unsweetened cocoa powder

Ultimate Red Velvet Cupcakes

April 8, 2020 by Dana

The Ultimate Red Velvet Cupcake recipe is right here, you guys! I’ve seen a ton of complicated Red Velvet cake recipes but here is the truth: When I am baking I like to keep things simple. This Red Velvet recipe is just that, SIMPLE. No random mixing techniques or weird ingredients. A straight to the point and easy recipe that yields a delicate, flavorful cake. This is what we are all after when we bake, right?

Before we just into the recipe, I’ve been sharing quarantine updates so here we go!

We are in our third week in quarantine. This is honestly the longest I’ve been in the same house with my husband for as long as I can remember. I’m always with the kids all day because I am a stay at home Mom, so this isn’t entirely different then my normal life with them except we aren’t doing school drop offs and pick ups. My husband normally works long hours and goes to bed early so our new schedule is so different than our normal lives.

Today was the first day we literally could not figure out what day it was. For some reason I was thinking it was Friday. He was thinking it was Tuesday. It is in fact, Wednesday. He wins for being closer but we definitely had a good 5 minute discussion about what day it actually was. HAHA If that doesn’t sum up the third week of quarantine I don’t know what does!

The kids are completing their first week of at home learning today. Apparently they are still getting an Easter vacation from Thursday to Monday. How nice of the school, right?!? At home learning has been pretty good this week. Nothing too scary to report. I will admit, I do miss packing lunches a little bit and keeping on top of homework when they get home from school. I do also wish on these beautiful days we are having that we would be taking them to baseball practice and getting some fresh air at the park! I guess it is the little things I am missing the most. There are so many positives of this whole experience though and I feel they out weigh the negatives for sure. We are keeping a positive outlook over here!

Ultimate Red Velvet Cupcake Tips and Tricks

I am again, using a cup of boiling water at the end of this recipe. This makes for a very moist and delicate cake. The boiling water will not cook your eggs, I promise. I also use this technique in my Vanilla Sheet Cake recipe.
You need a whole heck of a lot of red food coloring to get these cupcakes to the right color. Do not freak when you see that you will be using almost an entire bottle of red food coloring, this is not a typo! When you are mixing, you will see exactly why you need so much.
The buttermilk in this recipe not only develops extra flavor, but also makes the texture nice and light. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, regular milk will work just fine.
The cake flour (also known as pastry flour) can be found in the baking isle near all the other flour options. I use Wegman’s brand pastry flour. I also suggest King Arthur’s Brand Cake Flour (sold in a box).
I do not like a sickeningly sweet cream cheese icing. I used about 3 and a half cups of powdered sugar in my recipe, however you can add more depending on your own taste.

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 (8 ounce) blocks of cream cheese (room temperature)
3-4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use Watkin’s brand)

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add your butter and cream cheese. Make sure these ingredients are room temperature! Cold cream cheese will yield a lumpy icing. I do not suggest microwaving these ingredients to soften.
Mix butter and cream cheese until smooth, scraping down your bowl several times to avoid any lumps.
Add 3-4 cups powdered sugar (or more to taste). Add vanilla extract.
Place cream cheese icing in a piping bag and pipe icing on top of cupcakes. I used a Wilton #307 tip for piping.

Recipe adapted from Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Cake Recipe.

Heath Brownies

April 6, 2020 by Dana

Attention! They may not have chocolate chips at the grocery store right now, but they have Heath chips. If you love a decadent, fudge brownie base with little bits of toffee throughout and a big scoop of ice cream on top, then these Heath Brownies are just for you.

Speaking of grocery stores, I went to Wegman’s today. My home away from home. My happy place. They don’t beat Target, but man they are pretty close. There were many items I could not get (Covid-19 hoarding), and I’ll be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I REALLY wanted Jasmine Rice. I REALLY wanted yeast. The produce section wasn’t what it normally is. There was no sanitizing wipes or cleaners at all, and toilet paper was scarce.

What I can say, is that all the workers at Wegman’s were doing a fantastic job. They were smiling, and moving about their day as if nothing was going on in the world. They are braver then myself, and I have so much respect for the essential workers there who are putting their own lives in danger to serve the community.

