MSC: Cookies and Cream

My schedule is hectic. My homework is out my butt. Volleyball is 24/7. But I had to bake these=)

(This post will be a short one. My apologies!)

I started by making a fourth of the recipe. This wasn't too hard with a recipe calling for four eggs, 16 oz cream cheese, and other numbers easily divisible by 4. The ingredients themselves are few. And since I had Oreo's left over from the ice cream I made, I knew it was fate.


There's a small twist to them though. I did not have cream cheese on hand. GASP. How could I call it fate to make mini cheesecakes whenever I didn't even have cream cheese on hand?! Because I had just-about-to-go-bad mascarpone cheese on hand. Duhhhh. I guess I was feeling crazy in the kitchen! I also went ahead and left off the tops of the Oreos that I placed on the bottom of each cupcake. I used to tops as the crushed up Oreo for the cheesecake part. A wise choice, I might add.


Okay verdict time: The mascarpone cheese was a definite hit! There was a slight difference in taste but not a bad one at all! It was tough waiting for these to cool. So I had to eat one warm. Not too bad actually=)


Photographing cheesecakes is odd. I'm terrible at photographing food as is, so this was a tricky one. Maybe one of these days I'll learn a thing or two about taking pictures of my food. Until then, trust in my mediocre pictures and know that these beauties were extremely delicious. So delicious, in fact, that eating five of the 6 in one day is in no way a bad thing;)

No MSC, but still cupcakes!

So it's true I've skipped the last Martha Stewart's Cupcakes pick and this month's now, too. But, (if you're in the mood to hear me rationalize) I can explain. Last month's pick was chocolate, and I'm not really a fan (but I'm trying to make myself like it, as of late). And this month, I got my first request to make cupcakes for an event! The event was yesterday, and my time was greatly consumed with making those cupcakes.

I have some things to do today, but I'd like to get that post up for you later tonight. Be sure to stop back!

MSC: Strawberry Cupcakes

I'm writing this post in some pain. I just got my wisdom teeth out yesterday. OUCH. It was extremely painful. It astonishes me how many people have this procedure done, yet I feel like I've complained more than anyone. No dry sockets yet, and let's pray never. So far I haven't eaten anything, which sucks because I love love to eat. I was smart and prepped some food for me ahead of time, which I'll post soon (once I've actually had a chance to eat it). Ahhhh, my mouth is so sore right now. Okay, let's focus on what today is really about.

It is the 15th. That means a Martha Stewart Cupcake is in order! And, oh wait, IT WAS MY PICK! Aww yeahhh. Okay, well with it being June and all, I thought this seemed seasonally appropriate, and as I've mentioned before, strawberry is Mummy-Dearest's favorite. I made these a while ago for my Honors Chorus bake sale. You see, we've been given an opportunity of a lifetime.

We will be going on a 6-day trip to New York City. (I cried when I found out) I have never been there, so of course I'm ecstatic. We're going to see West Side Story and Marry Poppins on Broadway, as well as the opera Carmen.

Plus some lovely sites like the Statue of Liberty:
Why are we doing this? The lovely American composer Tim Janis has asked us to come and sing at CARNEGIE HALL. Yes, THE Carnegie Hall. Here in Pittsburgh we did a special with him known as Celebrate America!, but now he wants us for his Christmas special!



This trip means a LOT of fund raising will need done, but we are all so determined! One of the first things we had was a bake sale, and for it, I made these cupcakes.


They were amazing! I thought the strawberry buttercream on top was so buttery and yet sweet and and just a perfect match for the cupcake.

The cupcake base was super moist but it held together nicely. The strawberries were finely chopped in mine so there weren't any big pieces making it hard to eat through.

I got so many compliments on them. The recipe made a ton so I was able to have plenty to sell. I would say these are my favorite cupcakes so far, but I feel like I say that every time!


Check out the club blog for the blog roll and updates on the upcoming cupcakes! Thank you to everyone who baked along with me this month-) I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!!

