EASYBAKED

Fondant…how to make it, use it and eat it!

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Ruthanne

Homemade fondant that is easy AND tasty? Here you go!!!

Every time I see cute cupcakes or cakes decorated in fondant I love them…and then I dismiss the possibility of making them for two reasons:

1. Fondant is really hard to make and use.

2. Fondant tastes bad and everyone just peels it off to get to the real frosting and cake underneath.

My good friend Megan from Happily Ever After Cakes set out to prove me wrong on both counts….and she did!

If you follow the comings and goings of easybaked, you know that I recently had a visit from my dear friend Megan for a weekend long baking extravaganza. This is project #2 from that weekend.

Before Megan came, I knew we would be tackling fondant cupcakes and we both went on an internet hunt for fun and easy ideas to try. We saw these cute garden themed cupcakes on a Flickr site called Hello Naomi and decided to try them out!

The cupcakes are just plain white cupcakes (use your favorite flavor/recipe!) What’s amazing is, of course, what’s on top. There are two recipes involved~ a thick buttercream that acts like a glue on the top of each cupcake and the actual fondant recipe.

Let’s start with those two recipes and then I can tell you how we pulled it all together.

Thick Buttercream Frosting: (makes about 4 cups of frosting)

(printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (softened)
1/2 cup Crisco
1 tsp clear vanilla (or any flavoring you might want!)
4 c. powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon of half-and half cream.

DIRECTIONS:

Beat together butter, Crisco and vanilla with a mixer until smooth.
Add powdered sugar gradually and mix until combined and a little crumbly.
Add half and half cream and mix on low. You might need to add a little more until frosting is a thick but smooth consistency.
Don’t beat frosting on high speed or for too long to prevent air bubbles that will keep it from spreading smoothly.
This frosting can be used to frost cupcakes or cakes that will have fondant laid over the top. It has a sticky consistency that acts as a glue to attach the fondant. It can be kept in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for about a week.

Marshmallow Fondant (recipe from about.com site)- they have a great video tutorial too!! (makes about 1 1/2 lbs of fondant.)

(printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups mini marshmallows (half of a 16 oz. bag)
4 cups powdered sugar- plus a little for dusting.
2 tsp water
1/2 teaspoon of clear vanilla
gel colors to color fondant as desired

DIRECTIONS:

Place your mini marshmallows and water into a large mixing bowl and microwave on high for about one minute- until they are puffy and melted.
Stir them together with a rubber spatula until they are completely smooth (if not melted completely, put them back in the microwave on high for 5-10 seconds).
Add clear vanilla and mix well.
Add about 1/4 of the powdered sugar, stir until smooth, add another 1/4 and stir. It will become difficult to stir and very sticky.
Pour the rest of the powdered sugar onto a clean counter or cutting board.
Scrape the sticky fondant mixture out of the bowl and onto the powdered sugar and begin to knead it together with clean (powder sugar coated!) hands. It will gradually become like a smooth clay consistency. Use a metal scraper to keep it from sticking to the counter/ board.
This can now be colored with gel, rolled out and cut, or stored (tightly wrapped) in the fridge for about one week. Megan recommended refrigerating it overnight before use, so we did.

Now comes the fun part….

Have your cupcakes or cake or cookies all made and cooled.
Make enough fondant to cover your item(s). Here is a great chart by Wilton to help you determine how much you’ll need for various projects.
Make up some of that thick buttercream icing and you are ready to go!

We needed to cut circles to cover each cupcake and we used a circle cutter set, which was nice because we could choose the perfect size to cover our cupcake tops. We simply powdered a cutting board and rolled out the fondant using a fondant rolling pin. We cut out the cupcake tops in white (we saved the red tops for later when we colored fondant).

Roll fondant out into a fairly thin layer and cut round pieces out to fit the tops of your cupcakes.

To place the fondant circles on top of the cupcakes just spread some of that sticky buttercream icing on top of a cupcake, smooth it as much as you can and place fondant circle on top.
Gently press the edges down to touch the top of the cupcake liner and smooth it with your fingers.
We made daisies to go on top of the caterpillar cupcakes, so we cut out the white flowers before we colored anything. Megan got me two cute daisy fondant cutters and they were SO fun to use!
Roll your fondant out, cut out daisies and lie them on a powdered sugared curved edge to harden a bit. I used a plate with a lip on it.

