. Anatomy of a Cupcake .

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Just wanted to share....

I thought it was cute:)

from laughingsquid.com

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Here's a funny one :DDDDD

from laughingsquid.com

. Hello Kitty at Yogurtland! .

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Kawaiiiiiiii!

Go now to your nearest Yogurtland and eat some yogurt!! Hello Kitty & friends are there and they've made the spoons and cups so darn cute!! The spoons come in 4 different designs - Hello Kitty, Chococat, Keroppi & My Melody. &&& if you go there often enough, you'll able to collect all of them, which I did. Btw, thanks Sanrio for further encouraging my hoarding tendencies. Yes, I am 30 year old woman who is obsessed with Hello Kitty and all her friends and I am not ashamed to say it! ^_^

Cookies&cream, dutch cocoa & new york cheesecake

topped with strawberries, pbcups & rainbow sprinkles:)

. Homemade Whipped Cream .

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Fluffy......

I love strawberries. Unfortunately, my daughter doesn't:( She used to eat them when she was an infant/toddler, including bananas, mango, melon, apples even lemons! Then after she turned 2, she stopped liking fruit all together. I couldn't figure out why. Now that she's almost 5, she started getting back into the habit of eating fruits and veggies again, most especially broccoli and bananas. A couple weeks ago, she asked if  I could buy her some strawberries to eat. Of course, baby. I'd gladly buy you strawberries!

I remembered we still had some heavy whipping cream left over in the fridge, so I thought we could also make some yummy whipped cream to go with our delicious fruit.
She loved making this because you could see the cream get fluffy and thick as you whip it up in your mixer. I like it because you could control the sweetness level. It was also good way to help her eat more fruit without too much sugar being added.

Homemade Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons-1/4 cup powdered sugar (depending how sweet you like it)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

Chill your large bowl and whisk attachment in freezer for at least 1/2 an hour.

In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form.

Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form.

Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.    

Floating on a cloud of whipped cream~ This strawberry is very happy ^_^

           

. Oreo Cupcakes .

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Cookies and cupcakes are heavenly...

...But when combined, its absolutely mind blowing! I found this recipe from Annie's Eats and thought that putting an oreo at the bottom of a cupcake was brilliant!! Its so fun!

I adjusted some of the measurements for frosting because I thought that 4 cups of powdered sugar would be way to sweet. I tested it at 3 cups and it tasted sweet enough already. Unfortunately because of that adjustment, the frosting didn't turn out as fluffy. It still turned out yummy though, but I think maybe next time I'll try a whipped cream frosting. Enjoy!

Oreo Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

• 24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 24 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I just used the halves from the cookies mentioned earlier )

For the frosting:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 tbsp. heavy cream

For garnish:

• Oreo cookie crumbs
• 24 Oreo cookies (quartered)

Preparation:

To make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.
Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.
Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Blend in the vanilla extract.
With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.
Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.
Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.
Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting:

Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
Blend in the vanilla extract.
Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.
Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.
Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

(recipe adapted from here)

The cookies in the bottom kinda remind me of a pie crust.

So that means this recipe is like cookies, cake, cupcake AND pie, all rolled into one!

The bottom of the cupcake after it's been cooled. Can you see it?

Layers....frosting, cupcake, oreo creme, and then an oreo cookie!

Too many oreos? Never!

. Oopsies .

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Hi there!

Sorry I haven't been posting up stuff:( I came down with a bad case of the lazies. Ugh.
Just wanted to let you know that I'm backtracking and posting up stuff that should have been up a while ago. Please bear with me. I'm still baking stuff, just haven't gotten around to uploading the pictures and writing. Again, LAZY!! blah. But, I'm ok now. I've eaten some chocolate and I should be good to go! Haha!
Enjoy!

. Red, White and Blue Fruit Pizza .

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Happy 4th of July, everyone!!!

Time to celebrate with some fun in the sun, barbeque, fireworks and DESSERT! For this holiday, I wanted to try out a fruit pizza, except I used a few fruits, most especially red, white and blue ones. Well technically, whipped cream, cream cheese & white chocolate aren't fruits, but for today, let just say they are. Hehe.

Red, White and Blue Fruit Pizza

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 9-inch pie pan
• Your favorite sugar cookie recipe (I was pressed for time so I went the semi-homemade route and used store-bought dough;)
• 1/2 cup melted white chocolate

For the filling:

• 1 8-oz. package cream cheese (light cream cheese is fine)
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

For the topping:

• 1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled, sliced, and patted dry
• 1 pint blueberries, washed and patted dry
• 1/4 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

 For the crust:

Grease the bottom and sides of your pie pan.
Flatten sugar cookie dough in pie pan, forming a pie crust.
Bake according to the package direction, or until golden brown.
When crust is cooled, spread the melted white chocolate over it. Be sure all of the crust is covered.
Place crust in fridge for a couple of minutes until the chocolate has hardened.

For the filling:

Use an electric mixer fluff your cream cheese.
Whip the cream and powdered sugar until medium peaks form.
Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese and combine well.
Spread the cream cheese mixture over the cooled crust.

Assembling the topping:

Arrange the berries as desired over the creamy topping. Place the chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl and heat in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time, stirring after each time until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
Pour chocolate in a heavy duty zip top bag.
Cut a small corner off the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the berries.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

(adapted from: ourbestbites.com)

The white chocolate acts as a barrier between the crust and filling, preventing the crust from

becoming too soggy. Plus it adds more yumminess!

Red, white and blue...and a little bit of semi-sweet chocolate too:)

I really liked this recipe and its versatile for any occasion. All you have to do is change the fruit! the filling is really yummy. If you like, you could just skip the cookie crust and just use the filling and fruit to create a parfait.

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I also made some festive cookies as well. I just used that same sugar cookie dough.

I also melted more white chocolate, dipped the cooled cookies half-way, then sprinkled some red and blue colored-sugar on them.
Yummy and cute!

God Bless America!