Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

I had a bit of fun with this and realized I can make a whole lot of different ones (chocolate covered cherries and blueberries and raspberries OH MY!).  The cupcakes is a strawberry cheesecake with a whipped cream buttercream topped with a chocolate covered strawberry.  I am not happy nor fond of the whipped cream buttercream.  In Florida it is not a good idea as it melts fast.  It wasn't stiff enough for what I was looking for in presentation.  So will either go back to a regular meringue buttercream or just a fondant disk on top with the strawberry.

This is my first time piping chocolate like this, well at least in this manner.  I think the heart came out nicely!  I definitely want to play with piping chocolate some more.

I let my daughter decorate the bottom two.  LOL she didn't do badly with the small bag.  She calls the one in the lower right the "spaghetti" design.

The cupcake also has a graham cracker / almond crust which I have to say really tastes well together.  If it weren't for the fact I lost power, the crust would have held together better so needless to say there are no photos of the crust but I promise it was yummy.  Oh I also added a little bit of Disaronno to the pink chocolate....mmmm...I think I will be adding it to the milk chocolate next time too.  LOL!

What's on the to do list.....

I have a few things I want to try.  I've been ordered to make a Snickers cupcake so that one is definitely on the list (look for it around April 16th).  Currently it's a deep chocolate cake with a peanut nougat filling topped with a caramel nougat buttercream and sprinkled with peanuts and caramel drizzle.

This week I am planning a strawberry cheesecake cupcake with a graham cracker and almond crust and a chocolate covered strawberry on top.  I haven't had cheesecake in a while and this seemed like a good excuse.

I am not a fudge person but I always wondered what fudge would be like in a cupcake.  So I have two planned.  A penuche (panucci) fudge and chocolate ganache filled chocolate cupcake with a brown sugar buttercream.  Also a white fudge cupcake - an almond vanilla cupcake filled with white fudge topped with white chocolate buttercream and white chocolate curls.

Also need to do the special Easter cupcake (pysanka, pysanky) and the not so cupcake Easter cake pops.  They looked cute so thought I'd try them.

And yes, the bridal cupcakes.  I have to find some quiet time to be able to mold fondant.  Then I can get started on that!

Have a great week!  Look for the cheesecake cupcakes maybe Tuesday.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

Yes I know I deviated from my list of cupcakes for a bit here. Brother-in-law was in town and had to make them for him since his poor Hurricanes took a beating from the Seminoles (Go Noles!)

And I was shocked to hear he had never had pumpkin cheesecake! Blasphemy! This turned out really good and I can't wait to make other cheesecake cupcakes. I love this idea as opposed to a full cheesecake because you don't need to dirty my dishes to eat it. Oh, they also fit in the fridge nicely.



The crust is made from crushing pecans (you can toast them first too) and gingersnap. The center is of course pumpkin cheesecake. Then I made a home made vanilla whipped topping and sprinkled crushed pecans and gingersnap on top and drizzled it with caramel. I bet a chocolate drizzle would work well too....hmmm....think it's time to taste test that! :D