What can't you do with cream cheese?

 

 

I don't know why I do these things, I wish I had some kind of pithy anecdote to share with you on the deeper meaning behind why I choose to cook things, but sometimes random is how I interact with the kitchen. There is no other reason for why I started this experiment other than the cat lady was coming over and I thought she might like cream cheese

Specifically cream cheese in the middle of a little red velvet cupcake. This might have been a bit of therapy for me actually. I'd had a really hard Samaritans duty the night before that finished at 2:30am and then I and the universe conspired to only allow my mind to dwell on nice things. As we drove home that night, we passed the gates of Bushy park as a huge herd of deer were patiently crossing the road, one behind the other. We stopped the car and I got out to watch them for a bit and they looked at me as if to say "What are you lookin' at?" It was unexpected and oddly peaceful. The next day Rusty and I went for a picnic in Richmond park and walked around isabella plantation.

More pretty and calming things. Having regressed to the psychological state of a well medicated 50's housewife, I decided to bake. I haven't really gone in for the whole things in things with cake deal before but got it in my head to try a cheesecake stuffed red velvet cupcake, which is your cakey picture above ...obviously.

I've posted my cake recipe before, red velvet cake is basically that with about 4 tablespoons of red food colour and 1/4 of cocoa. The cheesecake centre was a bit of an experiment but I went for 300g of cream cheese with 1/2 cup of caster sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla, mixed those things together and then put blobs of it in the bottom of patty cases before covering them in red velvet batter and baking them for 15 mins. The cream cheese buttercream is basically 300g cream cheese, 125g soft butter, 2 cups icing sugar and the trick here is to not over beat the buttercream otherwise it goes too liquid, add some vanilla for flavour and you're done. They freeze really well so we could pace ourselves and they are pretty moreish. Cat lady had no complaints at any rate.

My next cream cheese experiment was with another tried and tested recipe, it was my brownie recipe with a cheesecake swirl on the top. I am a really bad blogger and I haven't actually given you my brownie recipe before so here goes. This one is fool proof and the brownies are proper chocolatey, not too sweet and for those who don't like nuts in their brownies, they're perfect. I've been making this one for nearly 10 years now and people get obsessive about it.

Get 200g of good dark chocolate and slowly melt it with 200g of unsalted butter. Let it cool to body temperature before you go adding it to anything eggy, I recommend that you start with this bit of the recipe first for that reason. As your chocolate butter pool is cooling slightly, beat 3 eggs with 1 and 1/4 cups of caster sugar. Ah beating eggs, there's something strangely cathartic about it, knowing they can never beat you!

Once you've wrought vengance over your eggs, sift in 2/3 of a cup of plain flour and 1/2 of a cup of cocoa then add your chocolate butter mix. If you're making normal brownies then add 2/3 of a cup of white chocolate chips and 2/3 of a cup of milk chocolate chips, but if you're going on a cheesecake experiment then ina separate bowl get 300g of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, vanilla, one egg, beat them together.

Get 9 inch square or rectangular pan, line it with baking paper, for normal brownies pour in your brownie mix, spread evenly in the pan and bake for 35 mins at 170 degrees. For crazy cheesecake brownies, spread 2/3 of your brownie mix in the pan and spread evenly, pour on your cheesecake mix and then dot the remaining brownie mix over the top, attempt to swirl the brownie mix and cheesecake mix artistically, give up and then sprinkle over some chocolate chips and pretend that what now looks like a brownie and a cheesecake were involved in a high speed crash was intentional on some level. Bake for 35 mins and then chill before serving.

It looks unholy but it tastes amazing. Would be great if you needed to make some kind of treat for work because your boss has just come back from leave and started a new job and you didn't get to make her cake before she left coz it was lent. I'm sure there are other scenarios where a cheesecake brownie might be called for also. See how you go.