Time to color a little fondant for those yellow centers:

To color just add a little gel color to the center of a bit of fondant and mix it with your hands.
Use a little powdered sugar to prevent the fondant from sticking to your hands.

Tips: keep fondant under a glass to keep it moist until you need it. If it gets too dry you can add a little bit of Crisco to soften it up. If it gets too sticky and the powdered sugar isn’t helping, you can use a little cornstarch to dry it up.

Roll a bit of yellow fondant into a small ball, press it flat and brush a tiny bit (just make it damp!) of water on it. Press into center of white daisy—–so cute!

Water acts like glue with fondant…..something to remember as you start to decorate.

Next, we colored some fondant green and rolled out little caterpillar body parts. We let them set awhile and cut leaves out of the green as well– you can use that wonderful circle cutter set to make them– we “glued” them on white cupcake tops using water (just a little!).

The last colors we made were the red and black for the lady bugs and mushroom caps. Both of these dark colors get ALL over your light colors if you aren’t careful about washing your hands– so make them up after you’ve already cut and shaped the lighter colored parts! We just cut circles out for the mushroom caps and shaped ladybugs by hand….

All of the shapes– the bugs and daisies and mushroom spots were “glued” on with a little water and the last step was to paint on little faces and ladybug spots. We dipped right in to our black gel food color to do this– Megan got us a fine-tipped decorating brush that made short work of painting.

Aren’t they fun?

My thoughts: I realize this entire post is a far stretch from the “EASY” in “Easybaked”…but it was honestly not as difficult as I thought it would be. I can see myself making fun embellishments for topping off regular cupcakes in the future now that I know how simple fondant is to make.

The best part? It is honestly SO yummy. The fondant isn’t rubbery or hard- you bite into the cupcake and the fondant is soft and tastes like marshmallow-y frosting. I wasn’t tempted to peel it off at ALL! (promise!) I even enjoyed snacking on the little critters and flowers on top. Yum….!

Other fun and yummy cupcake ideas:

48 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes, Fondant and tagged baking, buttercream frosting, caterpillar cupcakes, cute cupcakes, dessert, fondant, fondant recipe, fondant tutorial, fun cupcakes, kids party ideas, ladybug cupcakes, marshmallow, marshmallow fondant, mushroom cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes. Bookmark the permalink.

Chocolate Fudge Cut-Out Cookies!!

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Ruthanne

The rich dark cocoa flavor of these cut-out cookies sets them apart as one of the yummiest cookies I’ve ever had!!

This weekend was a special treat — my good friend (and fellow baker/blogger) Megan came to visit me from Pennsylvania. We met in 2010 on a mission trip to Russia and we have been best of friends ever since.

Megan and her mom and sisters create the most beautiful and unique cakes I’ve ever seen, and they blog about life and caking on their blog Happily Ever Cakes. Megan has such great decorating ideas and she promised to share some of her recipes and techniques with me this weekend.

We spent hours in the kitchen (often accompanied with friends who wanted to help and learn too!) It was so much fun, and I’m so excited to share with you all the things I learned!!

Holding our personalized mug cupcakes–technique coming soon to Easybaked!
Such a fun weekend!

I wasn’t sure which project to tell you about first, so I decided to begin by dedicating this post to some truly yummy chocolate cut-out cookies.

Megan wanted to prove to me that royal icing isn’t always a tedious mess…. but honestly, royal icing is a tedious mess no matter what your technique or recipe (in my humble opinion!)

They are cute. Super super cute cookies. But 24 cookies took three of us about 3 hours….which means if I’d done them alone they would have taken me 9 hours….yeah.

So there are a lot of pictures because this will likely never happen again.

We even put some of them on lollipop sticks which was a really fun way to display them.

When Megan suggested a royal icing project I immediately thought of this great family recipe. I’d never made them as a cut-out cookie or attempted to bake them with sticks inserted, but I thought it would be worth experimenting with since they taste SO good. The verdict?? These dense chocolate cookies are easy to cut into shapes and worked great with or without lollipop sticks. The dark cookie really made all the fun colors in our frosting stand out too!

