Valentine's Day Cupcakes

♥Happy Valentine's Day Dabblers!♥

I love Valentine's Day...a day to spread the love. My favorite way to do that is through food, and these Valentine's Cupcakes were for the girl's basketball team that I coach. I needed a quick recipe, and this one from marthastewart.com for One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes fit the bill. 

They came together quickly and all in one bowl, as the name promises, so I saved time on dishes as well. 

I topped them with homemade buttercream frosting and a chocolate heart candy. If you haven't made your own buttercream before, give it a try (recipe inspiration here). The texture, depth of flavor, and richness is so fabulous and it is simple to do. 

The girls were very excited when the cupcakes showed up at practice and it was a fun start to the Valentine's Day festivities. I wish you and yours a Happy Valentine's Day and hope you spread a little love today. 

Thanks for visiting, 

-The Delicious Dabbler

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

My fiance loves cheesecake, and can usually be found trying to sneak cookie dough when I am making a batch of cookies...so, for his birthday I sought out a recipe that combined his two dessert loves. Pinterest, the ever-growing plethora of recipes lead me to this recipe from melskitchencafe.com. I followed Mel's recipe almost exactly (I made my standard move of doubling the vanilla in both the cheesecake and cookie dough). I used Annie's Organic Chocolate Bunny Grahams for the crust. One package worked wonderfully.

This recipe involves three different phases: the cookie dough, the crust, and the cheesecake. Although it involves a bit of work, the decadent result at the end is well worth it.

 I used a mini cookie scoop to make the cookie dough balls. These little beauties are folded into the cheesecake so when you slice into your cheesecake, you are gifted with little dough ball bites.

The crust is a simple combination of chocolate graham cookies and melted butter. I  used my food processor to crumb the cookies and pulse in the butter. Then, use your fingers to press the crust into a 10" springform pan.

Cookie dough balls + cheesecake = wonderful.

Cookie dough balls+ cheesecake+ extra mini chocolate chips = heaven.

All the goodness nestled together and ready for the oven :)

The end result: birthday yumminess. This recipe was fun to make and a huge hit with my fiance and friends. I had to give half of the cheesecake away....having a whole one in the fridge with only two eaters was dangerous.

This would make a great Valentine's Day dessert or special occasion dessert of any kind.

Thanks for visiting,

-The Delicious Dabbler