MSC: Tres Leches Cupcakes

This makes me soooo ticked.I definitely already had this post written like 10 days ago, and had it set to publish itself on the 15th (yesterday). So I check back on here toady and see no new post on my blog AND find I had nothing written whatsoever in my inventory.

AHHHHH! I completely remember writing one. It mentioned how I love love loved these cupcakes. How the spongy moist texture and taste were so new to me and I feel in love. How this was my first encounter with sweetened condensed milk, and how it may need to visit again.


The cupcakes were easy to make, for sure. Simpler than Martha's usual methods. The only thing is, when you're ready to put your topping on, be ready to eat them! It's a whipped cream topping so it will not hold up like normal frosting or meringue toppings. I LOVED the addition of a sprinkle of cinnamon to the top. It really was the last piece to the puzzle for me.


This month was hosted by Smiley's Sweets and Creations. I am SO glad she chose these. I really enjoyed this new texture of cupcake that I have never had before!



P.S.- I didn't have any foil muffin liners so I went on without them. It turned out just fine!

MSC: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes (Late!!)

Oh my gosh are these late. My blogging has been pretty crappy too. Now that that is all out in the open, let us move on to these lemon beauties.

Delish and perfect. No merengue topping, but I loved them this way. Okay, well I have another show tonight, so no time for blogging=(

MSC: S'mores Cupcakes

Oh geez these are late!!!! Please please please forgive me=) Also, I should make mention of that fact that I skipped last month's cupcake. It was total coconut and no one in my family can stand it so I couldn't justify buying three different forms of coconut to use in a cupcake I wouldn't eat and then have the leftover ingredients sitting around laying in waste. So, okay on to this month's: S'mores!!

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about these. I don't really like, (let's see how shall I put this), chocolate or chocolate pairing type cupcakes. For s'mores of course it's all about that chocolate, even in a small amount. But I was interested in trying these!

I had one big issue though. These came out pretty toasted, meaning on the verge of burnt! I was freaking out, my mom said they were kind of bad (don't worry she was very polite and I was asking her to be honest!), yet my dad said they were okay. So I waited until the next day and I tried one. Not bad. Definitely passable, and without ganache or frosting yet. So that day after school I ganache-d and frosted them. And I'm bringing them to a party tonight, so we'll see how the reviews are. I can't wait to try them all put together!!

This was the night I made them after some time to cool. At this point we thought they might have been a tad burnt=/ It's amazing what some resting time can do, though. By the next day the had gathered more moisture, solving the dry crumb issue I had noticed.


The good thing about posting this late is that I got to read the reviews from other people's blogs to get some tips and pointers. And I definitely picked up that the marshmallow frosting in the book was not the way to go. Incidentally, Martha has another marshmallow frosting recipe on her website that worked fantastic and tasted amazing! It wasn't overly sweet at all. It piped beautifully and I didn't have to feel too rushed in my piping. This marshmallow frosting was amazing! It will for sure be my go-to frosting if I need something in the marshmallow realm! So fluffy (which I hear the other recipe lacked) and was not overly sweet like I would have expected.


Marshmallow Frosting
(I halved the recipe and only used 3 eggs because it's all I had. It worked out just fine and gave me enough for 18 cupcakes or so!)

From Martha Stewart

3 large egg whites
1 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (I forgot to put this in!)

Directions:

Place egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set over a saucepan with simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are warm to the touch, 3 to 4 minutes.

Transfer bowl to electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat, starting on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix until combined. Use immediately.

I was really scared to pipe these. I have never piped before but I really wanted to go with a nice presentation. I used an extremely old pamper chef tool we had lying around and it worked fabulously!

Added: No one at the party found them burnt (yesss!). And I just loved these! They are may favorite out of Martha's collection, but I'm super glad I made these because they were just soooo fun and cute!

Check out what are club will be doing in the months to come over here and also see the blogroll to drool over everyone else's cupcakes!

MSC: Gingerbread Cupcakes

Gingerbread cupcakes?? Heck yes!

