MIA and Cake!

I took a break.  A long break.  Much longer than I had planned, but I needed to simplify my life for a bit.  Then I realize that it's been 5 MONTHS since I posted last.  Ridiculous, no?   Now I'm back!  And I have a yummy recipe.  In high school, my friends and I used to make this cake all the time.  I have no idea where we found the recipe, but I'm sure there are lots of variations out there. We had a few different names for it, but sometime after I had left home, my mom asked my brother David to "make that cake."  So now we refer to it as "David, Make That Cake."  My husband, who dislikes most baked desserts, loves this.  I think because it's kind of gooey and has the "frosting" baked right in.  And, it's super easy!

David, Make That Cake


Cake:
1 chocolate cake mix (my personal favorite is Pillsbury's Devil Food)

Mix cake batter according to the directions on the box and pour into 9x13 cake pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup chocolate chips over cake batter.

Cream cheese mixture:

8 oz  cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/2 cup of sugar 

1 tsp vanilla

Beat cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla together until smooth.  Pour over top of cake batter and chocolate chips.  Bake according to the directions on the cake mix box.  (Usually about 35 minutes @ 350*)

So yummy!  

Independence Day Cookies

My grandma used to make Kool-Aid Cookies when I was younger.  I thought they were the coolest ever.  Now, I have a new favorite--I love homemade Oreo cookies.  Recently, I saw a picture of red, white and blue cookies and thought they'd be fun for the 4th of July.  So, combining the Kool-Aid Cookies and homemade Oreos, I made these babies.  They're delicious!

Red Cookies:
1 white cake mix
3/4 c shortening
2 eggs
1 package of Cherry Kool-Aid (or any other red Kool-Aid flavor)
Red food coloring (I use Wilton's No-Taste Red food coloring)

Mix all together and bake at 350 for 8 minutes.  Don't overbake!


Blue Cookies:
1 white cake mix
3/4 c shortening
2 eggs
1 package of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid
Blue food coloring

Mix all together and bake at 350 for 8 minutes.  Don't overbake!


Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick of butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Mix all together.  Spread on cookie and sandwich with 2nd cookie of opposite color.

Mine were kind of small, but it made 54 sandwiches.  (108 individual cookies)

Hope you have a happy and safe Independence Day weekend!

Christmas Treats

Throughout December I went a little crazy making sweets. It was good that I was able to share most of them and only eat a few of each by myself! Here's a few of the treats I made, along with links to some of the recipes.

1. Ginger Cookies

2. Peppermint Marshmallows

3. Chocolate Star Cookies

(Sorry, not sure where this recipe came from--I've had it forever!)

4. Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (More help HERE)

5. Short-cut Caramels

I also made these:

English Toffee and

Hot Cocoa Mix

All of them turned out surprisingly yummy even with my lack of baking skills!

Gift Wrapping Ideas #4: Pop-top Cans

Last idea for Christmas (or anytime!) wrapping:

Pop-Top Cans! Using soup/fruit/etc. cans with pop-tops and opening up the bottoms, leaving the pop-tops intact. After washing them and filling them with treats of my own (homemade caramels and hot cocoa mix), I decorated them with scrapbook paper, tags that I designed in Photoshop and ribbon. I kept mine pretty simple. I've seen these in a few places over the years but Blue Cricket Design has a good tutorial HERE.