Tag Archives: cream cheese

Wake up with Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

2013-02-18 10.10.46Good morning! Wake up! You have your coffee and probably some super healthy bland breakfast in front of you and you’ll looking at these photos and drooling, right? Ok let’s change that.

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You know I support cake for breakfast every so often, and I think I recently discovered the perfect one. I made a simple light vanilla cake (you could even do a box mix), but the best part was the strong coffee flavored frosting that I quickly whipped up and slathered all over it.

This sponge-like cake pairs so well with the sweet creamy cream cheese frosting and delicious coffee flavor. I’d also love this frosting on chocolate cupcakes or a hazelnut pound cake. So someone should try those and get back to me!

Of course it wasn’t beyond me to to pair it with even more coffee and curl up on my couch on a weekend morning with the two in hand. JCrew Saturday pants + a stack of magazines + this cake + big mug of coffee + a cozy throw + West Wing + hilarious group texts about the night before. Sounds perfect.

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Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

Ok, let’s see if I can remember how I made this frosting. Something like this…

In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter and 8 oz (1 block) cream cheese. In a separate small bowl, dissolve some instant coffee or espresso in a little bit of water. I would say I used about a tablespoon and a half of water and about two teaspoon of instant French roast. It all depends on how strong you want your coffee flavor. Beat in the coffee mix and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Finally, incorporate about 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar to complete your frosting. Spread on a cooled cake and enjoy with more coffee.

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Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon brown butter cream cheese frosting

One of my new favorite things is brown butter. It’s so nutty and sweet and has the most unique warm flavors. I want to put it in and on everything – pasta, rice kirspies treats, and this perfect fall frosting. I made my favorite pumpkin cupcake recipe a couple weekends ago for a party but I wanted to do something different than a plain cream cheese frosting. Remembered my love for brown butter. Adding extra cinnamon. And voilà! I think I just whipped up the best frosting ever.

Seriously. Best. It would also go well with a great vanilla cake or banana cake. So go make this frosting soon…and report back. Do you love the brown butter as much as I do?

pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon brown butter cream cheese frosting

Pumpkin Cupcakes

(Adapted from Ina Garten in House Beautiful)

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 cups canned pumpkin purée (8 ounces), not pie filling
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, pumpkin, sugars, and oil. Slowly add the flour mixture until fully combined.
  4. Divide batter into cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool.

Cinnamon Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 2  8-ounce blocks of cream cheese, softened
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
  1. Brown the butter, then set aside to cool completely. (It might look congealed a little but it’s ok to use.)
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat browned butter and cream cheese. Add in cinnamon and vanilla.
  3. Slowly incorporate confectioners’ sugar until sweetened to your liking. Frost cupcakes.

*Forgive the crappy photos, I baked these during a day of drinking at a beer festival :)

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Comfort and Zest

lemon blueberry cupcakes cream cheese frosting

It’s been a bit of a soul-searching week for me. Starting with this mantra on Monday – I’ve been going back and forth between cleansing, energizing, and rediscovering my passions and values. Pretty emotional…and it’s still only Thursday! (Good thing I have friends like K who I can count on to enjoy life and its endless desserts with me.)

It wasn’t intentional, but these blueberry lemon cupcakes kind of represent how I’ve been feeling. There’s the pure comfort and delight of blueberries, which remind me of simple backyard family time. Our go-to summer dessert was always fresh berries over whipped cream and pound cake. They’re like home base. Soul food. The lemon is everything I want to be right now. Bright, vivacious, to-the-point. A boost of energy and excitement. The goal is to marry these two lovely flavors to create heartfelt impact.

lemon blueberry cupcakes cream cheese frosting

Well ok, that was just a long winded way to say that these are yummy cupcakes. It’s no surprise these two flavors go so well together – add in some cream cheese frosting and you’ve got a no frills (or super complex if you look at it through my feelings) summer dessert. Perfect for sharing with girlfriends at book club on a candlelit deck.

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Cupcakes – makes about 20 cupcakes

  • 1 1/2 cups plus and extra 2 tablespoons flour, divided
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon. baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Zest of 1 large lemon
  1. Preheat oven to 350° and line muffin tins with paper liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in lemon zest, eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice. Alternate incorporating flour mixture and milk into the batter.
  4. Toss blueberries in the extra 2 tablespoons of flour and gently fold blueberries into the batter. Pour into cupcake cups and bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating pans half way.
  5. For the frosting, beat all the ingredients together and frost on cooled cupcakes. Top with more blueberries and lemon zest.

lemon blueberry cupcakes cream cheese frosting

Tell me about one of your summer dessert memories. Or a dessert that embodies how you’re feeling today. Sometimes it’s just a little easier to process your worries and ideas when you break them down to simple sugar and butter.

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Red Velvet Mash Up

red velvet raspnerry gelato dolci gelati cream cheese pound cake whipped cream

Last week the lovely owners of DC-based Dolci Gelati kindly gave me some samples of one of their new creations, raspberry red velvet gelato. Immediately, I knew what would go perfectly with these flavors so I made a cheese pound cake to use as a base. I ended up with classic red velvet flavors (there’s real pieces of cake in the gelato!) plus a little raspberry tartness too. Oh, and of course I had to add a little homemade whipped cream to the mix.

red velvet raspberry gelato dolci gelati cream cheese pound cake whipped cream

I found this cream cheese pound cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen and it blew me away. It was so moist and rich. Who knew pound cake could be that good? My only regret is that I didn’t save myself more! (It got devoured within an hour at work.) I will definitely be making this again this summer – adding some fresh farmer’s market berries and maybe adding some of Dolci Gelati’s mascarpone gelato on the side! A perfect dessert to share with friends al fresco.

red velvet raspberry gelato dolci gelati cream cheese pound cake whipped cream

You can find Dolci Gelati and all of their amazing flavors around DC at Nat’s Park, the National Zoo, and Taylor Gourmet (my personal preference because it also comes with an awesome sandwich).

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Whoopie – it’s fall!

pumpkin whoopie pies cream cheese maple dessert fall

Obligatory pumpkin post? No way. Are you kidding me? I love this stuff!

Well it’s officially fall now. It’s chilly and dark and warm apple cider is necessary to survive an apartment with the air conditioning still on. While I’ve started to enjoy my tall boots and chunky sweaters – I’m really for some actual fall. No more of this rain business. I’m looking for a crisp day full of sunshine and golden leaves…a day just like this one last year.

pumpkin whoopie pies cream cheese maple dessert fall

I’ve done pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin cheesecake so I wanted to try something different this time around. Whoopie pies have all the flavors of a cupcake that I love but just with a little twist. Also they were easily portable (lined up in a little box) to bring to work. I halved this recipe but that was just silly because it only made nine pies and of course that’s not enough.

What’s your favorite, go-to fall recipe? Pumpkin recipe? Let’s share!

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