Cheesecake Brownies

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Cheesecake Brownies

These were absolutely delicious! Not too sweet, a gooey brownie, with a combination of a cheesecake. I have not been a fan of cheesecake, as I always think that a full piece of cheesecake is too rich for my blood in one sitting. This was puuuuurfect! The love I have for brownie a just a little taste of cheesecake on top. I would definitely make this again and I woudn’t change a thing. Although this may not be a kid favorite, as it has the dark chocolate (which has a bitter taste and no sugar added), so if you want to make it more kid friendly, just change up the dark chocolate with semi-sweet chocolate mini chocolate chips.

Ingredients:
Brownies
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup dark chocolate chunks

Cheesecake Layer
1 cup cream cheese, softened (I usually use the spreadable)
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly spray an 8 inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Line with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang for easy removal. Set aside.

Brownies
In a small bowl, sift together cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt.

In a large bowl, combine chocolate chips and butter. Melt in 30-second increments, on high heat in the microwave, stirring in between.

Stir in sugar and vanilla until completely combined.

Add eggs one a time, stirring in between until combined.

Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir vigorously until the mixture is smooth and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. This will take one or two minutes.

Stir in the dark chocolate chunks.

Pour two-thirds of the brownie batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Set aside.

Cheesecake Layer
Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add in the sugar and beat until combined.

Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth.

Spoon the cheesecake filling over the top of the brownie batter and carefully spread into a thin layer with an offset spatula.

Drizzle or spoon the remaining brownie batter over the top.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick or cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Let cool completely in pan. Use the overhang to pull the brownies out and cut into squares.

Limonata Pound Cake

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Limonata Cake

This is the first time that I have baked with a soft drink as one of my ingredients, and it didn’t turn out as interesting as I thought it would be. It wasn’t as soft and fluffy like the other ones that I have tried, but rather dense. Then again, this was meant to be a pound cake kind of recipe, so it was right on point. Just make sure if you are using a bundt pan that has as many grooves to grease the pan thoroughly. As you can see, it cracked a little bit, upon it’s departure from pan. 🙂

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1 tbsp. lime zest
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup limonata soda

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare and grease 9 or 10-inch bundt pan. Set aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In medium bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and mix completely. Add eggs one at a time waiting for previously added egg to be fully incorporated. Scrape bowl often. Whip until mixture is light and fluffy. Add vanilla and citrus zest.

On low speed, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients alternating with limonata soda. (starting and ending with flour mixture)

Scrape batter into prepared pan. Place in oven and bake until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. About 60-65 minutes. Let sit in pan for 15 minutes before removing. Enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

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Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I have made a few coffee cakes before, this was seems to be the normal one. It wasn’t outstanding, but it wasn’t bad at all. I like the fact that it was very moist cake, but the top was crunchy with all the sugar and cinnamon on the top. Secondly, I don’t think it needed that swirl in the middle, because my cake wasn’t very tall, so I didn’t it needed that extra layer to complicate things, but that’s only my opinion.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

For topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare an 8-inch nonstick tube pan. Lightly spray with cooking spray or coat with butter.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy (2 to 3 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Mix baking soda in with sour cream.

Alternate adding 1/3 of flour mixture, half of yogurt mixture, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then repeat (starting with flour mixture and ending with flour mixture as will. Mix in vanilla and almond extracts, then fold in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cinnamon.

Spread half of the batter into prepared cake pan. Sprinkle with half of sugar mixture; gently swirl a few strokes through the batter with a knife. Top with remaining batter, then sprinkle with remaining sugar and swirl once again. Sprinkle with a few more chocolate chips.

Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes or until top is golden brown and a toothpick or cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean.

Place pan on a wire rack to cool. Run a knife around the edge to release, then remove from pan and cool completely. Enjoy!

Hot Milk Cake

Hot Milk Cake

This is a new kind of technique for me, so I didn’t know what really to expect. The thought of pouring hot milk into a batter made me think that it might cook my eggs and taste like scrambled eggs, but it turned out nice and fluffy. Although I think I overbaked it a little bit though, so the outside was a little on the dry side, but overall a good find.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
Powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt cake pan.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in milk and vanilla and continue to heat until small bubbles form around the outside of the pan and the mixture is very hot but not boiling. Reduce heat to low. (Keep an eye on it, the steady heat may boil over)

In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for approximately 5 minutes. Once the egg and sugar mixture has tripled in volume, slowly add the hot milk mixture, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in two batches, mixing after each addition until just incorporated. The batter should be the consistency of a pancake batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, checking 5 minutes prior to baking end time or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool and invert out of the pan. If you like, you can dust a little bit of icing sugar on the to make it a little prettier.

Enjoy!

Gugelhupf

Homemade Gugelhupf

This is Gugelhupf second attempt. Atleast this one stayed in the pan and baked properly. I quite like the combination of the bread and cake all in one pan. This was all the yeast that I had left before we went into self isolation, so I might as well just use it up as fresh yeast expires so quickly. The taste and texture reminded me a little bit of the Panettone. Could be a quick alternative.

Ingredients
22 grams fresh yeast
1 cup warm milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
5 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 lemon rind of grated
3/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup almonds powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 cup bread flour

Grease a gugelhopf mold, bust pan, or tube pan.

Mix yeast with warm milk until dissolved. Set aside.
Mix salt and flour. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla, lemon rind, raisins, and almonds powder.

Add milk and flour mixtures, alternately, ending with the flour mixture.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Bake in preheated 375 °F. Oven for 40 minutes or until browned and done. Serve warm with butter.

