Champagne Orange Bundt Cake

I came across this recipe on Pinterest as I was searching for a fun, festive dessert to serve on New Year's Eve.  The original recipe (found here) comes from the Muffin Tin mom's blog.  I wasn't able to find the orange mimosa flavored sparkling wine that her recipe calls for so I improvised and used a combination of champagne and orange juice instead - two ingredients you already need for the frosting!  I also chose to omit the sliced almonds to cut down on pp.  Enjoy this bubbly cake!

Servings: 10

Size: One slice of 1/10 of the cake

Points Plus: 8pp

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 25-30 minutes

Rating: 4 stars - Very good

Ingredient List:

Cake Batter

1 box white cake mix

2/3 cup champagne

1/3 cup orange juice

3 eggs

Baking spray

Frosting

¼ cup champagne

¼ cup orange juice

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, mix together the cake mix, champagne, orange juice and eggs until well combined.  Pour batter into a lightly greased bundt pan.  Bake according to the directions on the box, about 25-30 minutes.  Allow the cake to cool completely before you frost it.  To make the frosting, first combine the champagne and orange juice in a large bowl.  Add the powdered sugar a ½ cup at a time until the frosting reaches the consistency you are looking for.  It will be more of a glaze than a thick frosting.

Tip:
I don't know about you, but I REALLY struggle when it comes to making frostings!  I think the key is to not have too much liquid so you don't have to add as much powdered sugar to even out the consistency.  That said, you could use slightly less champagne and orange juice in the frosting to make for a thicker frosting if you prefer. 

XOXO Megan

Island Rum Cake

Today is my birthday!!!  As I celebrate and indulge a bit (it is my birthday after all), here is a fun summer dessert for you to check out and maybe try out at the next time you have company?  This is a Pampered Chef recipe found here.  I made a few slight modifications, but it is basically the same recipe.  Enjoy!

Servings:  16

Size:  1/16 of cake

Points Plus: 10pp
Level of Difficulty:  Medium

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time:  15-18 minutes

Rating: 4 stars – Very good

Ingredient List:

Cake:

1 box of yellow cake mix

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup water

1 egg

1 can crushed pineapple, in juice, undrained

½ cup sweetened flaked coconut

Filling & Fruit Topping:

1 package vanilla instant mudding mix, sugar-free

1 cup milk

2 cups thawed, frozen whipped topping

2 Tbsp. dark rum

1 kiwi, peeled and sliced

1 large mango, peeled and sliced

¼ cup toasted coconut

Syrup:

¼ cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp. dark rum

2 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Use two torte pans (I used Pampered Chef’s version which are 10 ½ inches round) to make the cake in.  Spray each pan with cooking spray and place an 8 inch circle of parchment paper over the center of each pan.  In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, oil, water, egg and pineapple until well mixed.  Fold in the coconut flakes.  Divide the cake batter evenly between the two pans.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let the cakes cool before you try and remove them from the pans; let cool on a wire cooling rack.  In a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar, dark rum, water and cinnamon to a boil over medium-high heat to make the syrup.  Whisk the mixture until the sugar is fully dissolved.  Cook for 1-2 minutes until the syrup is reduced to about ¼ cup; remove from heat.  Whisk the pudding mix and milk together to make the filling and add in 1 cup of whipped topping and the 2 Tbsp. rum.  Prep the kiwi and mango and cut into slices for the top of the cake.

Assemble the cake by starting with one torte cake on a round platter.  Brush the syrup topping over the top of the cake.  Using a cake decorating tool, pipe the filling mixture around the edge of the cake and spread evenly across the top of the cake.  Layer on the next cake layer and arrange the slices of mango and kiwi in the middle of the cake. Brush the remaining syrup on top of the fruit slices. Pipe around the edge of the top cake layer with the remaining filling and sprinkle the toasted coconut on top of the filling.

Tip:

A good cake decorating tool can help you to make impressive looking desserts!  I am partial to this version from Pampered Chef.

