Labbits Like: Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake

The name might suggest she's Irish, but Clover's actually from Milwaukee, WI. With no Irish heritage, Clover feels her celebration of St. Patrick's Day is free to be completely non-traditional. No corned beef and cabbage on the menu here at the warren (well, okay, labbits kinda like cabbage). Her soda bread is spotted with raisins (traditional soda bread has only 4 ingredients and none of them are raisins) and although she eats her soda bread with real Irish cheddar, she's not sure the Irish were into cheesecake.

Clover swore she had three bottles of Baileys. Have you seen a missing bottle? She knows Doddy Blue's into whiskey, not Baileys...

Clover enjoys Baileys Irish Cream - in her coffee, over some ice cream - so why not in some cheesecake? She took a basic cheesecake recipe and added some Baileys. Result?

Well, based off licking the batter from the whisk, it's amazing. Will you be celebrating with a traditional Irish feast today? Or are your culinary leanings more towards food dyed green and green beer? Whatever your tastes, Clover wishes anyone with a bit of Irish blood a Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Click here for a printable recipe.

It's a lot of Cabot products, but Clover's not sponsored. :)

Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake

Ingredients:
12 graham crackers
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 8oz packages of Neufchatel Cheese or Cream Cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups light sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup Baileys Irish Cream liqueur
Unsweetened cocoa powder

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees. Grease a 9" springform pan and set aside. In a food processor, mix together the graham crackers and butter until crackers are finely ground.

Press crumbs into the bottom and along the sides of the pan. Put the prepared pan into the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the cheesecake.

In a large bowl, cream together the cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each egg to ensure the batter is well mixed. Mix in the sour cream, vanilla extract and Baileys Irish Cream.

Gently pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Bake in oven at 350°F for 45 minutes or until the edges pull away from the pan and the center is still slightly jiggly. Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack to allow the cake to cool down. When the cake and pan has cooled down (this may take a few hours) cover with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

Serve with a dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Yields: one 9" cheesecake, 8 - 12 slices

To freeze: Do not freeze your cheesecake with any toppings. Instead top the cheesecake when thawed and ready to serve. Slice the cooled cake with a spatula. Carefully transfer slices to a cookie sheet covered with parchment or wax paper and place in the freezer for an hour. Once the slices have frozen, wrap each slice in heavy duty foil or plastic wrap, and store in a freezer bag with the date. Slices will be good for three weeks. To serve, thaw in the refrigerator overnight, or on the counter for 30 minutes.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

...make Lemon Pound Cake! Sadly, Pipkin's most recent baking adventure resulted in a mushy, gloopy mess. He'll have to give it another try, but that particular cake was for a party and Pipkin needed to bake another cake right away. He had a lot of lemons so...Lemon Pound Cake sounded good, with a lemon glaze and lemon zest. A big dollop of whip cream and some berries on top and Pipkin's already forgotten about...was there something to forget about? Click here for a printable recipe.

Lemon Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze
Cake Ingredients:
1 cup butter, plus more for the pan
3 cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
3/4 low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs

Lemon Glaze Ingredients:
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
Up to 2 cups of confectioners' sugar

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°F, with rack in the lowest position. Grease and lightly flour a 12 cup bundt pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. With mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three parts alternating with the buttermilk mixture in two part, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until just smooth, but do not overmix.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, for 50 - 60 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the lemon glaze, slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar into the lemon juice until you reach the desired consistency, which should be thick, but pourable. Pour slowly over cooled cake. Before the glaze dries, sprinkle cake with lemon zest. Serve after glaze has hardened, and keep in an airtight container.

Yield: One 12 cup bundt cake pan, 12-24 slices, depending on how big you like your slices!

Labbit Cakepops: Valentine's Day Edition

The labbits made cakepops for Valentine's Day gifts. The holiday calls for red, of course. The color of labbit lurve. Click here to find out how to make these yourself!

Think of those you love today, even if they are far away or no longer with you. <3

All wrapped up and ready for gifting!

You can find clear plastic treat bags at a crafts store. Secure with ribbon or a shiny twist tie.

Dat tail! Marshmallow cuteness. I know you wanna bite it!

