Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (on a Edsel Logo Cake)

For my son's 20th birthday he wanted a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting and minimal decorations and something more "grown up" than past birthday cakes, so I decided to make him an Edsel logo as
he and his father own a 1959 Edsel Villager (pictured left).



I used a boxed cake mix, but went in search on the internet for a buttercream frosting recipe, as I had never made it before and found this super easy and delicious recipe on Food.com for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting by Sprinkle's Cupcakes (featured on Oprah).

I used canned decoration frosting to look like the emblem on the front of the car and instead of writing out EDSEL I just used the letter "E".   As the canned frosting did not come out consistently it; there would be nothing and then it would glob out, resulting in less than professional looking results but tasted great and my son loved it.

If I had it to do over, I would use red licorice strands for the logo and lines and just used decoration frosting around the edges.



I wasn't sure how much I would need as the amount was set up to frost cupcakes, so I went for 18 "cupcakes", but probably ended up with enough left over to frost another cake.  The recipe below is what I used, but you can click on the hyperlink and type in number of cupcakes and the software calculates what you will need.







Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (From Sprinkle's Cupcakes)

•  1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened (I used unsalted butter)
• 5 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons milk 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, combine butter sugar and salt and cream them together (I used a mixer).

Add milk and vanilla and beat 3-5 minutes until creamy.   It came out very thick and I added a teaspoon of water to get it to more easily spread on the cake.

Chocolate Cake Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

This is for Moms Crazy Cooking Challenge for February and the challenge was "Chocolate Cake" where you use another bloggers recipe and try it out.

I chose Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies by Cookies and Cups although I was not able to find the mini Reece's peanut butter cups at my local grocery store and had to adapt using peanut butter chps.

Adapted from Cookies and Cups

1 box chocolate cake
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 pkg. peanut butter chips
Parchment baking paper

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Hand mix cake mix, oil and eggs until combined.
3. Pour in entire bag of peanut butter chips (I used a 10 oz bag)
4. Mix chips. If necessary, add 1 TBSP of water until cookie doughish.
5. Roll with your hands the dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2" apart. Cookies will spread.
6. Bake for 9-10 minutes.

 Be sure to check out all of the entries at Mom's Crazy Cooking Challenge:)

Moms Crazy Cooking Challenge

Inspired by Starbucks - Chocolate Cake with Salted Carmel Icing

This is based on a recipe over at Salsa Pie made using a chocolate cake mix, canned frosting and carmel topping made from scratch.   It is super-rich - I was not able to eat this entire piece and a good serving size for this would be about 1/4 of the above piece and delicious accompaniment to serve with tea or coffee between meals.   I think this would also be good with smashed pretzels sprinkled on the top instead of the sea salt to give it added texture.

Over at  Salsa Pie she also has instructions on making everything from scratch.

Ingredients:

• 1 boxed chocolate cake mix (I used a Fudge Chocolate cake mix)
• Ingredients required to make the cake (mine was 1/4 vegetable oil, 3 eggs and 1 cup water)
• 1 can white frosting
• Carmel topping or Homemade Carmel topping

 Ingredients for Carmel Topping

•  1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup cream or milk
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp sea salt

Bake cake according to instruction on the box and allow to cool..

 Once cake has cooled, frost with canned frosting.

Mix together brown sugar and cornstarch in saucepan.  Turn on heat to medium -high.

Slowly add milk to mixture a little at a time mixing the entire time then add butter and continue to stir until melted.

Bring to boiling then turn heat down to medium and cook for 8-10 minutes stirring regularly.  Allow to cool before putting on the cake.

Use a large spoon and drizzle the carmel topping on top of the cake.

I put 1 Tbsp of sea salt in a bowl and started to use the spoon to shake over the top, but it went on too heavy and I ended up using my thumb and forefinger and pinching a bit and the sprinkling on the top for better control.

JELLO CAKE VERSION - TROPICAL CAKE WITH ORANGE CREAM FROSTING

This is a version of the following Jello cake that I posted previously.

http://craftsandcreationswithkathy.blogspot.com/2009/05/peach-jello-cake-with-whipped-peach.html

With the summer days being hot, we were in the mood for something tropical and this hit the spot.

I used a lemon cake mix and used orange juice instead of water and baked according to the directions on the box then allowed the cake to cool then poked holes in the top with a fork.

I then used a small box of Tropical Fruit jello and 1 cup of boiling water, mixed it together then poured over the cake.

For the frosting, I used 1 8oz tub of whipped topping, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 cup of orange juice.

CHEATERS PINEAPPLE ORANGE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

Tastes like it is from scratch, but you really "cheat" and use a mix instead.

Ingredients:

• 1 box cake mix, Pineapple or if none available, white or yellow
• Ingredients used for box mix - usually eggs, oil, but you will not use the water or liquid that the mix uses.
• 1 1/2 cups orange juice or 3/4 cup orange juice and 3/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1 stick butter or margarine
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 15 oz can pineapple (I used chunk, but you can use rings or crushed)
• Marichino Cherries - optional (I didn't use on this cake)
• 1-2 TBSP Rum or Rum Extract (I didn't use on this case, but have in the past)

Preheat the oven to the degree on the box mix. Put the stick or margarine in a 13x9 pan and put in the oven until melted (takes 2-3 mins).

Mix the cake mix, eggs, oil, and juices together until well blended.

Take the melted butter out of the oven. If you want to add rum or rum extract, mix it into the melted butter at this time.

Sprinkle the brown sugar, distributing evenly.

Distribute the pineapple evenly across the bottom of the pan. If you want to add marichino cherries, you would put them in amoungst the pineapple.

Pour the batter mixture over the top of the brown sugar and pineapple, distributing evenly.

Bake in the oven the time recommended on the package (usually around 30 minutes) and bake until the cake springs up in the center.

For presentation purposes, you could flip the cake over on to a baking sheet, or you could just leave it in the pan and flip the picces over as you serve them (which is more exciting if being served to kids that have never had upside down cake before because they will want to know why you didn't frost the cake and you cut the cake, take the spatula and flip it over on the plate and abbra cadabra, you the "frosting" is on the bottom!).

Lime Koolaid Cake with Whipped Jello Frosting

***Featured on Cut Out and Keep**** ***************************************** This is a novelty cake from a store bought mix to serve after a spicy meal and it is a little tart and not too sweet and fun for kids to make as it uses two all time kid favorites - Koolaid and Jello! Cake:

• 1 box of store bought cake (white or yellow) and whatever ingredients the mix calls for (mine called for 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil and 1/1/4 cup of milk)
• 1 pkg Lemon-Lime Koolaid
• Green food coloring (optional)
• Non-cooking food spray (spray the pan you are going to bake the cake in)

Mix the cake according to the directions on the package, then add one packet of Koolade and stir in. Add 5-10 drops of green food coloring if you want it to be a little more green. Mix in food coloring and pour into cake pan(s) and bake according to the directions on the package. Allow cake to cook before frosting. Frosting:

• 1 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip or other whipped topping
• 1 small pkg. Lime Jello
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 TBSP milk
• Add the whipped topping, jello and powdered sugar and mix together.

Slowly add the 2 TBSP of milk. Frost the cake and store in the refridgerator for at least 30 mins before serving to allow the frosting to set up.