Red Velvet and Orange Cheesecake Marbled Cupcakes with Chocolate-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

My baby boy, James, turned two this week.  I can't believe how grown up he is!  To celebrate with him, I decided to make cupcakes so we wouldn't be stuck with all the leftovers that a cake brings.  We were just having a few cousins over and this recipe was perfect because we just ended up with one (that I would never have eaten for breakfast the next morning).  I'm sure James didn't appreciate the deliciousness of the cupcakes, but if I'm going to make something, I want to be able to enjoy it!  This recipe is probably one of the best cupcakes I have ever tasted.  They didn't look great (mostly because of my mistake) but they tasted AMAZING!  I got the cupcake recipe from Restless Chipotle and the frosting recipe here. 

Click here for printable recipe.

Posted by Katie.

Ingredients:

Red Velvet Cake- 

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3 Tbsp. Cocoa

4 Tbsp. red food coloring

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup whole milk buttermilk (or substitute)

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. white vinegar

Orange Cheesecake-

4 oz. cream cheese (not low fat)

2 Tbsp. freshly grated orange peel

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

For the velvet cake- Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.

Use a spatula to scrape any butter mixture off the sides of the bowl and mix again until well blended.

In a separate bowl, mix the food coloring and cocoa until a paste forms.  I didn't have quite enough food coloring so I added in a little water to make the paste.

Add the cocoa mixture to the butter mixture until it is evenly blended.  Scrape sides and check for streaks then blend again.

Add 1/4 cup buttermilk, mix.  Add half the flour, mix.  Add the remaining buttermilk, mix, Add the remaining flour, mix.  Now stir in the baking soda and vinegar until blended.

For the cheesecake- Beat together all ingredients until creamy and well-blended.

Do not whip.

Assemble- Place liners in muffin cups.  Fill about 2/3 with red velvet batter.  Add about a tablespoon of cheesecake batter to the top.  DO NOT OVERFILL like I did :)  If you don't overfill, this would probably make about 15 cupcakes.

Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Below is a picture of what happens if you overfill the cups...

Let cool completely and then make frosting.

Chocolate-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

8 oz pkg. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 (16 oz) pkg. powdered sugar

1/4 cup buttermilk (or substitute)

Directions:

Beat first 4 ingredients until creamy.  In a separate bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa.  Gradually add  to butter/cream cheese mixture with buttermilk, alternately, beginning and ending with powdered sugar mixture.

Beat at low speed until blended after each addition.  Beat until desired consistency.  For good piping consistency, refrigerate until reached.

Pipe or spread frosting over cupcakes.

Enjoy!

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How to do a Buttercream Transfer

It's your child's birthday soon and they're asking you to make the impossible.  But, I'm here to tell you that it may NOT be impossible.  My children are always asking for the random cake design and they know that Mommy will try her hardest to deliver what they ask for.  I have learned how to create Buttercream Transfers in order to make that perfect picture that I know I can't draw freehand.  So this year when my son asked for an Angry Birds birthday cake, I thought I'd take advantage of also teaching you all how to do a buttercream transfer.  It is a way to decorate a cake and make it look like anything you want.  It's so much easier than freehand piping.  All you need is a picture of what you want on your cake and a few other decorating items and you get a near professional looking cake.  Just make sure your picture isn't too involved or has too many lines.  This angry bird was a perfect design.  I learned how to do this years ago at a cake decorating class at a church activity.  Here is another tutorial on how to do it .  (This is the one I learned from).  So this is for you all who want to create a wonderful birthday cake that will make your child smile.

Click here for printable recipe/directions. 

Post by: Jen

 Ingredients:

White buttercream* (recipe follows)
Food coloring
Flat portable surface (like cutting board)
Wax paper
tape
INVERTED picture print out of your design 
Piping bags (I would recommend these because buttercream is thick and your Ziplock baggies will burst)
Piping tips (plain holes, but not too small)
Coupler (to hold your piping tips in place)


*Buttercream decorating frosting recipe:
1 c butter, softened
1 c shortening (regular white shortening) 
1 tsp butter flavoring (Wilton makes a good one)
1 tsp vanilla (use clear vanilla to keep the frosting more white)
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 lbs powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter, shortening, and salt until smooth.  Add flavorings and mix together well.  Add about 1 lb of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.  Add 1/2 c powdered sugar at a time and keep mixing until desired consistency.  Add a little water* (tsp at a time) to make it smoother or thinner if desired.  You do want this one a little thin to make it easier to color in your lines.  *Yes, you could use milk instead but then you'd have to refrigerate any leftover frosting.


