Small Batch Cheesecake

Plus blood orange scones & small batch marble, vanilla, and chocolate cupcakes.

Hellooooooo and happy friday! Let’s jump right into the new and updated recipes this week!

small batch cheesecake

In an attempt to bring more small batch classics to the blog, I’ve finally made a small batch cheesecake. It all starts with a lightly spiced cinnamon shortbread crust. Most cheesecakes have graham cracker crusts but I think that shortbread crusts just taste so much better - it’s like a little cookie at the bottom of your cheesecake. Thennn the star of the show: the cheesecake. She’s a super rich and creamy vanilla bean cheesecake. My secret ingredient for cheesecakes is heavy cream - it makes them so much more creamy in texture than sour cream. And to top it all off is a very generous amount of vanilla bean whipped cream. That’s just what I chose - really this cheesecake is the perfect blank canvas for whatever topping you’d like. :)

blood orange scones

It’s blood orange szn! Last week I put out my blood orange cookies (which I’m in love with) and this week, it’s these blood orange scones. That glaze color you see is allll natural thanks to the juice from the blood oranges. The scones themselves are filled with a ton of blood orange zest and raspberries. And you know I’m always advocating for scones to be made more, so of course I had to make scones with blood oranges this year :)

marble cupcakes

If you follow my Instagram, you may have noticed that I love swirls (swirl of the day, anyone?) I feel like marbling desserts is just a super easy way to make them beautiful along with being delicious. My favorite thing about these cupcakes (besides them being delicious), is that they’re super easy because they’re made with one batter that we’ll split into two at the end. There’s no need to make two separate batters and get out a ton of bowls and ingredients. So if you can’t decide between vanilla or chocolate, don’t worry because here, you can have both.

small batch vanilla cupcakes

Aaaaaand we’re on to the updated recipes of the week. These vanilla cupcakes didn’t get a recipe update, but they did get a photo update and a desperately needed blog update - now with all the tips, tricks, and info you see in my other blog posts. We use the reverse creaming method in these cupcakes - which involves beating the butter into the dry ingredients. Making them this way results in the fat of the butter coating the flour, leading to less gluten development and lighter, fluffier cupcakes. Pair that all with some vanilla bean buttercream and we’ve got a vanilla dream right here.

small batch chocolate cupcakes

These also got a much needed photo and blog update, but they also got a recipe update. They used to be made with espresso in the batter, but I’ve received a lot of feedback from recipe reviews (thank you!) and in-person reviews that the coffee flavor is strong. I apparently love coffee a little too much and it’s not as strong to me, so in the best interest of everyone, these no longer use a ton of espresso in them. Instead, we bloom the cocoa powder with milk and add in a little instant espresso to compliment the chocolate. Plus they now come with a chocolate cream cheese frosting on top that’s *sooo* creamy and delicious. They’re essentially the same exact recipe as the 6” chocolate cake you saw last week, just with a little less frosting. :)

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you all have a great weekend!