Orange Cranberry Pound Cake

Orange and cranberry are classic holiday flavors.  This bread definitely delivered the two!  The original recipe called for a glaze, but honestly, I found the bread to be sweet enough on its own.  I do have to warn you that the cranberries can seem really tart if you are not a big cranberry fan.  If you love the sweet and tart contrast though...this bread is amazing!

This recipe makes 2 large loaves.

1 C butter

1 3/4 C sugar

2 heaping TBSP orange zest

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 C buttermilk

2 1/2 C fresh cranberries

2 3/4 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350.

Grease and flour two bread pans.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and orange zest for 3-5 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, stirring the mixture for 1 minute each time you add an egg.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.

Add the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk to the butter mixture until just mixed.

Gently stir in the cranberries.

Bake for 40-60 minutes (depending on how your oven cooks) until a toothpick comes out clean and the edges are starting to brown.

Let the loaves cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes and then finish cooling on wire racks.

This recipe is adapted slightly from www.chef-in-training.com.

Snickers Cheesecake

 

This cheesecake was my husband's birthday dessert request.  It turned out to be an extremely deliciously decadent dessert that you just couldn't stop eating!
Making a cheesecake was a lot simpler than I though it would be and I look forward to many more in the future!

 This recipe serves 6-8.

9 oz. Oreo cookies, ground into fine pieces
4 TBSP butter, melted
24 oz., cream cheese, softened
1 C sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 C heavy cream
Fun size Snickers bars (a bag full - around 1.5 lbs.), cut into smaller squares (each piece is cut into 6-8 smaller pieces)
fudge dessert/ice cream topping

You will also need a 9.5"-10" springform pan to make any kind of large cheesecake.

Preheat the oven to 325.
Combine the Oreo crumbs and butter together.
Press the Oreo crust mixture into the bottom and about halfway up the sides of the pan.
In a separate bowl, use a mixer on medium speed and cream together the cream cheese and sugar for about 1-2 minutes.
Mix in the eggs one at a time.
Add the vanilla and cream and beat the mixture for another 3-4 minutes on medium speed.
Using a spoon or a spatula, fold in 1 1/2 C of the Snickers pieces.
Pour the mixture into the crust lined pan.
Bake for 1 hour + 15-25 minutes until the cheesecake looks slightly done but can still "jiggle" in the middle.
Allow the cheesecake to cool to room temperature.
Sprinkle the remaining Snickers pieces on top and drizzle with the chocolate sauce.
Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours before slicing and serving.

This recipe is altered slightly from showmenan.blogspot.com.

Carrot Sheet Cake

 

My memories of carrot cake involve a dry cake with a too sweet frosting slathered on top.  This year for Easter, I decided to do some research and make (what I hoped would be) a delicious, moist carrot cake for dessert.  This recipe did not disappoint!  The cake was moist and the frosting was the perfect balance of sweet and tangy.  I love that it was a sheet cake so it was a little thinner and I wasn't serving up daunting pieces of carrot cake (granted we all went back for seconds and thirds...).

I combined the frosting from one recipe and the cake from another based on what I already had in my pantry and fridge.

When made in a 9"x13" pan, this will serve 10-12 people and when made in an 11"x17" sheet cake pan, it will serve 20-24 people.

Carrot Cake (this recipe is for the 11"x17" sheet cake pan - halve the recipe for a 9"x13" pan):
4 eggs
3/4 C oil
3/4 C unsweetened applesauce
3/4 C water
2 tsp vanilla
3 C sugar
3 1/2 C flour
1 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 lbs. carrots, washed and shredded

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
5 TBSP unsalted butter
1 TBSP sour cream
1 1/4 C powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350.
Lightly grease the pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, applesauce, water, and vanilla.
Stir in the sugar, flour, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  Do not over mix or you will have tough cake.
Gently fold in the shredded carrots.
Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
Bake the 11"x17" pan for 25-30 minutes and the 9"x13" pan for 20-25 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs attached).
Let the cake cool completely.
For the frosting, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sour cream.
Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until the frosting is smooth.
Frost the cooled cake and serve.

The cake recipe is from melskitchencafe.com and the frosting recipe is from Cooks Illustrated via melskitchencafe.com.

Struesal Topped Rhubarb Cake with Vanilla Sauce

I am not much of a cake person.  I usually prefer cookies or brownies when it comes to baked desserts.  This cake, though...I couldn't stop eating it.  It is moist and has the perfect amount of tart rhubarb.  The vanilla sauce is irresistible.
I made half the batter into 12 muffins (filled halfway) and baked the other half in a 9" pie pan.  You can do it the same way or make 24 cupcakes, 2 pie pans, or a single 9" square baking dish.

