Let's be honest. Few things are not made better by adding Nutella. I have to admit that my life in general was made better by the addition of Nutella. It is such a versatile condiment! Things that are normally considered a meal are made into dessert by this luscious spread. You can imagine my delight when I came across a Nutella Swirl Banana Bread the other day when I was browsing one of my favorite communities, Cakes & Baking - The Cadbury Kitchen. When I went to make it, I decided I was more in the mood for muffins (easier to limit myself then continuing to cut a tiny slice...). I found a great recipe over at The Fig Tree, which I didn't change. The only thing I did different was to add toffee bits, which was a GREAT decision.

On Mothers' Day, my husband made me stuffed French toast for breakfast, which means he bought a loaf of bread. The left-overs of this loaf sat out for a couple of days until it became rock solid. I didn't want to just throw it out so I search the web for a great bread pudding recipe that would not require me to go to the store for ingredients. Most bread puddings are really fussy and require cream (which I didn't have), so I started to look for one that had cream cheese in it. That is when I landed at Mission: Food and found a recipe for perfection. It was so good, I went out and bought another loaf just to make it again that weekend. There are so many great things about this recipe, it isn't fussy, it only takes 30 minutes to bake and the best part is that you line the cake pan with parchment so there is no mess and it slides right out. Seriously, Victoria, you made my week! (P.S. I did sprinkle some cinnamon over the bread before I poured the pudding over the bread just as a throw back to traditional bread pudding.)

I made these for a party today. I posted the recipe sometime ago, but with chocolate ganache instead of berries, which is delightful. Anyway, I felt like giving this cheesecake cupcake recipe a shout out because they really are that good.

Cupcakes:
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup Sour cream
2 cup Granulated Sugar  
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract 
4 Eggs 
24 Vanilla wafers
12 - 18 ounces Raspberries or Blackberries

Heat oven to 350°F.

Lightly grease the top of 2 12-cup muffin pans. Place a paper cupcake liner in each cup. Place a vanilla wafer, flat-side down, in 
each muffin cup.

Beat cream cheese with a hand-held electric mixer until fluffy adding one package at a time. Add sour cream and beat until well incorporated. Add granulated sugar and vanilly extract, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each 
addition.

Spoon cream cheese mixture over wafers, filling the cups up to the top. They will get puffy, but shrink up when cooling and the centers will cave in forming a cup. 

Bake for 10 minutes then rotate the pan, then bake for another 10 minutes or until they are no longer jiggly in the center. Let the "cups" cool to room temperature, then, then put the cooling rack right side down on top of them and carefully flip to slide the "cups" out of the pan. Quickly flip the "cups" right side up.

When cool, fill each cupcake "cup" with berries.

If you are making these in advance, store in the fridge.

A while back I was watching The Chew and they made a Whoopie Pie Cake. It looked so good that I made it the next day to share with friends. The cake itself was delightful, but the frosting inside was way too rich, so I decided to improvise. I made it for Valentine's day and replaced to frosting with pudding, which was a much better improvement. I cut the recipe in half because it was just so much cake and I tweaked the pudding a bit to make it more flavorful and added berries. Also, I did a layer of Nutella whipped cream frosting. My progress pictures are of the Valentine's cake in the shape of a heart, but the finished product is of the one I made this weekend for my husband's family. You can really make this into any shape you like, I think the next time I may try making a star...

Cake Ingredients:
1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
½ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Salt
6 tablespoons Butter (room temperature)
¾ cup Granulated Sugar
1 Large Egg
¾ cup Milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Trace two 8” circles (or hearts or stars or whatever shape you like) onto parchment paper. Flip the parchment paper over and place on a baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

In a stand mixer fixed with a whisk attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, combine the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Mix in the egg then the milk. In two batches, hand mix in the flour combination. It should resemble frosting. 

Spoon batter into a piping bag (you don’t need a frosting tip) and pipe into the shapes on the parchment paper about ½” shy of the border, then smooth out the batter. Bake on the middle rack for 8 – 10 minutes or until spongy. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes then transfer the cakes and the parchment paper to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.

White Chocolate Ingredients:
1 3.5 oz Vanilla Pudding and Pie Filling Mix
1 cup White Chocolate
1 ½ cups Milk
1 cup Berries (Blueberries, Raspberries, Cut Strawberries)
 
Place the white chocolate and ½ cup of the milk in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds. Stir well after the 1 minute, the chocolate won’t be completely melted, but as you stir it should become smooth. In a medium bowl, combine the pudding mix and the remaining  cup of milk. Whisk in the white chocolate mix. Place in fridge for at least ½ hour.
 
Whipped Cream Nutella Frosting:
½ teaspoon Unflavored Gelatin Powder
2 tablespoons Cold Water
1 cup Whipping Cream
2 tablespoons Confectioner’s Sugar
2 tablespoons Cream Cheese (room temperature)
3 heaping tablespoons Nutella
 
In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over the cold water. Put 2 tablespoons of cream in the microwave for 30 seconds to scald, then whisk into the gelatin powder and water until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Place in the fridge for 10 – 15 minutes; until it is the consistency of egg whites. Meanwhile, beat the remaining whipping cream and sugar until soft peaks form. Whisk in the cream cheese and nutella, then whisk in the gelatin mixture. 
  
