Cupcakes and Cheesecakes | Just About Baked

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Copycat Georgetown Cupcakes (Chocolate Ganache)

As you may know if you read my blog with any regularity, I reside in the incomparable DC/Metro area. I didn’t grow up here, but as soon as I moved to our nation’s capital, I knew it was home, at least for a while. My favorite thing to do is just roam around the city, sometimes for hours. Someday I’ll write more about that.

DC is known for many tourist attractions, like monuments and museums. But a few years back, our humble city also became famous for…cupcakes.

Yep, Georgetown Cupcake, the famous pink-infused cupcake chain, hasn’t slowed down since the day it opened! I wasn’t even aware of its existence until a colleague’s son was on the camera crew for TLC’s DC Cupcakes, a reality show about the store. Suddenly, pink boxes began coming into the office because the camera crew got extras left over at the end of the day. Believe me, I was grateful!
Anyway, since that time, I’ve been to Georgetown Cupcake many times, and it’s a happy and cheerful place. Even better, the owners share their recipes with everyone! This one is a favorite of mine, their chocolate ganache.

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White Chocolate Cheesecake

Being a baking blogger can come with certain challenges. Among them are:

1) Several epic fails while testing out recipes

2) Taking bad pictures of delicious food

3) Getting sticky residue on every available kitchen surface

4) Turning down a night out because you need to wait for dough to rise

5) Figuring out how to share all of your baked goods

6) Constantly thinking of new ideas for recipes

And, my challenge of the week:

7) Sharing a recipe when the subject (in this case, a cheesecake) was a gift to another person, thereby preventing me from taking pictures of a sliced version and making you drool.

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S’more Brownie Cupcakes

June 23, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
11 Comments

Camp starts next week. Thanks be to all the powers above. I’m totally destroyed.

Listen, I love being a mom. But part-time mommyhood is kind of my thing. I need to be elsewhere during the day to fully appreciate all of the stuff my kids pull, like covering the walls in sidewalk chalk or leaving raisins all over the house like animal droppings. I wish I were strong enough to handle them 24/7, but I’m just not.

Summer is a great wake-up call for me about my job and why I love it. I get to be an at-home mom for two months while not teaching, and then I can fully appreciate being with my kids all day. But man, is it ever the most exhausting job in the world. That’s why we need cupcakes!

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Candy Bar Cheesecake

I’m on summer break now. Translation: Camp Mommy has started! We survived day one. My son, forever sick these days, spent the day snoozing at my parents’ house while I had adventures with the girls.

We went to a Mommy and Me at a local outdoor shopping square, and I have to be honest. It was pretty uneventful. There was a stage where a bunch of mothers were singing along to a CD player blaring “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” The rest of the square was littered with local vendors trying to lure us into their stores. That was slightly more appealing, but I couldn’t justify walking into adorable boutiques with breakable items while I was dragging sticky people around.

By the time we got home, I was having a major sugar craving. Luckily, this cheesecake was at the ready in my freezer. I made it a couple of weeks ago, served half of it to guests, ate a couple of slices, and froze the rest. And boy, has it been coming in handy for those hot tired days when you come home ready to collapse!

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Skinnier Cheesecake Bars

June 13, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes, Healthier Indulgences
8 Comments

There are certain facts of life that are indisputable, so here are a few:

1) A perfect nap is harder to find than a good life partner.

2) Summer dresses are the best part of being a girl.

3) Beaches are magical.

4) Even if it sucks, you have to sweat every day to feel good.

5) Cheesecake is the best and worst dessert of all time.

What was that last observation?

I love cheesecake. LOVE it. Most people do, you know. But when you see how much gets loaded into the batter, it’s kind of sad. Because all that deliciousness usually comes at quite a price, health-wise. Fat? Check. Calories? Check. Indigestion? Double check.

But fear not! You don’t have to drop cheesecake from your repertoire. These bars do the trick quite nicely and you will never know they’re skinny!

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Double Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I’m on a peanut butter kick, people. Just roll with it. It’s Sunday!

One peanut butter cup is never enough. Have you noticed that? You eat one and then this force overtakes you and controls your mind, telling you that nothing will satisfy you until you eat another peanut butter cup. Or several.

Can you relate? Can you tell I’m an addict?

That’s why I decided that for these cupcakes, there need to be two peanut butter cups involved. One for you, and the other for…you. The peanut butter cake and peanut butter chocolate and buttercream are nice, too. You may feel like you’ve had almost enough by the time you’re through with these. But no guarantees out there in life, people.

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Peanut Butter Cup Cheesepake

April 30, 2014
Mir
Cupcakes and Cheesecakes, Pakes and Pookies, Pie Day
6 Comments

No, that’s not a typo. Remember my obsession with pake, the pie-cake hybrid? Well, the love continues with this cheesecake in a pie crust. Behold the cheesepake!

This one is special, folks. While I say I don’t like to play favorites with my desserts, this one is too good for me to lie about. It’s ridiculous. If you’re a peanut butter and chocolate addict, making this cheesepake is not even optional. Get into your kitchen. Now!

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Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes

April 28, 2014
Mir
Cakes, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes, Let Them Eat Cake
4 Comments

My baby is two! I can’t believe it. And I know that’s something everyone says, but really, my youngest is tiny. She’s very small for her age and always has been, so I am a little shocked every time I realize how old she’s getting.

Despite her smallness, my daughter can really eat. Every day when I get home from work, she looks at me and says, full of hope, “Want chocolate.” And you know what? I give it to her. Because I totally understand her, and because she’s cute. And because she’ll throw a mean tantrum if I don’t. That’s good parenting in action, people.

So for her birthday, I took the most intense chocolate cake recipe I could think of and made cupcakes out of it. Minnie Mouse cupcakes, to be exact. Because the only thing my daughter loves as much as chocolate is Minnie Mouse.

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Skinny Oreo Cheesecake

March 26, 2014
Mir
Cupcakes and Cheesecakes, Healthier Indulgences
4 Comments

Okay, I admit it. I’m going heavy on the Oreos this week. After eating all the cookies and cream bark, my cravings just intensified. But I wanted to be somewhat healthy, so here we go!

Cheesecake is exciting. I used to go to the Cheesecake Factory and inhale giant slices of peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake. It was really awesome until they stopped making it. Oh yeah, and until they posted their nutrition information. All of a sudden, I was horrified.

Okay, I know cheesecake is not a health food. Duh. So now and then, of course I’ll indulge. But I have to have cheesecake more often than “now and then,” so that’s why I decided to make this cheesecake.

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Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Cupcakes

March 21, 2014
Mir
C is for COOKIE!, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
2 Comments

When I was a young and inexperienced baker trying to make up recipes, I didn’t have much success. I mean, I was 15. The process of creaming butter with sugar was a completely terrifying prospect. And whipping egg whites until stiff peaks form? I still remember doing it by hand one day. It worked, but I was traumatized.

Now, many years and one Kitchen Aid mixer later, I am much wiser. But I still remember fondly the recipes that were not epic fails when I was just starting out. And one in particular that I kept making time and time again were these cookie cupcakes. Because they worked. And because they were actually delicious.

These are peanut buttery without being too sweet or over-the-top intense. They remind me of classic peanut butter cookies: same flavor, same happy nostalgic feel, same need for the glass of milk. But there’s more in each serving, more to bite into. The middle is nice and soft while the edges are chewy. And best of all, they have that Reese’s cup in the middle.