Kiwi Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Cupcakes

Summer is right around the corner. Actually, here in Florida is seems like it began a few weeks ago. So, Ice Cream Cupcakes are the perfect thing to cool you down on these hot days... while satisfying your sweet tooth, too! And what better way to welcome summer with a delicious fruity flavor combination. For my second attempt at making Ice Cream Cupcakes, me and the fiance came up with an AMAZINGLY fresh and fruity concoction: Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream on top of Strawberries-and-Cream Cake, topped with Kiwi Sauce and Vanilla Whipped Cream It tasted like the frozen ice creamy version of Strawberry Shortcake, with a little extra something from the homemade Kiwi Sauce. This recipe was a total winner. Absolutely FULL of flavor, refreshing, and decadent all at the same time. And this is my entry for CupcakeProject's 2010 Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup! Please see details for this contest here at Cupcake Project and here at Scoopalicious





Strawberries and Cream Cake, adapted from The Hungry Mouse
Ingredients:
3/8 cup sugar
2 Tbls butter, soft
1/2 an egg (whisk entire egg, discard half of it)
3/8 cup heavy cream
1 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
heaping 1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 cups strawberries, sliced

Put 12 - 16 foil cupcake liners (depending on how much cake you want per ice cream cupcake) on a cookie sheet. Preheat to 375. Beat the sugar, egg and butter together to combine. When slightly cream, pour in the cream and mix to combine.
In a separate small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to the wet mixture. Beat on low to combine and then turn it up to high for a short while to make the consistency thick and creamy - but do not overbeat.
Add in the strawberries and stir by hand with a spatula to incorporate. Divide between the liners and spread slightly with a spoon. Liners will only be about 1/2 as full as if you were making full sized cupcakes.
Bake for 16-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, move to the freezer to freeze the cakes. Then, make your ice cream...




Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream adapted from epicurious.com
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
Strips of lemon zest, from about 1/2 a lemon
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 lb strawberries (by weight), hulled and halved
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine heavy cream, zest, and sea salt in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
Whisk the eggs with 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl. Put a strainer on top of this bowl, and slowly pour the cream/zest mixture through the strainer/sieve. Discard the zest. Pour back into the saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and an instant-read thermometer registers 170°F (do not let boil).
Immediately pour custard through a sieve into a metal bowl, then cool to room temperature by putting this metal bowl into a larger bowl full of ice water, stirring occasionally to quickly cool. Chill, covered, at least until cold, about 2 hours, and up to 1 day.
While custard is chilling, purée strawberries with remaining 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice in a blender until smooth, then force through fine sieve (to remove seeds) into chilled custard. Stir purée into custard.
Freeze in ice-cream maker, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer a bit more, so it is soft enough to pipe through a piping bag. Pipe on to frozen cupcakes and freeze to harden.





Kiwi Sauce:
Ingredients:
4 kiwis
1/8 C sugar + additional, if desired

Peel the brown skin off of the kiwis. Place kiwis in a food processor and blend until completely pureed. Add to a saucepan set on medium to high heat with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir over the heat until it thickens slightly. Remove to a small metal bowl and, set the small bowl within a larger one filled with ice water. Stir the kiwi sauce constantly to quickly cool the sauce. Add sugar until the sauce reaches your desired sweetness. Force through a strainer to remove (most of) the seeds. Serve, cold, on top of ice cream cupcakes.



Vanilla Whipped Cream:
Ingredients:
1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
2 tsp mexican vanilla
1/8 C granulated sugar + additional, if desired

Beat all ingredients together, on high, until mixture reaches light and fluffy consistency. Add more sugar if desired to reach desired sweetness. Serve on top of ice cream cupcakes.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Strawberry Cobbler Pie

So I'm trying out a new blog layout. I tried to neaten it up a little bit, make it look cleaner and tidier and a little less cluttered. What do you think?

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this week's recipe for Sweet Melissa Sundays. Our host for the week, the lovely Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures chose Strawberry (Rhubarb) Cobbler Pie... I left the Rhubarb out, so mine is just a Strawberry Cobbler Pie. Though I was tempted to try out Rhubarb (like many other SMS-ers, I've never tried it before!) but I'm bringing it to family dinner on Sunday night and I wasn't sure how the fam would feel about it.