DIY: Labbit Cake Pops

In the past the labbits have made a labbit shaped carrot cake, snow labbits (a couple times, here and here), labbit butt cookies...it seems the labbits are really into...themselves. This past weekend, Ted got ambitious and decided to try making labbit cake pops. What's a cake pop? It's a small cake on a stick, and they're oh so cute! Ted learned a lot from his first attempt at making cake pops, most important is that you should get the hang of making simple cake pops before getting into something elaborate like a shaped labbit. His labbits came out a bit lumpier than he would have liked, and if he had practiced first, maybe these guys would have come out nice enough to give away as gifts. (Hmmm, or did he do it on purpose so he could keep them all to himself? Nom nom nom!)

You might want to go with box cake and store bought frosting because if you are experimenting for the first time, you might not want to invest the time and money making your own cake and frosting from scratch. If you're quite confident or have all day, then hey, go for cake from scratch!

Ted was disappointed in the edible ink pens he bought from Wilton. They didn't write well at all! Bakerella likes to use Americolor brand edible ink pens, so Ted will have to try making cake pops again using those pens. Looking at Bakerella's cake pops, the ink goes on so deep and rich and smooth, just like drawing with a Sharpie! (Okay, so Bakerella is THE expert on cake pops and she's been doing it for years, but still, Ted's going to blame at least some of this on not having the right tools.)

Look for Americolor Edible Ink Pens. These two options did not work well.

Well, enough complaining about how they didn't come out perfect, they're still pretty cute and they're quite tasty! If you give these a try, take a photo and share it with the labbits on their facebook page. You can print out a text version of the recipe (without all the cute, adorable pictures, sigh) here. Here's how Ted (and Pipkin's little brother Pipsqueak) made them:

Happy Labbit & Smorkin' Labbit Cake Pops

Some of the supplies you'll need. Note: those treat bags are too small, you'll need bigger ones.

You'll need a 9"x13" prepared cake, cooled, and some cake frosting.

What you'll need:
1 9"x13"cake, baked and cooled, any flavor (Ted made dark chocolate)
Cake Frosting, any flavor (Ted used dark chocolate)
6" Candy sticks (Ted found these in the cake decorating section of a craft store)
Candy melts, white
Mini marshmallows
Raw almonds, unsalted
Raw peanuts, unsalted or lightly salted
Chocolate cake/cookie icing
Icing tip (Ted used Wilton tip #14)
Box of candy cigarettes
Edible Cake Decorating Pen (try Americolor brand. The Wilton brand pens were terrible)
Cellophane treat bags
Twine, twist ties, or ribbon
Block of foam and saran wrap

Preparation:

In a food processor, crumble the prepared cake until you get fine crumbs.

From this...

...to this.

Clean those paws, it's time to mush some cake! Place the crumbs in a large bowl and add in frosting, a little at a time, and mix into your crumbled cake. You want a texture that will form cake balls, but isn't too wet and sticky. It should still be able to crumble. Ted started with 1/4 cup of frosting, and then added another 1/8 cup. Play around with the amount until you get a texture that holds together but is moldable. Working with clean paws (or hands, as the case may be) allows you to get a sense of whether the dough will hold together or not.

Pipsqueak is our muse. Try to roll your labbit bodies smoother than Ted has done.

Use a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to measure out your dough, and roll the cake mixture into an oval shape with your clean paws for the labbit body. Set aside on a cookie sheet.

Pipsqueak models the nutty features of the labbit cake pop.

Here's what the cake pop looks like before dipping.

For the ears, gently push an almond into the labbit body. Repeat, for the second ear. For labbit feet, gently push a peanut into the bottom of the labbit body. Repeat for each foot. When you dip these labbits into the candy melts, you'll be dipping them upside down. This means you'll want to reinforce the almond ears so they don't fall into the hot candy melt.

Melt a small amount of candy melts according to the directions on the package. You can melt them in the microwave or in a double boiler.  Dip the end of the almond into the candy melt, then insert into the hole you made in the body. It's like gluing the ear into place!

Doddy Blue took one look and said it looks like a cold, brutal, medieval death sentence.

Next, take your lollipop sticks, dip the ends into the candy melts, and gently insert them into the labbit bodies, about 2/3 of the way through. Again, the candy melts act as a glue for the lolly sticks. Stand the cake pops on a foam block wrapped in saran wrap, and pop the tray into the refrigerator to firm up for about 60 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of your ingredients.

Snap the candy cigarettes into 1" pieces. These will be the smorks. Cut the mini marshmallows in half. These will be labbit tails. Melt the remaining candy melts in a double boiler or in the microwave. Pour the melted icing into a bowl that will allow your pop to be fully submerged while dipped, at least 2" deep.

Gently tap off excess candy melt.

