Easy Strawberry Cake

As Much as I love cooking and baking from scratch, I have my days where it has been a long day at work and my couch is my best friend. So when I was asked to make a cake for work, I was happy, but to tired. So while looking into the pantry to figure out what and how to make an easy cake, I noticed  yellow cake mix, strawberry Jello and 7up soda. I also had cream cheese, and strawberries and of course I decided to put it all together. To my surprise this easy cake became the yummiest strawberry cake. Even my husband loved it. He had his doubts when he saw what I was combining. He never trusts me!!oh well... I surely prove him wrong. Needless to say, it was a hit a work. SUCCESS!!..So for days where you just don't feel like being a French pastry chef, and feel more like a Betty Crocker, then this the recipe for!

Easy Summer Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake
1 Yellow Cake Mix
3 Eggs
1/2 C. Vegetable Oil
1 C. 7Up Soda
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 3 oz. pck. of Strawberry Jello
Foil

Frosting
1 Pck. of Cream Cheese (room temperature)
2 Tsp. Vanilla
1 C. Powder Sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1 Tbsp. of milk
Pinch of Lemon Zest
Strawberries for decoration

Instructions
1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees
2. Combine cake mix, eggs, vanilla, 7Up soda and oil.
3. In a grease cake pan pour batter and cover with foil. Bake for 40 min.
4. Once bake remove foil and let cake cool for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile make jello according to  instruction.
5. After cake has cooled a bit, poke hole with a toothpick, then slowly pour jello over cake. Refrigerate for 4hrs.
6. When cake and Jello have set, start making your yummy frosting.
7. Using hand or stand up mixer, mix together cream cheese, vanilla, lemon zest. Slowly mix in sugar to avoid a mess. Once all sugar is in, add milk, now taste . If you want it a bit sweeter then keep adding 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time until desired sweetness.
8. Now to remove cake from pan, fill sink with warm water half way up the cake pan. Let cake sit in warm bath, for about 1 minute. Then remove from bath, place cake plate over and turn upside down. If cake comes out a little lopsided just trim the top. Once the frosting is on, no one will even notice.
9. So now just frost your cake and decorate with Strawberries.
ENJOY!!

 

Tiana's New Orleans Beignets

I LUV beignets! They are soo yummylicious :) I have been wanting to go to New Orleans for quite some time now and was inspired by The Princess and the Frog to make these little french desserts. I love the movie and I love the scenery and colors and everyone is always so happy in New Orleans. I just love the whole ambiance they have going on over there, and the food... boy does it look good. Especially beignets. I love beignets. I don't know what it is about them, but they are AWESOME. These beignets are not hard to make at all. They don't include yeast in them so there really is no wait time required (except for when you have to wait for them to cool down once they are out of the hot frying oil to eat them up) The confectioners sugar makes them soo good you just can't resist. Once they come out of the oil, I usually just put them in a paper bag filled with confectioners sugar and shake them like a crazy woman until they're all nice and powdery white.. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize I was all out of paper bags and used a big mixing bowl with powdered sugar in it and gave them a little shake (they still come out delicious no matter what powdering method you use). They have a soft bread like texture inside and taste somewhat of a doughnut.
 I really enjoyed them especially with a cup of coffee, and I really hope you enjoy them too.

Tiana's New Orleans Beignets

Ingredients:

- 31/4 cups of flour
- 1/3 cup of sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup of buttermilk
- 1/3 cup of water
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- vegetable oil for frying
- Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine 2 3/4 cups of flour with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Whisk everything together
2. In the bowl of a mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, water, egg, and vanilla extract. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix, and using your dough hook attachment, turn on to medium speed.
3. Use some of the remaining flour to dust your work surface. Place the dough on it and pat it into a large 1/2 inch thick square. Dust the top with more flour if it gets sticky.
4. Next, slice the dough into 2 1/2 inch squares.
5. Now its time to fry the beignets, heat 2 inches of vegetable oil in a heavy saucepan on the stovetop until the temperature reaches 325 on a deep-fat thermometer. Check the temperature every so often while cooking as the heat from the oil can go up. If it gets too hot, simply turn down the heat a little.
6. Carefully drop 3 dough squares at a time into the hot oil. Fry them for 3 minutes, turn them over, and fry for another 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the beignets to a wire rack set atop paper towels to drain.
7. Dust the beignets with confectioners sugar or simply put them in a paper bag filled with confectioners sugar and shake away.

Pecan Fudge Brownie Cookies

A real simple recipe for the chocolate lovers.

Cookies
1 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
3 Cups Powder Sugar
2 Eggs (room temperature)
2 teaspoons  Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Chopped Pecans ( reserve some decoration)

Frosting
1/2 cup of Chocolate Chips
2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
Powder Sugar if needed for sweetness

Instruction
-Preheat oven at 350 degrees
-Mix together eggs and vanilla, then add cocoa and powder sugar. Consistency will be a bit runny but still thick.
-Using spatula, mix in pecans.
-Grease a cookie sheet, or lined it with parchment paper.
-Drop a tablespoon of cookie dough forming it into an even circle. Make sure they are about 2 inches apart.
-Bake cookie for 8-10 minutes.
-Allow cookies to completely cool before making frosting.
-For frosting melt chocolate and butter together. Once smooth, taste, if you like it more sweet add some powder sugar. Mixture might thicken up a little with the sugar, but it's ok.
-Frost cookies using a spoon and sprinkle with more pecan.
*~Enjoy~*