Candy Bar Cake

 I made this darling cake for my daughter's 16th birthday. She loves chocolate AND candy so a Candy Bar Cake was the perfect choice. It was incredibly easy and since I made it in the middle of the night last night you are not getting any how to pics...sorry!

Ingredients
1 box chocolate cake mix, made according to directions and baked in 9 in pans

1 1/2 tubs of chocolate frosting or homemade stuff 
8 or 9 packages Kit Kat candy bars
4 packages Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
1 large bag M&M's
Ribbon


Directions
Bake cake according to directions in 9 inch pans, cool. Place frosting on the top of one of the cakes and add unwrapped Reeces Peanut Butter Cups, add second layer of cake. Liberally frost sides and top of cake. Take Kit Kat bars and break into 2 pieces increments. Gently stick them onto side of cake. (make sure cake isn't taller than kit kats, if so trim top of cake) Pour one bag of M&M's onto top of cake. Wrap ribbon around cake and tie a bow. Place in fridge until ready to serve.

Serves 12

Inside of cake

Birthday girl!

Enjoy!!

Triple Layer Apple Cake

My favorite cookbook in the entire world is A Pinch of Salt Lake, it was published by the Junior League back in the '80's. Every single recipe in it is delicious, I love it so much I tracked down used copies off of Amazon and bought a copy for each of my children (it's since gone out of print...what a shame... I was able to buy the almost new books for approximately a $1 apiece!!) 

One of my favorite recipes in the book is for this delicious Apple Cake, it is so incredibly moist and tasty. My father in law requests that I make it on special occasions and since yesterday was Father's Day, it was on the menu. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does. 

Ingredients for Cake

3 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups, finely chopped tart apples ( I use my food processor)

1/2 c chopped walnuts

1 tsp grated lemon peel

2 c sugar

1 1/2 c vegetable oil

2 eggs

Directions

Prepare three 9-inch round cake pans. Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour with baking soda and salt; set aside. In a small bowl combine chopped apple, nuts and lemon peel. In a standing mixer combine oil, sugar and eggs, beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients mixing until smooth. INcorporate apple mixture, stir until well combined. Spread evenly into prepared bans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until surface springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then cool thoroughly on wire rack

Ingredients for Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 c butter, softened

16 ounces powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 c finely chopped walnuts

Prepare frosting by creaming together all ingredients except nuts. Frost between layers and do a thin coat on sides and top. Refrigerate until chilled, then using remaining frosting frost a thicker layer on cake. (this helps keeps the crumbs in the frosting to a minimum) Press nuts around sides and top of cake. Refrigerate until serving time. 

Ingredients for cake

Chopping the apples

Apples, nuts and lemon peel

Adding dry ingredients to sugar, oil and eggs

Thick consistency

Adding in the apples

Ready for the oven

Frosting ingredients

Triple layers baby!

So pretty

It tastes so delicious

Enjoy! 

Chocolate Peppermint Trifle

There are certain times when you should go all out when making a dessert and then there are times when cutting corners is a very good thing. I always think that if you can save time and still come up with an amazing dessert you should go for it. This Chocolate Peppermint Trifle is the perfect example of using mixes instead of made from scratch in order to save time....and who doesn't like to save time during the holidays? I'm bringing this to a PTSA holiday party and I can't wait to see the ladies dig into this yummy dessert.

Ingredients
1 Chocolate Cake Mix plus 1 tsp Peppermint Extract
1 Large Tub Cool Whip
1 Large Boxes Jell-O Chocolate Pudding
6 c Milk
Crushed Candy Canes
Andes Mints, finely chopped
1 Chocolate Candy Bar

Mix cake mix according to box with the addition of peppermint extract. Follow all box directions and bake in a 9x13 pan. Let cool and then cut into small squares. Crush candy canes in a food processor or place in a large Ziploc and take a hammer to the bag, add crushed candy to Cool Whip. Make pudding according to box directions and chill in fridge until ready.

Assembly
To assemble the trifle, take a trifle bowl or other pretty glass bowl and place a small amount of pudding on the bottom, next add a layer of cut up chocolate cake. Sprinkle cake layer with chopped Andes mints; next add candy cane Cool Whip. Repeat 3 times or until you are out of ingredients or your trifle bowl is full. I always finish with a layer of Cool Whip. Take the chocolate candy bar and make small curls using a vegetable peeler; I do this over the top of the finished dessert and it makes it look amazing!
Served immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat.

Ingredients

Crush the candy in a food processor

Mix into Cool Whip

Start with a small amount of pudding

Add cake

Chopped Andes mints

Pudding

Candy Cane Cool Whip..repeat

Enjoy!

Chocolate Frosting

My oldest son turned 22 last Saturday and he requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I'm always on the lookout for frosting recipes, and when my neighbor recommended this one I knew I needed to try it. All I can say is YUMMMMM!! It's super easy and really chocolaty; you've got to give this a try! 

