Brown Sugar Pound Cake

Happy New Year 2013!! This is my first blog post for 2013.  I think it's good luck to have a sweet treat as a first post for the New Year, it's a sign that this year will be sweet for us all, not salty, not sour, not bitter, but a very sweet year, or as the kids like to say, "SWEEEEET".!!

Brown Sugar Pound Cake is a dense wonderful cake, perfect with tea, or accompanied with whipped cream and strawberries, as my daughter would prefer. This cake doesn't have a lot of extra liquid such as milk added to it, as other recipes call for, which makes it more like a bread than a light cake. It reminded me of a brown sugar cookie. It would also be nice drizzled with chocolate or caramel sauce.

Pound Cake:

• 1 cup - packed  Light Brown Sugar
• 1 cup - (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 4 - eggs
• 1 teaspoon - vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups - all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon - baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon - salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. In large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to sugar mixture. Pour batter into pan. Bake one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan and turn out on rack to cool completely. Top with whipped cream and fruit if you like.

Recipe adapted from Domino Sugar

Carrot Cake

This was the cake that I was supposed to have for my birthday. If you know me, you know that I am totally addicted to carrot cake, it is my favorite cake, the more carrots and nuts the better. This has been my favorite since I was a girl. Going through all of the recipes on the Internet, I made my favorite recipe from my Mom and Baby Wayne. This was the cake that we would make for parties and birthdays. When it was baking, all the memories of those parties started flooding back, my Mom and I with all the guys from the Floral Market. Since I told my daughter that I was going to make this cake and then made my Gingerbread Cake. She hadn't forgotten, and asked if I could make it when I got a chance. Since Amy's Annual Wreath Making Party was coming up, I thought this would be perfect for the party. Everyone loves Carrot cake.

 

Carrot Cake

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

4 unbeaten eggs

3 cups grated carrots

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease tube pan or two cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, sift these ingredients. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream oil, sugar and eggs. Add dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Add carrots. Pour batter into tube pan or two cake pans. Bake for 45 minutes in tube pan or 30 minutes in cake pans or until toothpick inserted in the center of cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes on cooling rack. Invert cake on to plate, let cool completely before frosting. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1 stick butter- softened

8 oz cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans ( optional)

Method

With a mixer or Kitchen Aid, blend butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. On low speed, add 1 cup of sugar, mix until blended, add another cup of sugar. Frost cakes. Sprinkle nuts on top of frosting.  

~Sundays With Joy~ Birthday Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

So I thought I was a year older, all year I have been saying that I am a year older, so surprise to me that I wasn't turning 50 this year. I actually had a mini panic attack when I thought I was turning 50, that I should at least have a party or something of the sort. Hubs should really be planning something...then it dawned on me, I started counting back, no I am not 50. So then on to the next MAJOR decision, WHAT KIND OF CAKE would I like, or am I going to make? Some of you may know that I am purely obsessed with Carrot Cake, I think I have pinned over 100 Carrot Cakes on Pinterest! But then I started reading about Joy The Baker's Gingerbread Cake and it looked like all of my dreams had come true, I think I have found a cake that I love more than carrot cake! I know, it seemed impossible, but it is true! This cake is so moist and perfectly perfect in it's gingerbready-ness and the cream cheese frosting is so delicious, I had to try 3 tablespoons full to make sure that I didn't poison my family, it's the least that I can do to save the poor souls.

Birthday Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup unsulphered molasses 

1/4 cup honey

2 teaspoons orange zest ( I didn't have any on hand so I omitted this)

3/4 cup warm water

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese frosting, softened

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 

Method for Cake:

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  I used a 10-inch square baking pan, Grease the pan.  Line with parchment paper ( I wish I had done this part, really helps to get the cake out of the pan.) Grease and flour the parchment paper.  Set pan aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together vegetable oil, sugar, and eggs until thick and pale.  Stir in molasses and honey.

Add all of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Stir together until incorporated.  Add the warm water and gently stir until incorporated and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  If you find that the mixture fills the pan more than three-quarters of the way full, you might consider using a larger pan (a 9 or 10-inch pan may serve your better). I used a 10-inch pan and it worked perfectly.

Bake cake for 35-45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Method for Cream Cheese Frosting:

While the cake bakes, make the cream cheese frosting.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, blend the cream cheese on medium speed.  The cream cheese should be soft and smooth. Stop the mixer.  Add the softened butter.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat the two together over medium speed until smooth and incorporated.  Add one cup of powdered sugar.  Blend until incorporated.  Add vanilla extract and remaining cup of powdered sugar.  Beat on medium high speed until frosting is smooth.