**Important note:  DO NOT use the store bought frosting in a container to do this and think that it will save you time.  It will NOT freeze and therefore you will not be able to peel off the wax paper.  I know this because I tried it one year and was seriously disappointed and had to end up piping the picture freehand at the last minute.  Just thought I'd let you know.

Directions: 
Print out your picture in reverse.  I guess for this Angry Bird it didn't really matter which way he was facing, but if you have words then you want it reversed.  This is because we are going to flip the end result onto the cake and whatever you see now, will end up on the bottom.  Tape your picture to the cutting board.  Now tape wax paper over the top of the picture.  Make sure the wax paper is smooth.

The first thing you want to do is trace ALL your outlines, most likely in black, although it would really depend on the picture you're doing.

After doing your outline, think about your layers.  If there are small areas to color in, do those first.  Or if there are parts of your picture that you need to "pop" out more than others, do those first as well.  Here I did the cheeks first because it was a small area.

Next I filled in the eyes, completely covering the eyeballs.  Make sure that you fill in all the gaps and smooth out your frosting inbetween layers.  Otherwise you'll have a bumpy looking picture.

After doing the small areas, fill in your larger areas.  Again make sure to smooth it out as much as possible and fill in all the little gaps (especially next to the neighboring lines) 

I also traced around the picture in the same color that the cake is going to be frosted.  That way we will be able to blend in the transfer a little better onto the cake. (you'll see what I mean in a minute)  Now cover your picture with the same color frosting as your cake and smooth it all out so it is flat.

Cover your picture with another piece of wax paper and place in the freezer for a couple hours.  Although I have easily left it in there for a few days.  (In fact I still have one in there from a few months ago and I'm sure it will still be fine.  IF you do leave it in the freezer for a while, just make sure that it is protected, as your transfer is fragile. *See last picture on this post for an example of what I'm talking about)

After your cake is frosted and the top of your cake is smooth, then remove the transfer from the freezer.  Remove it from the cutting board and if you look at the bottom you should see a perfectly colored picture of your design.  Take the bottom (white layer in the above picture) and place it flat on the top of your cake.  Carefully remove the wax layer from your top.

You may see some bubbles or bumps where it didn't get smoothed before freezing.  No problem.  Just take a flat metal knife and heat it under some hot water.  Dry off your warm knife and carefully use the warm tip to smooth out your bumpy parts.  Using a warm flat knife helps melt the shortening thus creating a smooth surface.  

Now you may notice how thick your transfer is and that it's not blended in very well onto your cake.  Just take a warm knife again, and begin to smooth the edges into the surface of your cake.  You may need to add more frosting to make it all blend in well.

 Yes, this does create a bit of a thick top on your cake, but let's face it...kids love frosting.

Finish with the decorating or any other piping of borders you want to do.   Watch you child smile as he sees that you created exactly what he wanted for his birthday!

Here are some other examples of transfers I have done: 

The General Grievous cake was a bit of a pain because there were so many little lines to trace.  

This was for an anniversary celebration of a women's group at a church activity. This is an example of where you definitely want to print the picture in reverse so that your end result has words going the right direction.  (Yes, it is in french, because I live in France.  But it says "Charity never faileth"

This is an example of what the transfer looks like when you take it out of the freezer.  I couldn't decide which General Grievous picture to do so I did two of them.  This has been in my freezer for months.  

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Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting

Ever been out of powdered sugar and needed to make some frosting?  This recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook is just what you need for such a baking emergency.  Not only did the frosting have a smooth, creamy texture with the brown sugary flavor, but it also piped out beautifully and held its shape as well as any frosting we'd ever made. We served it on our Snickerdoodle cake, made as cupcakes. 

 Click here for printable recipe.

 
The ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 package (8-ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar


Directions: 
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar until smooth.  Use immediately, or refrigerate up to 3 days in an airtight container.  Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth.  Makes 2-1/2 cups. 

Enjoy!


From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook.  

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