Turtle Cake

Today I'm linking up with Sharon Fleming's Around the Table blog and she is sharing a great Valentine's Day recipe just in time for February 14th! To read the directions, head on over to Mrs.Fleming's Blog!! Make sure to take a look around at all the great recipes, advice for meal times, and some great giveaways too! To learn more about Mrs. Fleming and her ministry, click here. Enjoy!

Turtle Cake

Ingredients:

1 14 oz. bag caramels

5 oz. evaporated milk

1 box (18.5 oz) Devil's Food cake mix with pudding (get one that calls for oil) (and ingredients called for in cake mix)

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

And since it's Valentine's Day, wouldn't it be cute to make a card like this one to accompany your turtle cake!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Valentine's Day Cake Pops

Today I'm linking up with a fabulous blog called Around the Table. This blog has articles about improving family meal times, conversation starters, and great recipes too!  (If you'd like to see a previous post with my interview on "Around the Table" click here.)

 Happy Valentine's Day! I've always loved this holiday, mostly because I usually get a lot of candy and chocolate, especially from my Grandma, and I can wear all the pink I want! Well, back to baking...these cake pops are very simple to make and they're a lot of fun to decorate for Valentine's Day! This is one of those recipes where all you need is a little faith and pixie dust...NOT! But you may want some sprinkles, or if you must have some pixie dust, make sure to use edible glitter dust!

Because cake pops are tricky to present, I decided to take them off the
stick and put the cake pops on a little tray. 

Ingredients:
-1 Betty Crocker cake mix (and ingredients called for on the box)
-1 container of vanilla frosting (or your favorite flavor!)
-1 package of red candy melts (these are typically found at a craft store such as Micheal's)
-sprinkles! (red,white, pink, etc.)
-lollipop sticks
-foam block for drying and displaying cake pops

Directions:
1) Bake cake according to package directions. Let cool.
2) Once cake is cooled, crumble cake into a fine mixture using your hands.
3) Pour crumbled cake into a large bowl and mix in 3/4 of a container of vanilla frosting.
4) Mix with a spoon or your hands until thoroughly combined.
5) Melt candy melts according to package directions. Dip lollipop
sticks in melted candy melts just slightly and push inside the cake
ball. This helps secure the stick in the cake ball. Place in the
fridge for about 15 minutes to harden.
6) Dip and coat hardened cake balls in candy melts and tap stick
against the side of the bowl to shake off the excess. If desired, dip
cake pop into sprinkles until covered.
7) Stick into the foam block to dry. Enjoy!

P.S. Another way to do this, is to buy a cake pop pan!
Here is a link to another cake pop recipe!

An accidental rose pop! (The pop got dipped at a wrong angle and it turned out like this!)
As to how to make one of these, I don't really know. :)

In my heart there rings a Melodi...^

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Red, White, and Blue Bundt Cake

Yes, I know, I'm a day late on the red, white, and blue, but I have a good excuse (sort of). I didn't really have access to a computer yesterday so better late than never!  Actually rather than being a day late, you could also consider it 364 days early!!!  =)

 Happy Birthday/ Fourth of July, America!!!

The Ingredients

Trust me there is a layer of white in there.

Roses are red, Violets are blue.
I love to show off my red, white, and blue!

The reddish-pink sort of ruined it. =/

And here's the recipe.
I'm now officially done with red, white, and blue recipes.  And I'm off to try some east coast recipes.  I may even invite a few guest bloggers too.  Stay tuned!

BTW, I hope you had a chance to see some fireworks this week.  I saw a lot and from a really good seat too. Flying over fireworks was amazing!!!

GB2- God Bless, Go Bake!!!

Cake Pops

No, I didn't make these. =(

It seems like the world likes pops. There are lollipops, cake pops, ice cream pops, corn pops, push-pops, ring pops, and Otter Pops. Why are there sooooooo many pops? Since it seems that everyone likes pops so much, I decided to make them. And now I can see why everyone is in love with pops.

