Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes Recipe

One of my all time-favourite desserts is ice-cream. Nothing beats pigging out in front of your favourite drama serial together with a tub of B&J's or Häagen-Dazs. It is much more economical to get a tub(s) rather than getting them in scoops in their outlets (you can't seriously be satisfied with just 1 or 2 scoops...)

I chanced upon this interesting recipe by Norwegian baker/blogger/author, Manuela Kjeilen. Before I go on further, I need to clarify this; this is not an ice-cream cupcake recipe; it's about using ice-cream as a main ingredient to flavour normal cupcakes. What an excellent way to clear my freezer of half-eaten tubs of ice-cream.

(makes 12 cupcakes, adapted and translated from here)

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter

80g white caster sugar

2 large eggs

1/4 quarter tub (458ml) of Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream

150g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar for 7-8 minutes till pale and fluffy. A good indication is when you notice an increase in volume, the butter is of a lighter shade and when your beater leaves "lines" in the mixture.

2. Add in eggs, one at a time, mix well

3. Add in ice cream and mix well

4. Sieve flour and baking powder in another bowl. Add into mixture. Mix for another 1-2 minutes.

5. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Cupcakes are ready when their tops are slightly browned and springy to touch

Tips

The creaming process usually takes 7-8 minutes with a mixer but for a self-taught baker, I always thought it takes 1-2 minutes. Silly me, I verifed this recently with some baking books and some research online

Make sure that your butter is slightly soft (out from the fridge for 15-20 minutes) and that the eggs are at room temperature. When adding eggs, add them one at time. Adding too much egg at once or eggs which are too cold will cause the mixture to curdle. The subsequent addition of flour will correct this and you will get a smooth mixture for baking.