Dessert

The Carrot Cake

24 · Apr 19, 2014 · 3 Comments

// The Carrot Cake //

Looking for a fun spring dessert? The other day I was trying to come up with a fun idea for a dessert auction for a fund raiser at church and I came up with The Carrot Cake!! It’s a SIMPLE yet very fun dessert idea that is great for Easter or any other spring time activity. I was thinking it would look really cute with a fun sign that said, “Mr. McGregor’s Garden” for a spring baby shower or birthday party.

All you need is some Pillsbury Funfetti Orange All-Star Cake Mix and some Orange Funfetti Frosting. With a few little additions to the frosting you have a tasty little treat that is super easy to bake and put together.

How to make The Carrot Cake

Mix-up the cake according to package directions but bake it on a baking sheet so that it’s stays a thin layer. Bake for 15-19 minutes at 350˚. I actually made up a double batch of cake mix to almost fill one baking sheet. Make sure to spray your baking sheet with Pillsbury Baking Spray.
Using a biscuit cutter, cut circle cake rounds that will fit in your jars once the cake has cooled.
Mix up the frosting the recipe for that is below
Layer your jars with one cake round, a layer of frosting, another cake round and some additional frosting. If you are feeling a little fruity, you can add some mandarin oranges into the layers. I didn’t have any on hand or I would have done that with mine!
Make your carrots stems…

How to make The Carrot Cake Stems

You will need two types of green paper, scissors (fringe scissors if you have them), Elmer’s Glue Spots, straws (it doesn’t matter what color, they will hide in the cake) and some thin green ribbon.

Cut your straw in half. Cut your green paper fringe, paper needs to be at roughly 3 1/2 inches wide and 2 inches tall.
Place a glue spot on the tip of the straw
Layer your two green papers and attach to the top of the straw.
Carefully wrap around the straw making sure to keep it tight.
Place a glue spot on the outer edge of the fringe
Secure the fringe to the straw.
Tie with the ribbon to keep it secure. Rough up the paper a little to help it look like a stem.

Add your stem to the top of the cakes and serve!

The Carrot Cake Frosting

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Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

The Carrot Cake is a cute spring dessert that anyone will love!

Author: Heather // WhipperBerry

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients

2 cans of Pillsbury Funfetti Orange Frosting
3-4 tablespoons of milk
½ tsp. citric acid
16 oz. of Cool Whip

Instructions

Use a stand or hand mixer.
In a large mixing bowl add the two jars of frosting, milk and citric acid. Mix on high until the frosting lightens up.
Fold in the Cool Whip until completely combined.
Place in a large piping bag with a large cupcake tip.
Layer the cake and frosting.

Disclaimer // This is not a sponsored post. I just highlighted products that I use all the time in my everyday creating!

Maple Apple Bacon Waffle Recipe

2 · Apr 17, 2014 · 4 Comments

// Maple Apple Bacon Waffle Recipe //

My Husband LOVES waffles! He loves them so much for Christmas this last year I bought him an All-Clad Waffle Maker as his big WOW present and he was giddy when he opened it. It’s like when I receive my Kitchenaid Mixer… a BIG deal!! Because of that, we have a waffle night each week and we’re getting pretty good and coming up with fun new waffle ideas. This one has been my favorite so far, a Maple Apple Bacon Waffle! Yep, it’s as good as it sounds!!

This recipe is actually easier than it sounds. You just need FOUR ingredients for the waffles because we use our favorite waffle mix, Hungry Jack®. You will need bacon, Hungry Jack® Complete Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix and your favorite apple pie filling… Super simple!

For the maple part of the recipe, you can use your basic maple syrup like Hungry Jack® Syrup or you can make your own. My husband’s Mother used to make her own syrup and he LOVES that kind of syrup so for special occasions we make our own and that’s super easy as well. It’s just white sugar, brown sugar, water, maple extract and butter extract. It only takes about 15 minutes to make and is TOTALLY worth it!

Here is how to make our Maple Apple Bacon Waffles…

Maple Apple Bacon Waffle Recipe

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Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

45 mins

This scrumptious waffle recipe is perfect for breakfast, brunch or even dinner. Your family will be WOW'd with your amazing waffle making skills, they won't even know how easy they really are to make!

Author: Heather // WhipperBerry

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

Apple Bacon Waffles
1 lb. bacon
2 cans of apple pie filling
3¼ cups of Hungry Jack® Complete Buttermilk pancake & waffle mix
1½ cups water
1 container of Cool Whip or fresh whipping cream
Maple Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1-2 tsp. imitation maple extract
½ tsp. butter extract

