Halloween and a Ghostly Cake

Halloween is so fun! This Halloween I went down to Spanish Fork for a visit to my awesome brother and my super cute sister-in-law Sierra. I has so much fun, we had a great Halloween.

For lunch we had Halloween pasta with black and white bowtie and bloody Alfredo.



For dinner we made Octopus Chicken Pot Pie. We found easy Chicken Pie recipe on Pillsbury.com and the Octopus Pot Pie from this site.





Then for dessert we had a Ghostly Cake!



I found this on I am Baker.

I did do some substitutes. Instead of making a red velvet cake from scratch I once again used the Retired Models Cake Recipe.I didn't add any pudding. I used their Butter Cream Marshmallow frosting, and I tried the Betty Crocker Ganache for the dripping chocolate icing.It wasn't as good as home made but was still yummy.

Hungry..Grab a Snicker Cake!

I took some inspiration from the Praline Turtle Cake and did a little twist and instead of pecans I added peanuts and chopped up snickers. Also because I'm all about the box cake mix to save time I made the cake batter from the Retired Models cake recipe.

I have to admit this was a fun cake to make, who doesn't love a snickers? And Bruce thought it was one of my best yet. Make it for your next event and see what you think?

Recipe

- 1/2 c butter

- 1 c brown sugar

- 1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk

- 1 c chopped peanuts

- 1 box devil chocolate cake

- 4 eggs beaten

- 1/2 c oil

- 1/2 c water

- 2 6oz packages instant chocolate pudding

- 1 c sour cream

- chopped mini snickers

- your favorite chocolate icing ( I wimped out and bought some betty crocker chocolate icing)

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans and fit a circle of parchment paper large enough to cover 1 inch up the side of each cake pan. Heat the butter, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Divide the sugar mixture between the prepared pans. Sprinkle 3/4 cup peanuts over sugar mixture and set aside to cool. Mix cake, eggs, pudding, sour cream, oil, water together. Add chopped up snickers if desired. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake center comes out clean -- 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cakes in the pans for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans and turn cakes out onto a cooling rack. Remove the paper and cool completely.

Spread the fudge topping over the sugar mixture side of one cake layer. Place the second layer over the first and drizzle with the melted chocolate and the remaining chopped snickers. Frost the cake sides with your favorite chocolate icing.

I used my new frosting decorating pen around the edges and the bottom.

ENJOY!

Texas Sheet Cake

I got this recipe from the College Station cookbook my mom gave me a few years back. That is my go to cookbook. For one it has most of my favorite recipes of my mom's and second i know everyone in it which is nice. A very trusted source! This sheet cake is from Meg Anderson.

Recipe

2 c flour

2 c sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2 beaten eggs

1/2 c sour milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c oil

1 stick butter

3 Tbs water

Icing

1 stick butter

4 Tbs cocoa

1/2 cups sour milk

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, sugar and soda in a bowl. Boil butter, oil, cocoa & water, then pour over the dry mixture. Add renaming ingredients and then pour into a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Boil the butter, cocoa and *sour milk. Add to shifted powder sugar and vanilla, stirring well. Add chopped nuts if desired.

You can use either vinegar or lemon juice to make your milk go sour.

Thanks Meg this was very yummy and super easy to make!

PS If you dont want your icing to look like mine let the cake cool before you frost. Although it was tasty because it melted into the cake. YUM YUM

Pig Lick'n Cake

This is a good quick cake to make and it is yummy too!

RECIPE:

1 pkg yellow cake mix w/pudding in the mix
1 can mandarin orangesn w/juice
1/2 c sour cream

Mix cake according to directions of box, adding oranges, (use juice from oranges + water to make 1 cup liquid). Bake and cool. Frost cake, then refrigerate, garnish with mandarin oranges and sprigs of mint.

FROSTING:

1 sm package vanilla instant pudding
2 6oz can crushed pineapple w/juice
1 8oz carton cool whip

Mix pineapple juice and pudding together. Fold in cool whip.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

I am so glad it is finally fall and I can start making fall food, one of my favorite types of food! What better way to kick it off then with Pumpkin Cheesecake.



Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups gingersnap crumbs (25 -30 cookies)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla
6 large eggs, separated
1 (30 oz) can pumpkin pie mix*
2 large eggs
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

*I have never been a fan of the canned pumpkin pie mix so I just got the canned pumpkin and added all the spices listed on the back for the pumpkin pie recipe.

Directions:

Combine crumbs and butter; press into bottom and 1 inch up sides of a lightly greased 12-inch spring-form pan. Set aside.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth; add 1 cup sugar and vanilla, beating until creamy. Stir in 6 egg yolks. Pour 2 1/2 cups mixture into prepared crust; set aside.

Add pumpkin pie mix and 2 eggs to remaining cream cheese mixture, stirring well; set aside.

Beat egg whites at high speed until foamy. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar. 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves. Fold into pumpkin mixture pour over cream cheese mixture in crust.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Turn oven off, and run a knife around edge of cheesecake to loosen. Let stand in oven with door partially open for 1 1/2 hours. Remove sides of pan; cover and chill.

Beat whipping cream and powdered sugar at high speed until soft peaks form; spread on on top of cheesecake. I added some ginger snap crumbs to the top as a garnish.



This turned out great! It does take a bit of time but it is totally worth it. It taste a lot like pumpkin pie and I cannot decide which one I like better? I might have to make both for thanksgiving now?

Wish List

Cuisinart ® Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor

A food processor would make my life a LOT easier. Specially with cheesecake.

Kuhn Rikon Frosting Decorating Pen

This is so cool! Its battery operated frosting set. Can you say AWESOME!

Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan

Make every piece of brownie with the chewy edgy and gooey center. Also great for lasagna.

Straight Plastic Handle Icing Spatulas

I think about this knife every time I frost a cake. I should just make time and go get it.

Dos Amigos Cupcakes

This week I decided to try a cupCAKE instead of cake. My favorite Blue Bell ice cream was called Dos Amigos, chocolate and vanilla. So I used that as my inspiration.


Ingredients:

You have to make two different batters for this recipe.

Chocolate batter:

1 Chocolate cake mix (i used one with the pudding in it to make it moist)
1/2 C water
1/2 C oil
1 C sour cream
4 eggs
1 t vanilla

White batter:

1 White cake mix (with pudding)
1/2 C water
1/2 C oil
1 C sour cream
4 eggs
1 t vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine ingredients in two seperate mixing bowls. Spray inside of cupcake holders with nonstick spray. Using either two spoons and scooping vanilla and chocolate into cupcake holders or rolled up parchment paper filling with chocolate and then another filled with vanilla squeeze into cupcake holders. Bake for 18 min.



These were so good I ate most of them without icing, not to mention my icing was no good! I tried to make a butter cream frosting but it turned out to be sugar glue. Any suggestions?