Marble Cupcake topped with CreamCheese Frosting

You won't believe how easy it is!!

I've been into this TV show called "cupcake war" lately. Every other week, I go to cupcakeries in town to treat myself. They are not cheap. The ones I buy are like $3-$3.50 each cupcake. Because I love them so much, my chef husband decided to bake for me. Less cost but more tasty! We used the silicon mold for baking so we didn't use the paper cup.

Serve : 8-12 cupcakes

Start to Finish: 30 min or less
 
Pastry Bag and Star tip ( to squeeze the cream on the cake) OR icecream scooper (you can just scoop the cream and place it on top of cake)

Marble Cupcake : 1/2 a package of cake mix ( I used marble cake mix) 

1. Bake in a cupcake size mold, follow the direction on the box

Cream Cheese Frosting :15 min

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 1.5 - 2 cups of powdered sugar,, depends on how sweet you want
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness.

3. Either spread on with a blunt knife or spatula, or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake.

Pumpkin Pie

This Pumpkin Pie is so special! It's kind of weird to say by myself, BUT!! I had never had SUCH A YUMMY Pumpkin Pie like this in my life!! I think the usage of condensed milk makes this so special. Sweet, but not overly sweet. Very sophisticated flavor!  I HAVE TO share the recipe with you. It is so easy like you won't believe. I hope you can try soon!!! 

Prep Time: 15 min

Start to Finish: 1 hr 15 min

Ingredients:

1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree

1 (14oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

1 ready-use pie crust (9 inch)

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 425F degree. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk,  eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.


2. Reduce oven temperature to 350F degree and continue baking 40-45 min or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish with cool whip! The more the better :D

Raspberry-CreamCheese Coffee Cake

Today, I became a bakery chef at home. I tried this recipe a couple of times before and my husband loved it. He requested today, so I made it. The kitchen is HIS space, so there are some things I'm not sure where to find. I am slow in the kitchen but very clean when production goes on. So by the time when I put the dessert in the oven, the kitchen was spotless! Anyways, I just wanted to share the recipe here!

Prep Time: 25 min

Start to Finish: 1 hr 35 min

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter

3/4 teaspoon baking power

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 eggs

1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1.  Heat oven to 350F. Grease bottom and side of 9-10 inch spring form pan with cooking spray; lightly flour. In large bowl, mix flour and 3/4 cup of the sugar. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup of crumb mixture.

2.  To remaining crumb mixture, stir in baking powder, baking soda, salt, sour cream, almond extract and 1 of the eggs until well blended. Spread batter in bottom and 2 inches up side (about 1/4 inch thick) of pan.

3.  In another small bowl, beat cream cheese, remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 egg until well blended. Pour into batter-lined pan. Carefully spoon preserves evenly over cream cheese mixture. In another small bowl, mix reserved crumb mixture and sliced almonds; sprinkle over preserves.

 4.  Bake 45-55 minutes or until cream cheese filling is set and crust is deep golden brown. Put a stick in the middle, if nothing sticks it's ready. (preserve may stick, but that's ok). Cool 15 minutes. Remove side of pan; leave coffee cake on pan bottom. Serve warm or cool. Store in fridge.

33

I used to think birthday was HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I had never thought anything else of it up until certain point. I am not sure when exactly this threshold age was, but now I feel it is more frightening factor than being happy to have birthday every year especially with TTC. I was once told that egg counts go down as I get older.  I am one of those people who can't sometime remember my age when someone asks. I feel young mentally so I tend to understate my age : )

Set aside my don't-wanna-get-older feeling, I had 4 days off to enjoy my time.  As a hiking lover, I had to hike, did 3 of them. We also went out to see exhibits, and other time we went to the private party at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas that we were invited to.

Day 1, We went to Sunrise Mountain. It is nearby mountain in Las Vegas. It was early morning hike. The details are in my other blog:  http://hikingandoutdoorbliss.blogspot.com 

In the afternoon, we watched Nascar on TV,  the even that was held at our Las Vegas Motor Speedway, only 15 minutes away from our place! We kinda missed out on buying good tickets this year. I am going next year for sure! If you are Nascar fan, lets get together!!

Oh, I also had birthday cake. My husband wanted to bake a cake for me but I didn't want the huge cake sitting in the house and being obligated to finish before it went bad. SO! I got some cupcakes! Lately I watch lots of cupcake programs on TV and my eyes have been on look-out for good cupcakes in town. Let me know if you know any good cupcakes guys!

  Day 2, We went to this one. Peak 5146.  This is located along the highway from Las Vegas, going to Idaho direction. Weather was acting crazy. Sunny, Hale, Cloudy, Rain, and back to Sunny. As much as we love hiking, we have NOT invested in rain coat. Isn't that stupid!? Well, we got HAILED on! So we used garbage bag as a shield. Ugh I look such a cheap hiker, don't I!??

 Day 3, I don't remember what exactly we did during the afternoon. I am sure just taking it easy, relaxing, catching up on things. But I am the type of person who can't sit on my butt all day, I had to go out. We went Titanic Exhibits at Luxor. Also we had been invited to this private party, held at the pool deck of the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. Luckily it happened to be on my birthday weekend and it was perfect!

Oh, let me tell you about this high-tech hotel parking lot. They go 5 stories underground. Every turn you make to look for a vacant spot, there is an indicator showing # of availability. Each parking spot is sensor operated and shows red when occupied. So we look for a green light, which tells us the spot is available. You can spot the green light from far away. In this parking lot, you never have to worry about driving around in circles looking for a spot to take.

Day 4, we went Zion National Park, in Utah. It is 2 hours away from our house. Angel's Landing is a trail we could not complete back in 2004, due to our fear of hiking on cliff edge at high altitude. We challenged this hike to overcome the fear. And we DID IT!! We got to the summit. I will be blogging just about this one in my hiking blog, but this was HARD ONE!! We almost chickened out. Basically the last 0.5miles of hike is on the edge of 1500 ft drop off cliff, climbing with chain. Yeah! Doesn't that sound scary to you?? Well at the summit, the view was spectacular. I couldn't sit still. I got dizzy... hahaha

I had a fun weekend! Watch, my next birthday is coming around the corner.... I forgot how to count after 33 LOL!