Valentine Cupcakes ( Lemon cupcakes)

Cupcakes:

1 box Duncan Hine's lemon supreme cake mix
1 (3.4 oz) box lemon pudding
4 large eggs
1 1/3 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients together till well combined ( I used a hand mixer). Divide the cake batter among cupcake liners ( I made 18 large ones by filling 3/4 of the liners). Bake at 350• C for 18 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool.

Lemon Buttercream  Frosting

Adapted from C.Taylor at food.com under the title Lemon Buttercream Frosting (From the Famous Sprinkles Cupcakes)

1 lemon zest and juice
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Combine butter, salt and sugar well. Then add lemon juice, zest and vanilla. Beat till fluffy for about 3 minutes.

Bacardi Rum Cake

Rum cake is one my family's favorite cakes and I always use this recipe from about.com. This recipe is very easy to follow and uses 1 cup of RUM!! We don't just drink rum... we put it in our cake too! Delicious and it's always a crowd pleaser at potlucks. This cake is made from a cake mix and most people can't believe it's not from scratch. Be sure to use gold rum and not the silver rum. You can really taste the rum but it's not too strong either to get you tipsy! 
Here is the recipe:

Golden Rum Cake

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 45-60 min

Total Time: 1 hour, 25 min

Ingredients:

Cake

• 1 cup chopped, toasted pecans or walnuts

• 1 18-1/2 ounce yellow cake mix

• 1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix

• 4 eggs

• 1/2 cup cold milk

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Preparation:

Cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts on bottom of pan. Combine all cake ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes on high with electric mixer. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool in pan.

Glaze

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1/4 cup water

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (use the gold rum)

Glaze: Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Note: The rum will cause steam. Be careful not to burn yourself.

Poke holes all over the cake and drizzle the glaze over top of Bacardi Rum Cake while it is still the Bundt pan.


 The last step above is what I do different than the original recipe because this way I don’t lose the glaze to the bottom of the cake and keeps the cake whole moister. I let the cake soak up all the glaze for about 30 minutes before inverting it on a platter. I also save a couple table spoons of the glaze and drizzle more after inverting it on the serving platter.

ENJOY!!

Easy Butter Pecan cake

Ingredients:
1 box Butter Pecan Cake Mix
1 can condensed milk
1 tub cool whip
 Heath toffee bits to sprinkle on top

Directions:
Make the cake in a 9 x13 pan according to the box instructions.
Let cool for 15 min and then poke holes (I used chop sticks)
Pour the condensed milk over.
Top with cool whip and sprinkle toffee bits on top (or chopped pecans)

Mini Rum Cakes

Awhile ago, I received a really nice gift of a mini Bundt cake pan which makes six small cakes. I put that into use this weekend and made the cutest mini rum cakes. I used the Bacardi Golden Rum Cake recipe from about.com but omitted the pecans since I didn’t have them that day and shortened the baking time since they were so small. This recipe is from 1 box of cake mix and makes one regular size (12 cup) Bundt cake (see my Bacardi rum cake post )or 10-12 mini bundt cakes as seen in my pictures.

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 30-35 min
Total Time: 1 hour, 25 min

Ingredients:

Cake
• 1 18-1/2 ounce yellow cake mix
• 1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup cold milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Glaze
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Preparation:

Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Combine all cake ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes on high with electric mixer. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool in pan. Poke holes all over the cake and drizzle the glaze over top of Bacardi Rum Cake while it is still the Bundt pan. (This is what I do different than the original recipe because this way I don’t lose the glaze to the bottom of the cake and keeps the whole cake moister. I let the cake soak up all the glaze for about 30 minutes before inverting it on a platter.)

Glaze: Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Note: The rum will cause steam. Be careful not to burn yourself.

Mini Lemon Pound Cakes

My hubby said he likes the lemon pound cake from Starbucks so I searched the great world of internet for a recipe and sure enough there was one with the name Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound cake Copycat Recipe from Picky-Palate's website. My icing was not as thick as it should have been. I must have made it too runny. I will try again for thicker icing but it was still yummy! Very lemony and everyone loved the mini loafs. It was from a box cake mix and was very easy to make. I made 6 mini loafs and wrapped them up and gave away as gifts.

Ingredients for the Cake

1 box Yellow Cake mix

1 (4.3 oz) Lemon pudding mix

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 C Milk

4 large eggs

8 oz sour cream

6 TBS fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray 2 loaf pans generously with cooking spray
2. Place all cake ingredients in no particular order into stand or electric mixer, beating until well combined, about 1 1/2 minutes. Divide cake batter between two prepared loaf pans spreading evenly. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove and let cool for 15 minutes before removing loaves from pans.
   