XOXO Megan

Red, White & Blue-Berry Trifle

Happy 4^th of July!!!  The 4^th is one of my favorite holidays.  I absolutely love fireworks!  I also love summer BBQs and this is the perfect dessert to bring with you to a summer party.  This is a modified version of a berry, cake and pudding trifle.  I’ve adjusted the recipe to pack in extra berries and found substitues for the high pp value items like pound cake, cream, excess sugar, etc.

Servings:  8
Size:  1/8 of the trifle
Points Plus: 4pp
Level of Difficulty:  Easy
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: n/a

Ingredient List:
Angel food cake (store-bought already baked version)
3 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 container Greek fat free yogurt, raspberry flavored
2 packages vanilla instant pudding mix, sugar-free
2 cup skim milk

Directions:
Wash and prepare the berries. In a large bowl, mix together with a whisk the milk, Greek yogurt and instant pudding mixes until the mixture has a thick consistency. In the bottom of your trifle bowl, start layering beginning with angel food cake.  Use 1/3 of the cake and tear off 1-2 inch pieces of cake and fill until the bottom of the bowl is covered.  Next use 1/3 of the pudding mixture, drop spoonfuls on top of the cake layer.  Finally, make the berry layer using 2/3 cup of blueberries and 1 cup of strawberries.  Repeat the 3 layers twice more resulting in 3 layers of each and ending with berries at the top of the trifle.  Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

Tip:

The pudding mixture might be a little dull in color depending on what Greek yogurt you use.  I added about 10 drop of red food coloring to my mixture to bring out a richer pink color to make the pudding layer look more festive!

XOXO Megan

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Everyone needs a signature dish!  What is a signature dish you might ask?  Well it is recipe that you can make quickly and is something you can make well.  And it really becomes your signature dish when people come to know and remember you for this particular recipe!

This delicious breakfast cake might very well be my own signature dish.  It is SO good!  The cake’s consistency is moist, yet light and fluffy all rolled into one.  It’s kind of cross between a muffin and a coffee cake.  I came across this recipe on Pinterest and tried it out for a weekend visit from my family.  Soon after this visit, this recipe quickly became one of our favorites!

Servings:  12

Size:  1/12 of an 8x8 pan

Points Plus: 6pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Bake Time: 35-45 minutes

Rating: 5 stars – Excellent

Ingredient List:

½ cup unsalted butter

2 tsp. lemon zest

¾ cup sugar (+ 2 Tbsp. to sprinkle on top of cake)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour (reserve ¼ cup to toss the blueberries in)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 cups blueberries, fresh berries

½ cup buttermilk

Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  In a large bowl, mix together the butter, lemon zest and ¾ cup sugar with a mixer until the texture is light and fluffy.  Add the egg, vanilla and beat until well mixed through.  Wash the blueberries and lightly pat dry with a paper towel.  In a cereal bowl, toss the blueberries in ¼ cup of flour (this helps the blueberries to stay whole and got get smashed and bleed into the rest of the cake).  Whisk together the remaining flour (1 ¾ cups), baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl.  Add half of flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, mix well.  Next add ¼ cup of buttermilk to the batter.  Repeat these steps with the remaining flour mixture and buttermilk.  Using a technique of alternating your dry ingredients with buttermilk allows for easier mixing for your cake batter.  Once the batter is mixed well, use a large spatula to gently fold in the blueberries.  You will likely have leftover flour from the ¼ cup you used to toss the berries – you don’t need to add all of it into the batter.  Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray.  Spread batter evenly into the pan.  The batter consistency will be quite thick.  Sprinkle 2 Tbsp. of sugar on top of the cake.  Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown.  Use a toothpick to check to see if it comes out clean.  Depending on your oven, it may need to bake for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Tip:

Use this lemon zester I told you about last week to make zesting the lemon a breeze!

This recipe can EASILY be doubled and made in a 9x13 pan instead of the 8x8!  If you are serving this for a brunch I would recommend going with the doubled version since people will want seconds.

