Stenciled Cupcake Stand

This one is so stinkin' cute, it speaks for itself.  Love, love, love this stenciled cupcake stand (if you love the aqua paint, you should check out Shelley's aqua door).  Seriously.So.Adorable (but would you expect any less from The House of Smiths?).  Can't wait to try this one.

Scrumdiddlyumptious Cake (also known as Coca-Cola Cake)

I decided to try a new recipe for my daughter's birthday cake and this one was so good, I renamed it the Scrumdiddlyumptious Cake (hope that isn't trademarked by Wonka).  It is just sweet, chocolate goodness - unfortunately for those of you who love Coke, it doesn't taste like Coke... it just adds the perfect amount of moisture and sweetness.

SCRUMDIDDLYUMPTIOUS CAKE (aka Coke Cake)

2 c flour
2 c sugar
1 c butter
1 c Coke (no diet!!)
2 Tbs cocoa
1/2 c buttermilk*
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 c mini marshmallows

Mix flour and sugar in large mixer bowl.  Melt butter in saucepan; add cocoa and Coke and bring to boil.  Pour into flour mixture and mix well.  Mix in buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt.  Pour into greased 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.  Sprinkle marshmallows on top and bake an additional 5 minutes until melted.  Cool cake and frost with Coke frosting.

COKE FROSTING

1/2 c butter
1/3 c Coke (again, no diet)
2 Tbs cocoa
3 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan; add cocoa and Coke and bring to boil.  Remove from heat and mix into powdered sugar.  Add vanilla and mix until smooth and creamy.  Spread onto cake.  Cool completely for frosting to set before serving (at least 1 hour).

DELICIOUS!!!!!  This cake is great made a day ahead!

*Note: Don't have buttermilk?  Try using 1/2 Tbs vinegar or lemon juice added to 1/2 c milk.  Trust me, it works.

Linking up:

French Banana Cake

When I make cakes I almost always make one with chocolate- really, I LOVE chocolate cake.  If I don't make something chocolate, however, this is my new favorite- French Banana Cake.  It's kind of like a REALLY yummy, REALLY moist banana bread with frosting.  Delicious!!  The recipe calls for a 9x13 but for our New Years party I baked it in a bundt pan- it took almost an hour to cook, but beautiful!  The other great thing about this cake is it tastes great the 2nd day.  Okay, on with the recipe:

French Banana Cake (from Favorites)

2/3 cup water

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 package white cake mix

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups very ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup walnuts, optional (but really, who wants to ruin a cake by adding nuts, yuck!)

Mix water, vinegar, and soda.  Combine with cake mix & eggs.  Stir until moistened.  Scrape bowl with spatula.  Add mashed bananas.  Beat with electric mixer 3 minutes at medium speed.  Pour into greased & floured 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean).  When cooled, frost.

Creamy Butter Frosting (this makes a lot of frosting, for the bundt cake I cut it in half)

4 cups powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons soft butter

cream or milk (I use whole milk)

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix powdered sugar and butter, adding enough cream or milk to make right consistency of icing.  Add vanilla.  Frost cake and store in the refrigerator.



Turkey Cake Pops

I think cake pops are such a fun treat - and they make fun gifts, too!  Aren't these turkey cake pops absolutely adorable?  Well, if you've been intimidated to make cake pops before, never fear - Big Bear's Wife has a VIDEO tutorial on how to make these (I know, pretty cool)!!  Click HERE to get the tutorial.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Frosting

If you are like me and have an overabundance of zucchini to use, you get excited for new zucchini recipes.  Here's another zucchini and chocolate concoction (click HERE if you missed the chocolate zucchini muffins)... check out this Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Frosting.  Yum.  (and don't you just love that cake stand?) So glad I found Purple Chocolat Home - thanks for this amazing recipe!

Cupcake Gifts

If you haven't figured it out- I LOVE cupcakes. The Crafting Chicks (just discovered them, aren't they awesome?  They have amazing digi-scrapping pages on there) show this fantastic way to package a cupcake to give as a gift.  They also provide some cupcake topper downloads, or you can use these ones as well.  Make some Fourth of July cupcakes and get your visits done early this month :)

Fondant Cake

I've been wanting to try my hand at a fondant-decorated cake and guess what... I did it!  We had a b-day party for two of my kiddos on Memorial Day, so it was the perfect excuse to try it.  I wanted a tiered square cake, but had to make do with the pans I had.  So I made two 9x13 cakes and cut them - the bottom piece was 9x9 and I used the trimmed pieces to make the top tier.

I cut the stripes with a pizza cutter and guess what I used to make the circles...

Yup, that's a medicine cup and a sippy valve... told you I was making do with what I had on hand.  But they worked perfectly!

I watched a lot of youTube tutorials on fondant and read a lot of recipes (we're talking for HOURS) and finally found a recipe and tutorial HERE for a marshmallow fondant that I thought would work for me.

FYI: most tutorials I found strongly suggested making the fondant the night before, wrapping in plastic wrap, and rolling out the next day - which I did.  However, when I went to roll it out, it was very stiff - I had to nuke it for 15 seconds and really knead it to make it pliable again.  The recipe I used says you can use right away or store overnight - since the fondant was fairly stiff to begin with, I think next time I'd use it right away.

Not too bad for a first time, eh?  Just don't look too closely - it's far from perfect :)