Wegman’s was taking a couple extra precautions to try to keep customers as safe as possible. Hand sanitizer was located at the entrance. The cashiers had plexiglass barriers to prevent customers from getting too close or coughing/sneezing/breathing on them, and they had a security guard at the front of the store. It was definitely a different shopping experience but again, I am just Thankful I am still able to get what I need for my family.

Heath Brownie Tips and Tricks

I love a fudgy, decadent brownie. Some brownies are cake-like, and while they have their place in the world, these brownies are not cakey. They are moist, dense, and loaded with chocolate flavor. For this reason, I am using an 8×8 baking pan. You really only need one brownie (or even a half!) to satisfy your chocolate dreams.
I always line my baking pan with parchment paper. It is totally fine if it isn’t perfect. You will want some paper to go up the sides so you can grab the paper and lift your brownies out to cut. This is perfect for two reasons. You don’t cut up the bottom of your pan, and your brownies can be cut perfectly. If you have kids, this is even better so that your kids can’t go butcher the whole pan trying to get one brownie out. If you are serving them at a gathering or party this will also enable you to cut perfect brownies.
I lift my parchment paper and brownies right out of the pan and place them onto a cutting board. I use a large chef knife to cut them. Instead of dragging your knife through the brownies, I suggest placing your knife on top and cutting down. After each cut, use a cloth with hot water to wipe your chef knife off. This technique will get you perfect brownies!
The Heath baking bits can be found in the baking isle of most grocery stores. They are in the same section as the chocolate chips. Heath Brownies would obviously not be a thing without the Heath baking bits.

Chocolate Ganache Brownies

January 16, 2018 by Dana

Hands up if you like a big old chocolate explosion of a brownie? These Chocolate Ganache Brownies are just that… Rich, decadent brownies topped with a delightfully creamy ganache. Basically Little Debbie on steroids. 🙂

Truth: In high school I worked at a buffet. We used to make boxed brownies and slather them with canned frosting. We didn’t even cover them up at night and I would still eat them, all dried out 3 days later, especially if the soft served ice cream they also had was involved. Brownies + Frosting = Heart Eyed Emoji.

Fast forward to when I went to Pastry Arts school. I realized there was a much, much better way to achieve this type of frosted brownie. GANACHE. The epitome of chocolate awesomeness. So versatile, so deliciously smooth and pretty. You can put it on cakes, pour it over desserts, and yes… you can also frost brownies with ganache.

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, you may want to show someone some love by whipping up a batch of these brownies as dessert. If your Valentine is into a super fudgy, semi-sweet chocolate brownie, then this recipe is perfect!

Valentine’s Day to me this year means my baby is almost full term. When I saw the Valentine’s Day stuff popping up at all the store’s my mind just kept telling me… you are one day closer. Keep going. It is almost over! 🙂 Being a mom of 4 boys already and being pregnant has been… well… hard. Everything hurts, I’m out of breath, my body is just tired of being pregnant. But alas, one day closer… one day closer.

Recipe Tips

This recipe is super easy, yet super easy to totally bomb. Take it from me, I’ve done it before!

Please, for the love of all things… line your 8×8 inch brownie pan with parchment paper. It will change your brownie life forever. More importantly, it will give you a nice little slab of perfect brownies that you can easily pull right out of the pan and top with your ganache.
If you are wondering who on earth bakes brownies in such a small pan, you are not alone my friend! Generally I scoff at all of the recipes that suggest a dinky little 8×8 pan. I have 4 and a half kids and a husband. I’m not here to waste my time making 9 brownies. HOWEVER…. these brownies are extremely decadent and one brownie will suffice. This is the ONLY brownies you will see coming out of my kitchen in an 8×8 pan. If you happen to be feeding your own little army and feel you might need more, go ahead and double the recipe and use a larger pan.
Ganache is super easy to make, but does require some cooling time. When you first mix your ganache, the consistency will not be right to put on the brownies immediately. You will need to put your ganache in the refrigerator until the consistency becomes thick and spreadable.
When cutting your beautiful Chocolate Ganache Brownies, there is a method to the madness. First, using a large chef knife is the best way to get a perfectly cut brownie. Second, running the knife under hot water and wiping it off before each cut will ensure you don’t mess up your ganache. I know, I know… tedious… however… aren’t they beautiful?!?! What I’m really saying is don’t take a butter knife and run it through your ganache topped brownies and expect it to look the way mine do. THEY WILL BE A HOT MESS.

