Lazy dessert...

This is best filed under things I threw together and didn't turn out half bad... :)

1 small bag frozen raspberries, dumped into a glass baking dish that has been sprayed with oil

1 chocolate cake mix, dumped directly on top of the raspberries

1 stick butter, cut into slices and put on top of the dry cake mix

Bake for about 1/2 an hour. You will see it bubbling slightly on the edges when it is done.

It looks like a big gooey mess, as you can see, but was actually pretty tasty. I let it cool for a little while, but served it while it was still warm. Goes great with vanilla ice cream too. Think cobblerish dump cake?

Carrot Cake Pops and a Lollipop Garden

 With a 3 year old b-day, I decided to go the Cake-pop route.  It seemed (and was) SO much less messy!  That "frosting" isn't gooey, it is firm chocolate.  YUM!  The recipe looked so easy, I couldn't pass it up.

I decided on Carrot cake, since we were going with an Easter/Spring theme. 

1 box cake made per directions on the box and cooled.

Take 1/2 of the cake and 1/2 container of Cream Cheese Frosting and mix together making a dough.

Roll into balls (or carrot shapes) and stick in the fridge 2 hours or the freezer 30 min. (Make them small... like donut hole small, or to your horror, your beautiful creation will slowly make its way down the stick and die a sad death.  With the carrot shapes, you can get a way with more weight because it it distributed differently... still, there was much bellowing and perhaps a few off color words dierected at the demise of some of my best cake pops.)

Melt white chocolate pieces and add desired food coloring.

While chocolate is melting, prepare candy sticks or dowels.  Candy sticks are a lot more pricy. (I used dowels 3/4 covered with floral tape and on the one pictured, I used floral wire covered with floral  tape to make the stem of the carrot.)

Dip the tip of the stick into the chocolate and place the firm, cold dough onto the stick. Hopefully you will have more luck dipping your dough in the chocolate.  Not only did I have to thin my chocolate out with milk a bit, but I spread it with a spatula, as the chocolate kept pulling the dough off of the stick for me.

Place in styrofoam or a candy stick holder, like the one I got at Walmart and I would suggest keeping them cool until use.  As you can see, some turned out MUCH better than others.  But the kids loved them and their faces were CLEAN!

I had seen the idea for a lollipop garden on Pinterest using Tootsie pops.

It looked so cute and all it was, was the candy stuck in a patch of grass.  Cute and easy, right?

Well, not for me.  i couldn't find Tootsie pops anywhere.  So I used dum-dums.  Well, dum-dums are significantly shorter and got lost in the grass.  So I added a mini muffin liner and tied the bottom with emroidery floss, then placed them in the actual flower garden.  Even the boys att he party liked picking these flowers.  :)

Complete with egg hunt, gift bags, coloring printable crowns and

rounds of duck-duck goose, simon says, and a bubble machine, I only spent

$30 on the entire party.

Black Forrest Cake

In honor of "Eat chocolate cake day", which I refused to let pass unobserved, my mom and I whipped up this beauty.

The recipe is to come, as my mom's recipes are never really measured. She is working on the specifics.

Happy weekend!

Pumpkin Spice cookies

EASY EASY EASY!

1 15oz. can pumpkin
1 box spice cake mix

Dump dry cake mix into a bowl. Add canned pumpkin. Mix ingredients until cake mix is fully incorporated into the pumpkin. Drop by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will be light and cake-like.
If you are feeling extra nice, throw in a cup of chocolate chips, too!



(The absolute best part of this recipe is the amazing smell that comes form your kitchen! Enjoy!)

I have also seen similar recipes that add an egg into the mixture, but I never bother. I have tried it with the egg, and I really don't think it adds all that much to the overall finished product...

Peanut Butter Fudgy Bars

Courtesy of Pillsbury

Base:

1 pkg Pillsbury Moist Supreme Golden Butter Recipe Premium Cake Mix

1 cup Peanut Butter (crunchy or creamy - your call)

1/3 cup water

1 egg

Top:

1 (16-oz) can Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Dark Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 cup+ M&M's

(optional) 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Heat oven to 350F

Line cooking pan with foil or parchment paper (13x9 or your choice)

Mix base together and spread into cooking pan.