Amazing Butter Cake

Amazing Butter Cake with Butter Sauce

I’m not going to lie, this cake was pretty amazing. I found the receive very similar to one of the eggnog bundt cakes that I have made, which was pretty amazing as well. When eggnog is not in the stores yet, this would definitely be the go to cake, if you’re looking to impress. It was a hit, not only with the adults, but with the kids as well. As you can tell with the name, there is no shortage of “the good stuff” in this cake.

CAKE:
1 cup butter (room temperature)
1½ cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 cups cake flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup yogurt

BUTTER GLAZE:
⅓ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
2 tbsp. water
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10 -12 cup bundt pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in egg one at a time. Add vanilla.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

Alternate adding flour and yogurt. Starting with flour and ending with flour mixture as well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center comes out clean.

After the cake is done, make the glaze ingredients by combining the sugar, butter, vanilla, and the water. Cook over medium heat, until fully melted and combined, BUT DO NOT BOIL!

Poke holes all over the warm cake and pour the glaze slowly over the cake while still in the pan. (I had some leftover, so I reserved it to put on top, after I inverted the cake out of the pan)

Let the cake to cool completely in the pan and then run a butter knife around the inside edges of the cake before inverting it onto a serving plate. Drizzle with the leftover drizzle (if you had some left) and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Peanut Butter Swirl Chocolate Loaf

If you’re interested with the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, this may be the way to be. This is a pretty runny batter for a loaf cake, so make sure to grease the pan well as mine got stuck to the pan and fell apart as I tried to take it out. The cake was moist (almost like a fudgy cake texture, but not quite as dense as a brownie). As the batter was runny, it was hard to swirl in the peanut butter evenly into the cake, so I chose to add a little water to the peanut butter for easly swirling.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup yogurt
2/3 cup milk
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 ¼ cups cake flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. peanut butter (mix with 1 tbsp. water to make it runny)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour and baking powder.

In a large bowl place eggs, sugar, oil, yogurt, milk and salt, and beat together until well combined. Add in flour mixture until batter is formed. The batter is rather runny.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Spoon in 2-3 tablespoons of peanut butter on top of cake and, using a knife, “swirl” it into the batter.

Sprinkle chocolate chips on the top of the cake.

Bake for 60-65 minutes or until they are set and a skewer inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.

Cool at room temperature and serve.

Toffee Walnut Bundt Cake with Caramel Drizzle

Toffee Walnut Bundt Cake with Caramel Drizzle

I was trying out my new bundt pan that I got for Christmas and I’m pretty impressed with the results of the cake and the end result of how it looks. I used the skor bar bits and it melted right into the cake, which almost made it taste like spots of toffee that was embedded in the middle. I think next time, I may reserve some skor bits and put it on top of the cake, after it has cooled and caramel sauce is drizzled on. Although I don’t feel that this was an outstanding cake, I felt that it was worth my while to make again and see kind of other creations I could get out of it.

Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ cups butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1 cup yogurt
1 bag (8-ounces) skor bar bits
1 cup walnuts, chopped

For caramel drizzle:
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Grease and flour a 10 -12 cup bundt pan.

In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter until light and creamy. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until blended. Alternate adding in flour mixture and yogurt, mixing until just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.

Stir in toffee chips and walnut by hand, blending well. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 75-80 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Simmer brown sugar in a heavy–bottomed saucepan over medium heat, bring to a boil, whisking very frequently. Reduce the heat under the pan and simmer gently until suger is completely dissolved, whisking constantly.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Allow the mixture to sit in the pan for about 5 minutes – then drizzle over the cake.

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze

This cake is one of my coffee cakes that I have tried that actually have some kind of coffee fragrant on my first try. I was a little worried, as the batter was quite runny before it went into the oven. I wasn’t sure if I had put too much coffee it. I can never get enough coffee! Overall, the texture of the cake was quite moist, and the glaze gave it a little bit more love. The great part about it, was that the glaze hardens, after it cools, so it’s not too messy. But it you’re looking for a more runny icing, you can add another tablespoon of coffee.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups black coffee
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cup cake flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp. black coffee

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 10 -12 cup bundt pan.

Beat together all of the wet ingredients and both sugars.

In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients together and slowly mix in the cake batter adding in the dry ingredients.

Pour batter into a greased bundt pan. (The batter may seem pretty runny)

Bake for 40 minutes for a delicious coffee chocolate bundt cake.

Glaze: combine both ingredients and pour over cooled cake.

Coconut Bundt Cake with Coconut Glaze

Coconut Bundt Cake with Coconut Glaze and toasted coconut

As we all know, coconut has never really been my favorite. Why? As many would ask……it’s not the taste of coconut, but it’s the texture of the strands that seems to stay in my mouth for the rest of the day, even if I floss and brush 3 times.

This seems to be a pretty easy recipe, so I gave it a go. Nothing really to lose, at this point. With the addition of a full can of coconut milk, made it extra moist and very “coconutty”. Of course, for the ones that like a little bit of glaze, it was a perfect pairing. Not too sweet, not too messy, but does the job. Love it!

Cake:
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 1/4 cake flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
6 large eggs
1 (13 oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups shredded sweetened coconut

Glaze:
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened (toasted)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

Cake: Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.

With the mixer on low, add in the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time. Scraping down the sides of the bowl, and with the mixer still on low, add in the flour mixture and coconut milk (alternate flour mixture, coconut milk, flour mixture, coconut milk and flour).

Scrape the bowl again and mix until smooth. Stir in the shredded coconut. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. At this point, the batter should feel very airy.

Bake the cake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, 55-65 minutes. Cool the cake for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and cool until room temperature.

Glaze: Whisk the coconut milk and powdered sugar until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake and immediately garnish with toasted coconut.