Lemon Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

The LCBO Food & Drink magazine brings culinary creations to life in such a dazzling way that you simply must see it for yourself, if you can. The popular (free!) magazines come out seasonally at LCBO stores, usually to quite a bit of fanfare, and disappear quickly. The publication's photographers are truly artists, which makes it a treat to read - and makes it all the more tempting to try the suggested recipes!

We made the Lemon Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (found on Canadian Baker Too's blog) as the grande finale to our summertime backyard meal (see post below). They took quite a bit of work but oh my goodness they are one of the best (tastiest and prettiest) desserts we've ever made.

Lemon Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Note: we made 8 cupcakes by cutting the recipe in half. The recipe below has the full ingredient amounts.

1/2 package Dare Simple Pleasures "Lemon Social Tea" Biscuits --> we had to use a different brand, but try to stick with Dare to make measurements easier

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 packages cream cheese

1/2 cup strawberry jam

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 to 1 cup lemon curd (recipe follows)

6 strawberries (fresh is best)

• Line muffin tins with papers.
• Place eggs in small bowl and cover with hot water to warm them up. Set aside.
• To prepare the crust, put the lemon tea cookies in a food processor. Blend until the cookies are fine crumbs. You should have about 1 cup. Add melted butter and stir until evenly coated.
• Divide crumb mixture equally between cupcake liners, pressing the crumbs firmly into the bottoms of the cups.
• Wipe the crumbs out of the food processor.
• Combine cream cheese, eggs, jam, sugar, and vanilla in food processor. Spoon this batter into the cupcake cups, on top of the crumb crust.
• Bake in preheated 375 F oven for 20 minutes, or until just set. Ours cracked a little - but don't worry, the lemon curd covers any cracks that may appear.
• Cool the cupcakes on a rack. Cover and store in fridge until chilled.
• Top with lemon curd and a strawberry slice.

Tea biscuits about to be turned into dust...

The next food processor combo is about to turn a lovely shade of pink.

Graham-cracker-esque crust made with lemon social teas.

A few cracks appeared on the cheesecake tops. Don't worry if this happens to you too!

Lemon curd adds major glamour to these creamy cupcakes.

Lemon Curd

We also cut this recipe in half. The full recipe, which makes 2 cups, follows.

4 lemons

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup softened butter

• Squeeze the juice out of the lemons until you have 3/4 cup of juice.
• Stir eggs with 1 cup sugar in small pot. Whisk in lemon juice. Add softened butter.
• Using a whisk, stir constantly for 10 - 12 minutes while lemon mixture cooks over medium heat. It should get thicker and a little darker. Do not let it boil!
• Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl if you'd like, and place plastic wrap directly on surface of the lemon curd. Cool and store in fridge.

Keep stirring!

Prepared lemon curd will keep for over a week in the refrigerator.

Or, freeze it and it will stay good for several months.

Chocolate Cheesecake Tartlets

Happy Sweet Sixteen Lisa!!!!!

The season of birthdays drew to a close as we celebrated Lisa's super sweet sixteen! This monumental birthday had to be rung in with something sweet, of course. Lisa's pick: Chocolate Cheesecake Tartlets, out of the Better Homes & Gardens "The Ultimate Cookie Book" (we made a few adjustments). These bite-sized tarts held just the right enough of sweetness to match Lisa's super sweetness.

We were a little pressed for time, so we resorted to buying mini tarts from the grocery store. We recommend that you also just buy them. It would be kind of fun to make the pastry, but dealing with such tiny tart cups would probably be a little tricky... we won't spill your secret!

If you use the pre-made pastry, these are actually a really easy treat to whip up in short order.

Chocolate Cheesecake Tartlets

Cheat and use packaged mini-tarts --> 2 packages of 18, for a total of 36 tartlets

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese (equivalent to 1 cup), softened

3 oz bittersweet chocolate (1/2 cup chocolate chips), melted and cooled

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

4 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoons vanilla

Whipped cream

Chocolate shavings

• In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and chocolate together until combined. Note: we used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of bittersweet chocolate. Things worked out. Beat in sugar, egg yolks, milk, and vanilla.
• Spoon a rounded teaspoon of the filling into (uncooked) tarts. Arrange tarts on baking sheets.
• Bake 18 minutes or until crusts are golden and filling is set. Let stand for 10 minutes before removing tarts from pan. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. The puffy centers will deflate a little.
• A few minutes before serving, top each tart with whipped cream and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

The birthday girl!

Batter on the beaters.

Tarts spread out on the baking sheets.

The chocolate centers deflate when they cool.

Don't worry, any cracks will be covered up by the whipped cream.

Pretty!

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Lisa's swim team is AMAZING!!! Shout-out to the top synchro team in the province!

Our resident swimmer is also obviously a baker extraordinaire and had made these brownies once before. At the request of a teammate celebrating her sweet sixteen, Lisa decided to make them again. Except a stellar showing in the provincial duet competition kept her out a little late the night before the big birthday. Amy jumped in and started things off. Team effort!

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

This recipe (slightly modified) came from one of our new favorite cookbooks: "The Ultimate Cookie Book" from the Better Homes and Gardens series.

1 cup chocolate chips --> original recipe called for a mix of unsweetened and semisweet... we used all semisweet

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 1/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 package (8 oz = 250 g) cream cheese

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups raspberries --> frozen worked for us, but fresh is probably better

1 tablespoon sugar

• In small pot, melt together chocolate and butter over low heat. Stir gently, until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool (we're a little impatient and stuck the pot in the freezer to speed things up).
• Whisk 1 1/4 cups sugar and 3 of the 4 eggs (one at a time) into the melted chocolate. Stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla and salt, then add flour and stir until just combined.
• Grease and flour 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Spread chocolate batter into pan and set aside.
• In medium bowl, mix together cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar (it helps to soften the cream cheese... let it warm up a bit). Beat in lemon juice, the last egg, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat in the flour.
• Scoop cheesecake batter into pan, spreading evenly over the chocolate layer. Top with raspberries. Sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake for 35 minutes in a pre-heated over at 350 F. Remove from oven when top is puffed and edges start to turn golden brown. Cool in pan. Cover and chill for 6 hours. Cut into bars.
• Store in refrigerator.

Check out that chocolate!

Make sure the greased pan is coated in flour...

You want to be able to remove the brownies from the pan!

The layers come together...

A field of frozen raspberries.

Enjoy!