*Brownie recipe borrowed from this here wee little website. 🙂 I have attempted several times to make this recipe “my own” by switching things out. What I learned is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The original recipe is perfect.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

October 19, 2014 by Dana

Dana Carvell (3BoysUnprocessed)

You didn’t think the week was going to end without a cute #betterbaking cupcake recipe, did you? Not only was it my Birthday week, I’m also going to a party tonight so I had a few pretty good reasons to start baking up a storm and turning my kitchen upside down! Would you like some cocoa powder on that? 🙂

Yes, you read that right. I AM GOING TO A PARTY. I know, this never happens. I can’t even think of the last time I went to a party but it is happening tonight and the theme is Oktoberfest. How about some German Chocolate Cupcakes? Seems like the perfect dessert addition to an Oktoberfest party, right? I thought so too, until I Googled German Chocolate only to find out it has NOTHING to do with Germany. *palm to my face*

Well then, I guess I won’t be asking the German guy there (yes there’s a guy from Germany coming) if these babes are authentic because he may just laugh in my face! Come to find out, through Google too of course, that German chocolate was named after the guy who created it, and the cake came after that. Doesn’t this remind you of the time we found out Betty Crocker wasn’t even a real person? Seriously, all these things I thought I knew just went down the drain. But have no fear because these cupcakes are:

delicious
cute
whole wheat
100% from scratch

Yes, I think that makes this whole German chocolate snafoo a little bit better, don’t you? Who cares where the term German chocolate came from because we have these awesome cupcakes to blame for that term, and boy these are a great Oktoberfest mistake! Did I mention we are making homemade caramel again? Yeah, that too! There is just no way to go wrong with chocolate cupcakes filled with a gooey, caramel/pecan/coconut filling, and topped with chocolate icing and more caramel and pecans. Is this a cupcake dream or what?

You know what else is really dreamy? Caramel that doesn’t come from a can or a wrapper!

Ok, ok, now that we got that pour shot out of the way let’s talk about assembling these babes because it is super easy. I made the filling using the caramel sauce, toasted pecans, and finely shredded coconut. It was like killing two birds with one stone (seriously who would kill a bird anyway?) because the caramel is the base of the filling, and the topping.

After I made the filling/topping, I whipped up the amazing cream cheese/chocolate/buttercream icing concoction and started assembling. I hollowed a hole in the middle of the cupcakes using the bottom of a piping tip (I’ve also used a melon baller to do that), then I filled the hole, piped the icing, dusted with finely shredded coconut, drizzled with caramel topping, and added some extra pecans. Then of course I had to eat one because I can’t take something to a party that I haven’t tasted yet, and wow… these are just pure amazing-ness. I mean, I just made up a word to describe these because they are that good. I promise, if you like chocolate and caramel, these cupcakes are just for you!

Homemade Caramel Filling/Topping

Ingredients:

1/2 cup organic sugar
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp molasses
2 Tbsp water
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp milk
1/4 cup toasted pecans (for filling)
1/4 cup finely shredded coconut (unsweetened, for filling)

Directions: In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except milk. Stir over medium-high heat until sugar is melted, bubbly, and begins to turn darker in color. Remove from heat, stir in milk, and allow to sit to thicken for a few minutes. Set aside 1/4 of the caramel for drizzle, then add pecans and coconut to remaining caramel (you can put it all in the same pan you used to make the caramel). Stir to combine. Filling may harden after caramel is cooled, but still makes an amazing cupcake center!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3-4 Tbsp Tapioca Starch (or Non-GMO verified corn starch)

Directions: Allow cream cheese and butter to soften on countertop for 30+ minutes before starting. Beat cream cheese and butter until very smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl numerous times to ensure all lumps are out of mixture. Slowly add sugar, beat for another 5 minutes to allow sugar to incorporate, continuing to scrape down bowl to ensure everything is evenly mixed. Add cocoa powder (I always sift cocoa powder first), and Tapioca Starch to finish.

