Mocha Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Ingredients

CRUST:

2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (about 32 wafers)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

FILLING:

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon instant coffee granules

3 packages (8 ounces each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (6 ounces) miniature semisweet chocolate chips, divided

Directions

In a large bowl, combine crumbs and sugar; stir in butter.
Press onto the bottom and 2 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan; set aside.

*for the cupcake variation, just put the crumb mix into the cupcake tins and mash them into the bottom, for this I use a bent spoon.

In a small saucepan, combine cream and coffee granules; cook and stir until granuals are dissolved let stand for 1 minute.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add flour and beat well. Add eggs, beating on low speed just until combined.

Add coffee mix to cream cheese mixture with vanilla; beat just until combined. Stir in 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Pour into crust. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.
Bake at 325° for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight.

*Tips:

-Let your eggs and cream cheese set out for about an hour to allow 

them to become room temperature before using them.

-I use Oreo cookies for the crumb crust. 

Just open the cookies and scrape out the cream and crush the wafers.

Vanilla Coconut Nest Cupcakes

Ingredients

12 tablespoons (about 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 large egg whites (3/4 cup)

3/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups flaked coconut

2 Jumbo sized cupcake pans with liners

Directions

preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Combine egg whites, milk and vanilla extract. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to butter mixture then add half the milk mixture. Continue to alternate beginning and ending with flour mixture. add coconut  Scrape bowl and beater often. Pour batter into prepared pans and smooth top with a metal spatula [I use a bent back spoon though for cupakes]. Bake cupcakes about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean. Cool in pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn pop cupcakes out and cool completely. 

Icing:

2 sticks butter, room temperature

8 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla or coconut extract

DIRECTIONS:

In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream softened butter and add 4 cups sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat with paddle attachment until smooth gradually add the rest of sugar to reach frosting consistency.

Instructions for the top decorations on the iced cupcakes. [This is optional]

1 cup of flaked coconut

5 drops of GREEN food coloring

1 small container of malted robin eggs or jelly beans

*Place the coconut into a large bowl, drop 5 drops of coloring over the top of the coconut. Stir until  all the drops have been absorbed. At this point you should have green "grass". Pinch a small amount of the colored coconut over the top of each iced cupcake. Now you can move on to the "eggs".. For mine I have used malted Robin's Eggs. Place about 3 on each one. 

Coconut Cream Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

1pkg. yellow cake mix

2-2/3cups  BAKER'S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut (7 oz. pkg.), divided

Filling:

1pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1can  (11 oz.) coconut milk

DIRECTIONS:

HEAT oven to 350°F.

PREPARE cake batter as directed on package; stir in 2/3 cup coconut. Spoon into paper-lined muffin cups.

BAKE 20 to 25 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pans 10 min.; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

MEANWHILE, beat pudding mix and coconut milk in large bowl with whisk 2 min. (Pudding will be thick.) Refrigerate until ready to assemble cupcakes.

*You can use an apple corer or a cupcake corer to do this*

Press the corer into the center of the cupcake. Twist gently and pull out the center piece of cake.

Fill a piping bag with your mixture, cut off the tip so you have about a 1cm opening.

(or you can use a piping bag and tip)

Pipe the mixture into the cupcake just until it reaches the top.

Icing:

2 sticks butter, room temperature

8 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla or coconut extract

DIRECTIONS:

In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream softened butter and add 4 cups sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat with paddle attachment until smooth gradually add the rest of sugar to reach frosting consistency.

Finally, We have piped the icing on our cupcakes here but you can spread it on if you feel more comfortable doing so.