Allow cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting the cake.  

This cake can be stored, well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days.  

Recipe Adapted From Joy The Baker

Easy Rum Cake

With the holidays coming up, I have been thinking about what desserts we had when I was a kid. My Grandma used to make this cake for Christmas and I thought it was so fancy and grown up. I couldn't wait until the cake was cooled to eat. Since Grandma isn't here to ask her for the recipe, I had to do some testing of recipes and I think this recipe is very close. After trying the first piece I could remember Grandma and Grandpa's fun Luau parties with all of the guests ending up in the pool. They loved having parties with great food and lots to drink and always wonderful desserts.

The trick for this cake is glazing it while it is hot out of the oven. The recipe for the glaze seemed like a lot to me so I halved it for my cake but you can use all of the glaze, it is your preference. I also chose to use walnuts for this cake and it really is a great combo with the vanilla and rum flavors. I used the cake mix with vanilla pudding in it and I also added another vanilla pudding. I know...really wild stuff for a Friday Night! Grandma and Grandpa would think I was a real dud!

Easy Rum Cake

• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts ( I used walnuts)
• 1 package yellow cake mix 
• 1 (3 3/4-oz.) package Jell-O vanilla instant pudding and pie filling
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup Vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum

Glaze:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum
• I halved this recipe

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease and flour 10-inch tube or 12-cup Bundt pan.
3. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan.
4. Mix all cake ingredients together.
5. Pour batter over nuts.
6. Bake 1 hour.
7. Cool; invert onto serving plate. Prick top with fork.
8. Spoon and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.

9. Glaze:

1. Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar.
2. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, and remove from heat.
3. Stir in rum. You may decorate with whipped cream before serving.

Recipe from Duncan Hines

Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting < Sunday's With Joy>

Our grandson was born last night. Our sixth grandchild, Baby Ray.  The sun is bursting from behind the clouds and I am thinking of you Baby Ray! Since we are miles away from our family and were not able to be at his birth, I baked him a BIRTH CAKE. Happy Birthday Baby Ray. We are so excited to meet you and hold you and kiss you, sweet baby boy.

This week, our group Sunday's With Joy, is baking up a Peanut Butter Cake. I have never baked a Peanut Butter Cake and I have been missing out! Peanut Butter is such a wonderful ingredient to bake with, it is dense and flavorful. I decided to make a Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting to go with the Peanut Butter Cake, kind of like a peanut butter cup, but even better!

What a great choice, the peanut butter and the chocolate combination are just delicious. Not an overwhelming flavor, very subtle. A perfect birthday cake to celebrate the birth of Baby Ray!

If you would like the recipe, click HERE

Banana Spice Cake

When I was a little girl, my favorite cake to bake was a Spice Cake. I thought it sounded so fancy, with lots of  exotic spices. Of course I baked a lot of cakes using cake mixes, it was easy for me to do by myself, add water, oil and an egg. 20 minutes later, you have a cake! Miracle of miracles. I haven't thought about spice cakes in years. But today, something just triggered that memory as I was looking at my very ripe bananas. BANANA SPICE CAKE....this tiny little girl's voice said to my brain! It has been rainy and cold and when it is rainy and cold, baking is my emotional therapy. It grounds me and makes me feel like all is well in my little world. The aroma of the spices bring me back 40 years. Wait 40 years? Yes, 40 years! It's time to make a Banana Spice Cake. This is long overdue. This cake is a tribute to the little girl who loved to bake cakes. This is a treat for me who loves to eat Banana Spice Cake! 

Cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer or a Kitchen Aid.

Mix dry ingredients and spices together.

Add mashed banana, milk,vanilla and eggs to butter sugar mixture.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until flour mixture is completely wet. Bake in a greased pan for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees . Let cake cool for 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan and placing it on a cooling rack. You can frost this cake if you like but I prefer to sift powdered sugar over the cake.

 

 

Banana Spice Cake

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces butter, softened
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 large egg
• 2 to 3 bananas, mashed, about 3/4 cup
• 1/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 scant teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour an 8- or 9-inch square pan. In a large mixing bowl with electric mixer, cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in egg, milk, vanilla, and mashed banana until blended. Combine remaining dry ingredients and spices. Stir the dry ingredients into the first mixture until moistened. Spread in prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched with finger. 

