Strawberry Cake

"DELICIOUS!" said someone to me about my cake. Then a few weeks later they ordered the cake from me. This Strawberry Cake is a two-layer cake with cream cheese frosting in the middle and strawberry frosting on the sides. Making this cake is super easy and the fresh strawberries are beautiful. So lets get baking!

Strawberry Cake

Strawberry Cake Batter
1 white cake mix
1 strawberry jello mix
3 eggs, added one at a time
3/4 cup oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup of strawberries, pulsed (doesn't matter if it is fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour cake pans. In a medium bowl, mix together cake mix and strawberry jello mix. Add oil and buttermilk to the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Pulse strawberries in blender and then add to cake batter. Pour into cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Cool until ready to frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8oz) cream cheese
1 stick of butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lime juice
a dash of salt
2-4 cups of powdered sugar

Cream together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar until the frosting is very stiff. Add vanilla, lemon juice, lime juice, and salt. Stir until smooth and can hold.

Strawberry Frosting
2 sticks of butter
2-4 cups of powdered sugar
a dash of salt
2-3 strawberries, pulsed

Cream butter together. Add powdered sugar and salt until very stiff. Add the strawberries until a smooth but firm.

Put one cake on a cake plate. Add some cream cheese frosting until you have enough. Lay second cake on top. Take some more cream cheese frosting and crumb coat cake. Freeze for about 15 minutes. Pull cake out of freezer and frost with strawberry frosting. Decorate with strawberries or with what ever you want. Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Dark and salty! Moist and Chocolatey! It's Salted Carmel Dark Chocolate Cupcakes coming to the rescue!! My mom loves dark chocolate and I thought marshmallow icing sounds pretty good with a chocolate cupcake. Also while scrolling though Pinterest, I saw the pioneer woman's caramel sauce recipe and I was like put it on a cupcake! So the Salted Carmel Dark Chocolate Cupcake was born.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 to 1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners. In a large mixer bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for three minutes. Stir in boiling water by hand (batter will be thin). (NOTE: I prefer using in between 3/4 cup and 1 cup of boiling water just until it is perfect to my eye.) Pour into cupcake pan. Because they have a tendency to overflow, fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 min. Cool 10 min; remove from pan to wire racks.

Marshmallow Frosting
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1-3 tsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 (198 g) container of marshmallow fluff
salt to taste

Sift powdered sugar and set aside. In a mixer, beat the butter until soft and fluffy. You'll have to scape the sides of the bowl several times. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add the vanilla and heavy cream and beat until smooth. Beat in the marshmallow fluff until smooth.

Caramel Sauce
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 pinch salt
1 TBSP vanilla extract
4 TBSP butter
1/2 cup half-and-half

Mix the brown sugar, half-and-half, butter, and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook while whisking gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until it gets thicker. Add the vanilla and turn off the heat, cool slightly and pour the sauce into jar.

Assemble
Take a Cupcake and pipe icing on top. Drizzle on Caramel sauce and you can put a pretzel on top. Enjoy!!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

Yummy! Who doesn't love Chocolate Covered Strawberries? One day I wanted to bake something, so why not chocolate? Ooo, how about some fresh fruit that goes with chocolate. Chocolate covered strawberries immediately comes to my mind. These cupcakes are good for Valentine's day or any other day. Dig in to a scrumptious dessert!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes
Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cup of self rising flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup of buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour and cocoa. In a separate bowl, blend together egg, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a mixer. Alternate flour/cocoa mixture and buttermilk in the egg mixture. Starting and finishing with flour/cocoa mixture. Scoop into a muffin tin with muffin liners. Bake for 20 minutes. While the cupcakes are baking start on the icing.

Strawberry Icing
2 sticks butter, softened
4 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of meringue powder
1 cup of diced strawberries
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Cream butter. Then add powder, vanilla, and two cups of powdered sugar. Mix until combined. Mix in the rest of the powdered sugar. When fully combined add strawberries.

Melt chocolate and dip strawberries in to make chocolate covered strawberries.

Strawberry Compote
2 cups strawberries
dash lemon juice
dash of sugar

In a pot cook down strawberries until they are mush

Chocolate Ganache
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream

Heat heavy cream and pour cream over chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.

Assembly
After the cupcakes are done baking and cooling, cut hole in cupcake. Fill the hole with compote. Top with icing. Drizzle on ganache and top with strawberry. Enjoy!

Brookies

We always have a countdown to christmas every year and one of the cards was Making Cookies. We didn't want to do the same cookie so we had a cookie war. My mom, my oldest brother, and my sister was on a team and my other two brothers and me were a team. My mom's team made Monster Cookies. My team couldn't decide on brownie cookies or just chocolate chip cookies. So we found a recipe that combined both of them (I got the recipe at bakerbynature.com/brookies). Here is the recipe and Enjoy.

Brookies

*prepare chocolate chip cookie recipe first; it needs to chill while you prepare the brownie cookie batter.