Ready for the recipe? (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 24 large cookies)

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Add butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa together in large mixing bowl.
Blend on medium speed with a mixer until smooth.
Gradually add dry ingredients and mix until smooth (use clean hands at the end, to knead into a soft ball of dough)
Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
Allow cookie dough to soften a little at room temperature
Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. If you are adding sticks, you will want to roll the cookies out thick (about 1/3″)
Cut into desired shapes and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Insert lollipop sticks, if desired, by gently pushing stick into cookie about 1- 1 1/2 inches. You will need to arrange cookies to fit with sticks on top of cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 to 11 minutes until the edges are firm.
Gently slide parchment paper off of cookie sheet and onto a flat surface. Cool completely before moving- this allows the cookie to “set” around the stick. Even when it is cooled, handle it with care. It takes a little time for the cookie to harden around the stick.
Frost as desired. A simple powdered sugar glaze will be delicious on these, or if you want to get fancy (and have a nice hard surface on your cookie) click here for Megan’s royal icing recipe and instructions for use.

Fun chocolate cookie cut-outs My thoughts: These cookies are SO yummy. I’m not usually a huge fan of cut-out cookies, but these are truly worth the effort of rolling out and cutting! I like them thick- even if you don’t add sticks to make them into pops. They are so much fun all set up in a vase~ what a perfect way to serve cookies at a party! You could wrap these in cello bags and tie them with cute ribbons too- a perfect favor for a wedding or shower! Hope you have fun with these treats!!! Enjoy!! ~r

Other fun cut-out cookies to try:

17 Comments

Posted in Cookies and tagged baking, chocolate, chocolate cookies, chocolate cut-out cookies, cocoa, cookie pops, cut-out cookies, dark cocoa, fun cookies, icing gels, lollipop sticks, party favors, recipe, royal icing, sugar. Bookmark the permalink.

Cookie Dough Whoopie Pies

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Ruthanne

Rich cocoa whoopie pies filled with a creamy cookie dough frosting. Yum.

One of the benefits of being a food blogger is that all of your friends see cool kitchen stuff and get it for you! My sweet friend Danielle gave me a Whoopie Pie Pan for my birthday and I had to google what a whoopie pie was because I’d never had one. Now, I am obsessed with this incredible dessert. Oh. My. Word.

A few months ago I made a cupcake that is my FAVORITE recipe on this blog (yes, I have a favorite!) It’s a cookie dough cupcake and I so wanted an excuse to make that frosting again, so I made it for these! Perfect! Everyone loves them….and I am eating the leftover frosting out of a bowl while I write this post…really– right out of the bowl {sigh of pure joy}

You know you want to try these….here’s how: (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 16-18 whoopie pies)

Whoopie Pie:

2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter (softened)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Cookie Dough Filling:

2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter(softened)
2 sticks (8 oz.) salted butter(softened)
2 cups powered sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
3 Tablespoons vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1 12 oz bag of mini chocolate chips.

Directions:

Whoopie Pie:

This recipe can be made on a cookie sheet, but to get that perfectly shaped, every-one-is-the-same-size look you really should invest in a Whoopie Pie Pan. They aren’t terribly expensive and these turn out SO much better if you use one!

Preheat oven to 400F degrees
Spray a whoopie pie pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Use a mixer to cream together butter and sugar.
Add milk, eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
Add dry ingredients (add flour last and gradually) and beat until smooth. (My mixer had a hard time with this, as it is a thick cookie-like mixture. My mixer is 15 years old though and died the next day….so …? I finished mixing by hand…)
Use a large Cookie Scoop (2-3 Tablespoons) to drop dough into each whoopie pie cavity. Gently press dough into cavity.

Bake for 8-10 minutes- don’t overbake- cake should be springy to the touch, not hard like a cookie.
Cool on a wire rack.