Frost with a cream cheese frosting or sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Best Chocolate Sheet Cake

It's Judy's Surprise Birthday and I have been wanting to make this incredible cake ever since I saw it on The Pioneer Woman Cook's Blog. She says it's The Best Sheet Cake Ever, and I trust her. Everything that I have made from her blog has been delicious and my kids have asked me to make it all the time! Well she was right! Friends were going back for second and third pieces! I wanted to make a delicious cake for Judy and her friends, since I didn't know how many people were going to be there to surprise the HECK out of her, I thought that a sheet cake would be perfect! I read every single one of the comments on TPWC Blog, which is saying a lot ( she usually gets around 800 comments or MORE per post) and so many people commented that this cake was really difficult to mess up. I thought of this the whole time that I was talking to my best friend while trying to make the cake and frosting. Do you ever do that? Leave out an ingredient while you are having a serious conversation on the phone? I have, sugar , while making pies, not good at all!I didn't leave out any ingredients for this cake, but my mind was really concentrating on two things at one time. I recommend this if you are feeling lazy and need to be challenged! Talking and Baking!

This sheet cake is wonderful warm after just being freshly frosted or perfect the day after for breakfast, or as a late snack, or before lunch, or after a hike! My kids are asking me to make another sheet cake since this one was whisked away for the party, okay kids, for your birthday! Make sure to decorate the cake if you like, I am in no way a skilled baker-ess, I drew out JUDY and a Heart, but it was still hard to tell what that exactly was...

As we were all hiding waiting for Judy and Tom to come back from their date night, Judy's Mother called Judy from the back room asking her if she could show her something on the computer, the lights were off, we were quiet as mice, we all jumped out and yelled SURPRISE!! Thank goodness, Judy is young and has a very strong heart, I would have collapsed, don't yell at me and come jumping out at me from a dark room, years will come off my life! You are an amazing sport Young Judy!!

Judy still trying to recover, you did a great job Tom keeping it a secret!

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:
2 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa Powder2 sticks Butter
1 cup Boiling Water
1/2 cup Buttermilk
2 whole Beaten Eggs
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla

FOR FROSTING:
1/2 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
1-3/4 stick Butter
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
6 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Note: I use an 18x13 sheet cake pan.
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.
In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake. Enjoy! Take this sheet cake to your next party, you will make lots of friends! Nettie This post has been linked up to these fabulous blogs!

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

I really love pumpkin and since it has been rainy and colder, I have been feeling like baking something with pumpkin, what could be better than a pumpkin chocolate cake? This cake is moist and filled with chocolate, not overbearingly sweet. This cake received rave reviews from four different friends, all saying it was one of the most delicious cakes and that they didn't want to share! Perfect review I think! I baked this cake in a Rose Bundt pan to show off the pumpkin, chocolate and pecans in a beautiful design. I think it is a show stopper.

This cake is very moist and rich, I used Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Bittersweet Chocolate Chips for this recipe.

Here is what you need: butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, baking chocolate ( I used both Ghiradelli chips and Ghiradelli baking chocolate), vanilla, pumpkin, pecans, cinnamon ( not shown).

Beat butter, add sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Mix dry ingredients. Add to mixed butter, sugar and eggs, then add pumpkin.

Add pumpkin to batter.

 

Grease Bundt pan well.

After dividing the batter in half, add melted chocolate. Mix well.

Sprinkle chopped pecans to the bottom of the greased bundt pan.

To the other half of the batter add chocolate chips, mix well.

Pour pumpkin batter with chips on the bottom layer, sprinkle a layer of pecans, top with chocolate batter, sprinkle pecans to the top. Bake 60-70 minutes, test with a knife that it comes out clean. This cake took about 10 minutes longer to bake, the knife did have melted chocolates on the knife, so it doesn't come out perfectly clean. Let cool for 15-20 minutes, my cake stuck in one spot, I eased it out and put it together where it had come apart, it still looked beautiful.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

 Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
• 1 cup (6 ounces) Bitterwseet chocolate chips
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans, divided

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon; add to the creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin, beating well after each addition. 
• Divide batter in half. Stir melted chocolate into one portion. In a well-greased 10-in. fluted tube pan, sprinkle 1/2 cup pecans. Spoon chocolate batter over pecans; top with pumpkin batter. Sprinkle with remaining pecans.
• Bake at 325° for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. This recipe was inspired from Taste Of Home.This post has been linked up to these fabulous blogs!