Week 39-Ohhh how I love Cheescake

ohhhhh la la, doesn't this look divine? Don't you want a spoon and a can of whip cream now? Well so do I. Unfortunately this is not my cheesecake. boooo. I forgot to take a photo.......AGAIN! Fortunately the challenge proceeded forward this week with a chocolate cheesecake cupcake version. First take an entire package of double stuffed oreo's and crush them/mash them. Minus the 2-3 that may have made it into my mouth before entering the bowl. Second it says to add a tbs of margarine/butter to it. I added a little more than that, and now know why you shouldn't. (details to follow) Then mix the 4 packages of cream cheese together. That's right 4 packages, holy geezers! Add in the sugar, melted chocolate, vanilla and eggs and voila. Pour over top of beautiful oreo crust and bake.
Mistake number 1: Adding too much marg to the crust. After baking the crust it was rock hard. Like hard toffee candy hard. Even though family members tell you it takes good, you know it's wrong when nothing is left on your plate except crust:)
Mistake number 2: Recipe says bake for 50-55min. Sure if you've put it in a large pan as one big cheesecake. NOT if you've decided to divide it up into cheesecakes. Baking time should be reduced.
So if you've never had dry cheesecake, you missed out. You can, and I did, dry out the cheesecake.
Sorry Dad about your birthday cake being a little dry and rock hard in the bottom. A slight disappointment when we love cheesecake so much. Oh well.
Next week, i have no inspiration. hmmmmmm what to make?
Maybe it's time to work on the red velvet I said I would do, or the vanilla, or fondant icing.
Keep posted.

Week 38- December 26, 2011

I made the 'oh christmas tree' design again today. Wanted to take a picture for the records, AGAIN and forgot. Seriously Kathy where is your head. Probably in the mound of cream cheese icing I made, along with the extra batch of chocolate icing for the trunk. Or it was with the Christmas shopping, baking, and busy 1.5year old and 3 year old I had running around the house:)
So no picture record, but if you need reference that it actually did happen call someone I know!
Last year I made nutcracker cupcakes and they were adorable. I don't know why I didn't do this again. The Christmas tree was easy, I suppose. Moving on from Christmas.

Week 37- Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

December 20th my husband and I went to pampered chef Christmas party. We were supposed to bring apps, but I decided to bring dessert to accompany the apps. In the craziness of it all, I forgot to take a picture before we left. Not to worry, I was planning on making this dessert the next week for family Christmas. I'll take a picture then!
Here is the picture from the book, I took the idea from. I made the cupcakes devil's food chocolate, with cream cheese icing.
I hope they were enjoyed, I was too busy playing croch in ooo (how do you spell this game anyways??)) with their 11 year old son, that I forgot where I was:)

Playdate December 13th-Chocolate vanilla

 Sorry to say that I had to 'squeeze in a cupcake' this week. I had just finished the big birthday cupcakes, things were getting busy for holiday prep, and I knew I would be making some holiday cupcakes. So this week, I pulled out the basic chocolate and vanilla icing AGAIN. so bla bla, you know the story here. Moving on.....

Week 35- Cupcakes go on the road!

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

Today we went for a visit to our friend's the Lewis's house. She was preparing for her daughters 1st Birthday Party anddddd they were making cupcakes. So we threw together some ingredients and called it a cupcake week. Perfect! We made this vanilla cupcake recipe. We also made vanilla icing to go along with it. Yepee, cupcakes are complete. I haven't tried this recipe at home yet, but will. My family is not so into vanilla, but maybe i can spice them up.

VANILLA CUPCAKES

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Completed Dec 2nd 2011

Week 34 The doggy cupcakes are too cute!

November 29th, her actual 3rd birthday. I couldn't help myself. I had been wanting to make the dog cupcakes. They were so cute in the picture, and she had to have a cake on her actual birthday:)
They were fairly easy to make. The tongue's are mashed up pink tootsie rolls, and the ears are the original brown tootsie rolls. Raisinette's for the eyes, so sweet. She loved it and that's what was important. The cupcake itself is basic chocolate.

T's big 3rd Birthday, a Horse of a good time!

Prior to our daughters 3rd birthday, I spent some time talking to her about her birthday and what the day would be like. OF COURSE, she thought it would include a party with the two following things: presents and cake! No problem, I can do that. I showed her a cupcake book I have and asked her to pick out her favourite picture, one she would love for her birthday. I thought she would pick the dog cupcakes, simple design, lots to choose from but she found the perfect 3rd birthday cake. A horsey cake (cupcake). She was so set on having a horsey cake, nothing, i mean nothing was changing her mind. I asked her for weeks which cake she wanted and each time she would respond with a horsey cake.
It seemed it was mission impossible to make these horsey cupcakes. They looked detailed and involved a few ingredients, I had never heard of.
For one: What is circus peanuts. I'll tell you. They are a marsh mellow like candy that looks like a candy and comes in different colours. I will also tell you that no store in all of Guelph carries circus peanuts. This was a huge issue because the heads were to be made from circus peanuts. (This is where you hear my loud disgruntled sigh)
Number two: When is the last time you had a vanilla OR chocolate wafer??? and where do you find them? Answer: the grocery store, thank God!
Long story short, I searched in multiple locations for a proper head for the horse. I decided on tootsie rolls in a yellow colour and marsh mellows cut in a quarter.
All of the effort of making these, was a huge pay off. She loved them, and they were so fun to have as a 3rd birthday cake.
Here is our version of 'horsey cake'.