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!!