Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Hey there!

For Christmas, Mike bought me a Kitchenaid!!! I am in love. If you're wondering where I've been, it's hovering over my mixer making EVERYTHING you can possibly imagine.

I love cupcakes and cake, but I'm not a huge fan of icing. I prefer something light and fluffy and not overly sweet. Which brings me to Whipped Cream Frostings! They are awesome.  I started thinking about whipped frostings after eating a few too many slices of company birthday cake and after a little browsing on pinterest.  I love treats that involve fruit and this frosting is a perfect combination!

I used this recipe for a cake as well as cookie dough tarts. The original recipe (here) for the cookie dough tarts uses cool whip, but I prefer this Whipped Cream frosting because it doesn't leave that weird film on your mouth that cool whip does and the over all flavor is better.

Ingredients: 
3 C. Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Package Softened Cream Cheese
1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2-1 C Sugar (add more/less depending on how sweet you want to go)

In your mixer with the beater attachment on, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla extract and sugar and cream until combined. After mixture is combined, switch to whisk attachment. Once whisk attachment is on, add in Whipping Cream. I set my mixer to the 6-8 range and whisk until stiff peaks are formed. Add jam or preserves for a flavored version.

Helpful hint: If your cream cheese/whipping cream are too cold it will cause your frosting to become chunky. Make sure your cream cheese is softened. You may also need to scrape the bottom of the mixer to ensure that you completely incorporate the cream cheese.

For this double layer cake

I split out 1/4 of the frosting and added blueberry jam. I spread the blueberry frosting in the middle and used the remaining frosting for the outside. This was my first double layer cake so please excuse the horrible icing job :) 

For the Fruit Tarts

You will need a mini muffin tin and a tube of sugar cookie dough
Roll the cookie dough into 3/4 inch balls and place in muffin tin. Bake in 350 degree oven for 7-9 minutes. It's better to slightly over bake then to under bake these because you want them to be able to hold their shape. It's also better to have dough balls that are on the larger side than too small.

Once your shells have baked and cooled down, pipe the frosting into the cookie cups and top with fruit.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Please bare with me in my horrible food picture taking skills! If anybody has tips, please share...like, how do you get that perfect lighting??? 

Anyway, I cook a lot of soup. Mostly because it's super easy and the ingredients are cheap. I'm a vegetarian and most soups can be easily modified to be veg-friendly which is also a plus.


I got this recipe from Martha Stewart at her website here and really didn't modify anything other than the type of stock.

Things you will need: 

·         2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
·         1 onion, chopped
·         2 cloves garlic, sliced
·         Pinch red-pepper flakes
·         4 red bell peppers, roasted and quartered
·         3 cups vegetable stock
·         Coarse salt

I like to cook soups in a enamel cast iron pot, it heats really evenly and it's really hard to burn things unless you are scorching them. Clean up is pretty great too! 

What to do: 

Slice peppers and roast in oven until soft and slightly charred. Make sure to flip frequently to get an even roasting. Spraying with olive oil helps prevent sticking.

In pot, heat oil. Add onion, garlic, and red-pepper flakes and cook until soft. Add roasted peppers and stock. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer. Let cool slightly, then puree in a blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. 

Mike's mom gave me a hand blender last year. If you make a lot of soups this is seriously a life saver, just don't burn yourself!