For the Chocolate Chip Cookie:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

7 Tablespoon butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the Chocolate Chip Cookie:

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg+1 egg yolk at room temperature

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

1. For the Chocolate Chip Cookie:
2. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside.
3. In a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the *room temperature butter on medium-speed until smooth. Add in the sugars and vanilla and beat on medium-speed until the mixture is pale and fluffy; about 2 minutes. 
4. Add in the egg and beat well after its addition. Gently fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula, stirring only until the flour begins to disappear. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 45 minutes (set a timer!). 
6. For the Brownie Cookie:
7. Place butter and chocolate in a small sauce pan over medium heat and cook for about 2 minutes – stirring constantly – or until the butter and chocolate are completely melted. Remove from heat and whisk until completely smooth; set aside. 
8. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
9. Add the sugars and the vanilla to the chocolate mixture and whisk until well combined; about 2 minutes (I recommend using a stand mixer/ handheld mixer to do this, if you have one). Add in the egg and egg yolk and beat well. Gently fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula, stirring only until the flour begins to disappear. Fold in chocolate chips. 
10. Assembly and Baking:
11. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
12. Using an ice cream scoop or tablespoon, scoop 2 tablespoon-sized rounds of chocolate chip cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches in between each cookie for spreading.
13. Use a second measuring device (ice cream scoop or tablespoon) to scoop rounds of brownie cookie dough directly next to each round of chocolate chip cookie dough.
14. Join the two cookie doughs by gently pinching them together, being sure to adhere any gaps. 

1. Place baking sheets in preheated oven and bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges and tops are set but the centers still looks slightly underdone. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire wrack to cool completely. 

Peanut Butter Pie

I said in the last post, Spinach Frittata, I would tell you about the sweet pie I made. My mom started with this pie. It was one of my favorite pies! The filling is creamy and peanut-buttery, while the crust is a crunch that paires well with the filling. I put a chocolate drizzle on mine to give it a peanut butter and chocolate goodness. If you love Reese's you would definitely love this pie. 

Peanut Butter Pie

Crust:

1 sleeve of chocolate graham crackers

1/4 cup sugar

6 Tbsp butter, melted

Place crackers in a gallon zip lock bag and crush crackers up finely. Add sugar and mix together while still in bag. Lastly, add melted butter and mix together until crumbs are evenly moist. Press crumbs into pie plate, along bottom and side. Bake at 375 F. for 7 minutes; allow to cool before filling.

Filling:

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 cup peanut butter (1/2 cup chunky and 1/2 cup creamy)

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar 

8 oz. Cool Whip, thawed

Chocolate syrup (optional)

With a hand mixer, cream the cream cheese; add the peanut butter and then the powdered sugar. Cream together. Fold in the Cool Whip. Put the filling into pie crust, then top with chocolate syrup, if using. Put in fridge until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Spinach Frittata

This spinach frittata is one of my dads favorite dishes. How I found this recipe is a long story so I will make it short. Where we live we have a Pie Day contest on Pie Day at our extension office. So I wanted to enter a savory pie and sweet pie (Next post will be the sweet pie). I don't really like to make stuff like meatball pie or beef pot pie so I thought of doing a quiche. A lady from my church gave my some food network magizines and I was just looking at them when I happened upon the recipe. The Spinach Frittata was made by Trisha Yearwood. I made it before the contest so I could see how it tasted. It tasted so good! You got some vegetables, egg, sausage, and cheese all in one bite. It was so delicious! So here is the recipe you have been waiting for.

Spinach Frittata

4 large eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp pepper

1 cup shredded cheese (any kind you want)

1/2 cup cooked sausage 

1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered

2 Tbsp butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cups spinach

Preheat oven to broil. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, salt, and pepper. Fold in cheese, tomatoes, and sausage and set aside. In a medium oven-safe pan (I used a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Pour egg mixture over the spinach and cook until almost set, 2-4 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and broil until golden brown on top, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven; turn out onto a serving plate. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Oreo mini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

At my church we are doing a Fall Festival. There is a Cook-off and a Bake-off in the Fall Festival so I decided to enter into the Bake-off. Last time I made cupcakes I had cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes and people loved them. So I decided to make a cupcake with cream cheese frosting. I racked my brain trying to find a good cupcake with cream cheese frosting. I thought of Pumpkin, Red Velvet, or Oreo. Not a lot of people like pumpkin so I was left with the Velvet or Oreo. So I just combined them. Where I got mini cupcakes was because I don't like when little kids get a cupcake and just lick the icing off and throw away the cupcake. They are wasting ingredients! That doesn't mean I don't like little kids, I actually love kids. This recipe also includes homemade sprinkles which are fun to make.

Red Velvet Oreo Mini Cupcakes

1 red velvet cake mix

1 snack pack of mini Oreos 

Set oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, mix red velvet cake mix according to directions but instead of water put half milk and half buttermilk. Set aside 24 mini Oreos and half them. Next crush the rest of the Oreos and then fold them into the the batter. Grease mini muffin pan if you not using cupcake liners. Bake for 12-15 minutes. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

A pinch of salt

4-5 cups of powered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 TBS milk

In a bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together. Sprinkle in salt. Slowly blend in the powdered sugar. Put in vanilla extract and milk. Then beat until smooth and well-combined. 

Note: The longer you whip this frosting, the lighter and fluffier it will become.

Sprinkles

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp any food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine sugar and food coloring. Put into oven safe pan and bake for 10 min.

When cupcakes are done and cooled. Ice them, sprinkle the sprinkles on top, and garnish with a half of a Oreo. Then put them in the fridge or serve them immediately. Enjoy!