Memaw's Lemon Sunshine Cake

This cake was very easy to make!!

It is moist and delicious

and beautiful too!

This makes a great summer dessert that will impress your friends and family!

it goes fast, so don't expect it to last long...

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup peach nectar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the Glaze

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup peach nectar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Spray and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan - fluted
3. Beat lemon cake mix, lemon pudding mix, sugar, eggs, 1 cup peach nectar, and vegetable oil in a bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until mixed. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 50-55 minutes. Cool cake in the pan for 15 minutes before removing cake to finish cooling on rack.

Glaze

1. Mix confectioners' sugar, 1/4 cup peach nectar, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a bowl to make a smooth frosting. Place cake on a serving platter; poke holes in top of the cake with a fork. Pour frosting slowly over the cake, allowing frosting to soak into the holes and drizzle down the sides of the cake.

Recipe source: allrecipes Memaw's Lemon Sunshine Cake

This is the bundt pan I have. It is great at a reasonable price!

Independence Day Cupcakes

Red, White, and Blue and yummy too!

How perfect are these for your 4th of July Celebration?!!  

Don't think this is just a pretty face either - this cupcake is as delicious as it is pretty. It is filled with vanilla pudding and topped with a homemade whipped topping and fresh fruit  yum yum yum

Just a note about homemade whipped topping - it's awesome! Well worth the little bit of extra effort!

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (3.4 oz) small package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups skim milk
• • Thinly sliced strawberries (smaller strawberries work better for this recipe)
  • Fresh blueberries
• 
  
• 
  Directions
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
• 
  
• With a pastry cutter, chop the shortening into the dry ingredients until the mixture becomes crumbly, then beat in the egg whites, vanilla extract, and 1 cup of milk to make a smooth batter. Spoon batter into the paper-lined cupcake cups, filling them about 2/3 full.
• 
  
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 22 to 26 minutes. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.
• 
  
• In a bowl, beat together the pudding mix and 2 cups of skim milk until the pudding is thickened, about 2 minutes. Allow to stand for 5 minutes to finish thickening. Spoon the pudding into a pastry bag with a medium tip.
• 
  
• To fill and decorate cupcakes, use a thin paring knife to cut a small hole, about 1/2 inch in diameter, into the top of a cupcake. Insert the knife about 3/4 of the way down into the cupcake, and remove the core. Use the pastry bag to fill the hole with pudding, piping in enough pudding to fill the hole flush with the top of the cupcake. Frost the tops of the filled cupcakes with whipped cream (see recipe below), spreading it into a smooth layer.
• 
  
• Place a blueberry in the center of each cupcake. Around the blueberry, arrange 5 slices of strawberry, pointed ends outward, to make a star shape. Store in refrigerator.

• 
  
• Whipped Topping

• Ingredients

  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • • 
      

  Directions

  In a chilled small mixing bowl and with chilled beaters, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until soft peaks form. 

• Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com Independence Day Cupcakes

Mini Coffee Cakes

Recipe inspired by: Allrecipes Mini Coffee Cakes

 I discovered this recipe last fall when I was searching for something to make for Madison's Equestrian Team. Don and I were traveling to GA to cheer them on, and I wanted to bring snacks for the team.  Because it was a new recipe, I made a test batch to see how they'd turn out.  Well, they ended up being the most wonderful little coffee cakes I have ever tasted! They are so light it is like eating air - only really yummy tasting air with cinnamon!  We gobbled the test batch up right away, so I made another test batch...just to be sure you know - don't want to feed the kids nasty muffins.  Again, we gobbled 'em up! I really should NEVER make these - they are too dangerous to have in the house, but I really wanted to share them here on the blog so I sacrificed just for you - I'm nice like that <<grin>>

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 
  
• TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. I like to do this for several minutes to make sure it is mixed well - about 3-5 minutes

Beat in the egg 

combine flour, pudding mix, baking powder and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with milk. Beat until blended. The batter will be thick - sorry I forgot to get a photo of it - I guess I was just so excited about the muffins!

 Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. 

Combine topping ingredients; 

sprinkle over batter. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until the tops bounce back when lightly pressed. Cool for 10 minutes; 

remove from pan to a wire rack and try not to eat them all at once!

By the way - the team LOVED them! They ate every last one!

Pistachio Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

This has been quite a week! I am so glad it is Friday! Yesterday, the needle on the stress meter went through the roof when I got numerous automated calls from the college that there was "an incident"!

Madison attends college in Savannah, Ga.  Her school campus is the Historic District in the city of Savannah - the school has over 70 buildings within the city! The incident was a gunman initially on the loose and then barricaded in one of the upscale, landmark restaurants right down the road from Madison's dorm!

Of course, the District being 1 square mile, everything is right down the road 

The school acted quickly and locked down all buildings advising students to stay inside. The police, too, shut down much of downtown to keep people away from the area.  

SWAT surrounded the restaurant; sent a robot inside; then entered the building and apprehended the perp (HA - love cop show talk)

Even though I was in contact with Madison and knew she was safe, I was still shaken by this event.  Thankfully, no one was hurt and all is back to normal. Just a little excitement to get the kids ready for finals!

With the stress level at an all-time high, I had to get some relief!

So, I took some time out and baked....ahhhhhhhhhhh

I made these Pistachio cupcakes that are the prettiest shade of green - Perfect for St. Patty's Day!

They make me smile (green is, after all, my favorite color)

I was going to frost them with a chocolate butter cream...as suggested in the recipe, but I had a couple strawberries on hand and decided they would be more refreshing with a strawberry cream cheese frosting (not to mention how pretty the pink and green look together) Boy was I right! These little pieces of heaven are definitely refreshing!

Hard to eat just one! The fresh strawberry taste comes through and pairs nicely with the slightly nutty flavor of the cupcake - yummmm yummmm yummmm

Cupcake

1 box White Cake Mix

1 box Pistachio Instant Pudding (3.4 oz)

4 Eggs

1 cup Buttermilk

1/4 cup Oil

1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract

3/4 cup Sour Cream

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan (makes about 24)

Whisk eggs, buttermilk, oil, extract, and sour cream together in a good sized bowl.  Add cake mix and pudding; combine until just incorporated.  Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 full and bake for about 15 minutes.  The tops of the cupcake should spring back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and let cool.

Frosting

1 cup Butter, softened

8 ozs Cream Cheese

1 lb Powdered Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 cup chopped Strawberries

In a bowl of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment, cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy - about 3-4 minutes. Occasionally scraping down bowl. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until incorporated. Add vanilla and mix until smooth. Add strawberries and beat until they are chunked up really well. If you are piping the frosting onto the cupcakes you will need to get these really chunked (is chunked a word? hmmmm...I guess it is now) up so they don't clog up your tip...learned that the hard way!  Put frosting in freezer for about 20 minutes to stiffen up if needed. Then frost cupcakes as desired. Store these in the fridge.