Fudgy Triple Chocolate Cupcakes PLUS #betterbaking

September 30, 2014 by Dana

I know, I know, ANOTHER cupcake post!??! A bit over-board? Maybe. But keep reading!

BUT wait just a hot second because this isn’t just another cupcake post. It is the start of something really awesome here at 3Boys Unprocessed because I’ve taken notice to TONS of crappy dessert recipes floating around the internet. You know, the dump cakes, the poke cakes, the boxed this and that, the cool whip, and the totally refined and semi-homemade desserts that aren’t just 3 ingredients like the title says. Boxed cake mix + box of jello = A LOT MORE than 3 ingredients! Not just that, it also = trans fats, artificial everything, unhealthy oils, and weird preservatives banned in other countries. Say whhhahattt!?!?!

Now, I try my hardest to ignore these dessert disasters because let’s face it, we live in a processed world and our food supply is nothing short of a complete disaster as it stands. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel because all of these recipes can be tweaked just a bit to be turned into something that isn’t so much of a processed mess. You know, like using whole wheat flour, and substituting real stuff for the boxed stuff. It is SO easy, yet people are so afraid of ruining a batch of cupcakes or running the risk that they don’t turn out tasting superb. Using trans fats instead of trying something new out of baking fear??? Doesn’t sound like such a good idea to me! Of course, these recipes are going to contain sugar. Sugar = desserts. I want to post relate-able content that doesn’t make the dump cake people say “Oh no, I’d never try using those weird ingredients,” therefore, I’m sticking to the simple stuff but making it a tad better by using organic versions that aren’t as processed, and don’t contain GMO’s. All of these things are important to me, and I’d much rather see people using organic sugar in their own home before going to the grocery store and buying a cake that contains 100 ingredients, including trans fats and everything else I’m going to talk about here. You get the drift? Good!

Now, I also know most of you aren’t trained Pastry Chefs like myself. That’s why I’m taking the guess-work out of all of this and bringing you #betterbaking (yes I just hashtagged in a post!) so that you can create desserts in your own home, without the processed crap, that taste nothing short of a product that comes from an upscale bakery and is totally amazing. Ready?? Let’s go! Each week I’m going to be posting a brand new recipe that DOESN’T include any of these ingredients:

boxed cake mixes
boxed jello
cool whip
soybean/canola oil
refined grains
artificially dyed and trans fat containing sprinkles (pretty much ALL mainstream sprinkles)
other artificial ingredients (flavors, colors, products, etc.)

Now, just so you know, none of my other baking recipes posted so far contain any of this stuff because truth is, these products don’t exist in my household. A few years ago I woke up to the fact that these products aren’t good for any of us. I know there are lots of people who haven’t realized this yet, so that’s why I’m doing this! The interwebs need #betterbaking recipes!

No sprinkles though!?!? Come now, how can that be? You see, there are these little things called naturally dyed sprinkles, and there are also these little things called cupcake toppers. They both make cupcakes as cute as they should be, without adding a bunch of chemicals and artificial dyes to your food. Problem solved! See how easy that was? I knew you would totally understand the whole no sprinkles thing, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Since I’m promoting cute cupcake toppers, I’m about to make it ALOT easier by offering FREE printable cupcake toppers. Print them, cut them with those crafty folk scissors, tape them to a paper straw or toothpick, and BAM! Cute and frugal cupcake topper. For reals though, how cute are these fall inspired toppers? More to come, I promise! To get these cuties, just scroll to the bottom of the post, and click the dropbox link.

Now that we have all of that exciting news out of the way, let’s focus on these heavenly chocolate cupcakes that not only look stunning and taste stunning, but use ingredients that are better! These are inspired by all of those “Fudgy Cupcake” recipes that include boxed Jello. I’ve tasted cupcakes with boxed Jello in the past, and yes, they are moist and yummy. But you can do the same thing using milk and yogurt, and yield the exact same texture and fudgy goodness without the boxed stuff! Yes, this is happening! No more boxed stuff just to yield a fudgy cupcake because you can do it with REAL STUFF! Ya digggg? Keep it coming, keep it coming!

