quirky cupcake

Im just gunna tell it like it is. I do not like rice pudding. I do not like it. If my Grandma’s rice pudding doesnt cut it, Dorie’s rice pudding recipe will not change my mind. With that in mind.. Nikki and I went rogue. She has been bitching for months and months about no one picking the cover cake. And I have to say I agree, why has no one picked that damn cake yet?!?

I meant to make this on Saturday, but we ended up going out of town. Then, I told Nik I would make it last night, no dice. I ended up playing LittleBigPlanet with jaos and the kids till bedtime, and then it was Gossip Girl time. Hey, shut up. Leave my guilty pleasures alone. I like GG!

I finally got around to making the cake this morning. Unfortunately, I was out of wax paper, so I did not line the cake pans. The cake stuck. It turned out ok since you are supposed to crumble part of the cake anyhow. My layers didnt rise much and I had trouble cutting them in half. Once in half, they fell apart during assembly. Thank god frosting is the mightly glue of all glues. You would never know that 2 of the layers fell into 3 pieces and I put the puzzle back together and glued them into place.

I went out on my own with the frosting. While the kids like marshmallowy frosting, I prefer something with more weight to it. I had 5 packages of cream cheese in the fridge, so there we had frosting. I made the cream cheese frosting from Bills Big Carrot Cake. I doubled the recipe. Added a half cup of cocoa powder and then added coffee concentrate to half. I filled with the mocha cream cheese frosting, topped with the chocolate cream cheese frosting, and then lathered on the crumbs.

Looks pretty good to me. Ill try and get a picture once its sliced.

Thanks for going rogue with me Nik. And dont worry hardcore TWD’ers. We understand this does not count as the weekly recipe. But, at least we baked, right??

Thanks to Isabelle for her choice of the week, please go check out her blog for the rice pudding recipe. Check out all the ricey puddings from the TWD Bakers.

First things first, my hiatus from TWD is over. October was a rough and busy month round these parts. Now that we are into November, I have more time to bake. On to the rugelach. I have made these cookies once before, using Ina Gartens recipe. They came out perfectly, so I had high hopes for this recipe. However, my impatience got the best of me. I didnt let the dough chill long enough, and then totally missed where it said to chill the rolled cookies in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. (Thanks Jaime!)

In the end, they taste fantastic! They just didnt hold their shape like they should have. Again, I am sure this is baker error, as I didnt exactly follow the directions on the chilling. I used peach jam, walnuts, golden raisins and omitted the chocolate. I will try these again, sticking to the recipe of course.

Thanks to Piggy for the fab recipe choice! Check out the other 350+ TWD Bakers, too!

* Photos courtesy of my cell. The digicams batteries are acting wonky right now.

I just finished making this. Its still so hot that I haven’t had a chance to taste the caramel. I have been so uber busy with the kids stuff, it has been a struggle to keep up with TWD. I am doing my best thought! Okay, the cake, the cake reeeeeaally sank in. Not a little crater, a HUGE crater. Not sure what the deal was, but I didnt want to bake it any longer because I didnt want it to dry out.

Caramel was easy, or so I thought. Followed the directions to a T, but when I scooped it onto the cake, there were huge sugar crystals that came up from the bottom of the pot. It was too late to strain it at that point.

Ah well. Not sure what I did wrong. I cut back on the amount of nuts because the kids do not like them. This way I can pick them off for them.

Thanks Tammy, Ive been wanting to make this for a long time now.

This week I opted for an archive recipe because there was no money in our budget to buy a butane torch. And the directions for carmelizing under the broiler scared me a little. I decided on a recipe I had actually made before. There are very few recipes I have not made from weeks past. And this one has been one of my favs. The actual recipe is Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte. I love it so because it does not need a water bath and comes out as perfect as any cheesecake I have ever made.

My inspiration for this twist on Dorie’s version comes from my very favorite ice cream flavor. Chubby Hubby by the geniuses at Ben and Jerry’s. The idea came to me sometime this summer. I had been wanting to make a Chubby Hubby cupcake, but couldnt figure out how to get the pretzel portion into a cupcake. While reading Southern Living, I came upon a recipe for a pretzel crust. BINGO! A pretzel crust, topped with a peanut butter layer, then a semi sweet chocolate ganache and topped with cheesecake.

Chubby Hubby Cheesecake

The recipe for the torte can be found here.

The recipe for the pretzel crust click here.

For the peanut butter layer, I used my kitchen aide to blend 1/3 peanut butter, 2 TB cream cheese and 1/3 cup powdered sugar together until smooth.

For the semi sweet chocolate ganache, I used 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 2 TB heavy cream. I heated the chips in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds. I also heated the cream and then stirred it into the chips until smooth.

After the crust has cooled, spread the peanut butter layer on first, then pour the ganache on top of that and the cream cheese mixturre on top of the chocolate layer.

I know I am giving these directions kind of haphazardly, so if you want to make this and have questions, just ask!