Strawberry Bavarian Cream Cake

The leftover-day-after-Thanksgiving dinner is over; I made turkey sloppy joes and they were great. But that's not what you are here for, so here we go!

Like I said in the last post, I saw a Strawberry Bavarian Cream Cake on $40 a Day with Rachael Ray and got the inspiration for this cake. It's sloppy but easy to make, and there are several ways that you can construct it.

You will need:

Butter cake mix

Butter cream frosting (optional, read recipe to help you decide)

2 packages of strawberries

1 can Thank You brand vanilla pudding

1 small container of Kool Whip

2 cups powdered sugar

1. Bake cake as per package directions in round cake tins (this is a layer cake). Let cool completely.

2. While cake is cooling, combine entire can of pudding, an equal portion of Kool Whip, and the 2 cups of powdered sugar. This is your Bavarian Cream.

3. Also while cake is cooling slice one container of strawberries and cut off the leaves from the other package.

4. After cake has cooled, take one of your layers and remove a shallow bowl shaped section from the top of the cake. Pour about half of the cream mixture into this section. Then top with sliced strawberries

5. Place second layer on top of first.

Here's where your options come in. At this point you can either

A. Frost cake with butter cream frosting (messy but do-able; just make sure you fill in the entire space between the two layers with frosting) and top cake with remaining strawberries. Refrigerate if not serving immediately. This will help harden the cream a bit.

B. Pour the remaining cream mixture over the cake and top with strawberries (you will have to chill this cake until the cream is harder if you aren't going to serve the cake immediately).

It is super good and drew rave reviews. My son ate close to 3/4 of the cake over the course of yesterday and today and everyone else ate the rest and was satisfied with their servings. Let me know what you think!

Amazing Caramel Icing

Kendall had her 18th (!!!!!!) birthday this weekend and I made a devil's food cake with caramel. Icing. It. Was. Amazing. I found the devil's food cake recipe online; I just made sure that I found a recipe that used cocoa instead of chocolate that had to be melted as I've had better luck with these recipes.

source

Icing is Incredibly easy to make and once you make your own, you'll never go back to those pasty tubs that you find in the grocery store. Just try this Amazing Caramel Icing recipe and you will be a convert forever.

Amazing Caramel Icing

You'll need

1 stick butter

2 cups (packed) of brown sugar, light or dark.

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

a bag of powdered sugar

To make it:

1. In a heavy saucepan, melt the stick of butter.

2. Add the brown sugar, milk, and vanilla to the butter and mix well.

3. Bring the mixture to a boil over Medium High heat. Stir continuously while mixture is at a boil for 3 - 5 minutes (for those of you that are candy makers, you do not want to take the caramel to the soft ball stage, but just below it.)

4. Take caramel off of heat. Let it cool for a minute or so, it will be very hot. (Resist the temptation to lick the spoon unless you'd like to eradicate your taste buds).

5. In this stage I can't be incredibly exact. I generally start with 2 cups of powdered sugar and using a low hand mixer add it to the caramel. The mixture will be very runny, but remember, it's still hot. Give it around an hour to cool and check it again. I've had to add upwards or 5 total cups of powdered sugar to the caramel to give the icing the consistency I want. I suppose you could also halve the caramel ingredients, but I'd rather have too much icing than too little.

6. Let the icing cool almost completely. Ice your Totally cool cake (if you put this on a hot cake, the butter will separate from the sugar and cause a big mess).

7. Cut yourself a Little Piece of cake - this icing is RICH!

Interestingly enough, my mom told me that my great grandmother Margery used to make this same cake as a signature cake which was what I was thinking of doing with mine. Good taste must run in the family! Enjoy!

The Big Party

So right now, I am in the midst of preparing for Will's birthday party. The cake has been baked an decorated, Swiss Steak (which I will give you the recipe for soon), a family birthday tradition, is in the oven and baking, cut potatoes for the mashed potatoes are on the stove. The girls (Kendall and her friend Ashley) wrapped the presents, Collin and Tim tackled the shoveling and salting of the walkways.

A word on the Swiss Steak. Around 15 years ago, I made my grandfather, who brought the recipe back from his WWII Navy days, write the recipe down. I'm so happy that I did. Ever since he died three years ago, it hasn't been made. I decided now was the time. I was going to use my pressure cooker (which had belonged to him and my grandma), but I got a little too carried away and made more than the cooker could hold. So now it is in a roaster pan in the oven stewing away. I am excited to taste it again, and my family is all showing up for a taste, too. The Vawters are German, food brings us together.

