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Mandaly

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I am entirely incompetent when it comes to baking. My sisters birthday is coming up and I would like to combine her two favorite desserts, red velvet cupcakes and cheesecake. I can handle the boxed mix for the cupcakes, but I'd like to put a chunk of cheesecake into the middle of the cupcakes and I don't think I am capable of actually making a cheesecake. So my question is if I were to buy a cheesecake, cut it up, and stick it into the middle of the batter, would the cheesecake be destroyed in the cupcakes baking process? And if so, can anyone suggest alternative solutions. Thanks in advance!
 
Hi Mandaly

Thank you for your not so absurd question.

I love the concept that you are combining your sisters two favourite things and trying to create something fun for her. In answer to your question, I am assuming that you would be wanting to put a chunk of cheesecake including the base of the cheesecake into the centre of the muffin mix and then bake it. I'm not sure how well the biscuit base of the cheesecake will fair in your oven even though it is surrounded by muffin mix, that's because biscuits cook relatively quickly and harden when removed from the oven and being effectively baked twice may not have the greatest effect on them; however, you could do a small batch and a trial run and see how it turns out.

I have previously made Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins whereby the cheesecake centre was effectively the top cheese part of the cheesecake this is really easy to make just by mixing Philadelphia (Cream Cheese) together with Caster sugar, I then added a little piece of strawberry in the centre.

If you wanted to try it this way you would:
1. Make your muffin mix.
2. Place a spoonful of muffin mix into your cake case.
3. Now scoop a little cheesecake mix (Philadelphia and Caster Sugar) and place it in the centre of your muffin mix in the case. I also added a little piece of strawberry here too).
4. Then you would add another spoonful of muffin mix over the top to cover the cheesecake mix in the middle.
5. You would then bake in your oven.

Another alternative is to make the red velvet cupcakes, frost the top of the cupcakes using cream cheese/sugar topping and then cut your pre-made cheesecake into pieces and place chunks on the top of the cake rather than inside it that way she gets the best of both.

If you need any further help, recipes, ingredients or weights of items, please let me know.

Good luck. :D


Angie
 
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Thank you! I love the idea of putting the cheesecake bits on the top because it sounds delicious, unfortunately though it doesn't really work with my plan. My intention is to make two types of cupcakes (for those who don't like red velvet that attend her party), and I'm going to lay them out in a way so they form one giant cupcake. Being that red velvet is much darker, I want to use it for the portion of the cupcake cake that represents the wrapper as opposed to the icing if that makes sense.

------o
-----o o
---o o o o
-o o o o o o <- ICING ^
--o o o o o <- Wrapper
---o o o o
----o o o

Each circle representing one cupcake, if my explanation didn't make sense. Putting the cheesecake on the top would alter the appearance, but I'll definitely keep that in mind if I choose to do something similar again! After putting some though into the last couple days, I'm considering maybe just cutting a hole out from the top down after they're already baked, and putting the chunk inside and putting the top back on. Although if all it takes to make a cheesecake filling is Philadelphia and some sugar, maybe I can handle that!

The only icing I have experience in making is buttercream however, so I intended to do the tops of all of them that way. I know typically when my sister has them, her red velvet has the cream cheese frosting you mentioned also, so would buttercream on a red velvet cheesecake cupcake not taste very good? Should I definitely make two icings?

Thanks so much for your response, I'm totally a noob at this so I appreciate the help!
 
I love the fact you are putting a lot of thought into this treat for your sister and for all the people attending the party, and yes, I understand the concept of making a large cupcake. Are you doing it 2D whereby they would all be laid flat on the table to form the large cupcake or are you doing it 3D?

If you want to cut a hole in the cupcakes you can use what is known as a cupcake corer, these are very cheap and can be bought from a cake shop, Amazon or eBay etc.; you can also use an apple corer too if you wanted. It looks like this; cylindrical with a serrated bottom which is inserted into the cake...

