Baileys and Chocolate Cheesecake

I made my first ever cheesecake!  I can't say this was the cheapest thing to make. I didn't have any Baileys so that cost $30.00. And everything else like the butter, cream cheese, thickened cream, biscuits and chocolate came to $40.00. So $70.00 just for one cheesecake...And a lot of Baileys drinks later! I may look into some other baileys baking recipes later. Not sure how much of the bottle is left though...

This recipe was not perfect. I would suggest putting more butter with the biscuits, try 20grams at a time, as with just 100grams the biscuit was still really loose. As I don't really know what it is like making cheesecake, I had a suspicion this wasn't right, but I decided to stick to the recipe.  If I had put more butter I think the biscuits will have flattened into the bottom of the tin better, as currently it is half biscuit half cheesecake! Also, digestive biscuits are yuck! I might use wine biscuits next time, or I suppose you could try malt biscuits (which I also think are yuck :P ) It also needs more Baileys. There was a really weak taste. So I would suggest adding more to your taste, and you'll want to put a bit more icing sugar or cream cheese just to keep it thick. I didn't bother putting anything on top of the cheesecake, I was really wanting to eat it asap... I found the recipe here.

Baileys and Chocolate Cheesecake

• 100g butter
• 250g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 600g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 25ml Baileys
• 100g icing sugar
• 300ml double cream, whipped
• 100g chocolate, grated
• 200ml double cream, whipped (to garnish)
• Cocoa powder (to garnish)

1. Melt the butter in the pan, then add the crushed digestive biscuits. Mix well until the biscuits have absorbed all the butter.
2. Remove from the heat and press into the bottom of a lined 18cm springform tin. Place in the fridge and allow to set for one hour.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Lightly whip the cream cheese then beat in the Baileys and icing sugar. Fold in the whipped cream and grated chocolate. When smooth, spoon evenly onto biscuits.
4. Refrigerate and allow to set for a further two hours. Once set, remove and decorate with whipped cream and cocoa powder dusted over the top. Serve.

Baby shower cupcakes

Last Friday at work they threw a baby shower for my colleague, who as you might have guessed, is having a baby girl! Of course that meant the cupcakes had to be pink! I totally forgot I was going to make cupcakes until the night before! So without a lot of time after work, I decided to just simply do a pink strawberry icing with a chocolate cupcake. If I had more time I would have been a bit more creative!
I got smaller pink cupcake cases, which totally lost their colour while baking. Oh well, it made the icing more of a focus! I used this chocolate cupcake recipe in my last post, and this time it still made 24 cupcakes, but they were a smaller size than normal cupcakes. Both the cupcake recipe, and the buttercream recipe come from the book Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane. I halved the icing, which didn't quite cover all 24 cupcakes, and I added natural strawberry essence for the flavour.
 
Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 430g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250ml hot water
• 100g cocoa
• 250ml cold water
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 560g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Makes 36

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line three 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the hot water and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar and two of the eggs. Beat until light. Add the last two eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, then stir in the vanilla essence. Add half of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process but do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.
4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake papers. They should be about half-full as this mixture rises substantially. Bake for 25 minutes or until springy when pressed in the centre.
5. Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 125ml milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 2kg icing sugar, sifted

1. Cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the milk, vanilla, and half of the icing sugar. Beat for atleast 3 minutes, or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the remaining icing sugar, and beat for another three minutes, or until the mixture is of a spreadable consistency.
2. Add in your food colouring until it is the colour you want, and the essence until you get the flavour you want.

Oreo Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for the first time about a year ago, before I had started my blog, so I didn't have any pictures of them. But these are super yummy, and after requests, I decided to make them again! The chocolate cupcake recipe I used is from the book Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane, who is the co-owner of the Tempt cupcake store in town! The recipe is for 36 cupcakes, but I halved it. Due to the Oreo in the bottom of the case, this made 24 cupcakes. So far this is the best chocolate cupcake recipe I have used! The icing recipe is from this website. That website does tell you how to make the cupcakes overall, but calls for a premade cake mix...I absolutely hate premade cake mixes! Making them from scratch gives a much better flavour. I will put the full recipe down that makes 36, but it is super simple to half to make 24 of these Oreo ones! The recipe says the cupcakes will rise quite a bit, but I didn't find that they did. Also, step 4 is not part of the original recipe, just for these Oreo ones. The Oreo cupcake recipe says to add crushed Oreos to the cupcakes, but I don't do this. I used only large Oreos as I couldn't be bothered buying the mini ones :P

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 430g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250ml hot water
• 100g cocoa
• 250ml cold water
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 560g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Makes 36

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line three 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the hot water and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar and two of the eggs. Beat until light. Add the last two eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, then stir in the vanilla essence. Add half of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process but do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.
4. Place one Oreo in the bottom of every cupcake paper.
5. Divide the mixture between the cupcake papers. They should be about half-full as this mixture rises substantially. Bake for 25 minutes or until springy when pressed in the centre.
6. Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Oreo Icing/Cookies and Cream icing

• 2 boxes Oreos
• 225g cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3 3/4 cups icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Mini Oreos

1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla, then slowly beat in the icing sugar.
2. Crush up the Oreos until fine, then beat these into the mixture. Add more of less Oreos to your taste.
3. When cupcakes are cool, frost them, and decorate with a mini Oreo.