Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

I have a lot of Strawberry recipes heading your way!  I bought a huge 5lb container of strawberries and they were not as good as they looked for just eating by themselves but perfect to bake with!  Here is the first of many Strawberry recipes!  This Strawberry Cream Cheese bread is amazing.   It a very light but moist texture and it isn't overly sweet!  You can add really any berry that you like but I love it with strawberries.   Very easy to make all in one bowl!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk ( I used 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of lowfat milk - combine and let stand for a few minutes)
1 1/2 cups strawberries, diced

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.  Cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and combine well.  Mix in one at a time baking powder, baking soda and salt. Next add flour one cup at a time until batter if fully mixed and smooth.  Last add in the buttermilk and stir until combined.  Carefully fold in strawberries.  Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes.  The inside should be set (not jiggly) and the top golden brown.

Mom's Carrot Cake

This is another old family favorite!! It is a super moist cake and really simple to make. This has also won awards at a few Girl Scout Bake Offs!! This recipe requires a bundt pan which I do not own so I decided to make a homemade version. I wasn't sure if it would work but I was willing to take the chance. Ellen thought it had a 100% chance of failing but I was much more confident than that. I gave it a 65% chance of success. LOL... And it totally worked! It was a perfect bundt...nothing stuck to the glass. I was very impressed with myself. So if you are in need of a bundt pan and do not possess one, no worries....you can make one. Just place a heavy bar glass in the middle of a round cake pan and spray that sucker really well. If you have a really thin batter that might not work as well but a thick batter doesn't move or run under the glass so it will totally work.

My Homemade Bundt Pan

I was nervous while it was baking...

The end result.....PERFECT!

Ingredients:

2 C Sugar
3 C. Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 tsp. Baking Soda
3 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 C. Oil
4 eggs
1 T. Vanilla
4 4 oz. Containers Carrot Baby Food

Preparation:

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add oil, eggs, vanilla, carrots. Spray bundt pan generously with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.   Cool completely before turning out of pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Mini Date and Walnut Cakes

These are the easiest little yummy desserts.  There are only 4 ingredients and you just mix everything together and bake in a mini muffin pan, you just can't screw these up.  The outcome are these little crispy, chewy, nutty, "cakes" Be careful, these are really delicious and before you know it you've eaten 12 all by yourself.  Save some for the rest of your family :)

Ingredients:

3 eggs beaten
1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed
1 cup chopped dates (you can buy dates already chopped in a box at the grocery store, so easy!
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients together and spoon into a well greased mini muffin pan.  Fill each almost to the top of the pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until cakes are golden brown.

**Do not line the tins with paper liners before baking.  It's best to heavily grease the mini muffin tins and bake directly in the greased tins.  Then pop out the cakes and put each one into a liner and top with half a candied cherry.

Makes 24 mini cakes

Watermelon Cake

I refuse to let the summer end!  

I made this watermelon cake for a friend's block party.  It is such a cute dessert for a BBQ.   All the kids really loved it.  I wanted to use a strawberry cake mix so there was a hint of fruit flavor but my daughter insisted on having just vanilla so I opted to color the white cake mix reddish pink to look like watermelon instead.  Now it's even easier to finish this cake because you can buy pink and green frosting already pre-colored at the market.  (The pink frosting you will need to add a little red food coloring to make it less of a shocking pink color and more "watermelon" colored.)  Overall very simple cake to bake and assemble.  I hope you give it a try.  I originally saw this cake on Pinterest, you can find the original recipe on this cute blog call Bird on a Cake.

Ingredients:

1 white cake mix, prepared as per direction on box

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, divided

red food coloring

pink frosting (or white frosting with red food color)

green frosting (or white frosting with green food color)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl mix white cake mix according to the packaged directions, or of course you can make your favorite white cake from scratch.  Add 5 drops of red food coloring to the prepared batter.  You may add more to get the desired "watermelon" color.  Add about 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips to the colored cake batter to resemble watermelon seeds.  You do not need to measure this out exactly, just eyeball it.  Reserved the remaining chocolate chips for the top of the cake.  Pour cake batter into two 9" cake pans that have been greased generously with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake cakes at 350 degrees F. for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.  Remove cakes from oven and leave in pans until completely cooled.

