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Archive for the ‘Cake’ Category

Coconut Cake

Posted in Cake, Christmas, Desserts, Entertaining at Home, tagged , , , on December 21, 2012| 4 Comments »

coconut cake plated

I love coconut. It is right up there behind chocolate and raspberries.

The deliciously delightful thing about this cake is that I get my coconut fix along with raspberries. I could even work some chocolate in there, but I managed to restrain myself. Barely.

This recipe is fast and easy to put together and always gets rave reviews. Moist and super good, it is the perfect way to end a holiday meal or as an accent at a buffet.

coconut cake ingredients

Ingredients

coconut cake pour in pans

Once you’ve mixed up the cake batter, pour into three 8-inch pans that have been greased.

When the cake is cool, begin layering it with jam and whipping cream.

When the cake is cool, begin layering it with jam and whipping cream.

Add layers until they look like this. If your cake isn't perfectly flat, no worries. Just add extra whipping cream to even it out.

Add layers until they look like this. If your cake isn’t perfectly flat, no worries. Just add extra whipping cream to even it out.

 

Cover the entire cake with whipping cream. At this point, I freeze the cake until I'm ready to serve. Even if you are making it the same day you want to serve, at least give it time to get thoroughly chilled in the fridge. Serving it cold is part of what makes it so good.

Cover the entire cake with whipping cream. At this point, I freeze the cake until I’m ready to serve. Even if you are making it the same day you want to serve, at least give it time to get thoroughly chilled in the fridge. Serving it cold is part of what makes it so good.

 

Smother the cake in shredded, sweetened coconut.

Smother the cake in shredded, sweetened coconut.

 

If you want you can add a mint garnish.

Add raspberries on top.
Add raspberries on top.
Ta-Da!

Ta-Da!

Coconut Cake

1 white or vanilla cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 1/3 cups water

3 cups of freshly whipped whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup raspberry jam

14 ounce bag of shredded, sweetened coconut

fresh raspberries

mint for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix cake mix, eggs, oil and water, following cake mix package directions. Pour into three 8-inch cake pans that have been greased (or sprayed with non-stick spray). Try to get the layers as even as possible.

Bake until cake bounces back when touched lightly or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (about 18 minutes or so).

Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Whip whipping cream until stiff. Add in vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir in gently.

Place first layer of cake on a cake stand or serving platter. Spread a thick layer of whipping cream then a nice layer of jam. Repeat with the second layer then top with the third. Generously cover the entire cake with the whipping cream.

Freeze the cake until ready to serve. This is particularly handy because you can freeze it well ahead of time. When you are ready to serve the cake, remove it from freezer with enough time for it to thaw (an hour – or get out the night before and leave in the fridge).

Generously place coconut all over the cake. When buying the coconut, give the packages a little squeeze. You want the coconut to be really soft and fresh. This is really important. Do not use dried-out coconut. You want it to feel moist when you take it out of the package.

Once the cake is completely covered, top it with raspberries and a garnish of mint. Be prepared for rave reviews!

She Who Loves This Cake Way Too Much!

 

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Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Filling

Posted in Cake, Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on October 12, 2012| 7 Comments »

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have been on a complete and total pumpkin kick lately. My taste buds are fairly obsessed with thoughts of pumpkin treats.

The other day I needed to make a dessert to take to a gathering and wanted to make a bundt cake (because they are so easy and always so moist and good). Looking for some recipes, I ended up taking the best of three and combining them into a cream-cheese filled pumpkin spice bundt cake. Boy, was that a tasty decision!

This cake comes together quickly and easily and is so, so yummy!

Ingredients

Mix the batter.

Spoon half into a greased bundt pan.

Mix the filling.

Spoon on top of batter in pan. Then top with the remaining batter.
Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until top of the cake bounces bake when you poke it with your finger.

Let cool then remove from pan and invert on a serving platter.

Look at that delicious cream cheese filling!

Are your taste buds dancing in excitement! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

1 pkg. spice cake mix
1 sm. can pumpkin
1 sm. pkg. instant cheesecake pudding
1/2 c. oil
3 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. water

Filling

1  pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a bundt cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl combine cake mix, oil, eggs, pudding, pumpkin, water and cinnamon. Beat on low speed until ingredients are moist then on medium speed until well blended.

Pour half the batter into the bundt pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Pour on top of cake batter in pan.

Top with remaining cake batter and bake about 45 minutes until top of cake bounces back to your touch and edges begin to pull away from the pan.

Let cool then invert onto a serving platter.

To serve, you can dust with powdered sugar, drizzle on a caramel sauce or add a dollop of cinnamon laced whipped cream. Or you can be a freak like me and add a drizzle of chocolate followed by whipped cream!

She Who Is Currently Obsessed with Pumpkin

 

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Pumpkin Cake Balls

Posted in Cake, Desserts, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on August 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If you love pumpkin and cream cheese, you are going to adore these pretty pumpkin cake balls. These do take a little time and effort, but the result is well worth it!