Filling:

Place all filling ingredients except mini chips into a large mixing bowl and beat with mixer on low until combined and then high until light and fluffy.
Add half of mini chips and blend in well.
Scoop about 2 Tablespoons of filling onto one half of a whoopie pie.
Press the other half on top very gently until filling spreads to edges.
Pour remaining mini chips into a bowl and roll edges of filling in them to coat the sides.

My thoughts: These are just exactly right, in my book. I love the deep cocoa flavor in the cake and that FROSTING….!

If you want to reduce the amount of filling you can certainly cut the recipe for it in half. I was very generous with the filling and had just a little left at the end. I hope you get a chance to try these– and if you want a similar flavor in smaller bites hop over to the cookie dough cupcake recipe and give them a try. Happy baking, friends!!!

Key Lime Cupcakes

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Ruthanne

These cupcakes are filled with a sweet key lime filling and topped with key lime buttercream…what could be better than that? Oh, how about a graham cracker crust on the bottom of the cupcake? This dessert is as close to key lime pie as you can get…without it being a pie! (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 24 cupcakes)

Filling:

1 cup key lime juice (a labor of love….!)
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 egg

Cupcakes:

2 cups of graham crackers (finely crushed)
3 Tablespoons of butter (melted)
1 boxed yellow cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)

Frosting:

2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter (at room temp)
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter (at room temp)
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 Tablespoons of key lime juice

DIRECTIONS:

Filling:

Mix together key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and egg and pour into a small casserole.
Bake at 325F degrees for 15-20 minutes (until center is set)
Cool completely.

Cupcakes:

Mix crushed graham crackers with melted butter.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon of this mixture into 24 cupcake liners in muffin tins (you’ll have a little left to garnish with at the end)
Press crumbs firmly into bottom of cup (I find my Mini Tart Shaper to be very useful for this)
Make cake mix according to box, and divide batter equally between the 24 cupcake liners.
Bake according to directions on box
Remove from oven and cool completely.
Core cupcakes (I love my Cupcake Plunger– it is so quick to use and saves the core to place back on top of the filling- to see a picture of how it works, click here).
Spoon cooled filling into a zip top bag and clip a corner off.

Pipe filling evenly into each cupcake, saving about 1/4 of a cup of filling to drizzle on the top at the end.
Place top of core back in place (you can trim some of the bottom off to make room for the filling if you need to)

Frosting:

Place butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and 2 Tablespoons of key lime juice into a large bowl.
Using a mixer, beat on high until light and fluffy.
Pipe frosting on top of cupcakes and drizzle remaining filling on top.
Sprinkle with remaining graham crust crumbs and ENJOY!!!!

My thoughts: I created these for a graduation party. The challenge was to create a key lime cupcake for someone who LOVES key lime pie. Key lime pie is one of my favorite desserts, so it was a fun task. These were a big hit. I love the balance between the tart center and the sweet cupcake and frosting.

It’s spring~ you NEED a key lime cupcake!!!

Alfajores (Peruvian Caramel Cookies)

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Ruthanne

These shortbread-like cookies are sandwiched around caramel and topped with chocolate and sugar…yum!

Machu Picchu!

I’m back! For those of you who follow the comings and goings of Easybaked you know that I spent about 10 days in Peru. It was a wonderful trip. I visited my childhood friend Deb in Lima and then the two of us toured Machu Picchu and spent a few days in the Amazon jungle. The foods were incredible, especially the fresh fruits! I will add some pictures of our trip at the end….

One of the treats we had in Peru was a cookie called an Alfajore. The cookie is very subtle- not too sweet- and very dense. It is served with a caramel filling called Manjarblanco. I had this filling in a variety of desserts and kept thinking that it tasted like Dulce de Leche. When I returned home and looked it up I found that it is Dulce de Leche- in a convenient little pouch and ready to eat.

Here is my version of this yummy cookie. If you like things that aren’t overwhelmingly sweet, this is your dessert!

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies (makes about 24 sandwich cookies)

1/2stick (2 oz) butter (softened)
1/4c. sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
a few drops of rum (optional)
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Dulce de Leche:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (or Manjarblanco if you live in an area that offers this!)

