Maple Cake with Maple Brown Sugar Frosting
My sister and brother-in-law made this delicious cake for Easter. It was truly AMAZING!
Maple Cake:
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons non-hydrogenated solid vegetable shortening, room temperature (I use “Jungle Shortening”)
- 2 cups pure (real!) maple syrup
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/4 cups nonfat milk (or any type of milk)
- 3/4 cup pecans, toasted, coarsely chopped (save at least ¼ cup for decoration) optional
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter two 8-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with greased parchment paper. Dust pans with flour. Sift 3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and shortening in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add maple and beat until smooth (may need to scrape out the beaters a few times). Add egg yolks and egg 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in flour mixture and milk alternately. Fold in nuts. Divide batter equally between pans.
Bake cakes until knife/toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 20 minutes. Run small knife around sides of cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto racks; remove parchment. Cool cakes completely.
Maple Brown Sugar Icing:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp) and 4 tablespoons salted butter(room temp)
- 1/2 cup real maple syrup (the better the syrup, the better the frosting!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Place butter and sugar in medium/large bowl. Using an electric beater or stand mixer, beat ingredients until combined and smooth. Continue beating and add maple syrup in a steady stream. Then add vanilla. Increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy. If your cakes are not cool, refrigerate until ready to use (let frosting come to room temp before attempting to frost cake).
Red, White, And Blue Cake For Memorial Day
This is the perfect cake to make for a Memorial Day BBQ. I love the vivid color contrast with the different colored cake layers and the patriotic sprinkles. When adding color to cake batter use gel paste coloring instead of liquid food coloring. Gel paste coloring creates the deep colors you see in this cake. You can find the recipe for this cake at Recipegirl.com or by clicking here.
photo credit: recipegirl.com
Bon Voyage Cake
As a Delta Gamma and Semester at Sea alumni, I have a special place in my heart for anchors and all things nautical. Before I left for Semester at Sea I had a Bon Voyage party and had this cake made. Gelson’s Bakery in Newport Beach is my favorite bakery! I love their cake, frosting and reasonable prices. I have had some of the greatest birthday cakes thanks to Gelson’s Bakery.
Shave Ice Cupcakes
Can you believe that is a cupcake?! I love this cupcake idea and they are so easy to make. You don’t need to be a professional cupcake decorator to make these for your next summer event.
What You Need:
- Cupcakes
- Frosting
- Red sanding sugar
- Blue sanding sugar
- Yellow sanding sugar
- 4 oz styrofoam cups
- Red cocktail straws
- Wooden spoons
Guitar Hero Cake
This Guitar Hero Cake is really easy to make. Seriously, my roommate and I made this cake in our tiny dorm room using only a plastic spoon and knife.
Ingredients:
- 2 Cake Mixes ( plus the ingredients needed for the mix)
- Kit Kat Bar
- M&M’s
- Starbursts ( tropical and regular)
- Mentos
- Chocolate Cookie Stick
- 1 Can Vanilla Frosting
- 2 Cans Chocolate Frosting
- 2 Large Disposable Aluminum Baking Pans
Directions:
Step 1: Make the two cakes following the package instructions. Let cool.
Step 2: Outline the shape of the body of the guitar with the knife on one of the cakes. You can look up images online to help you sketch the shape. When you are satisfied with the outlined guitar shape carefully cut out the guitar. Cut out the handle of the guitar using the other cake. (Note: you will have lots of left over cake, which may come in handy if you need to patch up the shape.)
Step 3: Arrange the guitar handle and the guitar body on the platter you will use to serve the cake. If you need a large flat surface to put the cake on consider using a storage box lid. That is what we did and just covered it with aluminum foil. Attach the handle to the guitar body using frosting. Frost the whole cake with chocolate frosting. Then add the vanilla frosting center (make sure to use lots of frosting).
Step 4: Add the details. Using the extra frosting attach the 6 brown colored M&M’s to the top of the guitar handle. Then add the Starburst buttons (make sure they are in the correct order). Break the Kit Kat bar into two pieces and position them in the middle of the white section. You can fill the seam with chocolate frosting. Using vanilla frosting attach the two white mentos and the chocolate stick.
Easter Chick Cupcakes
What a cute chick! You don’t have to be a master cake decorator to make your cupcakes this cute. This Easter Egg Edible Fondant Topper by Little Sugar Tops is available on Etsy.com. All you have to do is bake some cupcakes add a little frosting and top it off with the already made fondant Easter chick! It is so easy I feel like it is cheating… but I won’t tell if you don’t!
Photo credit: http://www.etsy.com
Brown Butter Toffee Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 Sticks Butter
- 1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/4 Cups Flour
- 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
- 1 Cup Good Quality Milk Chocolate Chips
- 1/2 Cup Heath Bits O’ Brickle Toffee Pieces
- 2 Heath Bars Broken into Small Pieces
Directions
- In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Simmer the melted butter for about 5 minutes until butter turns a nice brown color. Make sure you are stirring and scraping the pan the whole time! If you burn the butter, start over.