Not only are these cupcakes fudgy and moist, they also are dipped in ganache, which is a fancy-pants way to say chocolate and cream, and topped with a DOUBLE CHOCOLATE cream cheese icing. Did those words really just come out of my mouth. Yes, yes I do believe this is real life and if this is what real life tastes like I’m so in. Just incase you didn’t get all that… I created this: Do you feel like you are in high schoolBiology again? 🙂

Why yes, that is a chocolate smudge in the bottom on that picture because I said this was real life, remember? And in real life these cupcakes are a tad messy, so don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Can we talk ganache now because I kind of love that word and it is one of the most ridiculously good chocolate creations ever. I mean, if you’ve never had anything dipped or filled with ganache your life is not complete. Not to mention, it is SO EASY and looks really nice. When choosing a semi-sweet baking chocolate be sure to look for a brand that is using the least ingredients possible, and not using GMO’s. My favorite brand is Alter-Eco, and they have many products with basic ingredients.

To dip the cupcakes all you do is make the ganache in 2 easy steps and dip them. Everything seemed to fall together perfectly when I did this because I chose to use foil cupcake wrappers that include a white wrapper on the inside, so they are double wrapped. This made is so easy to dip them because then the outside wrapper was able to be removed, and therefore didn’t get messy. Dipping the cupcakes isn’t really messy to begin with, but I would highly suggest double wrapping just to mess-proof them. Whew! That was ALOT of info… so let’s recap this post since we are going all Biology Class style today:

We don’t like dump cakes or cool whip
We are providing recipes that are #betterbaking recipes, using whole ingredients and no artificial stuff
We think cupcake toppers are way better then sprinkles with chemicals and trans fats!!!!
We are providing FREE printable fall cupcake toppers and more to come
Ganche is awesome
Fudgy Triple Chocolate Cupcakes are about the best thing that ever happened to whole wheat white flour in it’s entire little shelf life
Double wrap your cupcakes if you want to dip them in ganache
This was a super long post, so thanks for reading! 😉

And here’s more cupcake porn, just incase we didn’t cover that well enough.

As promised.. here is the link to the FREE printable cupcake toppers! Simply click the dropbox link, and download the file. I’m using dropbox links to ensure everyone this is a safe download.

*I use homemade brown sugar, which is simply 1 cup of organic cane sugar to 1 Tbsp of un-sulphered blackstrap molasses. This enables me to always have fresh brown sugar, instead of a hard clump when I want to use it. For more on this check out my Homemade Brown Sugar post.

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package full fat cream cheese
1.5 ounce semi-sweet baking chocolate (non-GMO preferred)
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup organic 10x sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions: Allow cream cheese to soften on countertop. Beat softened cream cheese until very smooth, scraping down the sides of your mixing bowl several times to make sure all lumps are out. In a microwave safe bowl or stove top melt heavy cream and chocolate together. Pour mixture into cream cheese. Sift cocoa powder and 10x sugar into mixing bowl slowly. Add vanilla extract, and additional Tbsp of heavy cream if needed to smooth.

Chocolate Dipping Ganache:

Ingredients:

1.5 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate (non-GMO preferred)
1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions: Chop chocolate finely. Bring heavy cream to the brink of a boil in a small saucepan on the stove, then pour over chopped chocolate. Allow to sit, unstirred, for 1-2 minutes. Begin stirring, and continue until smooth and silky.

The Reasons Why Your Non-Dairy Creamer is Killing You

May 12, 2014 by Dana

One of the first highly refined products I removed from my household was non-dairy creamer. I’m not sure why people love this crap so much. I mean, the name says it all.. non-dairy. So, let me get this straight.. it looks like cream, and we put it in coffee, but it is non-dairy? That should be a huge red flag, but for some reason millions of people are using this stuff everyday. I don’t think I could think up a product worse then this! It rivals Uncrustables, but even Smucker’s isn’t using cottonseed oil and trying to pass it off as a dairy product. Not to mention if you’ve ever had this stuff, IT NEVER GOES BAD! They even put it into little plastic capsules and who knows how long those sit around before anyone consumes them. Even bacteria and mold hate non-dairy creamer. Let’s look at the ingredients in a flavored Coffee-Mate non-dairy creamer:

Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, and Less than 2% of Sodium Caseinate (a Milk Derivative) (Not a Source of Lactose), Natural and Artificial Flavors, Mono- and Diglycerides, Dipotassium Phosphate, Cellulose Gel, Color Added, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan. Gluten free.

