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Archive for the ‘Easy Recipes’ Category

Raspberry Cream Cake

Posted in Desserts, Easy Recipes, tagged , , , on May 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Raspberry Cream Cake

I made this deliciously easy cake the other day and Most Wonderful Hubby declared it was the “best cake you’ve ever made!”

That pleased me quite a bit, I have to tell you. Not only because compliments from MWH are like a happy tonic for me, but also because he is a tough cookie to please when it comes to sweets. His favorite cake in the world is carrot cake and he literally would eat it rather than any other dessert. So to hear that comment from him nearly sent me over the moon.

This cake is so simple and starts out with a basic cake mix.  Enjoy!

The Ingredients. I forgot to include Cream Cheese Frosting, which you will need.

Bake the cake according to package directions. Cool. Then frost layers with cream cheese frosting.

While cake is cooling, rinse raspberries, then sprinkle with sugar.

Once the berries have soaked up the sugar, pat dry, along with mint leaves.

Place raspberry filling on top of frosted first layer.

Place frosted second layer frosting side down on the filling. This way you have a frosting and filling sandwich.

Generously cover cake with whipped cream.

Completely cover cake in luscious mounds of whipped cream.

Yum!

Raspberry Cream Cake

1 box Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix (18 ounce)

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 1/3 cup water

1 cup of fresh raspberries

1 tbsp.  granulated sugar

1 can of raspberry pie filling (21 oz)

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 carton of heavy whipping cream (16 oz)

1/2 cup prepared cream cheese frosting

Mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Mix cake mix with eggs, oil and water and bake according to package directions. For this cake, I used two square pans and then cut the two layers in half.  I did this crazy thing because I needed two desserts for two separate small meetings and splitting the cake in half just saved me time. You can use two 9-inch round pans or three 8-inch rounds. Your choice.

Once the cake is baked, let it cool completely.

While it is cooling, wash the raspberries and drain.  In a small bowl, sprinkle 1 tbsp. sugar over the berries and let it soak in. Set aside.

Mix up your whipping cream. Beat it on high until it starts to get thick then add in powdered sugar and vanilla. Finish beating until peaks form and it is a good thick consistency. Stick this in the fridge until you are ready to frost the cake.

By now the sugar should have soaked into the berries. Remove them from the bowl and place on a couple of paper  towels to absorb any extra liquid or juice. If you are garnishing with mint, rinse it off and pat dry while you are doing the berries.

Place your first cake layer on your plate or platter. Using the cream cheese frosting, spread on both the top of this layer and the bottom of the second layer. I did a thin layer, but you can put it on as thick as you like.

Next, spread on about half the can of raspberry pie filling. If you are making a three layer cake, you will use all the filling. If you are making a two layer cake, you will have leftovers. I scooped my leftovers into a Ziploc and tossed in the freezer to use for something tasty in the future.

Place the next cake layer on the filling, frosting side down. The frosting acts like glue to hold the layers together. I learned that the hard way when I made three layers of this cake with just the filling and the layers started sliding every which direction when we attempted to cut it. It wasn’t pretty and I don’t recommend trying it just to see if it will happen. It will.

Now that the top layer is in place, get the whipping cream out of the fridge and liberally spread all over the cake. Feel free to be generous with the whipping cream.

Top off the cake by scattering fresh raspberries across the top. You can garnish with mint leaves if you so desire. I desired because it just looks so pretty!

Put the cake into the fridge until you are ready to serve and when you do, be prepared to enjoy the compliments!

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

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Ham and Hash Browns Breakfast Casserole

Posted in Comfort Food, Easy Recipes, tagged , , on May 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

When Most Wonderful Hubby and I travel (which isn’t nearly often enough to suit either of us), I love to collect recipe ideas. Years ago, we had breakfast at a great little European-style cafe in Spokane, WA. They had the best Dutch Babies I’ve ever eaten. They also served an extremely tasty breakfast casserole.

After much experimenting and many taste tests, I think I finally came close to reproducing the dish. It is easy to make and while it bakes you can either put your feet up and eat bonbons or finish getting the rest of your breakfast ready.

Ingredients for the casserole

Slice up the ham into cubes or bite-sized pieces.

Pour on the egg and cream mixture.

Sprinkle on cheese once the eggs are set.

Serve and enjoy!

Ham and Hash Browns Breakfast Casserole

1 bag of southern hash browns

6 eggs

2/3 cup of cream

2 cups of ham, cut into cubes or bite-sized pieces

dash of salt

1 tsp. all-purpose no-salt seasoning

1 1/2 cups shredded colby jack cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking pan and place hash browns into pan. Pop into the oven. While the hash browns are heating up, beat the eggs, add cream, seasoning and salt.  Cut the ham into bite-sized pieces or cubes. If you don’t have left-over ham to use, a ham-steak provides just the right amount of ham for the casserole. Take the hash browns out of the oven, sprinkled the ham over the top then pour in egg and cream mixture. Turn oven temperature down to 350 degrees, put the pan into oven and bake for about 45-50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. When the eggs are set, sprinkle the top of the casserole with cheese and continue baking a few minutes until cheese is melted. Serve hot and enjoy!

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

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Easy Pomegranate Drink

Posted in Easy Recipes, entertain, Fast Recipes, Quick and Easy, tagged , , , on May 7, 2010| 3 Comments »

So far all you guys preparing a wonderful breakfast in bed for your wife this weekend in honor of Mother’s Day, here is a recipe for a beautiful but very simple drink. It is really tasty, too!

