Featured: Spring Cupcakes! by Sarah Duzon

Photos by Sarah Duzon
Lets begin the Spring season with these delicate delicious mini cupcakes. Thanks to Sarah, we all can attempt to recreate these beatiful little cupcakes that brings us right into the spring season.

For those who would love to make these cupcakes, it all starts with a basic pound cake recipe.

Followed by whipping cream cheese, lemon filling and icing sugar together and piping it on top of the cupcakes.
I have included a link to a Pound cake recipe from FoodNetwork.com by Paula Deen Mama's Pound Cake Recipe

The Ultimate Chocolate Cake Gone Wrong

Valentine's Day and the V-Day weekend means chocolate chocolate chocolate! So here's my rendition of every ones favorite chocolate cake with The Ultimate Chocolate Cake. Using a ready made cake mix from the box is always quicker and easier, but sometimes we would like to try baking desserts from scratch with equally the same quickness and ease. This chocolate cake took no special ingredients nor did it take hours in the kitchen. However for a finer quality cake, you can buy gourmet chocolate powder from brands such as Guittard, Callebaut or Scharffen Berger.

Heres what to do and not to do. The only difficulty I had was forgetting the baking soda, and in doing so; as you can see the cake did not rise as it should nor was it light and fluffy. It was more dense. Using baking soda, requires acidic ingredient in order to work properly and to avoid an alkaline flavor in the cake. The acidic ingredient can be natural cocoa (which is Not Dutch-processed and is lighter in color), orange juice, lemon juice or sour cream. And that is why some chocolate recipes ask for Buttermilk. In making this mistake, I learned what ingredients to use when making a chocolate cake. Chocolate cakes can be made with cocoa if your wondering, but also a combination of chocolate and cocoa may produce better results.

2 cups boiling water or (1 cup boiling water & 1 cup buttermilk)
1 cup unsweetened Hersey cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
2 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour or (2 1/2 cups of cake flour)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups of white sugar
4 eggs
1 cup of butter, softened or ( 1 cup of vegetable oil)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Pour boiling water over cocoa powder, whisk until smooth and let cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time, then stir in vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture alternately with cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between 3 prepared pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup cocoa or three 1 0z unsweetened chocolate squares
1 tsp clear vanilla extract
4 cups of sifted confectioners sugar
3-4 tbsp milk
(Makes about 3 cups of icing)

1. Cream butter and shortening together with an electric mixer. Add vanilla and cocoa. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time beating well on medium speed and add milk one tablespoon at a time until light and fluffy. For a thin consistency add 3-4 more tbsp of milk, water or light corn syrup. Cover with a damp cloth until ready to use. Re-whip before using.
Refrigerate in an airtight container. Icing can be stored for up to 2 weeks.

Halloween Graveyard Cake (Easy)

This is an easy cake to make for Halloween and fun to do it with your kids. You can find this recipe at:
Halloween Graveyard Cake From Cooksrecipes

JIFFY Pineapple Yellow Cake!

Yesterday, it rained all day so I was home and looking for something to keep me busy, when I decided to bake. I love all JIFFY mix, from corn muffins to their lemon cake. I wanted to try something different with Jiffy's yellow cake mix, and first I was thinking maybe I should try to make cookies out of the mix, but then I found some crushed pineapple and a can of pineapple juice in my pantry, and left over cherry syrup from a bottle of cherries I had. However, I still wanted to stay away from making a cake, so I made the recipe into bars, more or less the same thing and topped it off with cherry buttercream. I do wish I had some cherries, and pecans to finish it off. There is two ways to make this recipe, one way is where I added flour to the jiffy yellow cake mix and another way where you can follow the jiffy recipe on the box and subsuite water for pineapple juice, mix in about 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, and stir in about 1/4 to 1/3 cups of crushed pineapple to your liking. If you use my recipe, the cake will be heavy.

My Recipe
1 box of JIFFY Yellow Cake mix
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 egg
3/4 cup of Pineapple Juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
2 tbsp cooking oil

Cherry Buttercream
1 stick of unsalted butter (room tempature)
3/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1 to 2 tbsp cherry syrup

1. In a large bowl, mix egg, cooking oil, and pineapple juice until combined. Add sugar, and beat well.
2. Add the jiffy yellow cake mix and all-purpose flour, to the wet mixture and mix until smooth. Then stir in the crushed pineapples.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 squared pan. If you have some extra pineapples you can also sprinkle them on top of the batter. Bake for about 30 minutes or until light brown. Let cool, cut into bars and enjoy!
1. For Cherry buttercream, beat all ingredients in a small bowl with electric beaters until smooth and creamy. Spread over the entire cake.

JIFFY Recipe
1 box of JIFFY Yellow cake mix
1/2 cup of Pineapple juice
1 egg
1/4-1/3 cup of crushed pineapples

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1. Follow the directions of the jiffy mix, subsituting water for pineapple juice, and mix in crushed pineapples. Pour batter in an 8x8 squared pan, bake as directed, let cool, frost with the cherry buttercream frosting and cut into bars. Enjoy!

