Halloween Cookie Cake

I am so excited for Halloween this year! The weather is cool, but not too cold and the leaves are starting to turn. My house is fully decorated and ready to go for Halloween. I absolutely love this time of year; being in the kitchen baking, with a scented candle. It just feels like fall.

Sometimes I get in the mood for a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie and I can’t get it out of my mind! So I decided I am going to make a HUGE chocolate chip cookie, and then make it look like a Jack-o-lantern!! My kids loved the idea and it was so simple and easy to make.

Allergy Friendly

I have a soy, peanut and tree nut allergy. It stinks, right? I am pretty used to it by now and can get around it most of the time without being frustrated with it. You kind of just learn to deal with it. The good news is, there is an increased awareness of food allergies these days and companies are getting more allergy friendly as well. I always use Enjoy Life chocolate chips when baking. People can never tell the difference when I give them baked goods. The ingredients are Cane Sugar, Unsweetened chocolate and Cocoa Butter. They are free from:

  • Gluten
  • Wheat
  • Peanuts
  • Tree Nuts
  • Dairy
  • Casein
  • Soy
  • Egg
  • Sesame
  • and a few others

Ingredients

  • 12 Tablespoons (1.5 sticks) of Salted Butter at room temperature
  • 1 Cup white Sugar
  • 3/4 Cup light brown sugar
  • 2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla (I always buy my Vanilla at Costco. For a big bottle it’s the best deal in town, since the cost of Vanilla went way up)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 3 Cups All Purpose Flour
  • 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
  • 1 1/12 Cups Chocolate Chips ( I use “>Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Vanilla Frosting
  • 1 Can of “>Wilton Orange Gel Food coloring

Tools Needed

Instructions

  • Cream together the butter and the sugars
  • add in the Eggs and vanilla, mix well but don’t over-beat
  • Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt in a different bowl and then slowly incorporate them into the other mixture
  • Add in the chocolate chips until mixed in
  • Put the dough in the greased pan and press down with spatula and/or spoon to get it evenly spread throughout the pan (see video below)
  • Bake for 18-20 Minutes
  • Let cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack
  • Let completely cool before you frost

Now For The Frosting…

  • Fill the

Easy Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s Pumpkin Season!

I absolutely love pumpkin desserts! Unfortunately for my husband, he does not. I don’t get it, I literally can’t even get him to try a piece! That is not going to stop me from making them though. Clearly, there are plenty of people that will help me eat these. I took this cake to work and everyone LOVED it!! It didn’t last long!!

Usually, I look for desserts that are EASY to make, and don’t have a lot of ingredients. Once I see a long laundry list of ingredients and directions, I shut down and move on. I turn to box cake mix for a lot of desserts, for a few reasons…it’s quick, it’s easy and did I mention it’s quick and easy?! Additionally, there are so many different flavors you can add to a box of yellow cake mix, and pumpkin is one! This dessert tastes as good as it looks and you can definitely taste all of the flavors. I love how this cake is super moist (thanks to the pumpkin) and the cream cheese frosting gives it an extra creamy texture. I can’t wait for you to try it!

With only 15 minutes of prep time and 25 minutes of baking time, this cake is a real winner in my book!

  • 15 Minute Prep Time
  • 20-25 Minutes Bake Time

Ingredients

  • 1 box Yellow Cake Mix (Use Duncan Hines Yellow Cake for Soy Free!)
  • 1 15-ounce can of Pumpkin
  • 2 Eggs
  • 5 Tablespoons salted butter (softened)
  • 1 Teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 Teaspoon cinnamon + extra to sprinkle on top!
  • 1 Teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1-2 Cans of cream cheese frosting

Directions

  • Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees F
  • Grease a 13×9 inch pan (I used butter and Flour, but you can use a baking spray)
  • Mix together butter, cake mix, and eggs
  • Add the pumpin, vanilla and the spices
  • Mix until well incorporated
  • Pour into the dish
  • Bake for 20-25 Minutes
  • Let the cake cool before frosting
  • Decorate with Cream Cheese frosting and sprinkle with cinnamon

How To Decorate The Top

  • #22 Wilton Decorating Tip (my favorite!)
  • Fill a 12″ or 16″ piping bag with the cream cheese frosting
  • I used 1.5 cans to do the top because I was generous with the frosting. If you only want to spread it out with a spatula, 1 can will do.
  • Start at one end of the cake and do a row of swirls, followed by a row of star dots and repeat until the cake is completely frosted
  • Sprinkle with Cinnamon
  • Enjoy!