I made the cobbler pie exactly as the recipe from the Sweet Melissa Baking book states, except I subbed the 2 cups of Rhubarb for an additional two cups of strawberries. Also, I prepared my biscuit dough in the food processor since I don't own a pastry cutter, and it came together just fine. I may have used a tad bit more lemon zest than Melissa calls for because I'm never sure... when a recipe calls for a teaspoon of zest, is it one teaspoon packed? But... I admit... I cheated and used a pre-bought frozen pie crust. I'm sorry! I really wanted to give the pie crust recipe a try, I was a little short on time.


slicing the strawberries with an egg slicer... time saver!



Daniel cutting me some star shaped biscuits


Very liquidy.


Cute! This is the pre-baked pie. The star shape totally worked!


I told you mine was wet!!!! Was anyone's oozey and wet like this?





It came out looking very good! I can't wait to try it tonight with the family. I wish we could just dig in now!!!
Besides the SEA of STRAWBERRY OOZE GOO that flooded out of my pie, everything when perfectly smoothly. I thought Melissa's sweet biscuit recipe was great. I wound up with a few small stars that wouldn't fit on the pie, so I brushed them with milk, sprinkled with sugar, and baked them up. Served warm with a little jam... excellenttttt. If this is any indication of the taste of the whole pie, it should be quite delicious indeed! With the remaining heavy cream left over from the biscuit dough, I plan to whip up from whipped cream to serve with the pie... and maybe even some vanilla ice cream... mmm, perfection.

Check out the other SMS bakers to see how their pies came out by visiting the blogroll. And see Tracey's blog, Tracey's Culinary adventures to see the recipe. Buon appetito!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Strawberry Lemonade & Strawberry Lemonade with Truvia

It is nice to put my kitchen to use for things other than brownies, cupcakes, blondies and cookies sometimes. Those are definitely the most common things to come out of my oven. Sweet, chocolately, caramelly, peanut buttery goodies. And while they are always appreciated and devoured, sometimes making something completely different is a nice, welcomed change.

In comes Strawberry Lemonade. It's not served warm straight from the oven and smothered in vanilla ice cream like many of our other favorites, but I knew it would be warmly received in my house. The entire one and a half quarts of it was gone in about two days. Perfectly sweet and tart and very refreshing.

I've made one full recipe, but divided it in half and prepared it two ways: One - standard (see the Sweet Melissa Baking Book page 85 or visit Jessica of My Baking Heart for the recipe), and Two - with Truvia Natural Sweetener substituted for sugar. I even conducted a blind taste test with the two recipes.

How do I know how much Truvia I need to replace the Sugar called for in my recipe?
1 tsp of sugar = 1/2 packet of truvia (or 3/8 tsp truvia)
2 tsp sugar = 1 packet of truvia (3/4 tsp)
1 tblspn sugar = 1 1/2 packets truvia (1 1/4 tsp)
1/2 c sugar = 12 packets (3 tblspn + 3/4 tsp)
For a full conversion chart for Truvia to Sugar, see Truvia's website HERE.



Sugar-Free Strawberry Lemonade made with Truvia
makes about 3/4 of a quart, adapted from Sweet Melissa Baking Book

Ingredients for truvia strawberry sauce
1/2 a pint of fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
1 1/2 packets of truvia (or 1 1/4 tsp of Truvia)
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon cold water

In a food processor, blend the berries, truvia, lemon juice and water until smooth. Strain it into a bowl, cover it and refrigerate.

Ingredients for Truvia strawberry lemonade
12 packets truvia
1/2 cup very hot water
1/2 up freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 1/4 cup cold water
1 recipe of truvia strawberry sauce (above)

Combine 9 packets of truvia and the very hot water and stir until the truvia has dissolved. Stir in the lemon juice and cold water.
Add the truvia strawberry sauce and stir to combine. Add additional truvia to taste (I added 3 more packets at this point).



So, on to the TASTE TEST... you're really curious right?



I poured Daniel two glasses and made him guess which was which. He said he could tell which was the Truvia, but that he actually liked it BETTER. Then I made him pour me two glasses and I had to guess which was which. And I guessed wrong every time. So... its a success!