Ingredients

Dump ingredients into a bowl and mix well on medium speed until blended.

 

Pour into a greased cake pan or baking dish and bake at 350 until lightly browned and edges pull away from the pan.

 

Once the cake is done, remove from oven and let cool completely. Spoon in half a can of frosting and mix well.

 

As in completely obliterate the cake while mixing in the frosting. When you are done with this, you’re ready to form the mix into balls.

 

Roll into balls (or scoop) about 1 inch in diameter (or make bigger ones if you want to dip less). If the balls seem a little smooshy, pop in the freezer for a few minutes.

 

Use a pretzel stick, dipped in almond bark, as a handle.

 

Dip away then decorate with edible glitter, sprinkles or food gel!

Pumpkin Cake Balls

 

1 vanilla cake mix

1 egg

1 small can of pumpkin

½ cup evaporated milk

½ cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 can cream cheese frosting

1 package candy coating (Almond Bark)

Sprinkles or other decoration

Pretzel sticks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cake mix, egg, pumpkin, milk, sugar and spices until well blended. Pour into a greased 11 x 176 baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cake is lightly browned and a finger poked in the top bounces bake. Cool completely.

In a large bowl, break up entire cake then mix in 1/2 the can of frosting. You may have to get your hands into the project to get it thoroughly mixed and you most definitely will get hands-on- involvement when you form the balls. The size is totally dependent on how big you want to make them. I’d stick in the ballpark of between one to two inches diameter.

If the cake seems too moist, pop in the freezer for a few minutes and the balls will be easy to form. If you are more talented than I am with a melon baller you can use it or form them by hand. Once they are formed, melt the candy coating, a little at a time. Pop it in the microwave in 20-second intervals until it is melted. Do not reheat it as it gets gunky and icky very quickly. Use it up then melt the next round.

When  the candy coating is ready, dip in the ends of the pretzel sticks then stab them into the balls. Let them sit until the coating is nice and firm. This is very important. If you don’t do this, your sticks may fall out.

Once the balls are ready for dipping, use a spoon to swirl coating over the balls. Tap the edge of the stick lightly on the bowl to get off excess coating. Cover the ball in sprinkles, food glitter, whatever sounds good and looks tasty. Rest the balls on a wire rack sprayed with non-stick sprayt until the coating is good and firm.

Repeat until all balls are coated. You can put these in the freezer, wrap in individual cellophane bags or share them as soon as you are finished.

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220 Cupcakes

Posted in Cake, Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Recipes, tagged , , , on June 18, 2012| 3 Comments »

A friend asked me a while ago to bake cupcakes for her wedding reception.

I was both honored by her request and somewhat terrified at the thought of not only baking that many cupcakes, but baking that many edible cupcakes.

Saturday, I spent four hours baking 220 chocolate cupcakes. Actually, there were 227, but seven of them tragically didn’t make the cut and had to be disposed of. (Yum!)

To make 220 cupcakes, I used eight cake mixes which I doctored up with my Grandma’s secret step to making a boxed mix taste fantastic (and I can’t share the secret or it wouldn’t be a secret, now, would it?).

I then made three batches of buttercream frosting which the bride-to-be helped me slather on the cupcakes and top with assorted sprinkles.  It only took us about two hours to do the frosting.

While frosting the cupcakes we learned some valuable information:

• There is a perfect temperature for the frosting that is somewhere between chilled and warm. Too cold and it wouldn’t squirt out of the bag and too warm it was really hard to work with. The perfect temperature lasts for approximately 9.8 seconds.

• Making sure the bag holding the frosting is completely sealed before squeezing it is a vital step in the success of the project.

• Husbands are not so helpful when it comes to frosting and sprinkling, but they are super helpful when someone needs to run to the store and get another bag of powdered sugar so another bowl of frosting can be made in the midst of the project. Thanks, CC for coming to the rescue!

• You can create all sorts of cool frosting designs with nothing more than a Ziploc bag and your imagination.

• Approximately two large jars of sprinkles are way more than plenty to do 220 cupcakes. The other 14 pounds of sprinkles I purchased will have to wait for another project.

• It’s always more fun to do projects like this with a good friend!

Here is the buttercream frosting recipe I used.  It should frost about 60-75 cupcakes, depending on how  much you use per cupcake.

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

1 bag powdered sugar (appox. 8 cups)

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

4 tbsp. cold milk

Beat butter on low speed until smooth. Add vanilla extract and mix then slowly mix in powdered sugar, alternating with the milk. You may need to add more milk, depending on how thick you want your frosting. Chill until ready to use. Store leftovers in the freezer (if you have leftovers).

To make the frosting chocolate, I added 1/2 cup cocoa powder and another tablespoon of milk.

She Who is Cupcaked Out for A While

 

 

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