Mississippi Mud Pie [Club Baked]

Yes, I was going to start baking again, and I have! One of my many New Years Resolutions is to bake (and cook) - at least once a week. This way I'll be improving my skills and providing wonderful treats to my friends in the Bay Area. I'll probably send a couple of cookies on the way to my friends in different countries and states which means I need your addresses and requests!

Anyways, back to this recipe. In the book it describes the Mississippi Mud Pie as a controversy so I decided to wiki it. Apparently on wikipedia, they only have the second version of the pie, with the dense cake and not this version.

This version has a nice cookie base, chocolate in the middle, ice cream, and some fudge on top! It's a nice delicious (and fattening) treat after a great dinner with my boyfriend. I used some Bailey's instead of whiskey, oreos instead of wafers for the base, and well, karamel sutra ice cream instead of coffee. I know it's not the same, but it was delicious regardless. I really enjoyed making this. I used about 1/6 of the recipe and ended up with three little pies in cupcake liners. I made these before I left for a business trip. I was gone for a week to Sacramento so it was great to eat dinner, drink wine, and talk to him. It's those little things in a relationship that really count.

PS. Thanks to Club Baked and Jess for this awesome pick!

Phish Food Cupcakes

This is my last ice cream cupcake that I have made. So this is marking the end of the annual Ice Cream Cupcake competition by Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious. This is inspired by the wonderful Ben and Jerry's flavor Phish Food. It's one of my boyfriend's favorite ice cream flavors and I love the combination of chocolate, marshmallow, and caramel.

I started out with a chocolate cupcake. I used the Martha Stewart 1 Bowl Chocolate Cupcake Recipe. It's super simple and easy to clean afterward baking.

I topped the cupcakes with some marshmallow fluff to imitate the marshmallow in the ice cream.

I then added some caramel flavored ice cream on top. I would have made my own, but alas, I have no ice cream maker. In addition, I found this place near my house that sells a scoop of ice cream for a dollar and they're also homemade.

I topped the ice cream with some homemade marshmallow fluff frosting. I took some of the extra marshmallow fluff and made Marshmallow Fluff Frosting. It's super delicious!

To recreate the fish that are IN the ice cream. I piped some melted chocolate onto some parchment paper in the shape of fish. When they set, they made the perfect topping to the cupcake.

I had a super fun time making, creating, and eating all these ice cream cupcakes.

ps. feel free to look at my other creations that I didn't end up entering.

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.

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. =]

Vanilla Oreo Cupcakes with Oreo Ice Cream

To celebrate my 100th post (this one's number 100!), I decided to make something REALLY special. Vanilla and oreos and ice cream - some of my FAVORITE things.

So I took Magnolia's vanilla cupcake recipe, cut it in half, added 12 oreos crushed. I ended up with 24 cupcakes still. Afterwards, I added cookies and cream ice cream on top and brought them for my friends to try. They liked them enough. I think that it wasnt the best, but it was still pretty good.

I was going to do a giveaway, but it's one of those things where the 100th post just crept up on me so quickly (and being super busy with school and extracurricular activities) and I havent had the time to think about what I wanted to give away. Oh well, 200th post I'll be sure to do something special!

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!

Raspberry Chocolate Ice Cream Cupcakes

These were made for the Dmitriy, my "husband." I think the only reason why we're "married" is because we do act like a married couple sometimes. This only happens because we fight and we just know each other pretty well, but of course, I have my own boyfriend, Brent. It's cool haha. ♥

Picture of Dmitriy and I from like March 2009

So yeah, his favorite berry is blueberries, but he likes raspberries too so I decided to make this fancy shmancy cupcake for him. I was inspired from this ice cream cupcake entry that had caught my eye. It was very interesting and I thought I could make something like this, but my version. [Number 10 out of 10! which means I had finished my goal!]

These cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes filled with a raspberry preserve, topped with ice cream shaped in a heart. On top of that, is a bit of chocolate frosting and a raspberry.

Recipe for the chocolate cupcake
(taken from here)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, softened [I melted mine]
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract [I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract instead]
1 cup milk [I used half cup buttermilk, half cup soymilk]

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.
Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. [I filled mine half full and got 24 of them]
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

To make the ice cream topper:
Put melted vanilla ice cream into a pan.
Then, sprinkled some hazelnuts and chocolate hazelnut truffles in small pieces in the melted ice cream.
Drizzled caramel and hot fudge all over in crazy cool designs.
Then place back into the freezer for it all to set.
Later, use a cookie cutter to cut out the shapes desired. I had used a heart.
To easily cut the ice cream, put the cookie cutter in some warm water and then use to cut.

