Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Cupcakes

In addition to the previous post about ice cream cupcakes, I've decided to make another ice cream cupcake for the Ice Cream Cupcake contest. I was shopping in the store and I was inspired by the angel food cake mix that I bought. All I needed was to add some water to the. mix.

Easy enough. Baked the cupcakes.

Then add some strawberry sherbet.

Place the top back on.

Then put some strawberries on top...and some whipped cream.

Simple and easy as that. It was quite delicious.

Now I can't stop eating strawberries mixed with a bit of sugar. This isn't good.

Pina Colada Cupcakes

So, in honor of my friend's 22nd birthday, I made these Pina Colada cupcakes. I was planning on making some margarita cupcakes because he's Mexican, but I couldnt find the necessary items before making it all.

I was searching the web for an easy way to make them. Some required 5 eggs, while others were in the metric system which made it a lot harder for me to convert over. Finally I found one that used a box mix. Typically, I don't like using box mixes, but the kickback was planned the night before and I just didn't have the time for effort to make the cupcakes from scratch. I topped these cupcakes off with a rum whipped cream and some toasted coconut.

I brought them to the party and everyone loved them! My friends said that you could taste the rum a bit in the cupcake and in the whipped cream - not enough to make it taste like alcohol though.

Pina Colada Cupcakes:
[adapted from Betty Crocker and iheartcuppycakes]

Cupcake:
1 box of yellow or white cake mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons rum
1 can [8oz] crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
3 eggs
1/3 cup shredded coconut
Directions:
Preheat oven at 350F. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Add 2 tablespoons of rum to the pineapple and let sit for a couple of minutes.
Mix together cake mix, oil, 1/4 cup rum, and eggs.
Take 2 tablespoons of the pineapple juice rum mixture out for the whipped cream.
Mix in the pineapple and shredded coconut.
Place about 2 tablespoons of batter for each cupcake. [For easier placing, spray the tablespoon with Pam or soak it in vegetable oil.]
Bake for about 15 minutes. Cool in pan.

Whipped Cream:
1.5 cup of heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of pineapple juice rum mixture from above
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Directions:
Whip all three until stiff peaks form, about 5-10 minutes.

Toasted Coconut:
shredded coconut either cooked over stove top or baked in the oven until toasted.

To assemble:
Take the cupcake and using 1M or other star tip, pipe the whipped cream onto the cupcake. Add some toasted coconut on top and ENJOY!

Half Baked Ice Cream Cupcakes

So, the beginning of this month marked the beginning of the annual Ice Cream Cupcake competition by Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious. I wanted to make a couple of different for my friends to try to see which ones are best. Since this is the only week I'm basically going to see my friends who tried my first ones, I have to make all my best combinations this week.

I started this week off with relaxing since I just finished finals, but I have started to get back into baking again.

This is my first ice cream cupcake to try. This was inspired by the Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor Half-Baked.

It starts out with a brownie cupcake [recipe below].

I added chocolate ice cream and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

Then I topped it off with some homemade whipped cream.

It's a great alternative to the real ice cream flavor and my friends and I thought that they were an AMAZING combination.

Brownie Cupcake Recipe

adapted from All Recipes

[makes 5 cupcakes]

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/6 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a cupcake tin. You probably only will need 5 cupcake liners.
In a large saucepan, melt 1/4 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, egg, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

Beat in 1/6 cup cocoa, 1/4 cup flour, salt, and baking powder.

Add approximately 1/8 cup of batter in each of the cupcake liners.

Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Do not overcook.

Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies

These chocolate cake mix cookies were delicious. I made half of the recipe and used white chocolate and some walnuts. I figure out afterwards that my boyfriend doesn't like nuts, but oh well, he'll still eat them!

Ice Cream in December?

Yes, ice cream in December.

As part of my Christmas present to two of my friends, I decided to make an ice cream cake for one, and ice cream cupcakes for the other. It was quite a fun journey just because it's fun to make ice cream cupcakes and cakes under a time limit and in December.

I think about it and on the East Coast they have snowy weather, yet here, in California, I can make ice cream cakes and it's still quite sunny.

So first, the base recipe was this wonderful chocolate cake and idea!

For Kevin, who I made Hummingbird cupcakes for a couple months back, had requested that I make him a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. So I added some mint chips to the cake and made a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake!