Make sure to visit Jessica's blog, My Baking Heart to see this week's recipe from the Sweet Melissa Baking Book. And check out the blogroll to see how the lemonade came out for all the rest of the bakers!

SMS - Eep! And Strawberry Shortcake Crumb Muffin Recipe

I'm glad that SMS is not very demanding and only requires you to, at a minimum, participate once a month. Unfortunately, this will be my first time not participating for two weeks straight! I know, I'm terrible! I'll be up and running again soon, I promise. I haven't forgotten about you SMS, life is just getting in the way right now! For now, I leave you with a recipe I promised you a long time ago, that a reader just reminded me I never posted (Thanks, Linda!)

Way back when I was entering my muffin recipe into the Mimi's Cafe contest, I promised that I'd post the recipe I came up with in the future. Well, here it is - sorry it took so long, it completely escaped my mind!

Strawberry Shortcake Crumb Muffins

Ingredients:
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1/4 C cornstarch
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 C butter, melted
10 strawberries, washed, dried & sliced

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 C packed light brown sugar
1/4 C granulated white sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C + 1 tblspn flour (+extra if needed)

Muffins:
1. Grease & flour a standard muffin/cupcake pan. Preheat the oven to 425F.
2. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder & salt, & set aside. In another small bowl combine the melted butter, buttermilk, vanilla & beaten egg. Stir in to the flour mixture. Stir just to incorporate, do not overmix - it will be lumpy.
3. Pour into the muffin pan, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Gently insert the strawberry slices into the batter so that they are vertical (they will stand up and down in the batter).
Sprinkle with crumb topping.
4. Bake 15 - 18 minutes, or until the crumb topping is browned, and a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean with only moist crumbs.

Crumb:
1. Whisk together the butter, sugars, cinnamon and salt until smooth.
2. Stir in the flour with a whisk, then stir with a butter knife to create the crumbly texture. Add more flour as needed to create the correct crumb size.
3. Sprinkle on to muffin tops - crumb topping with dry up and crisp in the oven.

Sweet Melissa Sundays #7: Guinness Gingerbread; and Strawberry Contest Muffins

Guiness Gingerbread, aka Rootbeer Gingerbread

The Sweet Melissa Sundays baking group this week baked up Melissa Murphy's Guinness Gingerbread (p. 12 - 13). It was chosen by the fabulous Katie of Katiecakes. One thing I love about this group is that it gets me to bake things I would normally probably never choose on my own. This recipe was a lot of fun.

I made a few changes to the recipe. Since we aren't really drinkers in our house and I didn't want to be left with a ton of Guinness stout, I used IBC Rootbeer in place of the Guinness beer called for in the recipe. I also substituted maple syrup where the recipe called for Molasses as past recipes have taught me I'm really not in to the taste of molasses. Light brown sugar went in instead of dark because that is all I had, and similarly I used black pepper instead of the ground white pepper the book uses because I didn't have any white. I used my little Baking Bible book and this new fantastic website I found, Cook's Thesaurus to find out that white pepper is basically just a milder less flavorful version of its darker counterpart. So, rather than the 1/4 tsp white pepper the recipe calls for, I used just a light sprinkling of black pepper. Annddd I baked it in a cupcake pan rather than the 9 x 9 x 2 baking dish because I like the ease of give-away-ability that cupcakes allow. Other than that, I followed the recipe. :)

I thought it would make about 9 cupcakes, so I greased & floured 9 wells of a cupcake pan. I soon learned it makes MORE than that, about DOUBLE my estimate to be exact, so I called for help from Daniel who came to the rescue with cupcake liners.





Melissa Murphy says it is best served warm with freshly whipped cream dolloped on top. Well, it is Sunday morning, and I didn't think ahead enough to make whipped cream first. And I really wanted to taste it warm like she said. So we made due with some Ready Whip.







It was very nice! I am sure it would have been even tastier with homemade whipped cream, but even with the store bought stuff it was quite good. With my light brown sugar and my maple syrup substitutions, the result was a mild, subtle flavored cake. I look forward to enjoying the rest of the cupcakes room temperature with frosting on top!

