Cheesecake filled Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I came across this in Michaels and being that I loved Ace of Cakes, I wanted to try Duff's boxed cake mix to see if its alot better than the others. It was, but still tasted like it came from a box. Still much better than Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker, and worth it if you are in a hurry. But I must try it from scratch next time!

Since its from a box, I jazzed it up and made cheesecake batter to fill them and my favorite cream cheese icing. This cream cheese frosting is awesome. It's so great when you add the heavy cream.

Cheesecake filled Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: 22 cupcakes

Cheesecake

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Blend the cream cheese and sugar in an electric mixer until combined. Add eggs and extract. Blend until smooth, do not overmix. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Red Velvet Cake

Make your favorite recipe or use a box

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Fill cupcake liners with one tablespoon red velvet cake batter. Top with 2 tablespoons cheesecake batter. Finally, top with one tablespoon red velvet cake batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of red velvet cake comes out clean. The cheesecake may still be gooey, which is fine.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Two 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature

2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp clear vanilla extract

3 tbsp heavy or whipping cream

Directions

Beat the cream cheese and butter together in a medium sized bowl with the mixer on high speed.  Add the sugar and vanilla, beating until smooth.  With the mixer running, gradually add the cream and beat until the frosting looks whipped and creamy. Add a little more cream if necessary until it’s easy to spread. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Sorry for the crappy phone quality picture but these cupcakes did not deserve their own personal photo shoot with Mr. Canon.

Okay, sorry cupcakes. It was not your fault. I take the blame. I used expired baking powder. The result? Flat. No volume. No fluffy, rounded top cupcakes. What's annoying is that I knew the baking powder was expired, thought I tested it properly, still used it, and made the ugliest cupcakes to serve my cousin visiting all the way from Canada. She was nice enough to cut off all the flat tops. They were so flat that when we peeked inside the oven, it looked like cookies on a sheet pan instead of rounded cupcake tops.

I'm guessing that's why the peanut butter buck-eye center went flat and hollow, though I don't see why it had to. It was unusually soft for buck-eye candy. I would probably go with this recipe next time, without melting the butter or peanut butter. The frosting was the only saving grace for these cupcakes. Although delicious, I could hardly taste the cream cheese, so I'll post the recipe below with less peanut butter.

Enjoy this GIF of me piping frosting.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Cake recipe adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Filling recipe from Annie's Eats. Frosting recipe: me.
Yield: 26 cupcakes

Peanut Butter Filling
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined.  Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls (at least 24) and fridge until ready to use. If they are too soft, add some extra powdered sugar or graham cracker crumbs.

Chocolate Cake
1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 ½ cups sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup warm water
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, making sure the baking rack is in the middle of the oven. Prepare your muffin pans with cupcake liners.

Blend together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl with electric mixer on low speed. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix on low to medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Pour into cupcake liner until 2/3 full. Place a ball of the peanut butter filling in each cupcake. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the chocolate cake comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Frosting
16 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
10 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup creamy peanut butter
4 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions

To make the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter and peanut butter until smooth.  Slowly mix in the confectioners’ sugar, beating until smooth and well blended. 

Golden Oreo Truffles

This really is the easiest dessert recipe ever so I made a small batch to share with our friends this evening. We went out to Green Vegetarian Cuisine downtown by the riverwalk and I had a tasty spinach artichoke quesadilla. Unfortunately though, I forgot my tray of truffles on the counter and I didn't get to share them. :(

There are so many oreo flavors these days. I would love to try peanut butter oreo truffles.

One variation I would love to try with golden oreo truffles is to add key lime juice or maybe lime zest. Its supposed to taste like a key lime pie truffle.

I would suggest not to add as much cream cheese if you are making golden oreo truffles. I think the cookie crumbs are slightly more moist than the original chocolate oreos.

Golden Oreo Truffle Pops

Yield: 15 truffles

20 Golden Oreo cookies

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

6 oz. candy melts or almond bark or white chocolate

mini cupcake liners

Directions

Blend the oreos in your food processor. Process until they are fine crumbs. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the crumbs and set aside. Add your softened cream cheese and blend until its all mixed together. 

Roll into balls the size of a tablespoon and place on a plate lined with parchment paper. Stick them in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Melt your candy coating in a double broiler by placing a heat-safe bowl over a small pot of simmering water.

Put your melted candy coating in a short cup or mug and dip the truffle to coat all sides. Sprinkle with reserved oreo crumbs on top and allow to set up on a plate lined with parchment paper.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

I made this fresh summer snack for a get-together with some lovely ladies.

These are so simple to make, and taste like a mini bite of strawberry cheesecake.

I decided to add some heavy cream because I wanted that strawberries-and-cream kind of undertone along with the cheesecake flavor. I also made mine a little sweeter which I highly recommend. :)

You don't have to pipe the cream with a star tip, even though its an easy way to make it look so pretty. You could just put in a plastic bag and cut off the end. 

You know what would make these over the top? Dip them in chocolate. Omg. Maybe next time.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Recipe adapted from The Sweets Life and Nutmeg Nanny

Ingredients
1 lb large strawberries

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1 graham cracker

Directions

Process the graham cracker in a blender to make fine crumbs.