And even if you aren’t doing a breakfast-in-bed-be-her-hero-forever kind of thing, you can still make her this drink for breakfast. She’ll thank you, maybe even repeatedly.

Pomegranate anything is wildly popular and when mixed with orange juice, so delicious. You can use any type of orange or orange mix juice (like pineapple-banana-orange or orange-strawberry) just make sure the color of the juice is orange or this won’t look the same.

Ingredients for Grenadine Sunrise

Grenadine Sunrise

1 bottle of Grenadine Syrup

Orange Juice

Crushed Ice (optional)

If you are going to use ice, put it in the glass first. Pour in the orange juice. Then put a spoonful of the Grenadine Syrup in. It will do amazing and wondrous things in the glass and make a beautiful drink. Do not stir! Repeat, do not stir! This completely destroys the amazing and wondrous things. If you are transporting the glass, put it on a tray to carry and don’t shake it or you’ll have the same results as stirring. If you are using an 8-ounce glass, put about a teaspoon of syrup in. I just eyeball it until it looks good.

Yummy and Beautiful!

Enjoy and Happy Mother’s Day!

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Drop a Bombe for Dessert

Posted in Desserts, Easy Recipes, entertain, tagged , , , , on April 30, 2010| 2 Comments »

The Bombe

Have you ever wanted to create a dessert that was so beautiful, so amazing, so delicious that your guests dropped their jaws and fell all over themselves telling you what a fabulous thing you have done? Me too.  I’m sure I will find that dessert someday but in the meantime this Chocolate Bombe comes pretty close!

Although I normally would avoid any recipe with this many ingredients and steps, this dessert is worth every bit of the sweat and tears that goes into making it.  Let me warn you that it takes a little time and many mixing bowls, but give it a try. You’ll be so glad you did! If you have any chocolate addicts in your life, they will thank you, too!

Here are the steps followed by the recipe.

The Ingredients

Plastic wrap the inside of the bowl and leave plenty hanging out. Yep, that is a pink bowl MWH bought me and I love it!

First layer in the bowl. Gently press it down to the bottom.

Put in half the filling over the first cake layer.

Gently press down the layers. I promise I washed my hands first!

Cover it tightly with the plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

When you are ready to serve, uncover the top and invert on a platter. Then remove the remaining plastic wrap.

Pattern for the chocolate butterflies. Mine is a little freaky, so draw your own if you like.

Trace the chocolate over the pattern onto waxed or parchment paper.

Make as many butterflies as you like!

Chocolate Butterflies - look good enough to eat!

Frost with whipping cream, drizzle with chocolate frosting, top with butterflies and a berry. Ta-Da!

A peek inside the cake. Just look at all that yummy chocolate and strawberry sweet goodness.

Chocolate Bombe

1 Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge  cake mix (18-ounce box)

1 1/3 cups water

1 /2 cup oil

3 eggs

1 quart fresh strawberries, divided

2 envelopes unflavored Knox gelatin (1 ounce)

1/2 cup frozen strawberry juice concentrate, thawed

3 cups heavy whipping cream

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. oil

2 tbsp. prepared chocolate frosting

Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Divide evenly in the three pans and bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Reserve a few strawberries for garnish. Pureé enough of the remaining strawberries to measure 1 cup and set aside. In a small micro-wave safe bowl, sprinkle gelatin over juice concentrate; let stand for five minutes. Microwave on high power one minute. Stir until gelatin dissolves; set aside. In a small mixing bowl, beat 1 cup of the heavy cream until stiff.

In another mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla; mix well. Blend in strawberry pureé. Gradually add gelatin mixture and blend until smooth. Whisk in whipped cream; set aside.

Line a 12-cup capacity bowl with 2-3 long sheets of plastic wrap, allowing ends of plastic wrap to hang over the sides of the bowl by at least 6 inches.

Gently press one cake layer into the bottom of the bowl. Spoon about one-half of the filling over the cake layer then top with another layer of cake. Spread remaining filling over the second layer of the cake; top with the third layer of cake. Gently press down. Cover with loose ends of plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour (you can refrigerate over night as well).

Line a baking sheet with a piece of waxed paper or baking parchment. Place the butterfly pattern under the paper. Mix chocolate chips and oil in micro-wave safe bowl, microwave on high in 10-15 second intervals, stirring until chocolate is smooth and melted. Spoon into a pastry bag or a resealable plastic sandwich bag with the tip of a corner snipped. Trace the butterfly pattern with the chocolate. Move the pattern around the pan, tracing as many butterflies as you’d like to make. When finished, place in the freezer for at least an hour until chocolate has hardened.

When ready to serve, mix the confectioners sugar with the remaining cream until stiff. Uncover top of the bombe. Invert onto a serving platter; remove and discard plastic wrap. Frost with sweetened whipped cream.

Put prepared chocolate frosting in a microwave safe bowl and warm on high for about 15 seconds. Using a knife, drizzle chocolate over the cake in a swirling pattern. Top with chocolate butterflies and add a berry on top for garnish. Don’t let the butterflies set out of the freezer for too long before you add them to the cake as they softened quickly.

Stand back and be prepared for your guests to be dazzled by your creative culinary talents!

Happy Entertaining!

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