Assemble cake:
Place one cake on plate, layer the Nutella frosting then place the remaining cake on top. Loosen up the pudding with a whisk and layer on the cake. Arrange berries in the pudding layer. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Christmas is my favorite time of year and one of my most favorite things about Christmas is baking!. Yesterday, I spent the whole day baking for my neighbors. I made Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars and her Sadies (which are probably my favorite Christmas treat) as well as my cheesecake cupcakes and the caramel apple tartlets I made a while ago. All in all, those who recieved are quite lucky!

Last Saturday morning, I hosted a play group. I wanted to make something great, but semi easy. That is when I came up with these amazingly delicious, perfectly savory and sweet little pastries. The inspiration is really from a carmel apple my sister in law shared with us. Anyway, below is the recipe. You will want to make extras because it is IMPOSSIBLE to eat only one.

Ingredients:
Puff Pastry (thawed according to directions)
1/2 package of Caramels (unwrapped)
1/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
Corse Sea Salt
8 medium Golden Delicious Apples
Heavy Whipping Cream to brush onto pastries
1/4 cup Sugar
1 Tbspn Cinnamon
1/4 cup White Chocolate Chips
1/2 Tbspn Butter
1 Tbspn Heavy Whipping Cream

Center rack in oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out one of the puff pastry sheets to a 16"x12" rectangle. Starting at the longer end, roll the dough. using dental floss or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 2" logs. Using your palm, push the dough into small discs. Roll the discs into 4"-5" diameter circles. If the dough is too springy, put in the fridge and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Place the discs on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet 2" apart. Repeat with the second puff pastry sheet. Put pastries into fridge and let the dough rest while you make the carmel sauce and prepare the apples.

In a small sauce pan, combine the unwrapped caramels and the whipping cream. Stir occasionally until melted.

While the sauce is melting, peel each apple. Cut the apples in half perpendicular to the core. Use an apple slicer to core and slice the apples.

Remove dough from fridge. Place about a tablespoon of the caramel sauce in the center of each disc. Sprinkle a few pieces of the sea salt in the middle (Go easy, less is more). Pick up each half apple and place on the caramel, pushing it into the caramel. Brush rim of dough with cream. In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar, then generously sprinkle over the pastries.

Bake for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden and apples are soft.

Place white chocolate and butter in a small bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stirring every 10 seconds. Repeat if needed until melted. Add remaining tablespoon of cream. Add more cream if needed to get a runny consistency. Drizzle over warm pastries.

This weekend, we attended a soup and pie night. I brought two pies, well a pie and a tart. Pretty much every time I bake I look first to Dorie Greenspan's From My Home to Yours, which is perhaps the BEST baking book known to man. This time around, I did just that for a Chocolate Cream Tart. I made two modifications, I added a teaspoon of almond extract after mixing in the butter to the chocolate (it was a little strong, you may want to use 1/2 a teaspoon) and I used the recipe below for the crust, which was adapted from Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough:

1 3/4 cups Nilla cookies crushed (about 50 cookies)
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup crushed almond slices

Combine ingredients in a food processor and press into a buttered tart pan. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against the crust. Bake the crust 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil.If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon.  Bake for another 8 minutes, until it is golden and firm. Transfer the crust to a cooling rack, in its pan, and cool completely.

For my daughter's birthday party, instead of a cake, I made cupcakes. One variety that I did was adapted from Paula Deen's recipe and as anyone knows, if you start out with a Paula recipe you know its going to be good. My recipe doubles hers and adds a bit of extra umph.

Cupcakes:
4 pkg.      (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup    sour cream
2 cup        granulated sugar 
2 tsp.        vanilla extract 
4               eggs 
24             vanilla wafers

Chocolate Ganache:
4 Tbsp.       whole milk
3 Tbsp.       unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups  semi-sweet mini chocolate chips     

Heat oven to 350°F.

Lightly grease the top of 2 12-cup muffin pans. Place a paper cupcake liner in each cup. Place a vanilla wafer, flat-side down, in each muffin cup.

Beat cream cheese with a hand-held electric mixer until fluffy adding one package at a time. Add sour cream and beat until well incorporated. Add granulated sugar and vanilly extract, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Spoon cream cheese mixture over wafers, filling the cups up to the top. They will get puffy, but shrink up when cooling and the centers will cave in forming a cup. 

Bake for 10 minutes then rotate the pan, then bake for another 10 minutes or until they are no longer jiggly in the center. Let the "cups" cool to room temperature, then, then put the cooling rack right side down on top of them and carefully flip to slide the "cups" out of the pan. Quickly flip the "cups" right side up.

While tarts are cooling, over a double boiler, heat the milk, butter, and chocolate until melted.

When cool, fill each cupcake "cup" with about a tablespoon of chocolate ganache.

If you are making these in advance, store in the fridge.

The really skeewhampus ones were not filled to the top, so they shrunk in.

Here is a berry version.