So that's that. Busy busy, while Will enjoys his billionth viewing of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. I suppose I should change out of my cooking clothes, which are splattered and covered with flour, into something more presentable!

(Will's cake is a dark chocolate fudge cake with chocolate icing. I have no way of sharing a picture of it with you, however, as my hard drive has crashed. Yes, you heard me. Out of the blue, it crashed. So enjoy these pictures from We Heart It.)

We Love Cake!

This post is dedicated to cake. Originally I was going to post one cake recipe then do my this-is-what's-happening-in-my-life deal, but I found all of these amazing pictures of cakes on Photobucket that I had to share. Also, you get two recipes for the price of one in this post. Both are my late grandmother's well-loved, often requested recipes. I hope you love them, too.

Watergate Cake

I must admit, when I was a kid, I wouldn't go near this cake. Pistachios? And the dang thing is green! But this is by far my favorite cake and has been since the first moment I got brave enough to try it. It reminds me of spring (probably because it was my grandmother's traditional Easter cake) and is light with a yummy, creamy frosting.



You will need:

2 boxes of pistachio instant pudding
1 box white cake mix
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup of a carbonated lemon-lime beverage
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 envelopes of Dream Whip
1-1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine 1 package pudding, cake mix, oil, eggs, and lemon-lime drink and beat according to cake box directions.

Fold in Walnuts.

Bake in a greased 9x13 pan for 35 - 40 minutes.

Let cool thoroughly.

Beat together 2nd package pudding, Dream Whip, and milk until of spreading consistancy. Frost cake.

Enjoy!

My grandmother was all about the sheet cake. I'm sure that if you wanted to, you could make this as a layer cake; refer to the cake package directions and adjust baking times accordingly.

Feast for the Eyes

Now, let's admire some beautiful cakes. All pictures are from Photobucket, the names below the pictures are the photographers.

I love robins. I love the fuzzy, huge hatchlings, the way they hop around looking for insects, their orange breasts, and their beautiful call. That is why I love this cake!


photo by katmin_album

I also love butterflies. I have plants all over my garden to attract them and am always adding more (perhaps I should write a blog about this - hmmmm . . .). These cupcakes make me happy.


photo by lovelyandfierce

Don't you admire bakers who can make beautiful sugar flowers? This cake is amazing and incredibly beautiful.


photo by Misha_Wolf

Wedding cakes. Us girls dream about them. We want ours to be beautiful and the best tasting cake that we ever had. I don't know what these taste like, but they sure are beautiful.


photo by mchper21

I love this cake. I really, really love it. Love it. Really.


photo by katmu_album (who must be an awesome baker)

This is so pretty. It makes me feel like a total girl.



This is our wedding cake. It's not the greatest picture (taken by a disposable left on one of the tables) but it was (really) the best tasting, most beautiful cake ever. Some advice: if you know anyone that is good at cake, have them bake it for you. We spent $100 on this cake baked by a lady who lives the next street over and used to cater. We bought the flowers and greenery at Kroger for $65. It was a Christmas wedding, thus the evergreens, and I had always wanted red roses on my wedding cake, so I bought 2 dozen and let Karen do her thing with them. I couldn't have been happier with this wonderful cake.



Pina Colada Cake

Who doesn't love a pina colada? O.K., I'm sure there are plenty of people, but I'm not one of them. Been drinking virgin coladas since I was a wee one. This cake that my grandmother often made always draws rave reviews. My family eats it up like there will never be another cake baked in the world again. And it is super easy. What more could you want from a cake?



You will need:

1 yellow cake mix
1 can Eagle Brand milk
Pina Colada mix (the same amount as the Eagle Brand milk)
8 oz. of Kool Whip
Coconut (enough to cover the cake

Bake cake in a 9x13 pan according to cake directions.

While still hot, punch full of holes with a fork.

Mix Eagle Brand milk and pina colada mix together and pour over the cake, making sure to cover the entire cake.

Let cool.

Frost with Kool Whip and sprinkle with coconut.

Keep refridgerated.

Eat a delicious piece keeping in mind that this cake is very rich; warn your friends before they take a monster piece.