DIRECTIONS:

{If you can’t purchase ready-made manjarblanco (dulce de leche), you will need to make your own. Do this before making your cookies as it takes some time and will need to cool. My favorite method of making dulce de leche involves boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk, and I have detailed instructions if you click here.}

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Cream together sugar and butter.
Add eggs, corn syrup, vanilla and rum.
Add flour and baking soda last, and knead dough together with clean hands. (The dough will be dry- a little like play-dough in consistency. You can add a little water to soften it up if necessary.)
Roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thick and cut using a 1 1/2 inch or 2 inch cookie cutter.
Place on an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until just turning brown on top.
Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack.
Spread cookies with cooled caramel and sprinkle with powdered sugar/ drizzle with a little chocolate if you like.

My thoughts: I love international recipes. One of my favorite parts of travel is trying new foods and hearing stories about how those foods fit in with the lives of the people I meet. These cookies are really good, and available all over in Peru. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!!!

A few glimpses at Peru…such a beautiful country full of kind and beautiful people!

Sunrise at Machu Picchu

Stairs up Wayana Picchu

Beautiful Machu Picchu!!!

Amazon Village

Piranha fishing!!

Jungle hike…baby ferns

Fresh watermelon in the market at Iquitos

Sloth cuddles 🙂

Anaconda!

Amazon sampler: Jungle pig, Cayman and Paiche (Arapayma)

Deb and I – we’ve been friends since we were two! Fun trip!!

29 Comments

Posted in Cookies, Travel Recipes and tagged alfajores, amazon, baking, caramel, caramel cookies, chocolate, dessert, dulce de leche, machu picchu, peru, peruvian cookies, shortbread cookies. Bookmark the permalink.

Frosty Almond Joy Cups

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ruthanne

These adorable frozen cups are layered with chocolate, coconut and almonds. A new twist on some favorite flavors!! These use a mini cheesecake pan that is SO much fun, but if you want, you can make these in muffin tins lined with cupcake papers instead. This recipe makes 12 frozen cups.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 c. of crushed Oreo cookies
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. whipping cream
About 2 cups of shredded, sweetened coconut
About 1 cup of slivered almonds
1 1/2 c. cold milk
1 box (4 servings, 3.9 oz) instant coconut pudding
1 (8 oz) container of Cool Whip (thawed in fridge)
1/4 c. Wilton’s Candy Melts (to drizzle on top as decoration)

DIRECTIONS

Crush Oreos into fine crumbs. (I love my KitchenAid food chopper for this job!)
Prepare mini cheesecake pan by placing disks into the bottom of each cup.
Evenly divide crust mixture into all 12 cups (I used a Mini Tart Shaper to press crumbs firmly into the bottom of each cup).
Place semi-sweet chocolate chips and whipping cream into a small bowl and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.
Spoon chocolate into a zip top bag, cut a tip off and evenly pipe chocolate into the center of each cup, on top of the crust.
Sprinkle about a tablespoon of coconut and slivered almonds into each cup

Mix cold milk with pudding on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in 1/2 of the Cool Whip container (the rest will be used as topping).
Spoon filling into a large zip top bag (and ZIP it or you might have a mess!) Clip a corner off and pipe pudding into each cup evenly. Try to pipe it in between the coconut and almonds so that the whole cup is filled. I did have a little left over (which was really tasty straight out of the bag!)
Use a knife to smooth the tops level with the top of the pan.
Freeze for at least a couple of hours.
Allow the pan to warm just a bit before popping each dessert cup out. Poke a finger up through the hole in the bottom of the pan and grab that Almond Joy cup by its crust. Remove the disk from the bottom and you are ready to add topping.
For topping, I just piped a little bit of the left over Cool Whip on each dessert using a decorating tip. Then I topped it off with a little melted chocolate (Wilton’s candy melts) and a whole almond with some coconut. You could decorate yours however you want!
Serve cold right away– or put them in a sealed container and freeze until you are ready to serve.

My thoughts: I love Almond Joy candy bars…I love Oreos and anything frozen….so I love these! These were inspired by an earlier recipe, Frosty S’mores Cups. I ran across coconut pudding in the store the other day and the wheels started turning. I think it turned out perfectly– it’s like a coconut cream pie with Almond Joy bars mixed in. mmmmm…….! I hope you enjoy these little treats!