The Ingredients

I did this the non-messy way with these borrowed pans, but there is a way to do it without them.

The reject corner. =(

The semi-successful corner.

I went to Starbucks the other day and realized these things cost $1.50 EACH for one bite of cake!!!
I made around 50 and they cost $6.00.

And no, I didn't make these either.

I know that  I was rather lazy with this recipe, and only quickly frosted them because I was in a rush, but there are millions of great ideas on how to frost and decorate these things, like the Angry Bird picture above. Although I must admit that I have no idea how to play Angry Birds, buuuuuut the little birds are sort of cute, so I try every once in awhile, just to see the little birds go flying into space.

 Anyway, go ahead and make the Angry Bird pops or any other idea that comes into your mind.  Cake pop decorating is limited only by your imagination. 

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!

Black Bottoms

We ran out of cupcake liners, so my Mom 
dug through the Christmas box and found these.

      This was the very first recipe that I got from a magazine and actually made. I was so proud as I pulled it out of the oven and presented to my family a warm, gooey, chocolaty cupcake. The only problem was only 4/5 of the people in my family ate it... someday I'm gonna take Luke to a science lab and get his taste buds redone because he doesn't know what he's missing out on!!! Oh well, for now I will keep making recipes even if my brother doesn't decide to eat them. =)

The Ingredients

Time to multitask!  Photographing, stirring, and dumping the chocolate - ALL AT ONCE!

My cupcakes are ALWAYS half full, never half empty. =)

 I have very disobedient cream cheese. I tell it to spread out and it just plops.

The only obedient one.

Ta Daaa!!!

     I found this when I was looking through one of my Mom's old Woman's Day magazines for a school project. The recipe can be found here.
   
WARNING: This does not contain anything of value to your physical health! I wish I could take credit for that "warning" but I got it from this blog. =)

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!

The Real Red Velvet

Although you've probably seen red velvet cake at a bakery or grocery store, this is the real thing. We hardly ever buy red velvet cake because we've had the real thing, and once you've had that... there's no going back.  I know that red velvet cake has become rather faddish in the last few years, but this is an older recipe from my PA Grandma who has made this cake for a very LONG time (even before I was born), so pay close attention.

The Ingredients

1 bowl down 2 more to go.

Here comes the cake!!!

 I borrowed my sister's trifold board so everything looks white and pretty for the background. Hopefully she won't notice any smudges or batter on the board. =)

The trio of bowls.

Just 2 more ingredients left!

Ingredients for the icing

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!

Our friends enjoying some red velvet cake.

My patriotic Red Velvet Cake.

Ingredients:
FIRST STEP in BIG BOWL:
Mix 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. cocoa
Mix these 4 ingredients together.
SECOND STEP in MEDIUM BOWL:
3/4 cup oil, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 eggs 1 oz. red food coloring
Cream oil and sugar, add eggs. Add food coloring, Mix well.
THIRD STEP in SMALL BOWL:
1 cup buttermilk, 1 tsp. baking soda
Combine buttermilk and baking soda.
FOURTH STEP:
Add second and third bowls alternately with the first.
1 tsp. vinegar, 1 tsp. vanilla.
Add vinegar and vanilla. Mix Well. Bake at 350F (175C) about 25-30 minutes.

Icing:
8oz of soft cream cheese, 1 stick of soft butter, 4 cups confectioner's sugar,  2 tsp. vanilla

Mix the cream cheese, stick of butter, and vanilla. Pour in the confectioner's sugar gradually till light and fluffy, (If desired add more sugar for sweeter icing.)

So, what do you think... are you going to be bold and try this recipe or just buy Costco's brand? Wouldn't you rather have the real thing instead of going with a cheap imitation??? I would make the cake...that's my opinion. =) I hope that's enough to convince you to make this wonderful thing....although it's probably not... or maybe it is!

GB- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!