn't warm up until August, it's scorching here now! 30 degrees by the end of the week! Woo! But then there is the downside to today... school tomorrow.
BLAH.
I am looking forward to spending time with my friends and begin dancing again but I am not looking forward to homework. There is so much more I could be doing! And with this nice weather, it's going to be hard to consenstrate! Oh well! I'll get through it.

So I've been busy baking this weekend, cupcakes, cheesecakes and muffins (Will be posted tomorrow). But none of these we're for my family. So I knew I needed to make something for us! I had already made this cake 2 times this week, and both times my family had been drooling over it. So I thought, perfect! It has a vanilla cake base, with a cheesecake like center. Blackberries create a third fruity layer while a cinnamon sugar strussel top it off! Boy did it smell good coming out of the oven. I suggest making this cake soon while blackberries are in season because then all you really need to buy is the cream cheese! Enjoy!!!



Blackberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Serves 10-12

Topping:

1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup cold butter

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture is crumbly.

Cream Cheese Filling:

250 grams cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg at room temperature
1 tablespoon flour

Pre-heat oven 350•F

In a medium bowl beat the cream cheese until light and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined and lump free. Beat in the egg until just combined. Beat in flour.

Vanilla Cake Layer:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt (I don't like adding salt)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg at room temperature
1/3 cup milk (I used skim)
1 cup fresh blackberries (These could be substituted for blueberries, cherries ect...)

In a small bowl whisk the flour and baking powder (salt if using) Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat it in. Beat in the egg for about 30 seconds until well combined. Alternating with the flour mixture and milk, add to the batter in 3 additions. Beating until just combined after each addition. Begin and end with the flour.

Pour into a 9 inch springform pan and bake on the middle rack for 50 minutes or until the top is light golden brown.

Let it cool slightly or completely.



I appreciate you reading my blog! I hope everything had as good a summer as I did. The blog might not be as busy as usual due to homework and dance, but I will try to post often! Next weekend I'm making 2 strawberry dream cloud cakes.

Lemon cheesecake with blackberry topping

After my lemon cupcake debut, I got a birthday cake request for a lemon cheesecake! The person who ordered it is a really good friend from dance and it's her moms birthday. She said the only request was for it to be lemon, and have blackberries incorporated. I love having freedom when making cakes! I started off the cheesecake with a Dad's oatmeal cookie crust which has nicer spices than a regular graham cracker crust. I then remixed my new York cheesecake recipe to make it lemon. I added the zest and juice of one large lemon. Finally for the blackberries! I cooked down some fresh blackberries that I picked up the street. I then strained them and thickened them to make a sauce. Tossing fresh blackberries in the sauce, I made a sweet blackberry topping. Whipped cream and tiny coke balls complete the cake!
A simple and refreshing dessert for the end of the summer.


Lemon Cheesecake!

Lemon cheesecake with blackberry topping
Serves 12

New York cheesecake
Zest and juice of one large lemon

Preparation

Make the cheesecake according to the recipe above, but before mixing in the eggs, beat in the lemon zest and juice. Bake as indicated.

Release the cheesecake once it has completely cooled. Place topping on middle of cake, spreading until about 1 inch away from the edge. Pipe whipped cream around the edge and add coke balls.


Fresh picked berries!

Blackberry topping

Enjoy!!! PS because I had to make this cake, I will be making the coffee cake tomorrow :)

Summer and Lemon cupcakes with Blackberry Filling

Happy Labour Day Long Weekend!

Well yesterday was September 2nd and I had an end of the summer celebration with my friends. We hadn't seen each other through the entire break! Everyone is busy doing their own thing and sometimes finding time to hang out just doesn't happen! But I wanted to reunite with the girls before school starts on Tuesday... *shivers*. I'm not looking forward to it! Actually.. that's not true. I have a pretty good year regarding classes. Especially considering band is going to New York in May! I'm so excited for that! Anyways! I knew I wanted to bake something! The perfect party food? Cake! But I wanted to use these cute Wilton Princess Cupcake liners... I love the toppers! I also knew I needed to make cupcakes that celebrated the season and we refreshing. I recently found the BIGGEST blackberry bush up the street, so I have been picking berries like mad. Blackberry filling! Perfect. I thought lemon would make a good combo in the cake. Its really more of a vanilla cake, so there isn't too much tartness with just a hint of lemony flavour. Whipped cream frosting just because its light. Everyone loved them! I thought they were much more appropriate than say a chocolate cupcake or peanut butter, just because those are more heavy flavours. I hope you can squeeze in making these cupcakes before summer runs out, because they are going out of season soon!

Stay tuned tomorrow for Blackberry Cream Cheese Coffee cake, our labour day dessert.



Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry filling and Whipped Cream Frosting
Makes 12 cupcakes

Lemon Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt (of course I omit salt)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of one large lemon (You can use the lemon in the filling)
1/4 cup milk (I used skim)

Preparation

Pre-heat oven 350•F and line 12 cup muffin tin with liners

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the flour, sugar and salt if using. Set aside.

In your electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 20 seconds after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add half the milk and mix. Add half of the remaining flour and combine. Add remaining milk and mix. Add the last of the flour and mix until just combined.

Scoop the batter in the muffin tins and bake for 8 minutes. Rotate the pans and bake for another 8 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then completely on a wired rack.



Blackberry Filling
Makes about 1 1/2 cups-2 cups. We used the rest on French Toast this morning.

2 cups fresh blackberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons cornstarch

In a bowl toss the berries and sugar together. Let sit for at least 30 minutes, I did an hour. This lets all the berries juices be released.

In a food processor or blender, puree the berries until smooth. I used my Magic bullet... nice and quick. Pour the mixture through a sieve to remove and seeds. You should end up with about a cup of blackberry juice. I had more so don't worry about measuring.

In a small bowl mix the lemon juice and cornstarch to make a smooth paste, no lumps.

In a small sauce pan combine the blackberry juice and lemon mixture. Cook over medium high heat until the sauce thickens and just begins to boil. Remove from heat and cool completely.



Whipped Cream Frosting
Makes 2 cups

1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon berry sugar or granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large liquid measure beat all the ingredients until quite thick, but not butter. Set in fridge until using.



Assemble the cupcakes.

Using a paring knife, cut a hole in each cupcake, going about half way through. Trim the cut piece so there is just the top. Fill the hole with blackberry filling and top with cut piece of cupcake. Pipe frosting on top and garnish with fresh blackberries and grainy sugar sprinkles. Voila! Enjoy!