Heaven on Earth Cupcakes

This past Monday was my lovely husband's birthday.  I was told not to buy him any presents, but he never said anything about MAKING something! ;o)  Okay, okay - so the kid in me found the loophole, but I'm going to say it was the lawyer in me...  Anyway, I knew I wanted to make him some kind of dessert because everyone needs a birthday cake (or pie or cheesecake or whatever other baked good you'd like).  I thought long and hard about what to make and almost decided to do a cheesecake since it's a favorite of his, but then I remembered his groom's cake...

Flashback two years - I decided to have a groom's cake for Aaron at our rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.  I had some ideas about what I wanted and just didn't see much that screamed "Aaron" to me.  Until I found the Fancy Cake Shop in Carlisle, that is... They had a Heavenly Cheesecake cake.  As I mentioned, Aaron loves cheesecake.  He REALLY loves the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake at T.G.I. Friday's.  According to T.G.I. Friday's site, the dessert is "Cheesecake made with real vanilla beans, layered with white chocolate mousse and baked in a graham cracker crust. Topped with white chocolate shavings." Well, as best as I can remember, the Heavenly Cheesecake cake at Fancy Cake Shop (which, sadly, is not around anymore) was a vanilla bean cake with a cheesecake filling, covered in white chocolate mousse frosting.  As soon as I saw it, I knew that was the perfect pick for Aaron's groom's cake.  I had it decorated as one of his favorite books of poetry with a scroll on top that had one of his favorite poem's written on it.  Perfection!

Well, that cake served as my inspiration to make what I will cleverly call Heaven on Earth cupcakes!
I altered a few recipes I found and combined them together to make my own creation - and it was pretty easy too! Check out the recipe and photos below (ignore the throw-away cupcake pans - my good ones are packed). A side note: Vanilla beans can be hard to find.  Grocery stores often sell dried out pods.  I found mine in the Nature's Marketplace area of Wegman's.  If you have the time, check online for vanilla bean paste - it's expensive but it actually is a better deal than buying individual bean pods if you use it often enough (and if you have it, you'll find reasons to use it)!

Heaven on Earth Cupcakes
  A vanilla bean cupcake, filled with white chocolate filling, and topped with a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. 

Ingredients:
  - White cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)
  - 3 eggs
  - 1/4 cup oil
  - 1 cup water
  - 4 whole vanilla bean pods
  - 8 oz. premium white chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
  - 1/3 cup milk
  - 3 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (1/3 less fat is fine)
  - 3/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  - 1/4 cup (half a stick) butter
  - 3 3/4 to 4 cups powdered sugar

For the cupcakes: Mix the cake mix, eggs (whole eggs, ignore box directions saying just to use egg whites - the whole egg will make the cake tinted a bit more yellow but it will be moist instead of dry), oil, and water. Whisk the dry cake mix to prevent lumps.  Feel free to use a hand mixer but I don't find it necessary. Add the vanilla beans from two whole bean pods. (To use - slice the pod in half lengthwise with a paring knife and use the tip of the knife to scrape out the bean paste; the paste is really tons of tiny vanilla bean flecks!) Mix well and scoop into lined cupcake tins. Bake as directed and allow to cool entirely - about 2 hours.

For the filling: Break the chocolate up into small pieces and put into the top of a double boiler (or into a metal bowl for a make-shift double boiler) with the 1/3 cup of milk. Heat water to boiling in the bottom of the double boiler (or in a saucepot for your make-shift double boiler).  When the water is boiling, remove from heat and put the top piece of the double-boiler in place (or place the metal bowl into the saucepan); stir continually until the chocolate is melted.  Let the mixture cool to room temperature, stirring occassionally. (This took about 45 minutes for me.)  In a separate bowl, beat one package of cream cheese and 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract together; you don't need a hand mixer - a whisk is fine as long as the cream cheese was softened first.  Slowly add cooled chocolate mixture to the cream cheese mixture and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.

For the icing: Cream together the butter (1/2 a stick) and two 8 oz. packages of cream cheese.  If both the butter and cream cheese are adequately softened, you can cream them together with a whisk; if not, use a hand mixer to prevent lumps.  Add the vanilla from two more vanilla bean pods and mix thoroughly.  Add the powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time.  To avoid lumps, either sift or whisk the powdered sugar before adding it to the cream cheese mixture.  Mix together after each addition of sugar.  Adjust the amount of sugar to reach the desired consistency.  Because the cream cheese cuts the sugar, you can add a lot of sugar to thicken up the icing without it getting overly sweet.  I personally prefer to have my icing thick so I can pipe it but if you are just spreading it, a little thinner is fine.

Assembly: Remove the cupcakes from the pans.  Use the handle of a wooden spoon to make a hole in the center of the cupcake to make room for filling.  Just press the handle into the center of the cupcake a few times to make a hole about nickel-sized.  Do not press all the way down or your cupcake will fall apart when you take it out of the liner - just make the hole about 3/4 of the way into the cupcake.  Put the white chocolate filling into a quart-size zipper freezer bag, cut the corner off the bag (small enough to control the filling and large enough that it doesn't take forever to fill the cupcakes), and squeeze into the center holes of the cupcakes.  Wiggle, shake, and tap down the cupcake to ensure you've added enough filling! Don't be afraid to overfill just a bit as it will settle.  Next, it's time to frost the cupcakes!  You can use another freezer bag and "pipe" it on, go with the old-fashioned knife or spatula spreading, or use an actual piping bag (I like Wilton brand but could only find my small tip to do a swirl of icing rather than the large tip which lets me do the big, cloud-like effect).  Go nuts!  Feel free to add some decorations or leave them classically plain!

Hint - start the white chocolate filling while the cupcakes are baking because it needs to sit in the fridge for about two hours to firm up.

An extra hint - don't throw away the used vanilla bean pods! There are tons of uses for the pods - just check Google! I put mine into a baggie with a bunch of plain sugar and, after a few days, I'll have vanilla sugar.  Another goodie is to put the pods into a bottle of plain vodka and make your own vanilla vodka (but I haven't tried this one yet). 

ENJOY!  :o)