Bake 20-25min or until puffed and light golden brown. Cool completely before topping.

Combine frosting and 1/2cup peanut butter. Spread over cooled cake bar. Top with candies and nuts. Cut into individual serving sizes. (Chill to set frosting faster)

Cinnamon Apple Upside-Down Cake

I have added this recipe before but thought I'd add a photo of the finished product.

Last weekend while working the Paonia Harvest Festival I was able to trade 2 knit baby hats for a whole box of organic apples (one of my favorite fall ingredients)...so we have been having a real apple fest at our house using them in all our favorite apple recipes.

Hope this inspires all of you to go out and use a great fall ingredient. :-)

1 box regular yellow cake mix
1 large Granny Smith Apple or 2 small Season Tart green apples
Palm full Cinnamon
Pinch Nutmeg
Palm full Brown sugar

Parchment paper
1 Deep round cake dish

~Follow box instructions for Yellow Cake
~add a few healthy dashes of cinnamon to batter.
~Remove the skins and cores from the apples
~Slice ¾ of the apples into thin half moon shapes.
~Dice the remaining 1/3 apple into small pieces and set aside.

~Toss apple slices with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (these ingred should be to taste, none should overpower any other).
~Use parchment paper to line your baking pan (this will allow you to turn out your cake perfectly after baking).
~Layer spiced apple slices along bottom of baking dish
~pour in yellow cake batter and then sprinkle remaining diced apples over the top.

~Bake per the directions on the boxcheck the cake with a tooth pick to ensure the cake is fully cooked before removing from oven.

The small diced apples will have floated to the center of the cake. You should now be able to turn out your cake to reveal your lovely half moon apple slices on the top of your cake

Serving Suggestion:Drizzle with warmed caramel and serve along side of French vanilla ice cream, OR enjoy warm right out of the oven no extra additives needed.

Mom Mitchell's Carrot Cake

1 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
(1 cup chopped walnuts - some of you kids didn't like them so I sometimes left them out)
3 cups grated carrots

Directions:
Mix together oil, vanilla and eggs in a small bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine salt, cinnamon, sugar, flour, baking soda and baking powder;   stir in egg mixture.

Add nuts and carrots then mix well.

Pour mixture into 3, greased and floured 8" round cake pand or into 1 deep 9 X 12 that has been greased and floured.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for several minutes.   If you have used 3 rounds invert them onto wires racks to cool completely.   If you used the 1 large pan also cool completely before frosting.

Frost with cream cheese frosting:
1/2 cup butter
8-oz pkg cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar

Beat until smooth.   (Sometimes I add a dash of salt to bring out the cheese flavor and cut the sweetness).

Add nuts and carrots

Number Of Servings:8 to 10

Preparation Time:abt 2 hours start to finish

Grandma Teasdale's Picnic Cake!

1 heaping Cup cut up dates
Place in a bowl

1 1/2 C boiling water (very important that it is boiling and not just hot)
1 tsp baking soda
baking soda should fizz/bubble when boiling water is poured on it.
If soda fizzed, pour over dates


1 C sugar
3/4 shortening
Cream in mixer
Add date mixture

2 eggs
Beat in
Add in:
1 1/2 Cups four
1 T cinnamon
1 T vanilla
1/4 T Salt


Mix well
Pour into greased, floured pan, sprinkle with Pecans (optional), Chocolate chips, and Brown Sugar
Bake 40 min at 350

Bakerella's Cake Pops

Bakerella is famous for her cake pops and cake balls and really just about any baked good. She has some yummy and cute ideas. My family and I have fallen in love with her cake pops and balls. I prefer the pops only cuz it is less messy.

Visit Bakerella here.