Once cakes have cooled, carefully remove them from the pans.  With a serrated knife carefully slice off a small amount of the top of each cake to make them flat.  Place one cake topside down onto  a cake plate.  Take your reddish/pink frosting and frost the top of the first cake leaving about a 1/4 inch around the cake at the edges. Sprinkle the frosting with some more of the mini chocolate chips.  Now take the second cake and place it topside down on top of the 1st cake.  Using green frosting, frost the sides of the cake and about 1/2 inch of the edge on the top of the cake.  Fill the top of the cake in the middle of the green circle with reddish/pink frosting and sprinkle additional mini chocolate chips on the top of the pink to look like watermelon seeds.  Decorated the bottom edge anyway you like, I just did little balls but putting frosting in a ziploc bag and cutting a tiny corner of the bag and squeezing out a little at time to make balls.  

*Notes:

If you want the cake to taste like watermelon, use the powder of a packet of watermelon flavored jello and sprinkle 3/4 of it into the cake batter and the other 1/4 of the packet into the pink frosting.  You could also use a strawberry cake mix if you don't feel like coloring the cake and you will still get a nice fruit flavor to your cake.

You may want to put a thin layer of frosting on the cake and then refrigerate to firm up the frosting and then add a second layer of frosting so it looks nice and smooth.  This just makes it easier to frost and covers up any imperfections.

Lemon Zucchini Muffins with Lemon Glaze

We just returned from spending the summer in sunny California!  What a nice extended vacation.  We stayed with my Aunt who has the most fabulous fruit trees in her backyard.  How nice to go out and pick a lemon, orange or apple anytime we wanted.  I use lemons ALL the time when I cook and bake so this was just super convenient.  Also since it was so nice and hot where we were and you pick the lemons fresh off the tree you get this warm very juicy piece of fruit to use which was so easy to extract juice from.  The kids made fresh lemonade a few times which they absolutely LOVED.  The recipe that I made, Lemon Zuchinni Bread was super delicious and light and refreshing.  The perfect summer treat.

Beautiful Lemon Tree

Ingredients:

1 c grated Zucchini
Zest of 1 lemon
2 TB lemon juice
1 c sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk (or scant 1/2 c of milk with 1 TB lemon juice mixed in)
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tap salt

Lemon icing
1 c powdered sugar
2 TB lemon juice
1 TB milk

Preparation:

For cake mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder) together and set aside

In large bowl beat eggs, add sugar and oil and mix until combined.  Next add buttermilk and lemon juice and lemon zest. Fold in grated Zuchinni.

Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until well combined.

Pour into prepared lined muffin tins to make muffins or a greased loaf pan to make a cake.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 min for muffins or 40-45 min for loaf pan.

For the icing combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk together.  Drizzle over warm cake.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Crumb Cake Loaf

A nice change from the usual cinnamon crumb cake.....This VERY chocolately version is to die for.  I used our favorite chocolate cake recipe found here....Ultimate Chocolate Cake and made a delicious dark chocolate crumb topping.  When I combined the two it was over the top delicious.  This recipe makes two loaves so you can share with friends ;)

Ingredients:

Ultimate Chocolate Cake batter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Generously spray two loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray.  Prepare Ultimate Chocolate Cake batter and pour half batter into each loaf pan.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Meanwhile in a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder and melted butter.  Mix with a fork until big crumbs appear, set aside.  Remove cakes from oven after baking for 20 minutes...the cake will not be done and probably be runny.   Top each loaf with half of the chocolate crumb mixture.  Place cakes back in the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Immediately dust the entire top of the cakes with powdered sugar and then sprinkle with mini chocolate chips.  Set aside to cool before cutting and serving.

Peanut Butter Toffee Coffee Cake

I think the combination of peanut butter and toffee is so delicious so I wanted to incorporate both of the flavors somehow.  The obvious thing would be to put them into cookies but I wanted to do something a little different.  I've been wanting to make homemade coffee cake for awhile so I thought that it would be a perfect combination and I was really right!  This cake is fantastic.  The cake is super moist with the perfect flavor combination of peanut butter and toffee.  The crumb topping is is thick and super crunchy and crumbly with the same flavor combo of peanut butter and toffee.   This cake is seriously dangerous and I have to get it out of my house before I gain 5 lbs just from looking at it.   This cake would make a great addition to breakfast or brunch menu or it's a delicious after school snack for the kids.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup milk

1egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup toffee bits, divided (1/2 cup - 1/2 cup)
 

 

Preparation:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a round cake pan or a 9x13 inch pan.  Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar and butter; mix on low speed with an electric mixer until crumbly. Remove 1/2 cup of crumb mixture and set aside to be used for topping.  To one half of the crubm mixtures add milk, baking powder, vanilla, egg, and peanut butter; beat at low speed until well mixed.  Add in 1/2 cup of toffee bits and beat until combined. Spread batter evenly in pan.  To make the topping: In a small bowl, mix peanut butter chips, 1/2 cup toffee bits, and reserved 1/2 cup crumb mixture. Sprinkle mixture evenly over batter in pan.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until it tests done. Cool cake completely in pan on rack. 

Honey Butter Blondies

 

In keeping with the Honey theme, I made these Honey Butter Blondies using Orange Blossom Honey.  This makes the most delicious, light and creamy batter.  I could've eaten the batter by the spoonful.  These blondies are cakier and not as moist/dense and I wanted but still really delicious.  I might try making these again and cutting out a half cup of flour or omitting the baking soda to see if I get the consistency that I wanted.  I'll update if I do.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 stick Butter (or margarine), softened

1/2 cup Honey

1/4 cup Sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 

Preparation:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 8x8 baking pan generously with non-stick cookng spray.  In a large bowl cream together softened butter, honey and sugar until light and creamy.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Add in baking soda, salt and baking powder and mix to combine.  Last add in flour and mix until incorporated and batter is light and fluffy.  Spread batter evenly in geased pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Let cool completely before cutting.

 

Toffee Poke Cake

I seem to be making A  LOT of recipes from Pinterest lately.  I am a little obsessed with that site!!  I saw this Toffee Poke Cake AKA. Better than Sex Cake all over Pinterest boards and done in many different ways.  I thought it would make the perfect birthday cake for my husband.  This cake did not disappoint!  It was really delicious and decadent.......but better than sex?  I'll let you decide that for your self.

Ingredients:

1 box devils food cake

1- 16oz jar caramel ice cream topping

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

1 container of cool whip, thawed

1 bag of Hershey's Heath Bits O'Brickle or 3 heath bars, crushed

 

 

Preparation:

 

Bake the devils food cake according to the package, except the oil. Reduce the amount by half. I baked mine in two round cake pans, but I'm thinking a 9x13 pan would have been less messy.

 

While the cake is still hot, poke holes in it using the back of a wooden spoon. Make sure you don't poke all the way through the cake.  (I used a stainless steel knife sharpener that I don't use to sharpen knives ;)

 

Drizzle caramel over the top of the cake. 

Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the caramel (I used half the can but you can use more if you would like) 

Sprinkle the Bit's O' Brickle or crushed Heath Bars over the top of the sweetened condensded milk. 

 

 

Allow cake to cool completely in the refrigerator.   I used round cake pans when I made the cake because I was going for a nicer presentation but you can use a 9x13 pyrex dish or cake pan which would work fine.  Next time I'm going to make and decorate the cake in a pyrex dish because it would just be much easier and less messy. 

 

However, if you did use round cake pans you will need to carefully remove the cakes from the pans and transfer to a cake platter to decorate.  Using a spatchula carefully lift the cakes from the pans.  It will be mess and gooey but mine came out without a problem.  Now  cover the cake with a thin layer of cool whip, then top with the 2nd cake and cover that cake with cool whip as well.  Sprinkle entire cake with additional Heath bar crumbles.

 

 

Black Magic Cake - Crazy Cooking Challenge

It's time for this month's Crazy Cooking Challenge and this month's theme is Chocolate Cake!  I knew it would'nt be hard to find delicious chocolate cake recipes around my favorite blogs and I was right!  The recipe I decided to make, Black Magic Cake sounded perfect for this challenge.  It's a super dark, moist cake that looked irresitable.  I found this cake recipe on a great blog....My Baking Addiction and I couldn't wait to try it myself.  The frosting recipe I found on a local message board and gave it a try, I think it went pretty well with the cake....it may have been a little too sweet but overall the cake was a hit.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk or *sour milk
1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* To sour milk: Use 1 tablespoon white vinegar plus milk to equal 1 cup

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.  Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost as desired.

