Cheesecake cup cakes

Photo by Kat Johnston

I had a huge craving for cupcakes the other day but was out of milk. So instead of scrapping the idea I made my own recipe.

And the frosting YUM!! Have you ever noticed that if you pipe on frosting on a cupcake it looks so much more yummy!

On to the recipe!

Cheesecake Batter:
1 Cup of Sugar
1/2 Cup of room temp butter
2 Eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 package of room temp cream cheese
1/2 cup water

Heat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium bowl cream sugar and butter. Once smooth beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Stir in the cream cheese.

In a separate bowl combine flour and baking powder. Add to the cream mixture a little at a time and mix well. At this point it will get really thick. Add your water to loosen up the batter. Go slowly you don't want it to become soup!

Bake for 20-25 minutes. makes about 18 cupcakes.

Note: This is a heavy batter, it will not be a light and fluffy type cake.

Frosting:

1/4 cup of room temp butter
5 Tbsp of coffee creamer (I went with a holiday flavor of sugar cookies. You can be creative or use your favorite coffee creamer)
2 cups of confectioners (powder) sugar

cream the butter and coffee creamer together, slowly add in the confectioners sugar. This is a thick creamy frosting. You can add a little water to thin it out.


I love this new to me frosting recipe!!! I am so excited to try it with all types of new coffee creamer flavors, can you say yum!!!!

(I'm a little over the moon with a sugar high if you couldn't tell from all of the exclamation points throughout this post *smile*)

I try but I sometimes fail

For my birthday Ken got me Jamie's book and for the first time in my life I read a cookbook from beginning to end. It got me so excited about cooking. I know how to make a few dishes but I had been slacking on the home cooked meals lately. Enter in a big change and a promise to myself and my kids. Home cooked meals as much as possible. Each week I pick 3-4 recipes get my shopping list and pump myself up for a week of cooking. Two weeks in and it has been going really well. Really well until last night, I lost the mojo and the kids had mac and cheese. And it wasnt from scratch it was the bright orange powdered stuff and after I made that for the kids I made myself toast with peanut butter and honey. I was disappointed but also so tired and wiped that I couldnt even look at the kitchen.

Tonight I am happy to report I made mac and cheese again but instead of the processed stuff it was made from scratch with cauliflower in it that the kids ate right up. I cant say enough good things about Jamie Oliver and his style of cookbooks. Buy it I have tried a different recipe each night and I havent had one bad thing yet and I have learned SO much about cooking! Yay progress!!!

My Grandma was sweet enough to send me home a few weekends ago with a large bag of rhubarb and her recipe for Rhubarb Kuchen. She told me how to prepare it and sent me on my way. I brought the Kuchen to work and only a small sliver remained (an office of 8 people) at the end of the day. A success I would say. I am new to cooking with Rhubarb so if you have any recipes you would like to share I would be more than happy to give them a try!

Rhubarb Kuchen

9” x 13” pan, 350 degree oven

Crust – don’t bake. 2 c. flour, ¾ c. butter,

½ tsp. Baking Powder, pinch salt, 1 egg,

3 tblsp. milk. Mix & spread in pan.

Sprinkle on crust 4 c. raw diced rhubarb.

Sprinkle 1 small pkg strawberry jello over it.

Beat 3 eggs, 1 ½ c. sugar, 2 tblsp. flour,

¾ c. milk, & ½ tsp. cinnamon. Pour

mixture over rhubarb. Bake 45 minutes.

Mix ½ c. sugar, ½ c. flour & 2 tblsp. butter.

Sprinkle over the top and continue baking

45 minutes more. (total baking is 1 ½ hrs.)

Refrigerate leftovers. (If there are any)

Its all about the comfort

Comfort food that is. As of yesterday this area of Wisconsin (Madison area) hit an all time record of snow for the winter season we are currently at 79 inches and have still another month (at least) to go. We are sick of being holed up in the house I know many families are feeling cabin fever, we fight it by comfort food. I have made so much chocolate chip pumpkin bread this season its ridiculous. But you know what? It keeps me and Leila sane (Ken doesnt like pumpkin) and that is all that matters.

Here are my three favorite recipes as of late:

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread
Tip: I use a cup of soy that I puree instead of the eggs (makes it even more moist, found the subsitution via a vegan cooking site, seriously how did people cook before the internet?!?!?!) and go half and half with the white and wheat flour.

Creamy Rice Pudding
Tip: I cut out the 1/2 cup of the milk at the end and use water instead. I also dont use the raisins more because I dont have them in the house rather than I dont want to.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Tip: this one is very step organized its not a fast easy whip up but it is OH SO GOOD if you have the time to make it!

I've missed snow

Within the last three days we have gotten about 5 inches of snow. I have really missed snow but I didnt realize it until it was back. I love it before the plows get a hold of it and the snow turns to this brown goop.

The view out of our bedroom, it really doesnt get better then that.

Well it gets a little bit better, in my efforts to prove my wonderful husband wrong I have started cooking again. I have raved about how I make a good meatloaf, well I didnt have the recipe I usually use so I found a different recipe that turned out pretty dang good.




1 beaten egg
1 slice of whole wheat bread (or white bread if you prefer) tear into pieces
1/4 cup milk
1/2 of a medium onion finely chopped (we prefer bigger chunks so we just chopped the onion)
2oz can of mushrooms drained
1/2 tsp of dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pound of ground beef
catchup to top

1. Combine all ingredients but the catchup in a large bowl ( I usually do this by hand you could use a spoon I suppose if touching raw meat isn't your thing)

2. pat mixture in a a loaf pan

3. Bake at 350 degrees. Bake the loaf for 45-50 minutes. When finished baking smoother catchup on the meatloaf place back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

This meatloaf makes a great leftover and is wonderful for meatloaf sandwiches.