Cake:
2 TBSP butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 egg
2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk
2-2 1/2 C chopped (as small or large as you want) rhubarb

Streusel:
1/4 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C oats
4 TBSP butter, melted

Vanilla Sauce:
1/2 C butter
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350.
Lightly grease your chosen baking dish.
Cream together the butter and sugar for the cake.
Add the eggs.
Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl.
Mix while slowly pouring in the buttermilk.
Fold in the rhubarb.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
In a separate bowl, mix together the streusel ingredients until it forms into coarse crumbs.
Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter.
Bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on which type of pan you use) until a toothpick comes out clean.
To make the sauce, begin by melting the buterin a medium saucepan on medium heat.
Whisk in the sugar and milk and bring it to a boil.
Boil and stir the sauce for 2-3 minutes (it will thicken more when it begins to cool).
Remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Serve it warm over the cake.

This recipe is slightly adapted from www.melskitchencafe.com.

Baked Ice Cream Cake

On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love made for me - baked ice cream cake!

This is not your typical ice cream cake - meaning a cake made out of ice cream.  The ice cream in this cake is actually baked into the cake...weird, but so tasty!  This way you can enjoy ice cream cake even when it is not summer.  I want to experiment with different types of cakes and ice creams, but here are two that have been tried and came out delish!

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Cake:

1 yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 pint Hagen Daz Dulce de Leche ice cream, softened

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons cream

Caramel sauce (optional)

Vanilla Ice Cream Cake:
1 yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 pint vanilla ice cream

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons cream


Preheat oven to 350.  

Butter and flour a 10 cup Bundt pan.  

Set the ice cream on the counter to thaw and get soft enough to mix/melted.  

Combine eggs, oil, and melted ice cream.  

Add the cake mix and combine the wet and dry ingredients well.  

Bake for 35-50 minutes (totally depends on your oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before inverting it onto a serving dish.  

Combine the glaze ingredients.  

Glaze the cake while still warm. 

Drizzle caramel on top when the cake is cool.

Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie is one of my all time favorite desserts.  When my sister requested it for her birthday dessert, my husband informed me that in 4 years of marriage, I had never made him a Boston Cream Pie.  Good thing that changed!  This dessert has a cake base with a custard filling and delicious but not too sweet chocolate glaze.

Cake:
1 1/4 C flour
1 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C milk
1/3 C shortening
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.
Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer on low for 30 seconds and high for 3 minutes.
Pour into a greased and floured pan (9" round cake pan).
Bake for 30-35 minutes until cake is cooked through (test it with a toothpick).
Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and then remove the cake and place it on a wire cooling rack.
Let the cake cool completely.
Slice the cake in half horizontally (I make a small indentation around the circumference of the cake with a serrated knife and then use floss to cut the cake through).

Cream Filling:
1/3 C sugar
2 TBSP cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 C milk
2 egg yolks

Mix and heat sugar, cornstarch, salt, and milk in a saucepan on medium heat until the mixture thickens and boils.
Boil and stir the mixture for 1 minute.
Stir 2 egg yolks in a mixing bowl.
Slowly add the heated mixture to the bowl while stirring.
Pout the mixture back into the pan and bring it to a boil on medium heat.
Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat.
Let the mixture sit and thicken.

Chocolate Glaze:
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 TBSP butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 C powdered sugar
2 TBSP hot water

Melt the chocolate, butter, and vanilla in a small saucepan.
Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar and hot water and mix until a glaze consistency is reached.

Place 1 half of the cake on a cake pedestal or flat serving surface.
Layer with the cream filling.
Cover with the second cake layer.
Drizzle with the chocolate glaze.
Serve warm or after refrigerating.

Neapolitan Cake

Recently, my coworker had a birthday and I was put in charge of the cake for the celebration at work.  This is probably the best cake I have ever made.  The key is PATIENCE!  In the past I have always been anxious to cut the cake or on a serious time constraint and cut it too warm so my layers don't turn out well.  This time though...I took all day to put it together and it turned out wonderful!  There are two layers of vanilla cake, two layers of strawberry cake, two layers of choclate pudding, and one layer of chocolate frosting while the whole thing is covered in a layer of chocolate frosting.  I have to admit though...the entire cake is not homemade!  Gasp!  I used a strawberry cake mix for the strawberry layers...I love boxed strawberry cake though!  Enjoy!

Strawberry layers:
Makes 1 9" round strawberry cake (this only takes 1/2 of the boxed mixture - I made cupcakes with the other half).