Chocolate Cream Frosting

4 1/3 cups plus 2 Tbs. unsifted powdered sugar
1 pinch salt
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate -- melted and cooled to tepid
1 1/2 oz. bittersweet chocolate -- melted and cooled to tepid
6 Tbs. unsalted butter -- cut into tablespoon chunks and softened
3/4 cups plus 3 Tbs. heavy cream
2 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Place powdered sugar and salt in large bowl. Add the melted chocolates, butter, cream, and vanilla. Using an electric hand mixer, beat for 1 minute on low to combine ingredients; continue beating on high for 2 more minutes or until very smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl several times with a rubber spatula to keep the frosting even textured. The frosting should be thick but creamy; if it seems too dense, lighten it with a little more heavy cream, added a tsp. at a time. Use frosting immediately.

Makes about 3 3/4 cups frosting

Banana Crumb Snack Cake

This is the first recipe I made trying to use up all the overripe bananas I have in my freezer.  This recipe was suggested by Julie of Julie's Eats and Treats and as soon as I saw the recipe I knew I wanted to make this first.  It looked so delicious and it really is.  YUM, YUM YUM!

 Ingredients

2/3 C. Slivered Almonds
1/4 C. Packed Brown Sugar
2/3 C. Butter, softened
1 1/2 C. Sugar (I think you can definitely cut at least 1/2-3/4 cup a sugar out...it's very sweet)
2 Eggs
3/4 tsp Almond Extract
3 C. All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
2 C. Mashed Ripe Bananas (3-4 Bananas)
1 C. (8 oz) Sour Cream (I used Fat Free sour cream)
1 C. Vanilla or White Chips (I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips)

1. In a small bowl, combine almonds and brown sugar; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extract.

3. Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder; add to the creamed mixture alternately with bananas and sour cream. Fold in white chocolate or vanilla chips.

4. Spread into a greased 13x9x2 in baking pan. Sprinkle with reserved almond mixture.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. (mine took almost an hour to cook in the middle so you definitely have to start checking the center of the cake with a toothpick after 38-40 min, then bake in additional 5 minute increments until the center of the cake is baked through)

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Red and White Marble Cake with Blueberry Cream

Great looking cake for a patriotic holiday but delicous anytime of the year.

Ingredients:

1 box of Red Velvet Cake Mix

1 box of White Cake Mix

6 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups water

1 box of instant vanilla pudding mix (I used the sugar/fat free kind)

1 can of blueberry pie filling

1 cup of light cool whip

Preparation:

Prehat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix both cake mixes in separate bowls according to box directions.  Starting with the red velvet cake batter use about 1/4 of the batter to fill  the bottom of the greased bundt pan.  Next use a 1/4 of the white cake mix and pour it carefully on top of the red velvet cake mix being careful not to mix the batters.  Alternate back and forth between the batters until the bundt pan is filled about 2/3 of the way full. (You will probably have left over cake batter). You do not need to mix the batter together to get the marble effect.  When the cake bakes it will marble itself.  Bake for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cake comes out clean.  Let cake cool completely before unmolding.

To make the blueberry cream, mix the blueberry pie filling with the dry pudding mix until combined.  Fold in the cool whip and then place mixture in the refrigerator to set up about an hour. 

Linked to Sweet Treats Thursday 

Raspberry Buckle

This is a really easy dessert. The recipe calls for rasberries but I think it would be equally good with blueberries or a combination of both. It is also very light and not too sweet. I made it for our Father's Day BBQ but I also think it would be perfect for the Fourth of July with rasberries and blueberries for a perfect red, white, and blue dessert!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 containers(1/2 pint each) rasberries

confectioners sugar for dusting

whipped cream (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter or spray a 2 quart oval or square baking dish. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to combine. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder; with mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture until incorporated.

Spread batter in baking dish. Scatter rasberries on top. bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean and top is golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes;dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired. With a large spoon, scoop out onto serving plates; serve with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

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Bluberry Pie Stuffed Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy 4th of July!!!

I was trying to find a new RED, WHITE and BLUE dessert to make for the 4th of July and I thought this was really a cool idea.  RED velvet cake, BLUEberry pie and WHITE cream cheese frosting YUM!  It was absolutely delicious too.  I will be posting the blueberry pie recipe later this week or if you want you could use a store bought pie.