Rinse strawberries and cut off the tops. Core out the inside with a paring knife. Try to find large strawberries because most of them have a nice hollow center. If you want to stand your strawberries upright slice a bit off the bottom to make a flat surface (I didn't do this).

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla with a mixer and beat until creamy. Beat in heavy cream. Add cream cheese mix to piping bag and fill strawberries. Once strawberries are filled dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. Devour and fall in love.

You could also drizzle or dip strawberries in chocolate if desired.

Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Oreo Truffle Pops

I wanted to make little Ramadan favors when we had our girls iftar. I got too busy with cupcakes, but I'm glad I at least got to make these for Eid! 

Here's one of those "everything you need" pictures! I never take one of these but this recipe is so easy to make, all you need is a few things. (I forgot to add the paper liners in this picture).

The smell of oreos. Nothing is more tempting when you're fasting!

Dump the entire package of oreos in your food processor.

Process until they are fine crumbs.

Reserve 1/4 cup of the crumbs and set aside.

Add your softened cream cheese

and blend until its all mixed together

Roll into balls the size of a tablespoon and place on a plate lined with parchment paper. Stick them in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Melt your candy coating in a double broiler by placing a heat-safe bowl over a small pot of simmering water. I bought vanilla flavored Wilton white candy melts from Michaels. It tasted just like white chocolate and hardened very nicely!

Take the end of the lolipop stick and dip it into the melted candy coating, about 1/4 inch up the stick. Don't be shy, we want enough on there rather than too little. Stick it about half way through the oreo truffle. Return to the freezer for about 5 more minutes so that the coating can firm up. This trick really helps your lolipop stick stay in place.

(Didn't get a picture for this step) Put some of your melted candy coating in a short cup or mug and dip the truffle to coat all sides.

Sprinkle with reserved oreo crumbs on all sides and allow to set up on a plate lined with parchment paper. Try to work as fast as you can so that the oreo truffles stay cold which helps the lolipop stick stay in place. If you want to take your time, I suggest keeping half in the freezer while you work on dipping and coating the others!

If you wanted the tops to stay round, you need a piece of Styrofoam so that they can stand up. 

If you have pretty mini cupcake liners, you don't have to worry about your pops having a flat top

Stick the liner inside your treat bag first

Make some cute tags

I found some ribbon (top) that looks just like an oreo cookie!

Cut each piece of ribbon to be 8 inches long. You can make 27 bows with 6 yards of ribbon.

You could tie the bag with this look if you didn't have a tag

Or you could tie a bow without a tag

But if you do have a tag, stick it on one side of the ribbon...

and then firmly tie a bow!

Oreo Truffle Pops

Yield: 33 truffles

1 large package of Oreo cookies, about 45 cookies (family size)

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

12 oz. package candy melts or almond bark

lolipop sticks

mini cupcake liners

plastic treat bags

6 yards of ribbon

decorative tags (optional)

Directions

Dump the entire package of oreos in your food processor. Process until they are fine crumbs. Reserve 1/4 cup of the crumbs and set aside. Add your softened cream cheese and blend until its all mixed together. 

Roll into balls the size of a tablespoon and place on a plate lined with parchment paper. Stick them in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Melt your candy coating in a double broiler by placing a heat-safe bowl over a small pot of simmering water. Take the end of the lolipop stick and dip it into the melted candy coating, about 1/4 inch up the stick. Insert stick into the center of a truffle, be careful not to go all the way through the other side. Return truffles to the freezer for about 5 more minutes so that the coating can firm up.

Put some of your melted candy coating in a short cup or mug and dip the truffle pop to coat all sides.Sprinkle with reserved oreo crumbs on all sides and allow to set up on a plate lined with parchment paper.

Stick the mini cupcake liner inside your treat bag first. Cut each piece of ribbon to be 8 inches long. Place the truffle pop inside and tie with a bow.

Disney's Ohana Bread Pudding

Bread pudding was first known as "poor man's pudding" because leftover stale bread was softened with a little water, sugar, and spices. However nothing feels poor about this bread pudding.Warm from the oven, smelling of butter and cinnamon, sweetened with a caramel-like banana sauce and topped with vanilla ice cream.

Disney's Ohana Bread Pudding

Recipe adapted from Disney's Polynesian Resort

Breading Pudding

8 cups french bread (at least one pound loaf)

5 eggs

3 cups whole milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut bread into 1 1/2 inch cubes, place on a cookie sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch cake pan with butter or shortening.

In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Add the bread and gently stir until it is coated with the milk mixture. Place mixture in cake pan and bake for 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes, serve warm with ice cream.

Banana Foster Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp rum extract

1 cup banana slices (about 4 bananas)

Directions

Combine both sugars, corn syrup, butter, spices, and half of the heavy cream in a large pan. Bring to a boil and slowly add remaining heavy cream keeping mixture at a steady boil.

Candy will brown slightly; cook 3 minutes until candy forms into a firm ball in cold water. Remove from heat and add extracts. Add sliced bananas. Serve warm.