To put the whole thing together,
Cut a cone from the cupcake and place the preserves/jam inside and replace the top.
Refridgerate the cupcakes and make sure to cut out the shapes from the ice cream.
When serving, place the ice cream on top of the cupcake, frost and serve with some fruit.
Enjoy!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Brown Sugar Ice Cream

This recipe was chosen by Karen of Karen's Cookies, Cakes and More. She had also added the Butterscotch Sauce to the ice cream.

So I had originally decided to sit this one out since I have no access to an ice cream machine...well other than my friend who has one of those ice cream ball ones, but I wouldn't be able to see her after Sunday and posting late would be no fun.

Instead, I wandered over to the SMS site and someone had linked David Lebovitz's method of making ice cream without a machine. Sitting here as I'm planning and buying stuff to move back up to Berkeley for summer school, I decided why not try something for the last week here in SoCal?

Last minute, I decided to sub the skim milk with some low fat milk I found at the supermarket and added more vanilla extract instead of the bean. In addition, I left out the dried skim milk since I am moving and my parents really have no use for it. My mom and brother are able to eat ice cream though; we almost finished a pint of passionfruit ice cream a couple days ago.

I paired these with some of the left over cookies from last week and they were super yummy!

Recipe here!
<3 Nina

Chocolate Cupcakes with Passionfruit/Chocolate Ice Cream

Wow, so pretty!
On the same day as buying chocolate ice cream for the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup, I had bought some really yummy passionfruit ice cream. It wasnt that cheap, but oh my, it was really good. I thought - lets create something with that! Well, first off, I was looking up what went with passionfruit, and I didnt find anything really, but instead, I decided to look up what goes well with passionfruit. Chocolate!

So finding the chocolate cupcake recipe was also hard. It needed to be dense and rich to offset the light and fruity passionfruit. This recipe was amazing. Although I had made WAY too many cupcakes, and it was from a box mix, it was still really good.

This time, I learned, make the cupcake first, wait for them ALL to cool down and then put the ice cream on it. The ice cream had not melted on me as much. I had them in the freezer over night, and I had put the whipped cream on it. Chocolate whipped cream. It was really easy to make and it was really light and fluffy. I did not want to put the espresso one on the passionfruit ones because that might be competing flavors so I went with more chocolate. There's nothing wrong with going with more chocolate =).

Pictures by Dmitriy again, thank you for taking pictures of them when you were supposed to be studying for your final! <3

<3 Nina

Chocolate Pepperment Ice Cream Cupcakes

So it's a peppermint cupcake with chocolate ice cream and some espresso whipped cream.
YUM!

I know, personally I think that the flavor combo was weird at first, but my boyfriend told me that it would be the perfect flavor combination.

Well, it all started at the beginning of the month, when I found the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup. I live for competition. It makes my life complete. Well, one Sunday, I went out with some friends (Alex and Macky) and I decided to get some ice cream for this competition. I bought the EXTREME! Moose tracks. It was pretty yummy and I decided to make a cupcake to go with it. A chocolate cupcake would have been TOO much while I didnt want to be too plain and go with a vanilla cupcake. Instead, I decided to ask around. I finally decided on the Sprinkle's Peppermint Cupcake. I had used the recipe as printed, but I added some extra peppermint and vanilla extract. I also subbed the regular milk with soy milk. It was light and really good.

Being OCD like I am. I tested it out with no cupcake liner = didnt work so well.
Then tested it with the cupcake liners. two at a time. That's how I baked the rest of them. I mean it was time consuming, but it was fun baking and watching Food Network at the same time.

I have finally finished the cupcakes and the ice cream part and end result of those parts had two different results. Part of them were really ice creamy like right out of the freezer, the rest of them were a soupy mess =(. But freezing them overnight in a friend's freezer since I have no room made all the difference. I decided to top these off with an espresso whipped cream from here. But I kind of ran out, and then I made some chocolate whipped cream (not pictured). Regardless, they were still pretty good.
These are my pictures...
YUM!
Thanks for Dmitriy for the pictures again even though it was during finals! <3
These came out really beautifully!


This is my entry into the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup!

<3 Nina