Showing posts with label Cream Cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cream Cheese. Show all posts

Black Bottom Cupcakes...

We received the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook for Christmas, and so with a friend's birthday on 1st January it seemed the ideal occasion to try something out. I chose these Black Bottom Cupcakes. The idea is simple, chocolate cake topped with a blob of cheesecake. They look tasty and are tasty... although I think I will make some modifications next time to make them even tastier!

Cake:
190g Plain Flour
120g Caster Sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
40ml Sunflower Oil
125ml Water
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
(the recipe also lists 1½ tsp White vinegar, but I can't remember using that so am guessing I didn't!)

Cheesecake:
250g Cream cheese
60g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
½tsp Vanilla Extract
100g Milk Chocolate Chips

Icing:
250g Icing Sugar
80g Butter
25ml Milk
Drop of Vanilla Extract

• Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarb together, then add the oil, vinegar, vanilla and water.
• Spoon the mixture into muffin cases to about 2/3 full.
• To make the cheesecake bit, beat all the ingredients except the chocolate in a bowl with an electric whisk on a medium speed until light and fluffy (roughly the consistency of loose whipped cream). Stir in the chocolate chips gently.
• Spoon on top of the cake mixture and bake in a preheated oven (170°C) for about 20 minutes (until the cheesecake topping is slightly golden at the edges.
• Whilst the cakes cool, beat the icing ingredients together until pale and fluffy.
• Decorate the cakes and dust with cocoa or chocolate shavings.

•Notes:
• Officially this mixture makes 12. For me the cake mix made 9 and the cheescake about 18, so next time I shoudl probably have a bit less cake and a bit more cheesecake per muffin and it'll be about 12!
• Also, the recipe calls for 140g cream cheese, I couldn't get this to thicken up without the extra 100g.
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White Chocolate Cheesecake with Berry Sauce...

I first had this cheesecake at some friends' house, and couldn't believe how good it was. So, inevitably I looked up the recipe and have actually changed very little. As it's gluten free in the original I've substituted for normal digestives which I prefer to the chocolatey base. There are loads of potential vaiations to this once you have the basic cheesecake mixture you can just go with whatever you can lay your hands on. This time round I made a simple berry sauce for a topping.

• Melt the butter and crush the biscuits then combine and press into the base of a 20cm tin (ideally with removable base or spring-form). Chill for 2 hours.
• Melt the chocolate and cool slightly.
• Meanwhile beat the cheese, cream and icing sugar in a bowl until well combined.
• Fold in the cooled chocolate thoroughly, then pour over the biscuit base.
• Chill for 2-3 hours to set.

Notes:
• For the berry topping I heated up 200g mixed berries with about the same amount of sugar until it began to thicken. Cooled and then poured over the set cheesecake.
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