Do you like coconut? We LOVE it here at Easybaked! Click on a picture to see other recipes with this yummy ingredient:

5 Comments

Posted in Cookie Cups, Frozen desserts and tagged Almond Joy dessert, almonds, baking, chocolate, coconut, coconut pudding, cool whip, dessert, fun frozen dessert, mini cheesecake pan recipe, oreo crust, Oreos, pudding recipe, semi-sweet chocolate, slivered almonds. Bookmark the permalink.

Turtle Brownie Bars

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Ruthanne

Everyone loves a good bar dessert. These are absolutely stuffed full of yummy goodness. Caramel and three kinds of chocolate mixed with chocolate cake….these will certainly satisfy your sweet tooth!!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 box of chocolate cake mix
1/3c. oil
2 eggs
1c. each of white chips, semi-sweet chips, milk chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips
1/2 c. margarine or butter
32 unwrapped Kraft caramels
1 (14oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13pan.
Combine cake mix, oil and eggs. Blend well and stir in all of the chips (mixture will be very thick).
Press half of the mixture into bottom of pan (it will press into a very thin layer). Bake for 10 minutes and then remove from oven.
While this is baking, in a medium saucepan, combine butter, caramels and condensed milk.
Cook over low/medium heat until melted and smooth (stir constantly!)
Spread caramel over partially baked cake mixture.
Top with remaining cake/chip mixture (it will not completely cover, but you can press the mixture flat with your fingers and lay it in small sections over the caramel.)
Bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes.
Run knife around edges. Cool completely before cutting. Makes about 20 bars.

My thoughts: I make this recipe with a variety of cake mix flavors every time I start accumulating odds and ends of chips in my pantry. When you bake a lot, you end up with lots of almost-empty bags of baking chips in all sort of flavors. I just use them all up in this recipe! I’ve made this with yellow, chocolate and caramel cake mix. I’ve used dark, milk, white, swirled, peanut butter, cinnamon and butterscotch chips. Each time I make it there’s a whole new flavor and look. I *love* recipes like that! It’s like having so many recipes all in one. I hope you have fun – both following this recipe AND experimenting with it! Enjoy!! ~r

We love chocolate and caramel here at Easybaked!! Check out some of our other recipes that use this favorite combination. Just click on an image to be taken to the recipe.

*****SPECIAL NOTE****** Ruthanne will be wandering the Amazon Jungle when this recipe posts. If you don’t get replies to your comments or questions it is because I have no internet….I’ll be back soon though!!!!

10 Comments

Posted in Bar cookies, Brownies and tagged baking, brownie, cake mix, caramel, caramel sauce, chocolate, chocolate chips, dessert, dessert bars, easy bar dessert, Kraft caramels, white chocolate. Bookmark the permalink.

Cream-filled Doughnut Cupcakes

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Ruthanne

These cream-filled, chocolate glazed, doughnut-flavored cupcakes combine two favorites into one incredible dessert! Use a fun mini-doughnut pan to make adorable decorations to top these yummy cupcakes!

Ingredients: (makes 16- 18 cupcakes)

Cupcakes:

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar (packed)
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/3 c. flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. milk

Cream filling:

1 stick (4 oz) butter
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

Chocolate glaze:

1 c. dark chocolate chips
6 T. butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees
In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, both sugars and vanilla. Beat on medium until combined.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating in between.
In a medium bowl combine flour, powder, soda and salt and blend.
Add flour mixture and milk, alternating between the two and beating well in between.
When batter is complete, scoop about 1 c. of batter into a large zip-top bag.
Clip corner and pipe into a Wilton Mini Doughnut Pan– fill each doughnut opening a little less than 1/2 full.
Bake mini doughnuts for about 5-6 minutes and cool on a rack.
Decorate them as desired (cinnamon, powdered sugar…I used a simple powdered sugar/milk glaze with food coloring and sprinkles)
Scoop remaining batter into cupcake liners in a cupcake tin, filling them about 2/3 full.
Bake at 350F degrees for about 18-20 minutes (test them when they come out, the centers took a little time to bake all through)
Cool cupcakes and core them (I use a Cupcake Plunger so that I have nice little circles to set back on top of the filling when I’m done.)
Make filling: Place butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl and beat on high until light and fluffy.
Place filling in a zip top bag and pipe evenly into each cupcake. Place the cut-out top of the cupcake back on.
Make glaze by melting the chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave in 30 second increments stirring until smooth and shiny.
Cool just a little (so its easy to handle) and spoon or pipe onto top of each cupcake.
Before the glaze hardens, place a mini doughnut on top for decoration…so much fun!!!!!
Enjoy!