Here is the breakdown of these ingredients:

Partially Hydrogenated Soybean/Cottonseed Oil: TRANS FAT alert!! Not only are they using Soybean oil, they are also using Cottonseed oil, one of the most highly refined and worst oils for human consumption. Cottonseed crops are known for the use of high levels of pesticides and this cheap oil has no business in our food supply. If you see any product that labels cottonseed oil as an ingredient put it down and do not purchase from that brand again!! I cannot stress this point enough. In my opinion this is one of the worst ingredients seen in products on grocery shelves today.
Natural and Artificial Flavors: This is a huge unknown as they are not required to state what these ingredients actually are. I want to know exactly what I am consuming so I stay far away from both natural and artificial flavorings.
Mono- and Diglycerides: An emulsifier and hidden form of trans fat.
Color Added: Well yeah I guess when you are trying to make oil look like cream you would add color!
Carageenan: Potential carcinogen and very controversial ingredient because it is natural. There are a ton of natural things that are not suitable for consumption, so we do stay away from products that contain this ingredient.

If you are used to drinking coffee and looking for an alternative, you have a few choices. I would strongly recommend not even finishing the bottle in your refrigerator. Your health is more important then the money you spent on the creamer. Just pour it down the drain and give the bottle to your kids to play with in the bathtub. Yes, it is that bad people! Here are your options:

Make your own: Yes, you can make your own creamer and it only takes 5 minutes! I’ve made my own using half and half. I will put the recipe at the bottom for my Chocolate/Coconut Creamer. I would suggest using Organic half and half because some regular brands contain mono and diglycerides and carrageenan.
Use a natural sweetener like honey or maple syrup with Organic half and half.
Switch to lattes. This is the route I went. I got a Nespresso machine because I already knew I loved Espresso and it saved me the $3-4 I would spend at Starbucks. The machine pays for itself after a few months of use if you are a Starbucks regular!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Tarts

April 21, 2014 by Dana

Yesterday was Easter so we had a big celebration at my sister-in-law’s house. It was a wonderful day! We had beautiful weather here in Pennsylvania and a delicious meal. They grilled some fresh salmon and we had a really nice variety of side dishes to go along with it. For someone trying to eat unprocessed food there were lots of options and it was nice to see a meal without all the additives at someone else’s home!

I made some mini-desserts to take… including these delicious Whole Wheat Chocolate Tarts. I had a very hard time finding a recipe with whole ingredients so I adapted my own using this recipe from Martha Stewart. They turned out fantastic! As with all of my dessert recipes, I like to mention sugar is still sugar! Although this is a less refined version that doesn’t mean I’m going to go crazy with it because I think that it is “better”. I switched out the all purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour and the regular sugar for a pure cane sugar. I also used a higher quality cocoa powder as opposed to the standard Hershey’s brand. Sometimes you get what you pay for and in this instance I would rather support a company that doesn’t use a ton of additives and unknown ingredients in their products. Although Hershey’s cocoa powder has only one ingredient, the rest of their products are all filled with questionable ingredients. Here are links to these products.

I also used this wonderful mini-tartlet pan to get a really nice looking shell. It is super easy to use and your end product looks like something straight from a professional bakery. If you have ever wondered how specialty bakeries make their mini products so eye appealing, it is the use of pans like this one.

I filled these chocolate tarts with Mascarpone cheese. I did two varieties of Mascarpone in the shells, one was plain and the other had a hint of coffee in it. The Mascarpone really helps make these delicious because it is creamy and smooth without the use of any additives or extra flavorings. It is simple and allows for the chocolate and fruit to shine and really make this dessert. Sometimes less is more when it comes to sugar in desserts and this is one of those instances.

Ultimate Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ultimate Red Velvet Cupcake Tips and Tricks

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

Heath Brownies

Heath Brownie Tips and Tricks