- Once the butter is brown, take it off the burner and let cool for 30 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl combine brown butter, with brown sugar and salt. Mix well. Add each egg one at a time and stir until combined. Then add the vanilla.
- Add the flour and the baking soda and mix until fully incorporated. Finally mix in the chocolate chips, toffee pieces and heath bar chunks.
- Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Form the cookie dough into a log, about the thickness of a store bought cookie dough roll ( 3 1/2 inches in diameter). Wrap the cookie dough log in the plastic wrap securing the ends by twisting them shut.
- Chill the cookie dough for about 4 hours or place in the freezer for about 2 hours.
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line each cookie sheet with parchment paper to ensure the cookies won’t stick when they are done.
- Slice the cookie dough into 1/2 inch wide slices and place them on a cookie sheet. I suggest only placing 8 on a cookie sheet at a time because they will expand.
- Bake for 11 minutes. The center will look uncooked but when they cool it will turn into chewy cookie goodness!
Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts
If you are planning on giving up sweets for Lent you may reconsider after trying these doughnuts! The image of these Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts alone is enough to make your mouth water. I could stare at this photo all day!
If you want to try these sinful treats yourself check out the recipe on Kelly Senyei’s blog Just A Taste. Kelly Senyei is a food writer, stylist, photographer, chef and my doughnut making hero!
Christmas Cinnamon Rolls
As a family tradition, we always have my dad’s chili and cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve. Usually we just make the simple Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls, but this year my dad asked if I would make them from scrap. I don’t particularly like cinnamon rolls so I wasn’t expecting much when I made them from scratch… but I was shocked! I am now craving cinnamon rolls everyday! I am not trying to brag about my recipe… but these cinnamon rolls are the BEST!
Christmas Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients:
- 1/4 Cup Butter (room tempeture)
- 3/4 Cup Whole Milk
- 3 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Package of Rapid Rising Yeast ( .25 ounces)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1/4 Cup Water
- 2 Tablespoons Butter for spreading ( room temp)
- 2 Cups Packed Brown Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
- 1 Cup Butter (room temperature)
Directions:
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk until it bubbles. Remove from heat and mix in butter. Stir until the butter is melted. Let the milk mixture cool until lukewarm.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, salt, sugar. Mix the ingredients well.
- Beat in the egg, water and milk mixture.
- Add the rest of flour, a 1/4 cup at a time.
- Mix well until the dough has just pulled together.
- Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 4 minutes.
- Place a damp cloth over the dough and let rest for 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, mix together teh brown sugar, ground cinnamon and butter.
- After the dough has rested for 10 minutes, roll our the dough into a rectangle ( about 9×12 inch).
- Spread 2 Tablespoons of butter over the dough and then spread the cinnamon filling mixture.
- Tightly roll up the dough and make sure to pinch the seams to seal.
- Cut the dough into equal sized rolls and arrange them in a greased 9×12 baking dish.
- Cover and let rise for about 45 minutes, or until they double in size.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.
- Once the oven is hot, bake for 15-20 minutes, or until browned.
- Finally, flip the cinnamon rolls out on a nice serving dish.
Patty’s Pecan Pie
I have never been a fan of pecans, but I am a HUGE fan of my Gram Pat’s Pecan Pie! If you are looking for a delicious pie to make for Thanksgiving you have to try this recipe!
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Cup Dark Corn Syrup
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
- Pinch of Salt
- 1 Cup Broken Pecans
- 3 Eggs Slightly Beaten
- 3 Tablespoons Melted Butter
- 1 Refrigerated Pie Crust
Directions:
- Place the unbaked pie shell in a pie pan. Ruffle the edges of the pie crust.
- In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients and pour into the unbaked pie shell.
- Cover the exposed pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent the crust from burning.
- Bake the pie at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 50 minutes.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream!
Apple Spice Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 Spice Cake Mix
- 8 Ounces Sour Cream
- 3 Eggs
- 1/2 Cup Oil
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Natural Apple Sauce
- 2 Containers of Vanilla Frosting
- Ground Cinnamon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Grease two loaf pans.
- Mix all the ingredients together in one large bowl using an electric mixer. Mix until combined.
- Divide cake mixture evenly into the greased loaf pans.
- Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until you stick a knife into the center and it comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, mix 1/2 Tablespoon of cinnamon into each frosting container.
- Let the cake cool before frosting.
Holiday Helpings Tip: You can pick a seasonal ribbon to border the cake. Measure the ribbon around the cake plus an extra inch. Wrap the ribbon around the base of the cake. Adhere the extra inch of ribbon by adding a little frosting to the ribbon and press it against the ribbon lining the cake.
Holiday Helpings with Taylor Harkins 