For Jon, who is another best friend of mine, I decided to surprise him. He said that he really liked Black Cherry ice cream, so I decided a Black Forest Ice Cream Cupcake would be the best choice. I used the same recipe, but decided to cut it in half so I wont end up with too many cupcakes. So I decided to have a cupcake bottom, Black Cherry ice cream middle, with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and a maraschino cherry on top!

ps. picture up top isn't mine. =]

Ice Cream Cake

My first attempt at an ice cream cake.

This was quite an adventure. Funny story is that I actually did this to myself. My friend calls me up on Tuesday saying that she's so worried that she wouldn't be able to get the ice cream cake she wanted for her boyfriend. She had forgotten that the Carvel that was there had turned into a Yogurtland. She had called me wondering if Ben and Jerry's made ice cream cakes...which it probably does, but I told her that I could do it for her...even though I have two midterms next week.

First, I had to look up how to make ice cream cakes. Some suggested that I use a springform - oops no springform pans. This instead means that I create things MY way. I had first put the ice cream into a 8in cake pan and froze it with chocolate chips in it.

Then I baked the cake and cupcakes and decorated the cupcakes while I had time. I then put the cake and ice cream together. That was the hardest part I think. The ice cream melted quite quickly so I ended up with (almost) a soggy mess. I stuck it back into the freezer for more time. I had decided to frost it at night with the door open. This had cooled down the room significantly and the ice cream did not melt while I was frosting.

Sorry for the poor frosting job. 1:30am. after like 4 hours of studying. SO TIRED. Also a BIG sorry about the picture quality. I couldnt keep the cake out for very long so I didn't get very good pictures of the cake. In addition, I baked these at night so not a good idea to take pictures then. Last of all, I couldnt take the picture of the inside of the cake myself since I was not at the party where they cut it open since I was studying - boring I know.

More pictures will be added once I get the pick as it was being cut!

Triple Threat: The Cookie Cake Pie...sorta

I had all the intentions of making the Cookie Cake Pie for the district board meeting this weekend, but what had happened was that:
1) no good pie pans at home [Brea] and I was being lazy and didn't want to go out and get some more
so instead of a pie looking pie, it's going to be in a 8 by 8 pan and a mock-pie. They're more like cookie cake pie bars.

The cake would just not set, but eventually...it did! But it

Tropical Lemon Cupcakes

Oh this cupcake and cake were delicious. I was out with Alex and Macky that day. Eating at cheeseboard was awesomely amazing too. They have yummy pizza and all of its vegetarian.

Then we baked Virginia Carpenter's Tropical Lemon Cake. Virginia is one of the Berkeley Kiwanians that I had competed against. Her cake had won so I decided to make it for myself. She was so right. This cake was amazing. Nothing like it that I've tasted. Sweet and Sour.

Recipe for the cake/cupcakes:
Ingredients:
1 (18.25 oz) package of lemon cake mix
1 (3 oz) package of lemon flavored gelatin mix
5 eggs
1 cup of veg oil
3/4 cup of fresh orange juice

Directions:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 in pan or line a cupcake pan with liners.
In a large bowl stir together the cake mix and lemon jello.
Combine the eggs, oil, and orange juice in a blender and blend for 5 minutes (or since I didnt have a blender, in a bowl with a hand mixer.)
Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet mixture.
Beat for another 5 minutes. Pour into pan/cupcake liners.
Bake the cake for 40-45 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. I had baked my cupcakes for like 15-20 minutes.

Glaze:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice
2 cups of powdered sugar
Directions:
Combine the fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar.
Beat until smooth.

Put it all together!
When the cake/cupcakes come out of the oven, make sure to make holes with either a fork or tooth picks. Then pour the glaze of the cake/cupcakes.

Very moist and yummy cake!

All of them! So many!

Thanks for Alex and Macky for helping me!
<3 Nina

Birthday Baking

So yeah. Its been a long ass day. Started with some homework and decorating, ending with more homework and tiredness.
So here's pictures (like I promised Jeff)
Here's Birthday presents, in alphabetical order, Cary then Margaret.

Ingredients
Chopped up cherries
Whole Cherries, for decorating purposes...
All filled up =)
ALL DONE =)
All of them
Tried to get Red, but ended up a very pink frosting....
YAY all done =)
Closeup

I hope you liked your birthday present Cary =)

AND now onto Miss Margaret's =)

Ingredients, with Twix, which I forgot about OOPS
Here they are =)
All mixed up!
Filled up with twix on top
My test one came out ugly, so I decided to cover it all with batter...
=)
All Done.
All decorated and frosted.
ALL of them.
LOOK at all those Twix I used...(theres more than that)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGARET AND CARY!


<3