Nutella Cupcakes

So I have a friend, Nicole. She's completely obsessed with Nutella. And until yesterday, I had been a Nutella virgin (shocking, right?! That stuff is amazing!) Well since Nicole loves this chocolatey heaven in a jar, I decided to make her cupcakes out of it for her birthday present.  I got the recipe from Feisty Cook, so feel free to look there for the recipe if you'd like to make them! I'll just post some of the lovely pictures I took. I hope they make your mouth water :)

Oh and when she says to spoon a half a teaspoon of Nutella on top of the cupcakes, she means it. I thought I'd go a little crazy and put a full teaspoon on top. Big mistake. It makes the swirling really hard.

Case. And. Point.

But in the end they turned out okay :D

Homemade Red Velvet Cupcakes

So. Today was the second day this week that I've baked something. I think it's safe to say that I have a problem (Oh. And I'm making Nutella cupcakes tomorrow. Ugh. I'm going to die.) But anyways, my friend found this cupcake magazine and we thought we'd try it out by making my all time favorite cake: red velvet. And I think it's safe to say that they turned out pretty well!

So... Here's the recipe:

•  3/4 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring (we only used one and they turned out just fine, but I suppose two would give a deeper color.)
• 2 tablespoons rasperry liqueur or milk (we omitted this too, and they were still delicious!)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

1. Allow butter and eggs to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tin with liners.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a very large mixing bowl, beat butter with eletric mixer on high for about thirty seconds. Gradually add in sugar, about a fourth of a cup at a time. Beat until combined. A lot of the sugar will get stuck on the side of the bowl, so don't forget to scrape that down! Continue beating until light and fluffy then add eggs, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla, liqueur, and food coloring. Alternately add in the flour mixture and buttermilk, beating only until combined after each addition.
4. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar. Fold into the batter
5. Spread mixture evenly into cupcake tins so they're 3/4 of the way full. Bake for twenty minutes.

They ended up looking like that when we pulled them out of the oven.

On to the frosting, my favorite!

Cream Cheese Frosting recipe:

•  8 oz. package of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 5 1/2 - 6 cups powdered sugar

1. Allow cream cheese and butter to stand at room temperature for thirty minutes. In a large mixing bowl beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Slowly add in powdered sugar until spreading consistency is reached. We decided that it was a little sweet so we added about 1/2 teaspoon salt to the frosting.
2.  Spread on to cupcakes and top with rasperries if desired. Enjoy!

 

Turtle Cheesecake

What better way to start off blogging?! Two days ago my friend and I had an urging desire to bake, which is pretty much an every day thing for me. I hadn't baked anything in about three weeks. The withdrawl was surely kicking in! So we headed off to the grocery store to make this lovely cheesecake.
On to the recipe! Which I just got from a Betty Crocker Cookbook (I don't know what I'd do without one!)

What you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafer cookies (about 40 cookies)
• 1/4 cup butter melted (you can use margarine... but who is going to say no to butter?)
• 2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 hot fudge topping (I just bought some Smucker's hot fudge topping, and it was delicious!)
• 1/2 cup coarsley chopped pecans

1. Heat the oven to 350
2. Mix cookie crumbs and butter in a medium bowl then firmly press crumbs against bottom and side of a 9 x 1 1/4 in  pie plate. *I had some trouble originally with this, since my crumbs were a little on the large side, but I eventually got the hang of it.
3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla & eggs in large bowl with eletric mixer until smooth. Pour half of the batter into the pie plate
4. Add hot fudge topping to remaining batter in the bowl. Beat until smooth then add to the pie plate. Use the tip of a knife to swirl the mixtures.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes until center is set, but make sure  not to insert a knife into the cheesecake! It can cause the cheesecake to crack as it cools (which it often does anyways!)
6. Cool at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve with caramel topping and pecans. Enjoy!