Rainbow Cake

I felt like playing with food coloring and this is what I came up with!

Coconut Cream Pops

Coconut Cream Pops

Servings: 10
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Calories: 93
Points: 2 ww points

• 1 can fat free evaporated milk
• 1 14 oz can lite coconut milk
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tsp coconut extract
• cinnamon to taste
• 1/2 cup of shredded sweetened coconut

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Pour into freezer molds.
Freeze and Enjoy!!

Nutella Buttercream Cake

I came across this idea from a fellow nestie Heather who made a Nutella butter cream cake in her blog. It looked amazing, and we had a huge jar of Nutella from Costco, so I decided to try it out. I was also anxious to play with my new cake decorating tools, so I had fun with it. My cake came from a box unlike Heather's, so I will only post the recipe for the butter cream. Super yummy and the picture speaks for itself!
Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sifted powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup Nutella

Directions:

Mix butter until smooth and creamy. Add in Nutella and mix until nice and fluffy.

Add sugar 1 cup at a time until smooth. This will take about 3 to 5 minutes to get the desired consistency.

Diet Coke Cupcakes

The idea behind this creation is genius and the outcome is delicious. If you have ever done weight watchers, then you know about baking with diet coke. It results in a low calorie, very moist and tasty treat!

Ingredients:
Box of cake mix
Can of diet soda
Container of lite cool whip
Sprinkles if desired


Directions:
Combine any flavor cake mix (I used fudge) with a can of diet soda (I used diet coke). Mix well, and pour into 24 cupcake liners. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. You can also make a cake instead, just use the time according to the pan size. Top each cupcake with a heaping tbsp of cool whip and decorate with sprinkles.

Serves 24, 3 points each (2 without any topping on the cake)

The Best Ever Flan

This was my first attempt at making my own flan, and it was the best one I have ever tasted, and many of my Cuban family members also agreed. It was also very simple and I had all of the ingredients already in my house. This recipe came from one of my coworkers, so thank you Frances!




Ingredients:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 can of evaporated milk
1 block of cream cheese
4 egg yolks
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, heat the sugar on medium until it melts and caramelizes. The sugar will go from brown, to golden and then to red if it burns, so keep stirring and keep it in the golden shade. If there are a few small lumps remaining, that is okay because they will melt in the oven.

2. While the sugar is melting, turn the oven on to 350 and place your 8x8 square or round pie pan in the oven to keep it hot. If the pan is hot, then the caramel will not harden as quickly. Pour the caramel into the hot baking pan, and smooth it around until the bottom is completely coated.



3. As the caramel cools, you can begin making the custard. Blend the two cans of milk, the vanilla and the cream cheese together in the blender. Drop one egg yolk at a time into the blender and blend for a few seconds in between the yolks.

4. Pour the custard mixture into your baking pan. This pan will need a "water bath" for best results, just like most cheesecakes and custard desserts. To do so, simply use a larger lasagna size pan (9x13 or so) and fill it with enough water so that the water line is halfway up the side of the flan.



5. Bake at 350 for an hour. Let it cool for 15 minutes and then place in the fridge to chill for 3 hours or more. To serve, invert the pan with a large plate and shake the pan to release the flan. We didn't do this part, we just ate it from the pan because everyone was too impatient. It got rave reviews and I will be bringing it to every Noche Buena celebration from now on.

Done with my holiday baking!

Festive Fudge Blossoms

I am a big fan of making super easy recipes and letting everyone think you slaved away for hours. This is a very basic recipe that you can play with and make tons of different versions of it.

Ingredients:
1 box (18.25 ounces) of chocolate fudge cake mix (told you it was easy, starts with a box!)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (or any nut)
48 hershey's kisses, or hugs, or peanut butter cups

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut butter into cake mix in large bowl until it resembles course crumbs. Stir in egg and 2 tablespoons water until well blended.

2. Shape dough into 1/2 inch balls, or use small cookie scooper. Roll the balls into the chopped nuts, pressing nuts gently into dough. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake cookies 12 minutes or until puffy and nearly set. Place candy in center of each cookie, bake one minute more. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Fudge Cake Balls

One of the most popular baking sites on the interwebs is Bakerella, and spending too much time on there will make your pants tight. Making truffle like cake balls is so easy though and they come out so amazing, you just have to do it.

Here is what you do: bake a cake from the box, any flavor. I used devil's food cake. After it cools, crumble it up in a large bowl. If you have a kitchenaid mixer or any stand mixer, just throw it there on low and let the mixer break it up. Then dump in a container of icing, and flavor. I used a can of milk chocolate. Once it is all mixed up, roll the mix into little balls or use a cookie scooper, my favorite thing ever. Put them in the fridge to harden for about an hour. Then melt down some of your favorite chocolate chips. The best way to do this is to boil a small saucepan of water, then place a glass bowl on top of the pot and pour the chips in. Do not let the water touch the bowl. Stir until melted and smooth, then roll the cake balls around in there until they are coated, and place on wax paper.

You can decorate them if you wish by swirling different kinds of chocolate on top, sprinkles, nuts, or icing. We had some leftover pink icing so I piped that on top to make it look more holiday like. Refrigerate till it is time to serve them.