XOXO Megan

Graudation Cupckaes

My brother graduated last weekend from St. Olaf and to help with the celebration my mom made these adorable graduation cupcakes.  She and I made a few prototypes to the get the cap and tassel just right, but by the end we had perfected it.  They were delicious too!

Servings:  24

Size:  1 cupcake

Points Plus: 8pp

Level of Difficulty:  Medium

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time:  20 minutes

Rating: 4 stars – Very good

Ingredient List:

1 box of fudge cake mix

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (set aside 1 Tbsp. for later)

Vanilla frosting

24 mini Reese’s peanut butter cups

24 Ghirardelli dark chocolate squares

24 M&Ms

One decorative tassel

Directions:

Prepare the fudge cake mix according to the directions on the box.  Add in the cup of mini chocolate chips into the cupcake batter.  Line a regular muffin tin with paper or tin liners. Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full.  You want your cupcakes to be on the small side since you will be adding frosting and the graduation cap.  Ideally the cupcakes will just come to the top of the cupcake liner once baked. Bake the cupcakes according to the box, probably about 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven.  Since you are making smaller cupcakes you should be able to get 24 cupcakes in total.  While the cupcakes are baking, in a small bowl, melt 1 Tbsp. of mini chocolate chips.  You will use this chocolate as a glue to attach and assemble the graduation cap. 

Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost each with a generous amount of frosting per cupcake.  To assemble the graduation cap, first put a small dab of chocolate glue on the top of an upside down mini Reese’s peanut butter cup (the larger surface area should be on the bottom), affix the Ghirardelli square on top.  The chocolate square should also be upside down with the flat, smooth side facing up.  Next, dab a very small amount of chocolate glue to the middle of the Ghirardelli square – attach a few strands of tassel (we found a decorate tassel and cut it apart to make smaller tassels), then add more chocolate to affix a single M&M on top. Serve at your party and hopefully people are impressed with your creativity! 

Warning:  Don’t EAT the tassel! J

Tip:

Creative cupcakes can be a really big hit for any sort of party – graduation, housewarming, holiday/seasonal, etc. We made these graduation cupcakes in St. Olaf colors – gold and black (well chocolate), but you could easily adapt to different school colors.

XOXO Megan

 

Chocolate Stout Cake

Here is a good little recipe if you ever want people to think you are the most amazing baker of ALL. TIME. This cake is amazing, relatively easy for being 100% home made, and the bomb (did I already say it was good??)  Chocolate + Beer is an dynamic combo, especially stout.  Warning, this cake is dense but worth every bite. And even better, it can be made days ahead of time, it only gets better by sitting overnight(s). I followed this cake recipe, but used my own cream cheese/whipping cream frosting recipe (which deserves it's own post). The chocolate frosting that is included with the recipe is also amazing. When calculating the points plus value, I honestly could not bring myself to tell the truth (ahm, over 30pp per slice if you follow the recipe).   So, to practice portion control which is essential for a healthy lifestyle, I calculated them as cupcakes using just under 1/2 cup of batter for each.

Servings: 1 cupcake with 1 smearing (about a Tbsp.) chocolate frosting included in the recipe link above
Size: 1/48 of recipe
Course: Dessert
Points Plus: 8pp (only 5 pp without frosting)
Level of Difficulty: Moderate
Prep Time: 30 mins total including frosting
Cook Time: 18-22 mins
Rating:  5 - AMAZING

Tip:
Use a big bowl! There is enough batter for a three layer cake or 48 cupcakes.  FYI - that is a ton of batter!  Also, when adding sprinkles to frosting put them on right before serving so they don't bleed.  Also, feel free to read through the reviews on the website.  People have gotten very creative with this recipe, including adding a caramel to the middle and using a dusting of powdered sugar instead of frosting. 

Exhibit ONE - simmering beer + butter

Exhibit TWO - Delish cake!