Pumpkin Cream Cheese Mini Cupcakes

These had just the right amount of pumpkin and were a huge hit.  The size was awesome too, just a bite or two and they're gone! I particularly like mini cupcakes for when you're not sure how many people are going to be at a party - it's much easier for people to have more mini cupcakes than it is to split bigger ones. Just don't do what I did, and forget to add the sugar until you've already put your first batch into the muffin tin.

Cake

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin purée (canned pumpkin)
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon plus 1/4 teaspoon each ground ginger and nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 cups flour

Icing

• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 3/4 cups icing sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chocolate sprinkles

Cake

• 2 3/8 ounces vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 7 ounces sugar
• 8 ounces pumpkin purée (canned pumpkin)
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon plus 1/4 teaspoon each ground ginger and nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 5 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Icing

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1 1/2 ounces butter
• 7 ounces confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/8 ounces finely diced crystallized ginger

Directions

Makes ~ 2 1/2 dozen mini cupcakes

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a mini cupcake pan.

2) Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder till smooth.

3) Add the flour, stirring just until smooth.

4) Fill the wells of the mini cupcake pan about 3/4 full; use a scant 1/4 cup of batter in each well.

5) Bake the mini cakes for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean.

6) Remove the cupcakes from the oven, and allow to cool. Remove the mini cakes from the pan after about 5 minutes, transferring them to a rack to cool.

8) While the cakes are cooling, prepare the icing. If the butter and cream cheese are cold, warm them very briefly in the microwave, just till they feel soft but haven't begun to melt.

9) Beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla till smooth.

10) Spread the soft frosting atop the cooled cake(s).

11) Sprinkle with the chocolate sprinkles. Adapted from: King Arthur Flour

Krembos!

Krembo are an Israeli dessert, typically made with fish gelatin and egg whites to keep it kosher.  I and lots of people I know are vegetarians, and fish gelatin is gross, so I found a recipe that uses white cream and white chocolate instead.  The krembo is a Rice Krispie, Nutella and chocolate base, topped with white chocolate whipping cream and then dipped in a chocolate coating,  While this is a fairly simple recipe, it does take some time to make because of the 4+ hours of refrigeration required between steps.

the pre-chocolate stage

Base:
1c bitter sweet chocolate
1\2 cup nutella
6 1\2 cups puffed rice


Cream:
500 ml heavy cream (divided to two times 250 ml)
1 1/2 cups white chocoalte

Coating:
3 cups dark chocolate
3 tbsp neutral oil (canola, etc.)

1. Make the base by melting the nutella and chocolate together in a double boiler.  Once they are smooth, pour them over the rice krispies in a mixing bowl.  Mix and roll out using a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment paper until it is roughly 1cm thick.  Place in freezer for 20 minutes. 

2. Using a round cookie cutter, cut krembo base into circles.  The leftover base can be microwaved and re-rolled to make more krembos.  If you're having a hard time getting the re-rolled base to stick together, add more melted chocolate. 

3. In a small saucepan, heat the first 250ml of cream just until it starts to boil. remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Add white chocolate and stir until smooth. Cover and place in fridge for at least four hours, preferably over night. 

4. Remove cream and chocolate mixture from the fridge.  Add other half of cream and mix with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.  Put this mixture in a ziploc bag and cut off one corner to form a 1-2cm hole.  Pipe mixture onto bases in a spiral pattern.  Place in freezer for at least four hours, preferably over night. 

5.  Melt chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Once chocolate is melted, remove from heat and add oil. Pour chocolate into a deep container, like a glass or deep bowl.  This will make it easier to dip the krembo.  Take each kremo and dip it in the chocolate, covering as much of the cream and base as possible.  Allow to sit in freezer for at least an hour before serving. 

Recipe adapted from: Purple Cookie

Cherry Pie Squares

Cherry! Pie! Om nom nom.  These were actually supposed to be a lot thinner and flakier than they turned out, as they were supposed to be in a 10x15 inch pan, but I didn't have one of those handy.  Instead they ended up being more cake-like, which I think was actually better.  The chocolate glaze was delicious, I expected it to be overpowering but it actually went with the cherries quite well.  If you're not a fan of chocolate, this would probably taste good with either vanilla or cream cheese icing as well.

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup butter

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

21 ounces cherry pie filling

GLAZE

3/4 cups powdered sugar

1/5 cup cocoa

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

3 tablespoons milk

Cream sugar and butter in mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Add the almond extract and beat well. Whisk together flour and baking powder. Turn mixer speed down to lowest setting and slowly add flour mixture until completely combined.