*Next I'm going to try different flavors of Pie/Cake combinations since it was such a big hit!!

Ingredients:

1 box of red velvet cake mix

3 eggs

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 oil

1 blueberry pie baked and cooled

1 container of cream cheese frosting

Preparation:

Prepare cake mix according to package directions.  Grease a large round cake pan very well (a deep pan if you have one).  Pour 1/3 of cake mix in the bottom of the pan.  Then take the baked and cooled blueberry pie and flip it face down into the cake pan (remove pie tin from bottom of pie).  Pour the remaining cake batter ontop of the pie until it's completely covered. 

VERY IMPORTANT!! Place the cake pan on a cookie sheet covered in foil before baking.  Unless you have a very deep cake pan the cake batter will most likely run over the top and pour over onto your oven if you don't have a pan underneath to catch it.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.  Check cake every 5-10 minutes after 45 minutes of baking.  When a toothpick insterted in the middle of cake comes out clean it's done.

Let the cake cool COMPLETELY before trying to unmold it.  You can run a knife around the outside edge of the cake pan to loosen it before it's cooled.  

Once cooled turn pie stuffed cake out on a flat platter.  Frost generously with cream cheese frosting.  You will need to do an initial crumb coat of frosting and refrigerate until set and then finish with a final layer of cream cheese frosting to make smooth.

*Note - it's easier to slice neatly if the pie stuffed cake is cold from the refrigerator. 

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Rainbow Cupcakes

And the birthday celebration continues.  Since I had Charlotte's 4th Birthday Party 10 days before her actual birthday I still needed to make cupcakes for her school parties.  I haven't made these cupcakes in long time but I knew they would be a big hit with the 4 year olds (and the adults too).  Everyone LOVED them!

Ingredients:

1 box of white cake mix
Red food dye
Yellow food dye
Green food dye
Purple food dye
Blue food dye
1 tub of white frosting
Rainbow sprinkles

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare cake mix according to package directions.  Separate prepared cake batter into 5 separate bowls.  Add one color of food dye to each bowl.  Use enough dye to make the colors fairly dark so they will bake up nice and vibrant.  (Gel food dye works the best).  Mix food dye into cake batter until combined well and the color is nice and bright.  Add more food color if nessary to get your desired color.  Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.  Starting with the blue cake batter spoon one tablespoon into the bottom of the liner.  Next add one tablespoon of the purple batter on top of the blue, next add one tablespoon green on top of the purple.  Do the same with the yellow and then red.  The liners should be filled at least halfway.  If you want just a tie dyed effect you can add the colored batter in any order and any fashion.  If you don't mix it together the colors will bake up separate.  Bake cupcakes according to box directions.  Cool completely before frosting/decorating.

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Red Velvet Cake Pops

Happy 4th Birthday Charlotte

A sweet treat (one of many) for my daughter, Charlotte's 4th Birthday Party.  I've been wanting to attempt to make cake pops and it was much more difficult than I thought it would be.  I need more practice to make them look prettier but they tasted absolutely delicious!  Here is my first attempt.

Melt a small amount of chocolate to dip each lolipop stick in and insert into cake balls

Let harden in a cool, dry place to set the chocolate before dipping the cake balls in more chocolate.

Coat each cake ball in melted chocolate and decorate with sprinkles.

                                    

Ingredients:

1 box of red velvet cake mix

1/2 a container of cream cheese frosting

2 bags of pink melting chocolate (or white chocolate chips and red food gel dye)

40 lolipop sticks

1 small container of pearl sprinkles (or any that you like)

1/4 cup of vegetable oil (or one big spoonful of crisco to thin out chocolate for dipping) 

Preparation:

Mix cake according to package directions and bake in a shallow large baking dish or on a baking sheet.  The cake will take less time since you are baking a thin cake.  Check peridically for doneness with a tooth pick or clean sharp knife. (inset a tooth pick in the middle of the cake and when it comes out clean the cake it done).  Cool the cake completely and then break cake up and place in a large mixing bowl.  Crumble the cake into fine crumbs using your hands.  Once crumbled add 1/2 a the container of frosting and mix until completely combined with a fork (or your hands if you prefer).  Line a cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper and roll cake mix into small balls with your hands and place on cookie sheet.  Melt a small amount of the pink chocolate in a microwave bowl.  Dip a lolipop stick in the melted chocolate and then insert immediately into the middle of a cake ball. The sticks should be facing up (see picture above).  Repeat that step until all the cake balls have stick inserted with melted chocolate.  Set cookie sheet aside in a cool spot to harden. (DO NOT put the cake balls in the freezer to harden because the cake will become damp and hard to work wirh once it begins to thaw).  

NOW THIS IS WHERE I NEED TO WORK ON MY TECHNIQUE.  The next step is to dip and coat each cake ball in melted chocolate and decorate.  Getting the right consistency for the chocolate to dip and finding the right technique to coat each cake pop evenly and neatly is not easy.  I think practice makes perfect (or in my case, makes it good enough).

Melt the remaining chocolate in a large microwave safe bowl.  (melt in 30 second increments, stirring in between until melted and smooth).  Add vegetable oil or crisco and stir again until combined and smooth.  You want a thin enough consistency so the chocolate can pour off the spoon easily.  Carefully dip each cake ball by holding the lolipop stick and using a spoon to help coat the bottom of the cake pop.  Immediately sprinkle with your decorative sprinkles.  Place each cake pop, lolipop stick side down into a piece of stryofoam covered with plastic wrap to cool and harden.

Linked to Sweets for Saturday

Oreo Cookie Trifle

I have been having a lot of fun making trifles lately. I made up this recipe because I didn't see anything that I liked online. Everything had cream cheese and powdered sugar in it (those ingredients will be good when I make a cheesecake trifle!!). My niece Ariel asked me to make an oreo cookie trifle for her birthday in June. I decided to try it out for my nephew Ben's birthday celebration this past week. Everyone liked it a lot. I might try it next time with chocolate cake and two layers of the vanilla pudding/oreo mixture. I guess it depends on what kind of chocolate to vanilla ratio you like in a dessert.

Ingredients:

3 sleeves of Oreo cookies, hand crushed (reserve four whole cookies for garnish)
4 vanilla pudding cups
8 chocolate pudding cups
1 16 oz tub of cool whip
1 vanilla cake, cut into cubes

Preparation:

Empty all vanilla pudding cups into a bowl and add 1 sleeve of crushed oreo cookies into pudding mix well and set aside. In the bottom of the trifle bowl make a thin layer of crushed oreo's. Then put down a layer of vanilla cake cubes. Then a layer half of the chocolate pudding (4 pudding cups). Next a layer of crushed oreo cookies and a layer of cool whip. Next layer the vanilla/oreo pudding mixture. Next another layer of yellow cake, layer of chocolate pudding and remaining cool whip on top. Sprinkle remaining crushed oreos on top of cool whip and place four whole oreos in a decorative pattern. Chill for a few hours or overnight.

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

I love this cake recipe. It is a rich chocolate cake that is easy to put together and almost impossible to mess up. I made this recently when I was invited over a friend's house for dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it before we cut into it, hence the huge gaping hole in the cake. Oh well, what can you do? It is also a pareve recipe which I love...no dairy needed in this one!

Ingredients:

2 C. sugar
1 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
3/4 C. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 C. non-dairy creamer or soy milk
1/2 C. vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 C. boiling water

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the pan of your choice: one 13x9 inch pan, two 8-inch round or square pans or a Bundt pan. Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl, stirring until well blended. Add non dairy creamer, oil, vanilla and eggs; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Fold in boiling water with a spoon or rubber spatula. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake for 25 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Almond Cherry Cake

This recipe is from the mother of my best friend Wendy from college.  We swaped recipes one day.  I gave her the salted toffee chocolate squares and she gave me this one.  It is an easy recipe to follow and makes a nice big amount for a dinner party. Not to mention how delicious it is!!! 

 



Ingredients:

1 cup ( 2 sticks ) butter or margarine
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 can cherry pie filling 

Preparation:
In a large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar add the eggs beat until light and fluffy, add the almond extract stir in the flour and baking powder . mix until smooth.

Grease a 13x9 pan and turn mixture into the pan.  Spoon the cherry filling into the cake mixture in 16 spots and bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until cake is golden and the filling sinks into the cake while baking. Serve warm with whipped cream. Makes 16 generous pieces.

 

Linked to Sweets for Saturday on Sweet As Sugar Cookies