My thoughts: These cupcakes are a little work with the filling and the topping (and notice, dear fans, that I did NOT use a cake mix for these!!) The extra effort really pays off in how good these cupcakes are. Oh my. Like doughnuts in cupcake form…perfect! Enjoy!!! ~r

Try some of Easybaked’s other cupcake ideas. Click on an image to get the recipe:

24 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes and tagged baking, cake doughnuts, chocolate glaze, cupcakes, dessert, doughnut cupcakes, doughnuts, fun dessert, kids party ideas, unique baking ideas. Bookmark the permalink.

Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Ruthanne

This rich and creamy cheesecake has bits of cinnamon roll baked inside. Little pockets of cinnamon and sweet brown sugar make it into nearly every bite. You will have a hard time stopping at just one piece!!!

When a craving hits I generally create a brand new recipe to satisfy my curiosity. A craving hit me right in the middle of church last Sunday. Right in the middle of a great sermon on Romans I suddenly thought~ “I wonder what cinnamon roll and cheesecake would taste like all together”. I wondered if you could use refrigerated cinnamon rolls as a crust…I wondered if you could swirl a brown sugar/ cinnamon mixture into a cheesecake without getting tons of cracks…I wondered if the cinnamon cream cheese tubs would work…I also listened to the sermon. I’m fairly good at multi-tasking 🙂

When I got home I decided two things:

1. I am taking a vacation to Peru in a few weeks and I cannot spend any extra money- so the ingredients needed to be already in my house.

2. I would google “cinnamon roll cheesecake” to see what others had done.

The googling resulted in a surprise. Several blogs featured recipes and they were all the same recipe from the same source! Every one of the blogs just ranted and raved about the amazing-ness of this recipe.

I looked the recipe up in Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and realized I already had all of the ingredients.

It was meant to be.

It is, as all the other blogs out there have said, AMAZING. Unbelievably good. Exactly what I was hoping for in a combination of cheesecake and cinnamon roll.

It is also a labor of love. Regular cheesecakes take some time. This is a regular cheesecake and a batch of cinnamon rolls…all together. Set aside some time and several clean mixing bowls!!

Here’s how to make it:

INGREDIENTS:

Cinnamon Roll Batter:

2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cheesecake filling:

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp flour
3 eggs

Cinnamon Filling:

1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tbsp butter, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
milk (if needed to thin frosting)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9-inch Springform pan.

Cinnamon Roll Batter:

Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat for about one minute, scraping down bowl.
Add flour, baking powder, and salt to the creamed ingredients. Mix on low speed until throughly combined.

Cheesecake Filling:

In a separate bowl, use a mixer to beat cream cheese and sugar for about 2 minutes on medium-high speed.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating together scraping down the bowl after each addition.
Add the vanilla and flour and beat for another minute.

Cinnamon Filling:

In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Mix until thoroughly combined.

You have three individual parts to this cheesecake now. The batter, the cheesecake and the filling.
Here is how to put them together:

Spread half of the batter onto the bottom of the Springform pan. It will be sticky and thick so spray your hands with baking spray and press down. It will be a thin layer, but trust me it will rise up during baking.
Pour all of the cheesecake batter on top of the cinnamon roll batter that is in the prepared pan.
Drop spoonfuls of the cinnamon filling over the entire top of the cheesecake.
Take the rest of the base batter and drop spoonfuls over the entire top of cheesecake. Once finished, take a knife to swirl the ingredients together. I say swirl, but its really just a big yummy chunky mess– just kind of gently mix all the toppings together without digging into the bottom crust.