One of my really really good friends was having a birthday on Thursday and I knew these would be such a treat to give her. After she tried one of my banana pecan cupcakes with caramel cream cheese frosting (still one of my top two favorite's of Martha's!), she has always called me a cupcake queen or something along those lines=) I always let her know when I'm baking a new batch, so i figured what a great surprise these would be. When I brought them to school, others seemed to like them as well, even a teacher or two.

The recipe actually yielded how much it said it would! That's a first. I actually got 23 instead of 22, but the last one was really tiny. Also, they baked for exactly as long as the recipe said! Maybe my oven's getting better?? The last cupcakes were done when it said too. YAY! And, I had all the ingredients on hand, which is always a plus!

Did anyone else realize how much butter goes into this recipe? It's a bit shocking! Good thing I happen to love love love butter. We're talking 6 sticks people. That's cupcake and frosting combined.

Lastly, and I can't hide this from you guys, there was a bit of a mis-communication/I was an idiot and don't know my measurements. I was trying to get ahead of the game and make my icing while my cupckaes baked, but my mom bought a different sized powdered sugar bag and it threw me off completely. Long story short, I put 2 lbs. of powdered sugar in my icing when only 1 lb. was needed. AHHH! It took so long to make too, because I was trying to be really concise in my mixing efforts. So I ended up having to make another batch. This time I forgot the vanilla and realized it after I iced three cupcakes. So I said screw it and kept going. There was a big difference. This is all the night before mind you.

Okay, so taste: The cupcake was buttery, melt-in-your-mouth goodness! It had a great gingerbread flavor and a perfect density. I'll say it again, melt-in-your-mouth goodness! The icing was quite sugary yet buttery, too, but I thought it was appropriate since when I think of gingerbread I except white & sugary frosting. Also, I added red, green, & white sprinkles for a holiday touch.

MSC: Applesauce (Pecan) Cupcakes

This months MS Cupcakes Bonus Bake was chosen by none other than... ME! I asked our founder Betty if a recipe had been chosen yet and she said I could pick. After careful consideration I decided the Applesauce Spice cupcakes would be a great pick that kept with the season. As an added plus, I had all the ingredients already in my house. So the very next day I set out to make them!

These came together so incredibly fast. Martha gives you an option of adding chopped pecans, and I would never so no to nuts, so I did. I had plenty left over from our last bake and just needed to toast them a bit.



After the addition of the nuts, I decided the name needed to be changed. I had turned simple applesauce cupcakes into full out pecan cupcakes! Whoops! I probably put wayyy too many in. The applesauce taste was not that present, but that was probably due to the extreme pecan flavor. I also felt these were much more like muffins than cupcakes. They were crumbly and a tad dry, which brings me to the next bit of news...

I kinda burnt them... Which has NEVER happened to me!!! But there's a first time for everything. With my oven I always take Martha's cooking times with a grain of salt. In the past I've had to cook them for up to 10 minutes over the suggested baking time. This time, at exactly the recommended time, they were done. However, I was skeptical and put them in for 2 minutes longer and it was two minutes too much. So they came out a bit dryer than I'd like and the wrappers needed some effort to pull off but they were definitely still edible.

I had wished to share these with some people at school but I didn't want to give something that wasn't my best effort=/ I did give a few to the bake sale for the Turkey Bingo I mentioned earlier.

For these cupcakes I made the browned butter cream cheese frosting like suggested. It paired very nicely and went well with the overload of pecans.

Out of the 18 serving size Martha said you'd get, I got 24. Figures.

Overall, they definitely weren't my favorite cupcake, but that's probably all my fault anyway. Would I make them again? Ehh, probably not=/.

Also, just so you know, I wrote this whole post with one hand because my cat was sleeping on the other=) (using shift was a nightmare!)

MSC: Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Sweet potatoes. In cupcakes. With marshmallows. And pecans. These were a huge surprise taste wise. I expected to eat and some what like them, but never to love them.