Ingredients

• 2 cups butter (no substitutes), softened
• 9 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 1/2 cups baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Add enough milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency. This recipe makes way more than you need for a 2 layer cake, but I'd rather have too much than too little. I froze the remainder of the frosting for future use.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake

You know how sometimes it feels like everything is crashing down around you and you need some kind of escape? Well I've got the solution for you...this cake recipe! What a gorgeous chocolately concoction this is. I mean what could snap you out of a bad mood better than a huge chunk of chocolate love, washed down with an icy Diet Dr Pepper?? 
I didn't think this day could get worse, but of course when you think that..... the worst happens. After doing a crumb coat on my gorgeous cake I was attempting to place it in the refrigerator when I realized a little too late that the shelf wasn't cleared off enough. I attempted to shut the fridge door and I could see the cake tipping, I tried to catch it.....

but it didn't happen.....

The next day I was able to see the humor in it all and take this picture :)

So don't judge me, I scraped the cake off the bottom of my fridge, placed it back on the stand, re frosted the broken and ugly pieces and stuck it back in the fridge. We'll see if I can "cover" my mistakes later when I do a top coat of frosting. Good thing I made this cake for me and no one else....well maybe I'll share with my daughter.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups boiling water
6 oz. semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
10 oz (2 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar, I only had light
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 9-inch round cake pans with circles of wax paper or baking parchment.
Pour the boiling water over the chocolate chips. Add cocoa and stir until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. Cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and half of the chocolate mixture. Beat on low to combine, then on high for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the remaining chocolate mixture and beat on low until mixed.

Pour batter into pans and bake 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out completely clean. Cool for 10-15 minutes; remove from pans. Wrap in double layers of plastic wrap while still warm and freeze. 


Frosting Ingredients 
1 1/4 cups plus 2 T. butter, softened
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup plus 2 T. Milk

When cake is frozen solid, frost between the two layers and spread a thin layer over the whole cake. Freeze again for about 20 minutes. Frost again. 

Ingredients for Cake

I traced circles on parchment paper to place on bottom of cake pans

Semi sweet chocolate in boiling water

Gorgeous batter, reminds me of chocolate pudding

Out of the oven

Frosting Ingredients

If you look at it from the top you can't see how slanted it is :)

Enjoy!

Source: A Bountiful Kitchen

4 Layer Pink Lemonade Cake

I made it back from my week long trek across the country, aside from the flat tire in the middle of the night and locking the keys in the car it was quite uneventful. We saw family and were able to squeeze in some time with a few friends. I wish I could have stayed longer, but a week in the car is long enough for me!

Tonight I'm making one of my kid's favorite meals, Calzones. This will be our first family dinner since January when the boys went back to college, so I'm super excited. I'm making their favorite Italian salad with their favorite dressing and this cake, I hope everyone loves their meal.

I've made a variation of this recipe before, but this time I decided to make it into a decadent looking cake. All I did was double the recipe and make cakes instead of cupcakes. 

I was recently in Utah and went to the most amazing baking store Orson Gygi, I picked up some awesome new frosting tips and bags. I'm looking forward to making even more fun goodies to share with everyone.

Simon likes the cake version more than the cupcakes since, "You can control the amount of frosting better". What a perfect ending to any meal!

Ingredients

2 White Cake Mixes

6 Egg Whites

2 1/2 c Water
2/3 c Vegetable Oil

6 TBSP  Country Time Pink Lemonade Mix

A few drops of red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the cake according to directions on the box then add lemonade mix and food coloring. Pour batter into 4 prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes or until done. 

Ingredients

For fun I only added red food coloring to half of the batch

Ingredients for Frosting

2 lb Powdered Sugar

2 Sticks unsalted butter, room temp

6 TBSP Pink Lemonade Mix

Milk

Pink Sprinkles

Mix butter and lemonade mix in a stand mixer, slowly add in powdered sugar. Add milk a TBSP at a time until desired consistency is reached. Place frosting in-between each layer and stack cake, I like to do a crumb coating on my cakes, to learn more about crumb coating check out this link and follow the directions. 

After the cake has sat in the fridge for 1-2 hours and the crumb coat has set frost the rest of 

the cake with a more liberal coating of frosting. I ended up making another 1/2 batch of frosting, I probably didn't need it but I always get nervous when frosting a large cake. 

Out of the oven and cooling

Pink frosting

Stacking them alternate colors

Crumb coat, now refrigerate

I frosted the sides with additional frosting and piped a design on the top.

I also piped some additional frosting around the base of the cake.

I used white sugar crystals on-top of the cake

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Brownies

My daughter is on vacation in Panama City and sent me a text message photo of a red velvet brownie. A what??? I immediately jumped online looking for recipes and this one caught my eye. Plus earlier in the day my husband called and informed me he'd volunteered me to bring a dessert to a baby shower, so I gathered up the ingredients and got baking. What an amazing combination of two of my favorite flavors!

Ingredients
1 box Brownie Mix ( 9x13 version) and ingredients to make it, Duncan Hines is my favorite
1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix and ingredients to make it, Duncan Hines is my favorite

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a 9x13 pan. Make brownies and spread into pan, next make the red velvet cake mix and pour on top of brownies. Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (this could take more than 40 minutes so don't panic)  Let cool and frost. I cut  my brownies into squares, placing them in cupcake liners then piping a dollop of frosting on top.

Ingredients for Frosting
1 Stick Butter, softened
8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1 lb Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
Milk, optional for thinner frosting

First the brownie layer

Then the red velvet batter on top

This is what a cross section looks like, yum on top of yum

Decorated for the baby shower

Enjoy!