Make the strawberry cake batter according to directions on the box.
Grease and flour and 9" round cake pan.
Pour half of the batter into the pan.
Bake according to directions on the box.
Remove the cake from the oven.
Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.
Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
Once the cake is cool, cut the cake into two layers.  Because the crust is, well, crusty, take a bread knife and make a cut in the crust around the entire cake.  Take a piece of string or floss and wrap it completely around the cake in the cut in the crust.  Take both ends and criss cross them and pull to "cut" the cake evenly.  Perfect layers!

Vanilla layers:
Makes 1 9" round vanilla cake.

2 large egg whites
1¾ cup all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup very cold water
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350.
Grease and flour and 9" cake pan.
Combine the flour, baking posder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed in a separate bowl until they are foamy.
Increase the speed to medium high and whip until stiff peaks form.
Set the whipped eggs aside.
Combine the butter and sugar with an electric mixture on medium high speed for about 3 minutes.
Put the mixer on low speed and add in 1/2 the dry ingredients. 
Mix in the water, vanilla, and almond extracts.
Add the remaining dry ingredients.  Do not over-mix.
Stir in a quarter of the eggs to lighten the mixture.
Fold in the remaining eggs whites and make sure the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for about 30-35 minutes until a toothpick stuck in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven.

Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.
Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
Follow the directions for cutting the strawberry cake and cut the vanilla cake into two layers.

Chocolate pudding:
Make a bowl of boxed pudding.  Follow directions on the box and refrigerate until ready to use!

Chocolate frosting:
I used my go to frosting recipe and made it thick and easy to spread so it would hold it's "shape" on the outside of the cake.  I doubled the recipe already posted so I used 1/2 C butter, but did not double the milk.  Use just enough milk to give the frosting the consistency that you want.  I also used about 1 1/2 TBSP of cocoa powder to make it chocolate frosting (that can be adjusted based on how "chocolatey" you want your frosting to be).

Putting together your cake:
Put one layer of strawberry cake on a cake platter.
Cover with 1/2 of the chocolate pudding.
Place 1 layer of vanilla cake on top.
Top with a layer of frosting.
Put the second layer of strawberry cake on the frosting.
Top with the second 1/2 of the chocolate pudding.
Add the final layer of vanilla cake.
Finish with a delicious layer of chocolate frosting over the entire cake.
Refrigerate until you are ready to serve!

Vanilla cake recipe comes from annies-eats.net.

Chocolate Cake with Strawberry-Pudding Filling

I love to bake and cook.  One thing I don't make often and definitely need to practice more is cake baking and decorating.  I tried this cake a few months ago at my sister-in-laws baby shower and it was amazing!  My other sister-in-law made it and got the recipe from her mother-in-law.  I, in turn, made it for my husband's birthday with my own modifications that we enjoyed.  Despite flouring my pans, my cakes still stuck a little and did not look so pretty on the inside once I had assembled it.  It however worked perfectly when made at a lower elevation.  For higher elevation, add about 1/4 C more flour and it should work out just fine!

Cake:
2 1/4 (+ 1/4 C for higher elevation) flour
1 1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
5 TBSP cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 C oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 TBSP vinegar
1 1/2 C cold water

Preheat oven to 350.
Grease and flour two 8-9" round cake pans.
Sift the dry ingredients.
Mix in the wet ingredients.
Pour evenly into your cake pans.
Bake for 25-35 minutes.
Check with a toothpick to make sure it is cooked all the way through!

Filling:
Pudding-
1 package of prepared vanilla instant pudding

Follow directions on the box.

Frosting-
1 box package of frosting mix (or you can make this version with powdered sugar minus the milk)
1 tsp vanilla (eliminate if you are making your own frosting that already includes vanilla)
1 1/2 C regular whipping cream
2-3 TBSP cocoa (to taste)

Mix the frosting mix, vanilla, and whipping cream.

Refrigerate for about 1 hour.
Add cocoa and beat until stiff.


Strawberry-
3/4 tsp lemon juice
1 pint (2 C) of strawberrys, hulled and sliced in half
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP honey
1 TBSP maple syrup

In a food processor, blend the lemon juice, 1/2 pint of strawberries, vanilla, honey and syrup until it forms a puree.
Add the remaining stawberries and pulse the mixture until it is chunky...do not puree.

To assemble your cake...

Let the cakes cool completely.
Cut the two cake rounds in half horizontally to create four layers.
Place one layer on a serving dish.

On layer one, place 1/2 of the pudding and an equal amount of strawberry filling and spread them around, mixing them together at the same time.

Place another cake layer on top.

On cake layer two, spread a 1/4" layer of frosting.

Place another cake layer on top of the frosting.

Repeat the pudding and strawberry filling step one more time with the remaining pudding.

Place the final layer of cake on the top.

Frost the cake with the remaining frosting.

Refrigerate until it is time to eat.

Add desired toppings/decorations...I used fresh strawberries.

Enjoy!