Lemon Cake

My hubby requested a lemon cake for his birthday back in August, so I asked his grandma for the recipe he loves. I whipped up this super simple cake a few months back, and Yvonne's mom had a slice of it and she loved it. It was so moist even though I had made it almost a week earlier before she tasted it. So when her birthday came around last week, I recreated the cake and brought it to her house, along with all the Christmas gifts Yvonne gave me in NC to bring home to her family. It was fun playing Santa!

Lemon Cake ingredients:

1 package of lemon cake w/out pudding

1 pack lemon jello

¾ cup water

4 eggs

¾ c Wesson oil

Blend all together, beat 4 mins on high, scrape sides as it mixes.

Grease and flour 9 inch springform pan.

Bake at 350 for one hour.

I drizzled half a cup of melted cream cheese frosting over the cake to make a glaze-like topping. Top it with whatever you wish, powdered sugar or white chocolate would also be yummy.

Red Velvet Cake with a Cheesecake Layer

My parents and brothers were coming over to see our house for the first time since the wedding, so I had to impress them by whipping up a great meal and a tasty dessert, along with a clean house. They loved the red velvet cake with the cream cheese layer, and here is the recipe. It does contain many parts and took a good amount of time to put it all together.

Red Velvet Cake

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces of red food coloring
2 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

**Buttermilk tip: use one cup of wholemilk and 1 tbsp of fresh squeezed limejuice, and then wait 15 mins for it to curdle. Or if you have 2 cups of heavy cream, throw it in your Kitchenaid mixer on the highest setting for a few minutes. First it will become whipped cream, then it will get beaten and seperated into one cup of buttermilk, and a huge hunk of fresh butter! This is what I did.

Cream shortening, sugar and eggs until very fluffy. Make a paste of the red food coloring and cocoa and add to the first mixture. Add alternately, the buttermilk and cake flour. Then add salt and vanilla. Mix together the vinegar and baking soda and fold into your batter mixture. Bake in 2 layer pans (I used 9″, generously greased the bottoms and sides with butter and lined the bottoms with parchment paper.) at 350 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes.

Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn them out onto racks and peel off the paper liners. Let the cakes cool completely, about 2 hours, then wrap each layer in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Refrigeration is crucial to the assembly process.

Junior's Famous Cheesecake (filling part only)

You need this to make the cheesecake layer, but I did not make the sponge cake part because I was using it as a middle layer in the red velvet cake. Therefore I am leaving out the part on how to make the spongecake bottom.

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Filling

4 8-ounce packages cream cheese (the regular variety not light cream cheese), at room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions for the Cream Cheese Filling

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and generously butter a 9-inch springform pan. Make the batter for the sponge cake as the recipe directs Evenly spread the batter on the bottom of the pan, and bake just until set and golden, about 10 minutes. Place the cake on a wire rack to cool (do not remove it from the pan).

2. While the cake cools, make the cream cheese filling: Place one 8-ounce package of the cream cheese, 1/3 cup of the sugar, and the cornstarch in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low until creamy, about 3 mintues, then beat in the remaining 3 packages of cream cheese.

3. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat in the remaining 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, then beat in the vanilla and heavy cream. Blend in the eggs, one at a time, beating the bating only until completely blended (just like they do at Junior's). Be careful not to overmix the batter.

4. Gently spoon the cheese filling on top of the baked sponge cake layer. Place the springform pan in a large shallow pan containing hot water that comes about 1 inch up the sides of the pan.Bake the cheesecake until the center barely jiggles when you shake the pan, about 1 hour.

5. Cool the cake on a wire rack for 1 hour. Then cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it's completely cold, at least 4 hours or overnight. Remove the sides of the springform pan.6. Slide the cake off of the bottom of the pan onto a serving plate. Or if you wish, simply leave the cake on the removable bottom of the pan and place it on a serving plate. If any cake is left over, cover it with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Makes Enough for One 8-Inch Cake, About 2 1/2 Inches High

MISSION: Red Velvet Cheesecake Assembly

When you are ready to assemble the cake, take the cheesecake from the freezer and allow it to stand at room temperature for 10 minutes while you make the frosting. I have heard the cream cheese frosting recipe from Junior’s Cheesecake Cookbook is great, and you would need to double it for this recipe. This is the part where I cheated and used 2 cans of cream cheese frosting.

To assemble:
Choose the best of the 2 cake layers and carefully cut it in half to form 2 half layers. Place one of these half layers (cut side down) on a cake plate. Spread with frosting. (Gently crumble the other full layer to be used to decorate the finished cake.)P

lace the cheesecake, top side down, on top of the frosted red velvet cake layer and spread with frosting. (A Junior’s tip for removing the frozen cheesecake from the pan helped me tremendously! They recommend warming the bottom of the pan by setting it on a hot, wet towel long enough to melt the butter used to grease the pan. Remove the pan ring. Gently insert a long narrow spatula between the bottom of the cake and the pan bottom, moving it slowly in a circle. Then lift up the edge of the cake with the spatula, oh-so-gently, just enough to release the vacuum between the bottom of the cake and the pan.)

Top with the remaining half cake layer, cut side down. Ice the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Decorate the sides and top edge of the cake with the cake crumbles. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve (it takes this cake about 2 hours in the refrigerator to thaw enough to easily slice.)

Use a sharp straight-edge knife, not a serrated one, to cut it. If there’s any cake leftover, cover it and refrigerate.