Icing

4 TBS fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 1/2 C powdered sugar

To make icing, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice well till it reaches a thick consistency that is easy to drizzle. Drizzle generously on cakes.
Takes about 20 min for the icing to dry.

Blueberry Limoncello Cake with a Limoncello Glaze

Doesn't the name alone sounds good already? I was immediately drawn to this Blueberry Limoncello Cake when I first saw the name popped up during my search for summer deserts that uses limoncello. I was recently introdued to limoncello and successfully made a bottle of it for the first time. I didn't want to drink all of it but wanted to use some of it in baking, so here I go...making this yummy cake which was easy to bake. I will share the recipe for limoncello in another post. There are many limoncello recipes floating on the Internet if you'd like to make it or you may purchase is as well.

Here is the recipe from About.com.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:
* 3 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups fresh blueberries
* 1-1/2 cups butter, room temperature
* 2 cups sugar
* 3 eggs, room temperature
* 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon limoncello, divided
* 2 tablespoons lemon zest, divided
* 2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease 9x13 cake pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.

Place blueberries in a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of dry ingredients. Toss gently and set aside. (This is done so blueberries don't sink to bottom of cake.)

In an another bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Add 1 tablespoon limoncello.

Add the dry mixture and combine completely.

Fold in 1 tablespoon zest and blueberries.

Carefully add batter to prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Cool pan on rack for 15 minutes before adding glaze.

Cool completely before serving.

Glaze:

With a wire whisk, stir together powdered sugar, 1/4 cup limoncello and 1 tablespoon lemon zest. Drizzle over cake, then spread for even consistency.

ENJOY!!!

Amish Friendship Bread and the Endless Variations

Baking Amish Friendship Bread is a fun and yummy thing to start if you like to bake. You can do so many versions of it just by changing the flavor of the pudding you put in. I will warn you that you will be buying a lot more flour, sugar and milk than you ever did before and will be baking every 10 days if you continue. However, you can easily freeze your starter and it'll taste great once you thaw and start back from Day of of the starter cycle. Use this recipe if you want to make the starter or buy online or you may get it from a friend..hence the name Friendship bread :). I got mine from a friend. Once you have the starter bag, follow these easy instructions. and you will get the basic original cinnamon flavor bread...(although it's sweet and taste more like a muffin or loaf cake). Once you get tired of the basic recipe, try the variations. There are a million variations floating around on the Internet or you can use your imagination. Try it!!! I am having so much fun with it. great gift for neighbors or for holidays as well! Below are a few that I've tried and they are really GOOD!!!


Apple Cinnamon.

1 Chopped apple added to the original recipe.










Banana Nut.

Vanilla pudding is omitted from the original recipe.

Banana cream pudding, 2 frozen bananas meshed, half tsp nutmeg, 1/2 Cup chopped walnuts added instead.

Lemon Cranberry.

Add lemon pudding instead of vanilla.

Omit cinnamon, but add 1/2 cup crasins.







Chocolate.

Add Chocolate pudding instead of vanilla.

Omit cinnamon, but add 2 TBS coca powder. ( chocolate chips are optional)

4 Layer Red Velvet Cheesecake

It's mid January and the last week or so I was searching for the perfect cake or cupcakes to make around Valentines Day next month. I knew I wanted to make a red velvet cake or cupcakes since I've never tried making one. So I printed a couple of recipes and bought some ingredients. I was planning to make one this month as a trial before Valentines Day. A few days passed and didn't make a cake yet but I had a conversation with a friend who was telling me how good the Red Velvet Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory is. That night I searched for images for Red velvet cheesecake and found one that caught my eye at this LINK.
As I was reading her blog, it turned out that she used my favorite cheesecake recipe from the food network for the cheesecake part ( 1 of the 4 layers, YES IT IS VERY TALL and time consuming to assemble, but worth it). So even though I didn't get home from work till 11:30pm, I started baking when I got home. Stayed up till 3 AM and also had to put in one hour for making the frosting and assembling the next morning but WOW the outcome was very rewarding. My honey helped me with taking pictures for this post.
This is not a Red Velvet Flavored Cheesecake, instead it is a 4 layer cake with 3 layers of red velvet cake and 1 layer of Cheesecake in between. For the red velvet cake, I used the recipe from HERE.
However,I used all purpose flour instead of Cake flour.Enjoy!!!


red velvet layers


cheese cake layer

cream cheese frosting

ready to frost

Most difficult part was the assembly....especially when my 18 month old wanted attention from mommy right in the middle of it



Decorating..the fun part!

Well worth the effort ( a big two day long process, but guess what! We now get to enjoy it for days 'cause it's such a huge cake)