I don't know if they were supposed to, but my cupcakes fell considerably. I was not upset by this or anything, (in the past my cupcakes tend to be on the mile high side), but I just wasn't sure if that happened to anyone else. I didn't toast my marsh mallows, either. Instead, when I wanted to eat one, I would top it with marsh mallows and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Then, I would top that with toasted pecans, 'cause I wasn't up for candy-ing. My co-workers were very skeptical to try these. They aren't the most appealing to the masses type cupcake out there according to looks, which is unfortunate because they are very good. Oh, well. Hah, some people told me they liked my pumpkin cupcakes after they took a bite. Oh, silly King's employees.

I halved the "makes 24" recipe and still got 21 cupcakes out of it. I may not have filled them as much as needed but usually my cupcakes grow considerably. Could this be linked to the falling?

Whipping this together was fairly easy, except for getting my butter to cream with the dark brown sugar and regular sugar. But I got it eventually.

These cupcakes definitely have a different taste than that of the others I've made. In the past there have been spongy, but not at all dry cupcakes. Yet these, were extremely moist. Isn't it incorrect to say creamy? Probably. So maybe not creamy, but.. Oh! Like pecan pie but with sweet potatoes! So maybe sweet potato pie actually... That's what it's like. So not very cake-like but enough to give structure yet definitely soft.

And as I was filling the cups, and tasting the batter, I thought it didn't taste so good and it'd be okay if this one wasn't a favorite. But boy was I wrong. Martha just never fails to please me! I loved these sooo much. Trust me, your mouth/stomach will thank you.

The pecans and marshmallows made me really nervous. I do not at all like marshmallows what so ever. But I went for it. The pecans, too, are necessary. Because the cupcake is really moist and soft, you need some sort of crunch to balance it off, and what better pair is there than sweet potatoes and pecans? Together, the marshmallows and pecans unite to form a super team and take your cute little cuppy cakes to super stardom status. I may be exaggerating just a bit, but these are perfectly joyful bites of Fall for your mouth.



Thanks a ton to Karen for hosting this month's bake.

MSC: Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

These cupcakes were the perfect pick for the beginning of fall. This was my first pumpkin recipe of the season and I'm so glad I was able to make these. I will note that yes I did skip the marzipan pumpkin decoration for on top. I just didn't have the time or energy to deal with marzipan.

The recipe says it yields 32 cupcakes. I was a little worried that it'd be too many but decided not to half the recipe or anything. In the end, I was able to make 30 regular sized cupcakes and 24 minis! As I was filling the tins I realized I had a lot of batter left. I tried filling the regulars pretty full but it just made them have bigger domed tops and I still had batter left. So, instead of making even more of the same cupcake, I had a bag of left over white chocolate chips that I had been meaning to use up for the longest time. There were just enough for the remaining batter which I used to make mini cupcakes.

My cooking times really worried me. I had to put them back in more than once and even as they were cooling I was worried they were pretty mushy. But I let them cool over night and waited to see how they would turn out the next day.

I made the cream cheese icing as directed except I used one less cup of powdered sugar. They frosting already tasted fine to me before the final suggested addition. While icing, I realized the cupcakes were just fine. I decided not to ice the minis because they were good on their own. Although, I did add some frosting on before I ate mine for some added flavor. Both ways are tasty though.

So the taste: The regular cupcakes were very good. Pumpkin and cream cheese frosting are the perfect partners and this was no exception. They were fluffy and springy, if you can describe a cupcake as being so. I really liked them after 15 seconds in the microwave. I don't know why but I like my goodies slightly warm, where as my mom preferred them chilled and right out of the freezer.

The minis with white chocolate chips were sensational!! I honestly wish I could have made regular sized ones with them in it. I think that is a great way to tweak the recipe and add your own twist. Add white chocolate chips!

Many thanks to Kim from What the Whisk for picking this season friendly item. It was a big success in my house and with the neighbors. So far I'm 3 for 3 with Martha's recipes. She never fails!
Check out the Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club website for the blogroll of all my fellow bakers.