Strawberry cheesecake forever......

I love cheesecake, but I'm always nervous about baking it. I've prepared a few cheesecakes, and almost all of them turned out great. Every once in a while I have a flop. For some reason their process just intimidates me! That's crazy, right? Why would a type of food be intimidating? Well...it just IS. You know what else is intimidating? Pie crust. Yup....I have a billion of those "no fail" pie crust recipes in my kitchen, but I'm afraid of them. My husband loves pie, but I am scared of the crust, so I don't make it...then he gets no pie. That makes him sad. What else scares me? FRYING. Yeah....hot oil scares the heebie jeebies out of me. Well, it's not that I'm afraid of the oil (unless it splatters and burns me) it's the actual frying part. I mean, if the oil is too hot, the outside burns, the inside is raw....if the oil is to cool, then the stuff doesn't cook right. I'm just not comfortable enough with myself to successfully fry something.

Okay....getting back to the point I initially started on....cheesecake. It's good, and intimidating....so how about we make a cupcake version instead? There are a few different cupcake-cheesecake recipes I'd like to try, but this one was the first. It wasn't tough..and really, the cheesecake part of it is the frosting, so actually, it was easy.

PLUS to take this baby over the top, I filled it with some strawberry-rhubarb jam. Mmmm....delish!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Cheesecake Cupcakes
Inspired by Doughmesstic

For the cupcake:
3 c cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 c unsalted butter, room temperature
2 c sugar
5 eggs
1 1/4 c buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:
1 c unsalted butter, room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, softened

4 1/2 c powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp water, if needed

For filling:

Strawberry-Rhubarb jam (I found this at my local farmers market, but if you can't find this, I'm sure that just Strawberry jam will work, too)

For the garnish:
Strawberries, halved

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line cupcake pans with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Scrape your vanilla bean into your mixer, and cream seeds and butter together, for about 4 minutes, until light and creamy. Scrape down your bowl, and mix for another 2 minutes, or so. Slowly add sugar to butter, about 1/4 c at a time, scraping bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time to mixer bowl, making sure that they incorporate well. Once eggs are mixed in, add vanilla and beat for another minute, until everything looks incorporated. Set mixer to low, and begin alternately adding dry's and buttermilk into mixer bowl....starting and ending with the drys. Once mixed in, switch off mixer and mix with a spatula, to ensure all is blended in.

Grab your scooper, and scoop batter into your cupcake pans, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 18 minutes, or until tops bounce back when touched. Cool in the pans for about 7 minutes, then remove to rack to finish cooling.

While they cool, make your frosting!

Combine butter, cream cheese, and vanilla in mixer, and beat with paddle attachment, until smooth, which for me was about 2 minutes. Making sure mixer is on low, add powdered sugar, about 1/4 c at a time. If frosting is too stiff, add a few drops of water.

To assemble these beauties, I cored them out, and filled them with the jam. If you don't have a corer, you can use one of the filling frosting tips, and squeeze some filling in center of each cupcake. If you are squeezing it in, squeeze until cupcake looks like it's cracking and going to explode. If coring, then just fill the hole. Once your cupcakes are filled, pipe your cheesecake frosting to cover hole, and garnish with a strawberry.

Isn't it romantic?

Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries - a perfect addition to Valentine's Day. I wanted to make something special, in honor of Valentine's Day, but I didn't want to give into the cliché Red Velvet cupcakes (at least for the blog...I made those for my family last week!) These caught my eye immediately, and I knew they would be perfect for the lover's holiday. I remember a few years ago I was surprised by my husband at my place of employment with a platter of chocolate covered strawberries that he had made all by himself. It was so sweet, and something I like to brag about to my friends. As for the champagne, I had never opened a bottle of the stuff by myself, until it was time to use it as a cupcake ingredients. I'm not going to lie....I sat there and stared at the cork for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do! Eventually I gave the little metal thingie a twist and ta-da! The cork flew off! It was exciting, too bad I was alone at the time. 

Anyway, these cupcake are a spongy change from the previous cupcakes. They are definitely an adult cake, due to their lack of overpowering sweetness, and the content of champagne.  What I noticed was not the immediate flavor of the champagne, but the aftertaste of it. It was quite nice just getting a small hint of that in the back of your throat. I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Strawberries & Champagne Cupcakes:

The Recipe:
adapted from Annie's Eats

Chocolate covered strawberries

24-28 strawberries

4-5 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

2-3 oz white chocolate, chopped

Batter:

2 1/4 cake flour, sifted

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

7 large egg whites

7 large egg yolks

1 1/2 c sugar

5 tbsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 c champagne

Ganache

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 c + 1 tbsp heavy cream

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 8 piecee

Champagne syrup (optional)
To boost the champagne flavor, soak this into the cupcakes while they cool
3/4 c water
1 c sugar
1 c champagne

Directions:

Wash and rinse strawberries. Place on a paper towel to dry, while you prep your chocolate. Put the chopped semisweet chocolate in a bowl and microwave in 15 second increments, stirring after each time. Once completely smooth, dip strawberries in chocolate, one at a time, letting excess drip off. Place them on a tray lined with a sheet of wax paper or parchment, to let set. Next, melt white chocolate in same manner as semisweet. Once smooth, pour into a decorating bag, or a small plastic baggie. I used a baggie, because I wanted something small to work with. Snip off the corner, or tip of bag, then drizzle over your strawberries. Place them in refrigerator to allow to set entirely.

Set your oven to 350 degrees, and prep your cupcake trays. Combine dry ingredients, and set aside. Put egg whites in a clean, dry bowl, fitted with a whisk attachment. beat egg whites until foamy. Add 2 tbsp of sugar, and increase speed to medium high. Continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Remove mixer bowl and pour whipped whites into a separate bowl, and set aside. 

Wash and dry your mixer bowl and replace in mixer. Combine yolks, remaining sugar (1 c plus 6 tbsp), oil, and vanilla. Mix with paddle attachment until combined. Add half of the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add champagne, mix until combined, then add remaining dry ingredients.

Using a rubber spatula, fold 1/3 of whites into batter. This is to lighten it up. Add remaining whites and fold in gently, being careful not to deflate batter. 

Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 full, then bake for 14 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean,  and cupcakes are golden brown. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then cool on wire rack. While cupcakes cool, prepare your syrup, if desired. 

For syrup, bring water and sugar to rolling boil, whisking constantly. Boil for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and add champagne. Use silicone basting brush to brush syrup over cupcakes. If desired, repeat the basting about 5 minutes later.

Remove your strawberries from the refrigerator, then prepare your ganache.  Put chopped chocolate in small glass bowl, and set aside. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil, then pour over chocolate. Let sit for 30 seconds, then whisk in small circles, starting in the middle of bowl, and working towards the outside. Add butter, one 1 piece at a time and continue to whisk until combined. 

Take your cooled cupcake and dip only the top into the ganache. Let excess drip off, then put back on cooling rack. Grab a chocolate covered strawberry and place on cupcake. After a few minutes the strawberry's chocolate will meld into the ganache and you are all set!!

Enjoy!