Carefully dip each cake pop fully into the candy melts, including a bit of the stick. Gently spin or tap the cake pop to allow excess candy melt to drip off. While still wet, stick on a half mini marshmallow for a tail.

For a smorkin' labbit, dip the end of the candy cigarette into the labbit's face low and to the side. Remove the candy cigarette, dip, then reinsert the candy cigarette into the labbit and add the marshmallow tail. Stand the dipped cake pop into the foam tray. Repeat for all labbits. Pop the tray once more into the refrigerator and leave them to set.

Once they've set, you can draw on the eyes, stubble and buttholes with your edible ink pen. Pipsqueak couldn't get the Wilton pens to write very well, so Ted hopped out and got him some black gel icing. Pipsqueak dipped a toothpick into the icing and drew on the eyes, stubble and buttholes. Don't forget the signature Kozik K for the smorkin' labbits!

For mustaches, attach an icing tip to your tube of cake frosting or your piping bag. Draw on a mustache, and allow to set.

If you're giving these away, you can wrap each in a cellophane bag and secure with a bit of ribbon or a twist tie. Store in an airtight container in a single layer. ENJOY!!

Yield: One 9"x13" cake will make about 20 1.5" labbit cake pops. 

Labbits Like: Chocolate Orange Zucchini Bread

Just look at this moist, chocolatey slice of goodness that Pipkin's munching on! Can you believe it's zucchini bread? Who on earth ever looked at a zucchini and thought, "mmmmm, that would make fantastic bread?" His friends must have pointed and laughed at him. But then he made a loaf of deliciousness and his friends were too busy stuffing their faces to laugh at him again. True fact, I'm sure.

Okay, totally made up, but the fact is, zucchini bread doesn't taste like some mystery green vegetable your mom makes you eat, it bakes up a really moist quick bread! Add in some chocolate chips, orange zest and bake it in a bundt pan and it's practically cake.  This recipe's easy and quick to make, and great to bring to parties! In fact, you might want to print out extra copies of the recipe to share. Print the recipe here.

Don't forget salt! Pipkin always forgets one ingredient in the photo.

Chocolate Orange Zucchini Bread
Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 tbsp orange zest (about one labbit sized orange)

Preparation: 
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another large bowl, beat the eggs, then add sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Stir in the applesauce, vanilla, zucchini and chocolate morsels. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir well to blend. 

Pipkin admits that at this stage, it doesn't look so appetizing.

Pour it all into a greased bundt pan* and bake at 350ºF for one hour or until a toothpick inserted through the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly in the pan before flipping it over and serving. 

Yields: one bundt zucchini cakey bread. Enough for 12 - 16 servings.
*To make a more traditional bread shape, bake in two separate 9 x 5 bread loaf pans, for about 50
minutes at 350ºF, OR make a couple dozen muffins, baked for 20-22 minutes at 350ºF.

Labbits Like: Orange Glazed Mini Bundt Cakes

Do these mini bundt cakes look Christmasy and delicious or what? There's nothing so Christmasy about bundt cakes themselves, but the dusting of the confectioner's sugar over these particular shapes looks wintry and cheery. They're also the perfect size to make as gifts for friends and colleagues for the holidays. These orange flavoured mini bundt cakes are super moist, light and fluffy, and very easy to make. Print the recipe here.

Orange Mini Bundt Cakes

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cup light sour cream
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp finely grated orange zest (about 1 large unwaxed orange)
2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (the insides of the above large orange)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Generously spray two 6 cup mini bundt pan with vegetable oil. (Or, if like Pipkin, you have only one, remember to wipe down and then spray the bundt pan again for the second batch. Oh yes, there's a second batch!)

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3. Add the eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and orange zest to the flour mixture. Mix with an electric mixer on medium for a minute, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on high for another two minutes.

4. Pour enough batter to fill each cup 2/3 full.

5. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 - 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the mini bundt cakes comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs attached. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack.

6. While the cakes are cooling, make the glaze: Squeeze the juice of one orange and add to a small saucepan. Add 2/3 cup sugar (or slightly less to taste) and bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir constantly, until sugar is dissolved.

7. Using a toothpick or a piece of clean, uncooked spaghetti, poke some holes into the mini bundt cakes. Drizzle the orange glaze over top.  When the cakes have cooled, sift confectioner's sugar over top.

Yields: One dozen mini bundt cakes.

Recipe: Adapted from Moogie & Pap's Tropicana Ultra Moist Bundt Cake