Spread half of mixture onto an greased 9x13 pan. Spread pie filling over the top of the batter. Drop remaining batter onto the pie filling layer by spoonfuls.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 or until golden brown. Do not under bake. Remove to a wire rack.

Combine powdered sugar, cocoa, melted margarine and milk and drizzle over warm bars.

Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Adapted from:  Amanda's Cooking

Turkey Cupcakes!

I made these cute little guys last year, and they were so fun to make I just had to do it again.  These can be made with any cake or cupcake recipe, so I'm just going to give a tutorial on how to frost and decorate them.  They may look like a lot of work, but really it's very simple.  All the steps CAN be done in a row (without the noted refrigeration times) but allowing the icing to cool down and become more solid makes the cupcake easier to work.

24 chocolate cupcakes
1 tub of chocolate icing
Roughly 170 pieces of candy corn.
2 tubes of decorating chocolate icing (the kind that comes in squeeze tubes)

1. Frost cold cupcakes with chocolate frosting from the tub.  Don't make this layer too thick, no matter how much you love icing, because it will make the rest of the turkey unstable.  Put cupcakes in fridge from 10-12 minutes.

2. Using squeeze tube icing,  pipe the head onto each cupcake using a spiral motion.  This icing is usually a lot more sold than the tub icing and will hold the form of the head better, and the tube makes it easier to get the shape of the head right.  Allow heads to firm up in the fridge for 10-12 minutes.

3. Poke two rows of candy corn, pointy side down, into the side of the cupcake opposite the head.  I usually do one row of four in the back and then one row of two in front of it.  You can add more or less depending on how you want it to look (or how much you like candy corn).

4.  Push the fat end of a piece of candy corn into the head of each bird, forming its beak.

Almond Cheesecake Bars

I've never baked anything with almond before, but these turned out great.  The crust is a mix of almonds and crushed vanilla icy wafers, and the middle is almost entirely cream cheese.  I thought the white part would be a lot more solid, but it turned out to be soft a cheesecake-y, not that I'm complaining!  I also decided to get fancy with the chocolate, putting it in a ziploc, cutting the corner off and piping the design on to each individual bar.  I'm not totally happy with how it came out - my hand got tired and lost a lot of steadiness, but no matter how they look, they were delicious!

1/2 cup  butter + 2 tbsp, divided
1-1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 45 wafers, crushed)
1 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 13x9x2 baking pan with foil, this will allow you to lift the bars out and onto a cutting board once cooled. Spray cooking spray on the foil for easy removal.

Melt  butter in the microwave and pour into a mixing bowl; stir in crumbs, almonds, sugar and cocoa. Press firmly on bottom of foil lined 13x9x2 baking pan.

Use food processor or hand mixer to beat cream cheese, remaining 2 tablespoons butter and cornstarch together until fluffy. Gradually add in sweetened condensed milk then egg, and the almond extract. Pour evenly into prepared pan.

Bake 25 minutes or until center is set. Don't be concerned if there are bumps or bubbles, they will settle as it cools. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Lift cooled block out of pan using the sides of the foil as handles and place on a cutting board. Cut into bars. Drizzle each bar with chocolate and let chocolate set.

To store, layer between wax paper in a plastic container in the refrigerator.

Recipe adapted from: Amanda's Cooking

Harvest Cinnamon Rolls

These were SO GOOD, and really, really easy to make.  They're great because they can be left in the fridge overnight and baked the next morning, or frozen and baked after 10-12hrs of thawing time.  I doubled the frosting, since I found there wasn't nearly enough.

DOUGH:
1 cup milk (heated approximately 1 minute in microwave)
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F.)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
5 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons instant active dry yeast

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted or softened
1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
4 to 5 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 to 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

BUTTER FROSTING:
1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix in all ingredients except those for cinnamon filling and icing in the order listed. Knead by hand for ten minutes, then place in bowl, cover and let rise for ten minutes. Roll the dough into a 15x24" rectangle. Melt the butter for cinnamon filling and spread over dough. Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl and then sprinkle over the dough. Roll and cut into 1.5" sections. Spray a pan with cooking spray (any size works, but for larger batches I usually do four rows of three in a standard rectangular baking pan)  and place buns in it, leaving space for them to rise. Cover and allow to rise 45 minutes to an hour on the counter. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. While buns are baking, prepare the frosting. Put all frosting ingredients into a bowl and beat until smooth. Spread frosting on buns while still warm. Makes about 15 buns.