Last night I made strawberry cake pops, but I have made chocolate and red velvet. Red velvet is my absolute favorite cake flavor of all time. I liked it way before it became trendy. But I love that it is trendy, because now you can find red velvet cake mix by Duncan Hines in the grocery store. Also you can find cream cheese frosting in a can too! You can pretty much use any flavor of cake mix for these. Although, I don't think lemon, spice or carrot would be a good flavors with these...but I guess ya never know ;)

Here is the recipe:

Red Velvet Cake Balls
1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper

To make them pops, you just insert paper sucker sticks after they have chilled. You can get those at any craft store, and sometimes the grocery store. Also the melting chocolate can be found at the craft store too. Usually in the same section as the sucker sticks. They have a rainbow of colors. I have only tried milk chocolate and white chocolate. But I think I'll make some for Easter and get some fun pastel colors :)

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.) I have found that you do not need the entire can of frosting. And each cake is different. Really moist cakes need less frosting and the dryer ones need more.
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.) If doing pops, then just insert the sucker stick and use that to dip and roll the cake balls in the chocolate. Also, you can stick them on wax paper to dry still, but if you want them to not have flat tops then you can stick them in a foam block thingy to cool and set.

Healthy Pumpkin-Apple Harvest Cake

Hi everyone! My name is Lauren. Carrie and I went to high school together and now I live in Fort Collins, Colorado with my husband, Jeremy and son, Jackson. Jackson turned 1 last week. I spent a while looking for a healthy cake recipe for him to have on his special day. This recipe, from a "green" parenting blog turned out wonderfully! It calls for several organic ingredients, but if you aren't into that thing, you can just use "regular" ones and it is still just as good...and way less expensive! This is also a great breakfast food...without frosting, of course!



Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 large beaten eggs
• 3/4 cup organic sugar
• 3/4 cup all purpose, unbleached flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chopped apple (I recommend dicing)
  

Directions

• Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour an 8" round pan. You can also use cupcake papers if you want to make individual cakes. This yields 8-9 standard sized cupcakes.
• Combine pumpkin, eggs, and sugar.
• Add flour, cinnamon, baking powder, ginger, and salt to the pumpkin mixture. Stir to combine.
• Add apples, stir again, and pour into pan (or cupcake papers...mostly full).
• Smooth batter out and bake for 20-25 minutes (cupcakes too).
• Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then, invert onto the rack, remove pan, and cool completely. For cupcakes, pop out of pan and let cool on a wire rack.
  

• Note: Smoothing out the batter ensures a "nice" looking cake. Pumpkin bakes in whatever shape the batter is in when you bake it!
• When cooled, dust with powdered sugar or a frosting! Deeeelicious!

Beve's Lemon Cake

Go find a sale on cake mixes and get a lemon flavored one. (If you are feeling the need to bake from scratch try this recipe.) I used Betty Crocker on sale for 5 for $5.

Poke holes into the cake with a toothpick:

Make the Lemon Glaze:

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Lemon juice-- eyeball it. It should make a gravy like consistancy when you mix it into the powdered sugar. I'd guess its about 3/4 cup but I don't measure this one.

Dash of salt (Brings out the sweet)
Water (optional) if its too strong for your liking.

Pour Lemon glaze onto the top while still warm
(let it set for about 5-10 min.):

Should look like this and will turn a bit white-ish
when it cools all the way.

Mmmm!

Cherry Chocolate Cake

My sister Janice passed this recipe along to me. One word: yum.
1 pkg. Devil's food cake mix
1 (21 oz.) can cherry pie filling
1 tsp. Almond extract
2 beaten eggs

Frosting:
1 c. powder sugar
1/3 c. milk
5 Tbsp. Butter
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350. Grease & flour 13x9 baking dish. In large bowl, mix all bar ingredients until well blended. Spread in pan. Bake 20-30 min. until done in the center.
In small saucepan, combine sugar, milk & butter. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Boil 1 min. Remove from heat. Blend in choc. chips. Let cool to spreading consistency. Spread over cooled cake. Cut when complete cooled.