Chocolate Cupcakes

This was originally a chocolate cake recipe contributed by Gwen Uy at yummy.ph. We decided to try making it into cupcakes to yield more servings. We were able to make around 36 to 40 cupcakes for one recipe. 

Like what the original recipe says, cooking the frosting takes a lot of time. It took us approximately an hour and twenty minutes to finish cooking the frosting alone. But it was worth all the time and effort. The frosting was absolutely delicious.

Here's the recipe:

For the cake base

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon coffee powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 cup butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 whole eggs

For the fudge frosting

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups cocoa powder

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup water

1 1/4 cups condensed milk

2 cans evaporated milk

1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350deg F. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 

In another bowl, whisk the cocoa powder, coffee powder, and vanilla into the warm water. Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then alternately add the dry and liquid ingredients, making sure you begin and end with the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into lined-cupcake pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Make the frosting: 

In a thick saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa powder, and flour. In a mixing bowl, combine all liquid ingredients then pour into a saucepan. Whisk until well combined. Place the saucepan on low heat and keep whisking until the frosting is thick and of spreading consistency. Blend in butter. When ready, spread on the cupcakes.

No-Bake Mini Cherry Cheesecake

Ana Flor chose these mini pie plates. 

Graham cracker crumb-butter mixture thankfully stuck well at the bottom of the plates. I was afraid it wouldn't stay in place.

Final product

We also had a can of blueberry pie topping. The cheesecake filling will work perfectly with any topping that you want to use.

The recipe we used is from the free recipe at the back of the cream cheese box. We've just made some minor changes and substitutions. Like instead of using Magnolia All Purpose Cream, we used Nestle Cream instead. Since we've already tried making this using the original recipe, we discovered that using Nestle Cream instead of all-purpose cream made it more delectable. When we used the all-purpose cream before, it made the filling a little fluffy so you taste more of the cream than the cream cheese. By using Nestle Cream, it brought out the flavor of the cream cheese.

The original recipe also has lemon rind. We didn't include this. But if you want to, you can add 1 tsp lemon rind.

Here's our tweaked recipe:

Ingredients -
Crust: 1 1/4 cups Graham cracker crumbs (we used MY San Graham Cracker Crumbs)
            1 tsp cinnamon
            1/3 cup melted butter
            2 tbsps sugar

Filling: 1 pkg Magnolia Cream Cheese, softened
             1/4 cup sugar
             1 tbsp unflavored gelatin dissolved in
             3 tbsps fresh milk (we used evaporated milk instead)
             1 can Nestle Cream (the original recipe called for Magnolia All Purpose Cream), chilled
           
             1 can Cherry Pie Filling

To make the crust, mix crumbs with cinnamon, sugar and melted butter. Press on 12-14 pieces mini pie plates.

For the filling, beat cream cheese and sugar until light and well-blended. Meanwhile, dissolve the unflavored gelatin in milk over low heat and add to cream cheese mixture while still hot. Continue beating to blend well. In a separate bowl, whip cream until stiff and fold into the cream cheese mixture. Pour onto crumb-lined pan. Top with the cherry pie filling. Chill for 4-6 hours.