Strawberry Cake August 8, 2009

I made a strawberry cake that started with white cake mix several years ago.  This year, Shania asked for a strawberry cake for her birthday and I realized I’d lost the recipe!  This Paula Deen recipe is very similar to the one I made before and was delicious! Do not buy a strawberry flavored cake mix. This is just as easy but so much better.

Strawberry Cake

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
• 1 (3-ounce) box strawberry-flavored instant gelatin
• 1 (15-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• Strawberry cream cheese frosting, recipe follows
• Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
• 1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
• 7 cups confectioners’ sugar
• Freshly sliced strawberries, for garnish, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

For the frosting:

In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in 1/4 cup of the strawberry puree and the vanilla extract. (The rest of the puree is leftover but can be used in smoothies or on ice cream for a delicious treat.) Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, beating until smooth.

Spread frosting in between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with sliced fresh strawberries, if desired.

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake July 15, 2009

It cannot be said how much I love this cake!

Ingredients: 2 cups sugar 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1 cup milk 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup boiling water

Directions: 1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely and frost. 10 to 12 servings.

This is typically topped with Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Frosting. I used Wilton’s Buttercream in the pics above.

Here is a pic with the chocolate frosting:

From: Hersheys

Pizza Cake July 9, 2009

I have a special edition of Taste of Home from 2007 that has lots of fun recipes that you can make with cake mix.  I’ve made several of them in the past but it’s been a while since I used it.  I gave the book to Shania and told her to choose anything she wanted to make. I knew she would choose this pizza cake!

This is a fairly simple cake, in theory.  Making red frosting can be tricky- but I’ve learned that it gets darker the longer it sits.  I used Wilton’s No Taste red coloring which I highly recommend since red frosting can often taste bad.  We went to TWO  stores that were both out of white chocolate squares so I melted a bowl of white chocolate chips, let it set and then scraped it with a fork to make the cheese.  Another annoyance is that it’s hard to find plain red strawberry fruit roll ups! They either have pictures on them or are blended with other colors.  So, Shania had to go through several fruit roll ups, cutting around the designs, to make the pepperoni. Austin will be the garbage disposal who eats the leftover scraps.

Overall, this cake was easy to make and fun, which was the most important part!

Pizza Cake

Ingredients

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 cup vanilla frosting
• red liquid or paste food coloring
• 3 squares (1 ounce each) white baking chocolate, grated
• 2 strawberry fruit roll ups

Directions

Prepare cake mix batter according to package directions. Pour batter into two greased and floured 9 inch round baking pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pans and continue cooling on a wire rack.

Place each cake on a 10 inch serving platter.  Combine frosting and food coloring; spread over the top of each cake to within 1/2 inch of the edges.  Sprinkle with grated chocolate for cheese. Use a round cutter to cut circles in fruit roll ups for pepperoni.  Arrange on cakes.

We only made one pizza cake and used the other half of the batter to make cinnamon roll cake with half the brown sugar and cinnamon.

From: Taste of Home Cake Mix Creations, April 2007

Iowa Applesauce Cake February 1, 2009

My mom made this cake for New Year’s.  She was so excited to use the new cake pan that I gave her for Christmas from Williams Sonoma.  It was so beautiful! And it tasted great, too. You should have heard my mom scream when my dad attempted to cut the cake normally. “You have to follow the curve!” LOL

The recipe called for a cream cheese frosting but my mom just used a simple glaze made with confectioner’s sugar and water.  She also omitted the raisins and nuts.  She added  2 tablespoons of meringue powder which is something we both do with every cake.  It helps them rise more.

Iowa Applesauce Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine or butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter or margarine for 30 seconds. Add both sugars and egg; beat until combined. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices. Add flour mixture alternately with applesauce to butter mixture. Stir in raisins and nuts. Pour batter into a greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan and spread evenly. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

From: ecookbooks

Buttermilk Pound Cake May 30, 2008

 

Yesterday, I made one of Scott’s favorite desserts-buttermilk pie (recipe at ThatSweetAng). I’ve been on a mission to find new recipes that call for buttermilk so that I can use up what’s left after making the pie.  I found this pound cake recipe on All Recipes and had all of the ingredients so I decided to give it a try. 

This cake smelled wonderful while it was baking and tastes great. It did not take 90 minutes to bake- I took it out of the oven after 75 minutes and it might have actually been done at 70 minutes.

This is an easy and good pound cake recipe.  It is very moist and the meringue powder that I added made it perfectly high.  I think I could actually take this home to my mom and she is the queen of pound cakes!

Buttermilk Pound Cake

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

I added 2 tablespoons meringue powder

1 cup butter

3 cups white sugar

6 eggs

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease one 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and meringue powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar. Mix in the eggs, one at time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the lemon and the vanilla extracts. Gently mix in flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 90 minutes. Do not open oven door until after one hour. When cake begins to pull away from the side of the pan it is done. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

 From: All Recipes

Classic White Cake May 4, 2008

 

I was nervous about this recipe because it was for Austin’s birthday cake but it got good reviews on The Food Network so I decided to give it a try.  I followed the directions for the yellow cake instead of white but it still looked more like white cake. The cake came out good but I think that I might add a little more milk when I make it again.  I used a dome cake pan along with the insert pan so it took longer to bake- about 50 minutes.  I filled and topped the cake with Wilton’s Buttercream frosting.

Classic White Cake

Ingredients

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 large egg whites (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Set rack at the middle level in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Butter the bottom of two 9-inch round or one 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan. Line bottom with parchment or waxed paper.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Combine egg whites, milk and vanilla extract. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture then add half the milk mixture. Continue to alternate beginning and ending with flour mixture. Scape the bowl and beater often.

Pour the batter into prepared pan(s) and smooth top with metal spatula. Bake cake(s) about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.

Cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack, remove paper and let cool completely.

Note: For a classic yellow cake- Substitute 3 large eggs and 1 yolk for the egg whites.

From: Food Network

Cinnamon Roll Cake April 20, 2008

I wanted to make cinnamon rolls but didn’t have the ingredients to make them.  I did have a box of cake mix in the pantry, so I made this instead. I love making a great dessert that starts with a cake mix.  It doesn’t get much easier.  This cake has become one of my favorite cakes to make- and eat!

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Ingredients

• yellow or white cake mix, prepared according to box directions
• 1 tablespoon meringue powder
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2-3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• few tablespoons warm water (I did not use an exact measurement)

Directions

Prepare cake mix according to box directions and add meringue powder. Pour half of the batter into a cake pan of your choice.  Combine brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle half of the mixture over cake batter.  Add remaining batter and cover with remaining sugar and cinnamon.  Swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. To make the frosting, slowly add warm water to confectioner’s sugar until you get a smooth, thick glaze.  Spread over warm cake.