Now, to decide which frosting to use... Rootbeer frosting? Regular ol' buttercream with caramel drizzle (Dan's choice)? We shall see!

*Update* Root Beer Frostingish/Glaze Topping



1 3/4 C confectioners sugar
1/2 stick, unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbs. root beer

Add butter to mixing bowl. Gradually add confectioners sugar to the butter & cream together until well mixed. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add the root beer. To get the correct consistency, add more root beer or sugar to reach desired adjust thickness. Mine came out somewhere between Glaze & Frosting, but piled on nicely!




Strawberry Shortcake Crumb Muffins



I've also been baking up some other things. Mimi's cafe held a Meaningful Muffin Search contest to find their new Seasonal Muffin Recipe. The amazing Gale Gand is one of the judges, and prizes include $1,000 gift cards to Mimi's, your muffin on the menu, a cookbook signed by Ms. Gand, and $1 from each winning Meaningful Muffin sold will go to "Share Our Strength". I thought, WHY NOT, might as well try and enter, right?? If I don't win, I still got to eat some muffins!

I designed a Strawberry Shortcake Crumb muffin. I thought Strawberries were a good place to start, since the contest was to design their seasonal muffin, and I added a nice crumb topping because, well, everyone likes a good crumb topping.









Recipe to follow soon! Be sure to see how the Guinness Gingerbread came out for the other SMS Bakers!

Sweet Melissa Sundays #6: Lemon Icebox Cake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce; and Puff Pastry Sticky Buns

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Lemon Icebox Cake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce
This week's recipe for the Sweet Melissa Sundays baking group was chosen by Jennifer of Keep Passing the Open Windows. I really enjoy lemony desserts and definitely do not make them enough, so I was really excited to give this recipe for Lemon Icebox Cake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce(p. 208-210) a try. It seems similar to a lemon meringue except it is served frozen.

It came together rather easily and quickly. I made it exactly according to the directions in the book (that's a first for me!). And unfortunately, I can't report on the taste yet - I'm bringing it for Mother's Day dessert tonight at the fam's house - so the pretty picture of a cut slice, and a review on the taste will have to wait... though we both tasted the custardy filling (prior to baking) and it seems rather promisinggggg.


Yummmm


Gorgeous nilla wafer crust


Piped on meringue topping, cute!




Another drippy picture :)



Can't wait to give the finished product with the fresh strawberry sauce a try! Hope everyone likes it!


Update: Mmmm, very VERY good. Everyone agreed this recipe is a keeper.


Puff Pastry Sticky Buns
This morning, me & Daniel also threw together some Puff Pastry sticky buns. I had some puff pastry left over from the SMS Turnovers, and since Daniel can eat again (and I'm trying to put some weight back on him) we made these for breakfast.



My inspiration came from blogger Erin Cooks who adapted it from the original recipe by Ina Garten published in Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients. They came out very, very yummy... though very different from a traditional yeasty cinnamon bun. This one is crispier & flaky, and does not feature that delish cream cheese frosting. I would definitely make these again as they were simple to put together and created a perfectly yummy tasting Sunday breakfast treat. I scaled it down as follows:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1.5 ounces light brown sugar, packed
1 12x12 inch sheet frozen puff pastry, defrosted

For the filling:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a standard cupcake tin on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Lightly spray 6 - 7 of the wells with non-stick spray.

With a hand-mixer, combine the 5 tablespoons butter and 1.5 ounces brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of this mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups.

Lightly flour a cutting board or stone surface (I did it directly on my cleaned granite countertop). Unfold puff pastry & brush the whole sheet with the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border around the edges of the sheet, sprinkle with the 1/3 cup of brown sugar & the cinnamon. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down. If needed, trim the edges to make it a nice flat end. Slice the roll in 6 (or 7 if you did not need to trim, like me) equal pieces, each about 1 1/2 inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in the cupcake wells, on top of the buttery mixture.

Bake for 25 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, scoop the buns out with a spoon and invert onto the parchment paper. Best enjoyed while still warm!















Be sure to check out how to Lemon Ice Box Cake & Strawberry Sauce came out for all of the other bakers!