Bake for about 50-55 minutes, cake will be puffy and lightly browned.
Let it cool for 20 minutes at room temperature and then cover and move to fridge for at least 4 hours (or overnight).
Remove cake and let it warm up to room temperature just a bit. While you are waiting, make your cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a clean bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together for about 2 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients and beat until desired consistency is reached. If too thick, thin out with milk.
Pipe over the top of chilled cheesecake and serve….so yummy!

My thoughts: If you don’t mind a little extra prep time in the kitchen, this recipe is truly worth every bit of effort. The best part? Since it has cinnamon rolls in it you really CAN eat cheesecake for breakfast with no guilty conscience… and I can tell you that a piece of this with a cup of coffee really is a perfect way to start the day!!!! Enjoy!!! ~r

Is it cheesecake? Is it cinnamon roll?
It’s BOTH!!!!!

Other cinnamon inspired treats from Easybaked: Just click on an image to get the recipe!

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Posted in Cheesecakes and tagged baking, breakfast dessert, cheesecake, cinnamon, cinnamon roll cheesecake, cinnamon rolls, Cream Cheese, cream cheese frosting, dessert, fancy cheesecake. Bookmark the permalink.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes!!!!

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Ruthanne

Two years ago today, I started a blog. I had no idea it would blossom into what it is today, and no idea I would have so much fun with it! I’ve made such great new friends, learned so much about photography and design, and loved every second of the process.

In honor of our anniversary, I chose the recipe that is (by far!) the most visited on the site and re-made it in cupcake form. Strawberry Lemonade Cake is already on the Easybaked site twice:

Strawberry Lemonade Layer Cake Strawberry Lemonade Birthday Cake

The Layer Cake is more like a torte, the lemonade mixture is more like a filling than a frosting.

The Birthday Cake has a lemonade frosting, and it is one of my very favorite frostings ever. It’s soooo creamy and light.

Both recipes top the list of my most popular recipes, together they have been viewed just over 435,000 times (as of today…!)

It seemed fitting that I feature everyone’s favorite recipe to celebrate two years with all of you~ so let me present: Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes:

These are easy to make (much easier than a layer cake, in my opinion) and just the yummiest treat. I loved the pink wrappers and the paper straws I found for these- I think they would be such a fun shower, picnic or birthday party treat!!

INGREDIENTS:

One box of strawberry cake mix (plus oil, water and eggs as directed on box)
2- 8oz. packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened to room temp.)
1 packet (0.23oz.) of Kool-Aid Lemonade
Yellow food coloring (as desired for color)
1- 7oz. container Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme
1/3 c. powdered sugar
8 oz. Cool Whip Topping
Confetti sprinkles and paper straws to decorate as desired

DIRECTIONS:

Make cake according to box and bake in 24 cupcake liners placed in cupcake tins, as directed. Cool completely.
In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, lemonade and yellow food coloring until smooth.
Beat marshmallow creme and powdered sugar into cream cheese mixture and then fold in Cool Whip until completely smooth.
Spoon frosting into a zip top bag that has a piping tip inserted into one corner (I used a Wilton 1M star tip).
Pipe frosting on tops of each cupcake- you can be generous, as this recipe makes a lot of frosting and the frosting is so light and fluffy.
Decorate as desired.
Refrigerate and serve chilled.
Enjoy!!!!!

My thoughts: A tried-and-true recipe in a fun new format…what’s not to love about that?!? I’m incredibly thankful for all of YOU who visit, comment, “like”, rate and (most of all) MAKE the recipes I create! I had no idea how much I would love hearing from complete strangers that a recipe “made my husband’s birthday perfect” or “made all the kids at the party laugh”. When I hear how happy a recipe makes you and your family it literally makes my day…and fuels my desire to bake and share more! Here’s to another year of Easybaked recipes! Enjoy! ~r

06-13-14 Did you know, that this recipe is now available in a set of adorable note cards? With a picture of these cupcakes on the front, the recipe on the back, and lots of space inside to write a note, these are a PERFECT little gift! Why send just a card, when you can send the gift of a recipe as well?!? Click here for more information and to order.