Cheesecake Galore! Chocolate Chip, Lemon and more Chocolate!

Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese with Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Lemon Cheesecake topped with Lemon Curd

Chocolate Cheesecake

Almond Poppy Seed, White Chocolate Macadamia and Pistachio

Almond Poppy Seed with Orange Cream Cheese Icing and Mini Marshmallows

White Chocolate Macadamia with Cream Cheese Icing and Sprinkles!

Pistachio Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing and Sprinkles :)

Chocolate Chili, Applesauce and Candy Bar

Chocolate Chili with Chocolate Glaze

Applesauce Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Candy Bar Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Mini M&Ms

Sticky Date, Orange Date and Orange Chocolate

Top Right: Sticky date chopped up

Top Left: Orange Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese

Bottom Left: Orange Date Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Bottom Right: Sticky Date batter

Awesome Almond, Chocolate Mint and Lamington

Awesome Almond Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Lamington Cucpakes with Chocolate glaze and toasted coconut flakes

Chocolate Mint with Buttercream Frosting

An eclectic weekend of cupcake flavors!

This weekend's flavours is a little of bit of this and that. There is no real overall theme. But I must say that the process was a lot more complicated than the previous flavours. I was originally going with Smores and Lamington but I wanted an easier weekend so I went with the following:

• Chocolate Cinnamon
• Princess
• Boston Cream

The first one was easy enough. But the next two kind of drove me a little nuts. For Princess cupcakes, I had to find marzipan. It is basically almond paste and moldable. People can use marzipan to make little figures. Kind of like what you can use hard fondant for. Grocery stores do not sell this. Suffice to say you can only find it at specialty cooking stores. Good thing there is one right in my neighbourhood. But it took a trip to Wal-mart, Safeway, a local organic store and a 24 hours store before I realize it's a specialty item and finally went to Gourmet Warehouse.

I'm not a fan of putting things inside cupcakes. I find the whole process a bit cumbersome. It's okay if I drill a whole down the middle and pipe some cream of jelly inside, but when I have a slice it in half and put jam then a piece of marzipan or put custard in it, it gets a little tricky. This also means I can't use a cupcake liner :( And I love cupcake liners!

 The baking process is simple enough.

 The assembly is a bit of a pain. But this is when the apricot jelly was added.

 You'll see a thin slice of white between the cupcake halves - it looks like cheese but it's just sliced up marzipan.

On the other hand, although I didn't enjoy the process of making the Boston Cream cupcakes, I thought it was delicious! It kind of reminds me of a eclairs and I love eclairs! I also really liked the custard recipe - it tastes really good. And I guess after assembling it and putting the chocolate glaze on top, it doesn't look too bad. Of all the cupcake flavours this week, this is my favourite.

 I admit, I was more interested in taking pictures of the process of making the custard then the cupcake :P

No egg whites were used in this process. The mixture thickens up as you heat it over medium heat. 

 

 Then I add in the vanilla extract. It must be cooled over ice, while still stirring. And finally add a bit more whipping cream. 

  Boston Cream Cupcakes - looks like eclair cupcakes!

Chocolate Cinnamon was very simple. It doesn't use butter so the top is hard when it came out. I guess it's the sugar that makes it hard without the butter to soften it. There's coffee in it as well. I like it. It's simple and cute (and I can use cupcake liners!).

 

I love the colours of the powder - cinnamon, cocoa, baking soda, flour. Second picture is after adding the coffee. 

  The difference in the pictures is not only the distance but the second picture has semi-sweet chocolate chips as well!

I love this colour icing on the chocolate cupcake. It's very pretty!

Fruity Weekend :)

This weekend was the annual Oscars Party at the cousins'. In addition to baking, I also made some finger/cold food: deviled eggs and ceviche. The deviled eggs is a recipe I discovered on Goodeggs a couple years ago and I love the recipe and every time I've made it, it's been well received. Actually this was a special request this year. It's a very simple recipe and asks for very little ingredients that you already have at home. The only problem is that it tends to make the kitchen smell like fart. lol

The ceviche is a recipe a friend had forwarded to me. It sounded very simple so I thought I'd give it a try. The recipe turned out to be a lot! I don't think I could've eaten all of this by myself. And ceviche is easier to eat when the weather is hot because it's very refreshing. Nevertheless it's a good enough recipe. In the future I might cut down the ingredients by half to make a smaller portion.

This weekend's recipe has a fruity theme:

• Nectarine Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
• Pineapple Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting and
• Tropical Cupcakes with Rum Buttercream

Nectarine Cupcakes:

 

 Pineapple Cupcakes

 Tropical Cupcakes

(has Macadamia nuts, Dried Pineapples & Dried Papaya)

Cupcake Tree: