Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin Cake (Tastes like a Pumpkin Pie)

1 Box Spice Cake Mix
1 - 1 1/2 Cup Pumpkin (depending on how "pumpkin" you want it)
1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/3 Cup Oil
3 Eggs
1 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons Apple Butter
2 Tablespoons Flour

Mix all ingredients together and follow the back of the box for cooking times. Can be made into any shape.


Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz) Cream Cheese, softened
1 Stick Butter, softened
3 Cups Powered Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

C-A-K-E-S

I was going through pictures on my computer and saw a lot of cakes I have made that never made it on here. Here's some cakes I have made in the past year.

The most recent were these football cupcakes we had for Super Bowl Sunday, I found the picks at the Target dollar section and knew I had to have them and these cupcakes were perfect.

My nieces 1st birthday cake, a VERY easy butterfly cake. With Valentine m&m's, upside down Hershey kisses, and twizzler antenna's
This next one is a picture of Claire's 2ND birthday cake from her birthday party in California
(bought from Albertsons) So I took the pieces home and made it for her actual birthday 2 weeks later and it turned out like.... this.....

My nieces 8TH birthday cake, my favorite part were these candles. I saw them in a magazine a few months ago (can't remember which one, sorry) The 'recipe' says to use the froot loop straws which come in different colors, but we could not find them anywhere. So we settled for golden oreo straws. And gum drops shaped to be the flame. Then frosting drips for the candle wax.

My sister's wedding cake. The top cake was my first homemade fondant experiment. It turned out well until the very end where it ripped in 2 places, so I used 2 bands of the brown ribbon to cover it up.

Basketball cupcakes because my husband is a March Madness freak!!

And this one was such an easy and fun idea. It was for my cousin Josh's wedding, his then fiance told me about the idea and I loved it. I love the top view!

And here's the final product with 200 cupcakes!!

Banana Cake

Yum! Is all I can say about this, Oh and it's an easy recipe!

Banana Cake

1 box yellow cake (follow directions on back)

2-3 RIPE mashed bananas

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cap full banana extract

Can be baked in any pan, I used a bunt pan for a pretty presentation. Then the top decided to stay in the pan so it didn't come up pretty but we glued it back together with a yummy cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened

3 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp.vanilla

A dash of banana extract

(I didn't want a thick layer of frosting on this so I added some milk to thin it to the consistency I needed)

Kit Kats

My son is turning 3 tomorrow. He is not a big fan of cakes.
So what to make him for the special day?
He LOVES candy... especially Kit Kats.
I saw this creation online, on several sites, it is PERFECT for my son...

2 - 8 inch round cakes, frosted.
Press the Kit Kats into the side,
fill the 'bucket' with your favorite candy,
tie a ribbon... and you're done!!
My son will be on such a sugar high from the candy -
he'll ignore the cake completely.

He saw the cake today and said, 'Oh, a bucket for my candy!' :)

Spring Cupcakes

Megan was asked to learn how to make these adorable cupcakes and teach them to our YWs last night. They are just too cute to eat!

Ingredients:

Cake Mix & ingredients on the box

Frosting

Large Marshmellows

Mint Leaf candies (find at Longs Drug)

Spring colored Sugars (regular consistency not large)

Gumdrops (find at Longs Drug)

Nonpareils (small little balls sold in cake decorating areas)

White sugar

Easter grass & small candies for decorations

1. Bake, cool and frost your cupcakes.

2. Take a large marshmellow and cut into 5 slices with sissors squishing it slightly as you cut so it looks like a petal.

3. Dip the cut sticky side of the marshmellow into the sugar leaving a white rim around each petal.

4. Take a mint leaf and slice it with a knife into 4 leafs. Dip the leafs that have been cut and do not have any sugars on it into regular white sugar.

5. Take a gum drop and slice off the very top to make it flat. Dip the sticky top just cut into the nonpareils.

6. Assembly your flower starting with the marshmellow leafs arranging 5 petals overlapping into a flower. Add two mint leaves carefully under the petals as you go or after. Add the gumdrop to the center and you are done!

Note: The marshmellows do harden so you might want to keep wrapped with cellophane and plan to deliver to a friend soon thereafter if they are a gift. Doiley's are a nice touch to hide the plate you are using.

Dump Truck Cake

Here's an easy birthday cake that the kids will love:

Bake a chocolate cake. While the cake is baking, mix up a large package of chocolate pudding and let set in the fridge.

While cake is still warm - crumble the cake. Set aside 1/2 c. of the crumbled cake to sprinkle on top when done. (Sorry picture wouldn't rotate for me)

Put golden Oreos and regular Oreos in a zip lock bag and crush with a rolling pin.

Mix Chocolate cake crumbs, pudding, crushed oreos, and gummy worms together to make "mud". Spoon into dump truck and onto "road". Sprinkle the top with remaining crumbs to make it look like fresh dirt.

We used a "shovel" to serve everyone.
Super easy and yummy!

The cake with many names

This cake is usually known as the "Better than sex cake" But also has lots of other names and lots of different versions, this was how I made mine.

1 box devils food cake mix
caramel topping
heath candy bars
chocolate cool whip

Bake cake according to directions (I did add some of the toffee bits to the cake batter), let cool for a few minutes. Poke holes with fork all over the cake. Drizzle caramel topping over top (to your desired liking) so it starts to melt into the cake. Then I put it in the fridge to finish cooling.
Add cool whip to top of cake and top with heath toffee bits.
Oh so delicious!!


* I grabbed the bag of Heath Toffee pieces from the baking isle, and when i got home realized it only was the toffe bits, so I took about 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and chopped those up and added it to the toffee pieces.

Giant cupcake

I fell in love with this cake idea when I saw it last year in a magazine. I had to have it, so I thought making it for Claire's birthday cake would be a great time to try it out. I read lots of reviews about it, some people loved it and others hated it! I had no problems with it.

I got mine from Target, here's a picture of what the pan looks like. In this cake I used 1 1/2 boxes of a cake mix and it took about 50+ minutes to bake. And if you are really good at cake decorating there are lots of cute ideas I have seen to decorate this cake.

Chocolate Banana Cake

½ c butter
1 ¼ c brown sugar
¼ c sugar
2 eggs
1 T water
½ c cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ t baking soda
¼ t salt
1 t baking powder
1 ½ c mashed, ripe bananas
½ t vanilla

Cream butter, sugars and water together. Add eggs one at a time. Beat thoroughly after each. Stir in all dry ingredients and add to the batter alternately with the mashed bananas; stir in vanilla. Pour into greased and floured 9 inch cake pans. Bake in preheated 350º oven for 30-35 minutes, until cake test is done. Frost with your favorite frosting

* I used this cake recipe for the Sunflower Peeps cake- I tasted a little of it while I was leveling the cakes off- yummy.

Peeps Sunflower Cake

I found this in my magazine that I recently subscribed to, Taste of Home. This recipe was in the back and I knew I had to make it! Now I am not a peeps fan but they work out great in this recipe. Tonight is our Relief Society Birthday event and I signed up to bring a cake for August, so I figured this sunflower would be perfect...and easy!

1 package (18-1/4 ounces) yellow cake mix
2 cans (16 ounces each) chocolate frosting
19 yellow chick Peeps candies
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions: Prepare and bake cake according to package directions, using two greased and waxed paper-lined 9-in. round baking pans. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely; carefully remove waxed paper.

Level tops of cakes. Spread frosting between layers and over the top and sides of cake.

Without separating Peeps and curving slightly to fit, arrange chicks around edge of cake for sunflower petals. For sunflower seeds, arrange chocolate chips in center of cake.

Yield: 12 servings.

* I use one can of frosting and it worked out perfect, if you want alot of frosting then get 2

Peanut Butter Cake

One of my friend's had a birthday and he LOVES Peanut Butter, so I thought it would be fun to make a Peanut Butter cake for him. I found this recipe online at allrecipes.com

It was super easy and it's way YUMMY!!!

INGREDIENTS

• Cake
  
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package butter cake mix
• 2/3 cup water
• Frosting
  
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Topping
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
• Chocolate Sauce
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans. (I cooked it at 350 degrees because 325 just takes too long.)
2. Combine 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup butter or margarine. Cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each one. Add cake mix alternately with the water. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 25 minutes or until cake tests done. (I did 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.) Allow cakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Assemble and frost with Peanut Butter Frosting once cool. I also put cut up Reese's in the middle layer just to add a little something.
   
4. To Make Peanut Butter Frosting: Combine 1 cup peanut butter, and 1/2 cup butter or margarine cream together until light and fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar. Mix in enough cream to make the frosting of a spreading consistency. Apply to cool cake.
5. Then I cut up Reese's Peanut Butter cups and put them on top and then drizzled chocolate sauce on top of them. You can use any chocolate sauce you want. I took about a cup of the Wal-Mart brand Milk Chocolate chips (they melted creamy enough that I didn't need to add milk or anything to them) and melted them in a double broiler. (I heard for melting chocolate chips in a double broiler you should use a glass bowl, they say it's better that way. Who knows if it is true, but I am just passing along the information.) I had the temperature on low and melted the chips and then put the sauce in a sandwich baggy, cut a little whole in the corner and drizzled. But it's up to you on how you want your cake to look, just have fun with it.

The final product....

Do you love Reese's???

Reese's Peanut Butter Cake

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar

½ Cup creamy peanut butter

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

8 oz softened cream cheese

½ Cup powdered sugar

¼ Cup creamy peanut butter

1-2 packages Resees Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease two 9 x 1 1/2 inch pans. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt- set aside.

2. Mix together brown sugar, peanut butter and butter for two minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and mix for another 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and mix for another minute.

3. Add half of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated about 20 seconds. Then add the sour cream, mixing again for 20 seconds. Gradually add the remaining flour mixture. Add the hot water in a slow, steady stream and mix on low to combine, about 30 seconds. Add the vanilla and mix for another 10 seconds. Add the reese's peanut butter chips and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

4. Divide the cake batter into the prepared pans, spreading it evenly. (batter will be thick) Bake for about 15 minutes. If you have Use a toothpick to see if it is done. Let cool completely.

5. Place cream cheese, powdered sugar, and peanut butter into a medium bowl. Stir until smooth. Once cakes are cooled, spread cream cheese over bottom of one of the cakes. Top with 2nd cake.

Chocolate Ganache

1 Cup semisweet chocolate chips

¾ Cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Place chocolate chips into a medium mixing bowl. Place cream and butter into a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat cream/butter until just boiling. Remove and pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 3-5 minutes then stir until smooth.

To Assemble: Place layered cake on a wire rack. Place rack on top of a cookie sheet (lined with tin foil) so that the extra chocolate has a place to drip onto. Pour chocolate ganache over cake and using a narrow metal spatula, quickly spread it evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Garnish with chopped peanut butter cups in center of cake.

Note* I used probably 1 bag of reese's and the cake turned out great to me. Also I might try using milk chocolate chips instead of the semi sweet for the ganosh- I don't know if it would change the consistency but it might be tasty! Also I had a bag of the Valentine reese's hearts so that is what I used to garnish my cake

*** Recipe came from the Picky Palate.