Review 1: The Cake Bible

The Cake Bible is the ultimate book for beginners to experts. In great detail, this bible explains everything you would need to know from frosting's, custards, fillings, sauces, mouses, fruit toppings and purees to a variety of cakes and tortes. Here you can find the base of a cake recipe and add your own twist. I love buttercream frosting, and the cake bible gives you a few classic buttercream base recipes and then gives you alternatives to add to the recipe. For example, you have now finished mixing your vanilla buttercream frosting, but then you decided you would like to make it chocolate or make a raspberry buttercream, this book gives you the ingredients needed to add to your already existing base. I have had my book for a few years now, it was my mothers cookbook and now here I am the proud owner of, "The Cake Bible". This is definitely something you can pass on to your kids. Even though it does not carry much pictures, it is a straight forward book that gets right down to baking. Attempting to bake for 50 to 100 people, don't be scared because the cake bible is here, and gives you cake recipes in quantities for almost any amount. If your an everyday dessert seeker like me, you can purchase the cake bible at My Amazon Shopping List where my mom got hers and also I created a little store where you can find almost all baking products needed to create jumbo cupcakes, lemon cake mix cookies, and more.

WHITE Cake Mix Cookies Part 2

In my last post, I made Lemon cookies from a lemon cake mix. So I decided to try the same recipe, with a White Cake mix to simulate sugar cookies, and also to see if this recipe would be better when making sugar cookies with a little add and minus here and there. These cookies came out prefect, they were rich and soft. One review I got said, "the cookies are moist, rich and missing a glass of milk". Now, here is a quick and simple recipe for cookies that can be transformed into any flavored or type of cookie. Pecans, chocolate chip, all chocolate, and hazelnuts are just a few ideas, from dozens. Find all your baking needs at Brilliantcakes3000 ONLINE STORE

Luxurious Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

2 Cream Cheese pkgs (8 oz.)
Sour Cream (16 oz.)
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
3/4 Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/3 Chopped Walnuts or Pecans (optional)
1 Cup of Cherries (dried)
1 Teaspoon of Mint Extract (optional)
2 Tbsps of Flour
3 Tbsps of Butter (melted)
3 Tbsps of Sugar
Chocolate Fudge cake mix (plus required ingredients)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two deep pans with foil or parchment paper, with ends extended over pans.
2. Mix graham crumbs, 3 tbsps of sugar, and 3 tbsps of butter well.
3. Pack firmly into the bottom of pans and bake for about 10 minutes.
4. Cream cream cheese and sour cream, then add 1 cup of sugar and eggs. Then add flour, mint extract, walnuts or pecans, cherries and blend well.
5. Mix together the chocolate cake mix and its ingredients, then pour half (or even less then half)of the cake mix into one of the pans, and the other half in the other pan, (which has the baked graham crumbs). Eye ball it, because the chocolate cake has a tendency to run over.
6. Pour the cheesecake batter over the chocolate fudge cake batter of both pans.
7. Bake for 1 to an hour and a half, until center is set. Cool completely, lift cheesecake out with foil or parchment handles and serve.

* Not recommended for people on diets!

This was a very rich chocolate-cheesecake I created for Christmas and it was wonderful. You get the best of both worlds, its like ice cream and cake. Prep time might be an hour, but give it a try and enjoy.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8 oz) Pkgs of Cream Cheese (softened)
1/2 Cups of Butter, softened
2 Cups Sifted Confectioners Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1. Cream together cream cheese and butter until creamy.
2. Mix in vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners sugar.

*For an all white frosting, you can use the clear imitation vanilla extract.
This frosting goes good with some pecans or almonds sprinkled on top of cupcakes or on the side of your cake.

2007 Christmas Rush

Above are some pictures of Sugar cookies, which I made for christmas to give away to friends and family. Along with a mini Three layer Pecan and cherry, coconut buttercrem cake.

We have all experienced the Christmas rush and/or the Thanksgiving rush, where we spend hours in the kitchen cooking and baking, along with hours in the grocery stores.. battling over the last package or bottle of gravy, or the last bag of flour.

For 2007, I spent my time baking for three days straight. I began with the cookies, the first cookies I made was half chocolate and half vanilla with orange peel. They were the best things to hit the market. Those were the first items gone, to where I did not even remeber.. muchless have time to take a picture.. so next time! What followed after that was my sugar cookies, throughout this whole process, friends and family could not get one word out of me, I was in the zone.. The kitchen was like a jungle, and only the brave could enter. And as anyone who cooks or bakes knows that, your on a roll.. all your batches are coming out good and evenly brown, but from the time you attempt to get started on another project, there goes that bad batch.. where the cookies are over cooked.. but the show must go on. So, I had a few stumbbles, but who doesn't? As, my cookie escapade came to an end, then I got started, with my mini cakes, that was easy and only took one day to assemble and ice. I really enjoy baking, I never once felt tired or stressed, its more like baking is something that relaxes me and allows me to get creative.

The Beginning!

We express ourselves through cooking, the types of food we eat, writing, laughing, crying and so on. Through cooking and food, whether conciously or unconciously..we express our mood, culture and/or experience.

Below we have a homemade four layered Vanilla and Chocolate Cake, with chocolate buttercream filling, Vanilla Buttercream Icing and Unsweetened Dark chocolate swirled over the top. This was my first attempt to produce a professional looking cake, which ended up becoming a four layer cake. As you can see the layers are uneven, but it tasted great. Cooking and Baking is a passion of mines, and everyday I experiment with different ingredients.

To produce a cake simular to this, experience is not needed.. 1.the best way is to buy the same, one or two different types of cake mix, and follow the directions. 2.After following the directions, divide the batter between four 8 or 9 inch pans, two large size cake pans (which can be cut into halves), or one small single pan (to get a feel for it, first) and bake. 3.To get a flush fit, when cakes have cool and are now ready to stack on one another, simply cut off any round tops of the cakes.. so the surface of the cake is flat. 4.And if the sides seem to need alittle trim, go ahead and trim the sides of the cake, when stacked. 5.Next would be either two or three store bought icings or homemade buttercream.