Fall Is Here!! Let’s make a Cake

Yesterday was the first day that has really felt cold in Michigan. I love fall and have been waiting patiently for sweater weather!! So, I wanted to celebrate what felt like the first day of fall with a fall cake!! 🍂 I sort of winged this cake and I wish I was a little more calculated on what I was doing, but nonetheless it’s still pretty and will get eaten for sure! In my video below I am going to show you how to make a simple, but cute Fall Cake! I used Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake this time, which I LOVE, and Betty Crocker Creamy Vanilla frosting and Chocolate (for the tree). Why would I ever want to dye something brown when you can use Chocolate!!! Yum! With some fall colors this cake surely gives me all the fall feels.

Decorating Cakes can be frustrating, however if you stick to it and have fun with it that is all that matters. I find the initial frosting of the whole cake is the hardest part! Watch the video below to see how this cake came to be!

What I used

Directions

  • Start by first frosting your entire cake with white frosting
  • Pipe on your sunflowers petals, and stems
  • Outline your pumpkin and fill it in!
  • Make your tree trunk and branches then top with leaves
  • Do the border of the cake, and your finished. Easy peasy!

Tips and Tricks

  • If you have any cookie cutters at home, they are great for creating an outline on a cake! If you don’t have any you can always trace around a shape printed on a piece of paper.
  • It always helps to color your frosting at once and have your bags ready to go!
  • #18 Star tip is my FAVORITE decorating tip. It’s easy to control and always looks great!

Cake Boards!

I love these Wilton Cake Boards. They are essential when making a cake, especially if it needs to be transferred! They come in all different sizes, and these particular ones come in a six pack. I buy mine at JoAnn fabrics. You can leave these plain white, cover them with foil or I have even glued two together with a ruffle of fabric coming out to look like a skirt! I will get to that in a blog in the future. Until then, use your imagination!

Superbowl Birthday Cake!

My Nephew’s birthday just so happens to be in February and he wanted a Superbowl Birthday Party! I was so excited to make this cake to go along with the theme, but we needed to know who was playing first! It was the…………………………Patriots vs. Rams! My nephew was rooting for the Rams and sadly they lost, however the Cake took the win that night! (and yes I know the Rams Logo was angled incorrectly, but oh well no one really cared)

People always ask me how I make these cakes. It’s really not THAT hard, but it does take time and patience. You also have to commit, and NEVER give up! I happened to make a time-lapse video while decorating this cake. I wanted to show my kids and it turns out that the adults were just as excited to see the video. This is when I started to realize people were very interested in what goes into decorating a cake, and maybe I should blog about it. For a cake like this that has more detail as in the logos, I always print the size I want on some paper and cut it out. I always print a few. I trace around it with a toothpick or a pen with food coloring, which you can buy at JoAnn’s. In either case you will have to keep wiping it off as you go. Once I do the outline I take the piece of paper off and if there is more detail within the logo I will cut down to that and place it back on and trace some more. I keep going until needed. Then I fill it in with the colors. The outline does NOT need to be perfect because you will be going over it with frosting anyway!

What You Need For This Cake

  • 3 Boxes of Betty Crocker Cake Mix – Any Flavor!
  • Oil – I always use Canola over vegetable – either work
  • 9 Eggs / 3 per box
  • 4-5 Cans of white frosting. I used Vanilla for all. 4 is probably plenty, but when you are dying a bunch of colors it’s better to have more than not enough!
  • Pre-made red frosting! Red is so hard to dye so I usually buy it already dyed. Wilton sells one in a bag with a tip on it already, but I cut the bag open and put into my own bag so I can attach the tip of choice!
  • Pre-made gold piping gel – for the Ram’s logo
  • 12×18 Sheet Cake Pan
  • 12 cupcake papers
  • 19×14 Wilton Cake Box
  • 13×19 Wilton Cake Board
  • #12 Wilton Tip for the border
  • #16 Wilton Tip for the red part of the Patriots Logo
  • #3 Tip for the writing and the logos
  • Royal Blue food dye
  • Brown food dye
  • Moss Green food dye
  • Goal posts. I found these at Party city. They were sold in a large pack, probably for cupcakes.
  • I bake at 375 Degrees F and I always set the timer for 40 minutes then check it and add minutes if needed. I use the Wilton Baking guide for guidance. Keep in mind all ovens are different and some bake faster or slower than others.
    Make sure you grease the pan! I use butter and flour, but you can use spray as well. Make sure it is a baking spray!

Decorating Tips!

  • Make sure the cake is completely cooled – you don’t want the frosting to melt!
  • I always color all of my frosting in the beginning and put them in the piping bags so they are ready to go! (to fill a piping bag I always set it in a tall cup so it will stand up!)
  • Put all 3 cans of frosting on the cake a spread thoroughly. Avoid letting crumbs pull up. If you do, try to wipe them off. You will have excess frosting. Use the spatula to smooth and put the excess back in the bowl.
  • I started with the Yard Lines, then team logos/Football, and finally the border, words and numbers.
  • Happy Decorating!!

