Carrot Cake For Mom

It was my mother-in-law's birthday, so of course I wanted to contribute a cake for this wonderful occasion.  I have married into a family that appreciates a more traditional dessert.  I decided on a carrot cake.  While this cake was for Mom, I knew my husband loved this flavour.

I was a bit short for time, so I decided on a cake that was (ahem) partially from scratch.

I found a cake recipe on allrecipes.com that incorporated a carrot cake mix with added ingredients.

Ingredients
1 (18.5 ounce) package carrot cake mix
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 finely grated carrot (optional.... I added it in)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

Directions


1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8 inch round pans.

2.In large bowl, blend cake mix, oil, water, undrain pineapple, eggs, and nuts. Beat for 2 minutes with an electric mixer at medium speed. Spread batter into prepared pans.

* I used 3 boxes and baked three 10" pans.

You can view my cream cheese frosting recipe here.

And then it was time for assembly...

 One layer with come frosting on top

 Lets add on the other layers

Cream cheese frosting is on

 I decorated with orange coloured butter cream icing

And voila!

This cake was a hit, and it was nice and moist.

DELISH!

Red Velvet (CHRISTMAS) Cupcakes

I received a request for Christmas Cupcakes once again. Tis the Season! I had carte blanche on this 35 plus cupcake order. I thought nothing says Christmas like the Red Velvet Cupake.

Wait a second.... I will add that you cannot go wrong with Red Velvet for any occasion.
I decided on a Pull Apart Cake aka a Pull Away Cake. This is a number of cupcakes placed together to create a theme or an actual cake. I had completed this project in August for 1 year old Drew by completely icing over thirty cupcakes so they ended up looking like a sheet cake.

Today I formed cupcakes as a Christmas Tree. First of all here are the ingredients that you will need to bake your Red Velvet Cupcakes:

Ingredients
1 package white cake mix (18.25 oz size)

2 tablespoons cocoa
5 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 (1 oz bottle) red liquid food colouring

While cupcake batter is blending I add red food colouring

Hmmm.....kind of red

Let's fill those cups!

Nicely baked

Arrange cupcakes in form of a ChristmasTree

Decorate all with cream cheese frosting (click for recipe). I had to dye it in various colours.... And Voila!

Southern Strawberry Cake

Thank you to Helen for requesting a baby shower cake.  She asked if I could bake a Strawberry Shortcake.  I'll be honest with you.  I tried my hand at one awhile back and let's just say.... it wasn't very pleasant.  So I suggested a Southern Strawberry Cake.  I found this idea by Joy The Baker.

This cake is so pretty, and I thought it would work for the occasion (great for bridal showers as well).  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients Cake
1 (18.5 ounce) box white cake mix (without pudding)
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry jello
1 Tablespoon self rising flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Ingredients Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
pink food coloring
4 sliced strawberries

Wash your strawberries, cut the tops off, and dice them up.  I put them in a large Ziploc bag and rolled a can over it to crush them.

To make the cake, combine to cake mix, Jello, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition Add the water and strawberries and mix well.

Divide the batter evenly into two 8-inch round baking pans that have been oiled and floured. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and the layers pull away from the sides of the pan. 
**I baked this cake using two 10" round baking pans.  For this recipe I doubled up on my ingredients and baked this cake for 50 minutes at 325 degrees F.

Transfer the layers from the oven to wire racks. Let them cool, still in their pans, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, run a knife around the inside edge of each pan, then unmold each layer onto the racks to cool completely.

Frosting
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.
**I found the frosting to be a little sweet, so I added a teaspoon of salt to my (doubled up) ingredients.



I crumb coated the bottom layer and added some more diced strawberries on top.

I added the top layer and finished off my crumbcoat.

Put the coconut in a small bowl and sprinkle with two or three drops of pink food dye. Mix with a spoon to distribute the color.

Once the cake is frosted, decorate the top of the cake with the shredded coconut and sliced strawberries.

ENJOY!

Pull Away Cake

Great news! I received a second order of cupcakes for 1 year old Drew.

These cupcakes would be different though. The request was is for a cupcake cake! They are to be 24 red velvet, and 6 eggless chocolate with a cream cheese frosting.
Also known as a pull away cake, cupcakes are used as the base and is then frosted as one cake. Since these cakes are made out of cupcakes, they are made to "pull apart". When it is time to serve the cupcakes to the party guests, you simply start pulling the cake apart and handing out the individual cupcakes.

Once frosted, finish off your pull apart cake with small candies, sprinkles, cake decorations, frosting decorations, floral designs, a fancy border, etc.

By the way, here is a recipe for Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes. Makes 16:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup oil
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon vinegar

Mix all ingredients together until moist and well blended. Put in cupcake cups and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Recipe from gourmeted.com

Creating My Birthday Cake

Well it's that time of the year again. My Birthday. Since I am taking Cake Decorating Classes, it would be a shame if I celebrated my big day, with a store bought cake. So I present to you, the making of Dee's (that's me) birthday cake. The recipe? Pumpkin Spice Cake, with a Cream Cheese Icing. I used the pumpkin insides that I froze, when I was carving my jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. You can freeze the insides for up to 6 months.

As I type this, it is baking in my NEW convection oven. I can barely concentrate. Check back from time to time, as I am uploading my photos, as I progress.

Happy Birthday to me... Here we go!

Recipe
1 package spice cake mix
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 eggs

Icing
1 (16 ounce) can vanilla frosting
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x13 inch baking pan, or two 9 inch cake pans.
2.In a large bowl, mix together the yellow cake mix, sugar, vegetable oil, pumpkin, water, cinnamon, nutmeg and eggs. Beat until well blended. Transfer to the baking dish or cake pans.
3.Bake in the preheated oven 50 minutes.

What I liked about this recipe, was that it was easy. I mean, this is my birthday cake, but I wanted to bake a cake that was quick and delicious.

(keep on checking, as I am adding more photos to this post)