Instructions

Waffle Instructions
Before we start the waffles, I put a pound of bacon into a preheated 375˚ oven on a wire rack over a baking sheet. I spray the wire rack with Crisco® Non-Stick Cooking Spray before I place the bacon on the rack. I cook the bacon for 10 minutes on one side and then turn the bacon and bake for an additional 10 minutes on the other side. Keep an eye on the bacon, you don't want it to become to crisp. You want it to still be a little pliable so that you can place it in the waffle iron with out it crumbling. Remove from oven and set aside.
To start the waffles, pour your apple pie filling into a large bowl and using an immersion blender break down the apples. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can put the pie filling into a food processor, blender or even a food mill to break down the apples. Any option works fine.
Add the waffle mix to the apples and stir. The package directions for the waffle mix calls for water, you will still add water, but it will be less than the normal amount because of the apples. Slowly add the water to the waffle and apple mixture until you achieve the desired waffle consistency.
Preheat your waffle iron. Depending on the size of your waffle iron, you typically put about ¾ cup of waffle mix into the iron for one waffle. To add the bacon into the waffle, pour half of the waffle mix into the waffle iron and then lay your bacon onto of the mix in an "X" and then pour the remaining mix ontop of the bacon. Close the waffle iron and cook for 3-4 minutes or until you achieve your desired waffle color. I like mine pretty light, my husband like them darker and crispier.
Top with a little more warmed apple pie filling, some warm maple syrup and a dollop of Cool Whip or fresh whipped cream and enjoy!
Homemade Maple Syrup
In a small sauce pan, combine sugars and water and place of medium high heat. Bring to a boil and lower the temperature to medium and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add maple and butter extracts. Let cool for a few minutes and then serve with your waffles.

Disclaimer // This is not a sponsored post, however I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate program and I do have some affiliate links included in the post.

Funfetti Bold Strawberry Shortcake

0 · Apr 8, 2014 · 3 Comments

// This post brought to you by the new vibrant Pillsbury Funfetti® Cake Mixes //

I LOVE going BOLD! I LOVE finding something a little different… I LOVE standing out in a crowd!

Who doesn’t really? We all like to feel like a STAR at times…

Even on those normal, hum drum days…

When the day is normal, the meal is just your typical fair and there is nothing special to celebrate… You CAN add a little FLAIR and turn something typical, into something Funfettilicious!

Our family LOVES strawberry shortcake and we are always looking for fun new “cake” options. We’ve tried several different types of cake from sponge to pound and almost everything in-between! The folks at Pillsbury made my day when they released their new Funfetti® line of cake mixes and bold frostings.

So many fun colors to play with… Immediately I thought of creating a BOLD Strawberry Shortcake with the Vibrant Green Cake Mix…

I knew that the bold green color would look amazing with the strawberries and the cream, together they could turn a normal dessert into something extra special!

What I really love about these new products is how it make baking even more fun with your kiddos! My little guy, Gage and I worked on this project together. It was so fun to open the cake mix together and to our surprise the mix was blue. I thought this would be a fun opportunity for a little kitchen magic so I took a video of the two of us mixing the cake…

Bold Strawberry Shortcake from Heather Thoming on Vimeo.

We had so much fun making this dessert for the family and couldn’t wait to share our goodies. We decided to make it two ways. I found these super cute baking cups from Target that are quite a bit larger than a cupcake liner. They are actually baking cups and create the cutest single serving little cake… We mixed up our cake batter…

Then poured it into our cake molds…

And baked them for about 19 minutes. We pulled them from the oven and let them cool for 20-30 minutes and then we got to work building our strawberry shortcakes. First we made our simple Strawberry Shortcake by just topping a few of the single serving cakes with some strawberries and fresh whipped cream…

Then for a couple more, we decided to make Strawberry Shortcake parfait’s or we could also call them a trifle. No matter what you want to call it… They turned into beautiful, layered strawberry goodness in just a few simple steps.

Gage and I tore up the cake into bite sized pieces and simply layered cake, strawberries, fresh whipped cream, cake, strawberries and topped it all off with a nice dollop of whipped cream.

You know what one of the perks is to helping Mom? You get the first taste…

To quote Gage, “This is TASTY!”

So… How are YOU going to GO BOLD? Check out all of the fun colors you have to choose from…

Visit Pillsbury Baking for all kinds of fun ideas on how to turn the everyday into something special! You can even enter to win a Pillsbury Baking Prize Pack!

Disclaimer // This is a sponsored post. I did receive product and payment for this post. However, all thoughts, ideas and opinions are all my own! ©/® The J.M. Smucker Company. Pillsbury is a trademark of The Pillsbury Company, LLC, used under license.

Mini-Egg Dessert Bars

5 · Mar 21, 2014 · 4 Comments

Hey guys! Jenn here again from Clean and Scentsible. Like many of you, I have been counting down the last days of winter and am so excited that today I finally get to say Happy Spring! I am SO ready for some warmer weather, longer days, and pretty spring blooms. Now that spring is here, Easter will soon be around the corner and I have a yummy treat to share with you today with my all-time favorite chocolate – mini-eggs!

These mini-egg dessert bars are super easy to make – the trick is to not eat all of the mini-eggs before you get around to actually making them!

Mini-Egg Dessert Bars

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Usher in the Easter season with these yummy mini chocolate egg dessert bars.

Author: Jenn // Clean and Scentsible

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 12-14

Ingredients

1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup mini eggs
¾ cup chopped nuts {I used walnuts}
⅓ cup chocolate chips
½ cup butter, softened
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ tsp vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together. Mix in the butter, beaten eggs, and vanilla and stir until well blended.
Add the mini-eggs, chocolate chips, and nuts.
Prepare a 9x9-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into squares.

If you are looking for a fun Easter gift idea, the dry ingredients for these bars can be packaged up in a mason jar and would make a nice little hostess gift or treat for your favorite teacher or neighbor.

Just layer the ingredients in a 1 quart mason jar as follows:

flour, baking powder, salt
sugar
mini-eggs
chocolate chips and nuts

I have also created some printables to help you dress up your jars – there is a Bunny Bars label for the front and baking instructions for the back.

Just head over to Clean and Scentsible to download them!

If you are looking for more Easter ideas, you might also want to check out these posts….