Friday, July 23, 2010

Cheesecake Cupcakes Revisited

Cheesecake cupcakes are most definitely on my top 10 list of favorite desserts.  So because I love them so much, I decided to try a couple different recipes using the same general idea.

Vanilla cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Icing
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1 box yellow cake mix (plus ingredients listed on the box)
1 pkg cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
10 oz. high quality dark chocolate

Mix up the the cake mix as directed on the box.  In a separate bowl, cream together the cream cheese sugar and egg.  Fill cupcake tins 1/3 full of yellow cake batter.  Place one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture in each cupcake.  Top with one tablespoon of cake batter.  Bake at 350 for 16 to 18 minutes.  You want to the cupcakes to be ever so slightly under done.  Allow to cool completely before icing.

To make the chocolate ganache icing, place the heavy cream in a small pot and heat over medium heat to point where it just begins to simmer.  Break chocolate into chucks and place in a bowl.  Pour hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a few minutes.  Using a whisk, stir until the chocolate is complete melted and combined with the cream.  Place in the refrigerator until it is completely cool.  Once it is cooled, use a mixer to beat the chocolate cream until it begins to thicken.  Don’t beat it too much or it will become hard like butter.  You just want it to be thick.  Refrigerate for a little longer and then use it to decorate the cooled cupcakes.  This icing is amazing and can be used on all kinds of things!

After trying these, I seriously can’t decided if I like the chocolate cake ones or these better.  So very very yummy!
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Another variation is a lemon filled cupcake.  This one actually doesn’t have cheese cake in the middle.  Instead it is filled with lemon pie filling.

1 box white cake mix (plus ingredients listed on the box)
1 pkg. cooked Jello lemon pie filling (plus ingredients listed on the box)
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 pkg. cream cheese (softened)
1 tub Cool Whip
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest

Mix the white cake mix as directed on the box.  Add in 2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp lemon zest.  Make the Jello lemon pie filling as directed on the box.  Fill cupcake tins 1/3 full of white cake batter.  Place one heaping tbsp of lemon pie filling in each cupcake tin.  Top with one tbsp of white cake batter. Bake at 350 for 16 to 18 minutes.  You want to the cupcakes to be ever so slightly under done.  Allow to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, cream together cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Mix in 2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp lemon zest.  Slowly fold in 1 tub of cool whip.  Decorate cupcakes as desired.
These were fantastic too.  To me, not quite as good as the cheesecake filled kind (but that may be because I love chocolate), but still very very good and a nice little change of pace. 

I think the next variation I’m going to try is pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes.  I can already taste them!!!!

3 comments:

Pam said...

I just heard recently about the chocolate cheesecake cupcakes from Ilene, so I had to go find your original post with that recipe. It sounds really yummy!

minnieokra said...

your cupcakes look so good. Mama Doris and I decided to have shrimp to celebrate his birthday. I used to cook shrimp because we all three loved it and he would carry her some. This time i carried her some. Beautiful work on your history;.

Brittney said...

that sounds sooooo yummy!!!! the chocolate cheesecake cupcakes were so yummy :) i ate just about every one haha love always, britt