1.
HMB Corer.jpg


Basically, all you do is hold it under the frilled edge with your index finger and thumb, press it into your cupcake and then start rotating it in a back and forth motion until you reach your desired depth, if you look at the green arrows you will see lines on the corer, these indicate how much of your cake you are removing. Once your desired line on the corer lines up with the top of your cupcake stop rotating.

2.
cupcake corer (11).jpg


To remove the cored centre simply rotate slightly upwards and pull the corer out slowly and it will pull the cake with it leaving a hole in the middle of the cupcake.

3.
Cupcake Corer (2).jpg



This is where you would add your desired filling either your chunk of cheesecake, just the cheesecake topper (cream cheese & sugar - alternative cheesecake toppings can also include a little vanilla essence, cream or condensed milk too).

4.
Cupcake Corer (6).jpg


Then when you have added your filling place the piece of cupcake back in the centre by pushing the spring section in the middle of the corer. You will find that you have to trim a little of your centre cupcake piece as your filling has taken it's space, therefore, push down slowly on the corer just so the cored cake is showing, slice along the end of the corer to remove a little of the cake and then place back over your cupcake and push in fully, thus hiding your filling.

5.
Cupcake Corer (4).jpg



This is what your cored cake will look like when it is finished.

I would use a corer as that way you know that each cake will have the same amount of filling and you won't end up with broken cupcakes after hacking into them with a knife. I'm not saying that you will it's just that sometimes cupcakes can crumble and I don't want that to happen although if it did you can make cake pops with it so it wouldn't matter! :wink:

With regards to using buttercream on the red velvet cakes that's fine, buttercream holds its shape better, and you can pipe much easier with it.

My only concern for you is that you don't add too many flavours to the cupcakes, I'm not sure what other flavour cupcakes you are doing, maybe do some plain Victoria or Vanilla Cupcakes as a contrast to your red velvet. I know you may buy the pre-made mix ones, but if you get chance I have this Victoria Cupcake Tutorial, these are really easy to make and do taste delicious.


You're most welcome on the help; I hope the above makes sense if it doesn't let me know. :D

I bet they'll be great when they are done.
 
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Wow, thank you, I will definitely look for one of those corers around town! I appreciate the detailed explanation. And I just intend to do it 2D, laying flat to appear like a sheet cake.

Thank you also for the tutorial! I'm going to take a look at that and see how complicated it is. When it comes to baking it doesn't take much to baffle me, haha, but I was always intending use a plainer type of cupcake like vanilla and I heard that I could use a small tip on a piping bag to squirt something inside it, just haven't decided what yet. My mother makes an icing using pudding, where she replaces the milk with whipping cream, so I was considering that though it may be too thick to squirt in there, I'm not sure. Although with that corer idea that could open up several options. But just the two cupcake flavours, half and half.

As far as the top icing goes it's just going to be plain old buttercream though, since I intend to dye it. I have some of those really bright wilton dyes so I can get creative. Also giving me the opportunity to make the top cupcake red like a cherry, lol.

Thank you again! You've been a great help.
 
You're welcome; I promise the tutorial is easy and has pictures and a step by step account when you're brave enough give it a go you might surprise yourself. :wink:

Yeah the small tipped nozzle you are talking about to insert filling directly into the cupcake is called a Bismark Nozzle, it looks like this.

Bismark Nozzle (1).JPG


All you do is push the nozzle into the top of the cupcake and squirt straight in as long as your filling has a soft consistency then you shouldn't have any problems squirting it in the cupcake.

I'm not sure if you have used dyes before but here is a quick tip. Only use a tiny amount each time you add into your buttercream, basically dip a cocktail stick into the concentrated dye and then swirl around your buttercream it won't look much, but the dyes are concentrated, and the colour goes really far with only the tiniest amount of dye used. Remember, you can always add-in, but you can't take out.

Also, see how to use concentrated food dye for further help.

 
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