So Many Cakes…

I can’t wait to blog about all of the cakes I have made over the past 10 years. I have taken pictures of all of them, and I am going to document them right here on my blog! It’s going to take a bit of time, but I will get through them, I promise! I am also going to continue to post cakes as I make them. I am also going to experiment with tools and designs, so I can do the leg work and you can learn from my mistakes, I mean, no one is perfect! Which by the way is also true for cakes, well my cakes. I like to have fun while baking and if you strive for perfection every time, it sure does take the fun out of it. I also like to dabble in making frosted Donuts, Cookies, and other desserts. You could say I have a bit of a sweet tooth! Stay tuned, because you will be hearing a lot from me!!

Wilton Cake Boxes


Transferring a cake to the party is one of the most stressful parts of making a cake! I normally give this job to my husband, because I trust his steady hands lol. At first he was reluctant to take the challenge because he thought if he messed it up I would never forgive him. Thankfully, that has never happened so his confidence has sky rocketed. Sometimes, I think he gets a little over-confident which makes me nervous!!! Anyways, to transfer these beautiful cakes I ALWAYS buy the Wilton Cake box with the window you can see through. It’s amazing how impressed people are with a cake box. Its makes the cake look professional. I usually buy these cake boxes at JoAnn Fabrics. They come in a 2 pack. With a 40% off coupon it is worth it! I’m guessing around $5-$7. You can also find them on Wilton’s site here. I have also bought them at Walmart and Party City

How great does this cake look in the box?! I always get the box with the window so you can always keep a watchful eye on it!

A Birthday Party in the Trees

My niece had her 7th Birthday party at the Tree Runner Park near our house. The kids had so much fun Zip Lining and doing the High Ropes Course. I was amazed at the lack of fear these kids showed. They climed for a few hours, then came down for Pizza and the cake of course!!! To go along with the birthday party in the trees, she asked for a Tree House Cake!

I was so excited to make this cake! She asked for Carrot Cake, and let me tell you…it was a crowd-pleaser. All of the kids loved it! I used Betty Crocker Delights Super Moist Carrot Cake Mix, with Cream Cheese Frosting. Delish!

Birthday Girl Was Happy!

Ashley loved her birthday cake. That always makes me so happy to see the birthday girl/boy’s face when they first see the cake. It really is the centerpiece of the party!

What I Used

I used Betty Crocker Carrot Cake. It was amazing. Everyone always thinks I make it from scratch. The truth is I don’t have time to make a cake from scratch AND decorate it. So I always use the boxed cake and Frosting to give me the most time to decorate. I used the Wilton 12×18 baking sheet which is 2.5 boxes of the cake mix. I always use the leftovers for 12 cupcakes. This helps because my kids can taste it and not stick their fingers in the cake, and I can taste it ahead of time and make sure I know what I am serving!!!

I also used Betty Crocker pre-made frosting. Yum! This frosting is the best that I have tried. It doesn’t taste artificial like some other store bought frosting. I used a combination of Vanilla, Cream Cheese and Chocolate. I frosted the whole cake with 3 cans of the cream cheese. I dyed that with Wilton Sky Blue. Then I dyed one can of Vanilla with the Wilton Moss Green. Finally I used the Chocolate for the Tree. To get different dimensions of brown I mixed a little vanilla frosting with some of the brown to give it a lighter shade so I would have two shades of brown. I also did that for the green.

What You Need for This Cake

  • 3 Boxes of Betty Crocker Cake Mix – Any Flavor!
  • 5 Cans of white frosting. I used 3 Cream Cheese and 2 Vanilla
  • 1 Can of Chocolate frosting
  • Oil – I always use Canola over vegetable – either work
  • 9 Eggs / 3 per box
  • 12×18 Sheet Cake Pan
  • 12 cupcake papers
  • 19×14 Wilton Cake Box
  • 13×19 Wilton Cake Board
  • Wilton #233 Tip for the grass
  • #47 Tip for the tree
  • #67 Tip for the leaves and border
  • #3 Tip for the writing
  • I bake at 375 Degrees F and I always set the timer for 40 minutes then check it and add minutes if needed. I use the Wilton Baking guide for guidance. Keep in mind all ovens are different and some bake faster or slower than others.
  • Make sure you grease the pan! I use butter and flour, but you can use spray as well. Make sure it is a baking spray!

Decorating Tips

  • Make sure the cake is completely cooled – you don’t want the frosting to melt!
  • I always color all of my frosting in the beginning and put them in the piping bags so they are ready to go! (to fill a piping bag I always set it in a tall cup so it will stand up!)
  • Put all 3 cans of frosting on the cake a spread thoroughly. Avoid letting crumbs pull up. If you do, try to wipe them off.
  • I started with the tree, then the tree house, then I did the leaves, grass and then the boarder. I finished with the writing!
  • Happy Decorating!!