Tag: Cake

Easy Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake

Easter is almost here, and Carrot Cake is a “Go to” dessert for this holiday! However, this year is a little different…we can’t celebrate with extended family and friends, because of the Coronovirus that’s got us on lock down, but we can still eat!!

We aren’t making a huge Easter dinner this year, but one thing is for sure, we definitely still need dessert! Not to mention, this dessert has veggies in it! How bad can it be?!

Carrot cake is usually a lot of work, and let’s be honest, you only make this once a year. I like to make things easy, so I came up with this recipe! This recipe uses boxed cake mix! It doesn’t get much easier than that! With a few added ingredients you will have carrot cake in no time at all!

This carrot cake is very moist, fluffy and delicious of course! Topped with cream cheese frosting and cinnamon sugar, it’s a winner. Typically carrot cake has nuts incorporated in the recipe. I am allergic so this recipe does not call for any, but it would be a very easy add!

Cream Cheese Frosting

What is carrot cake without cream cheese frosting? It isn’t…You can opt to make homemade cream cheese frosting or you can use store bought. Either way it will be delicious. I have provided my cream cheese frosting recipe below, in case you want to make it! (You will only need to make half of the recipe) Let me tell you it is delicious, and actually simple to make.

Cake Ingredients

  • 1 Box yellow cake mix
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup of Milk
  • 1/4 cup of canola oil (or vegetable)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 – 1 cup of shredded carrots (about 2 large carrots)
  • Cinnamon sugar (to sprinkle on the top)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
  • Grease an 9×11 baking dish / 11×7 if you want the cake thicker
  • Mix together the yellow cake mix, egg, milk and oil
  • Add in the vanilla and cinnamon until well incorporated
  • Mix in the carrots
  • Evenly spread into baking dish
  • Bake for 22 minutes
  • Let cool before frosting
  • Top the frosting with Cinnamon sugar

Enjoy!!!!

I hope you enjoy this recipe!!! Follow me for more ideas on Pinterest! https://www.pinterest.com/FunandFrosted/

Baseball Birthday Cake

What kid doesn’t want a baseball birthday cake at some point in their life? Well, there may be some, but for those who do, this cake is awesome!

Picking the design for a birthday cake is actually more challenging than doing the cake itself…most of the time. I will admit, my cakes are not perfect, but I am not trying for perfection. That gets frustrating and takes the fun away from it all. Plus, I am trying to teach my kids mistakes are acceptable and we can always manage to get a good laugh out of them. Like the time I misspelled “birthday” with “birtday”. So guess what? We sang happy “birt-day” and had fun with it. My kids still remember it!

Anyways, my friends little guy, Cameron, turned one back in January and he had a baseball themed party! It was so cute and my friend, Kelly, had the themed nailed down. Hot Dogs, popcorn, nachos at the “concession”, all the good eats for a ball game. What’s more important then the actual food? The cake of course! What’s a party without the cake?!? Be sure to check out the cake decorating video below!

So, I have to be honest. I don’t make my cakes from scratch, at least not for birthday cakes. It already takes so much time to decorate, so using a box cuts the time, and you know, no one knows the difference. Everyone always says how great the cake tastes, so thank you Betty Crocker – you rock! I don’t always make the buttercream from scratch either. It just depends. I did include my recipe below if you are inclined to make it from scratch – it is delicious!!

Cake And Buttercream Recipe

12×18 Sheet Cake great for any Occasion

Cake Decorating Video!

Be sure to follow me on Pinterest for more fun ideas! https://www.pinterest.com/FunandFrosted/pins/

Lemon Trifle

Looking for a light, refreshing dessert? Look no further! This Lemon Trifle is all that! It is easy to make, tastes amazing and is a total crowd-pleaser. I have made a lot of different desserts for parties at work, and this is the most requested for me to make again and again.

This dessert does not take a lot of skill, because you are just layering it into a bowl. The best part about it is you can improvise, and it is not an exact science like a cake.

This dessert travels well, if you have a bowl with a lid, but can also look beautiful in a glass dish. Either way you have an absolutely tasty dessert!

I made this cake this week for my very good friend Robyn who turned 40!! She wanted to make her calories count on her birthday and this is the dessert she chose to use them on! That is saying a great deal – It’s that good!!

Here is what you need:

  • Pieces of Cake – I baked a yellow cake in two 8″ rounds. You can also use store bought angel food cake and just cut it up. Either way its delicious!
  • Two boxes of lemon pudding, prepared as stated on the package
  • Two 8oz containers of whipped topping. Any kind you like; fat free, low fat, extra creamy…any will do!
  • 1 box of Lemon Oreos – crushed!

How to assemble your trifle:

  • In a bowl layer on pieces of cake
  • Mix one tub of whipped topping into your lemon pudding mix. Spread some of that on top of the cake
  • Next spread on some of the whipped topping from the other container
  • Top with some of the crushed Oreos
  • Repeat until the ingredients are gone
  • You will want to end with Oreos on top so it looks finished!

Video Tutorial!!

I hope you enjoy this trifle! Make sure to subscribe to Fun and Frosted for more recipes!!

Harry Potter Birthday Cake

How fun is a Harry Potter Birthday Cake?!! My son is turning eight and he wanted a Harry Potter Birthday Cake! We love Harry Potter we have just finished watching all of the movies with the kids. We even have a dog named Gryffindor!

Besides actually frosting the cake with white, piping the details was easy. For some reason I find it more challenging to get a smooth frosted cake, with out any hiccups. I always find that the frosting pulls up and starts to rip the cake…just being honest here. We definitely had to do some frosting “surgery” on one of the corners.

I like to make things as easy as I can when making cakes. So, yes I used cake from a box… I mixed together Rainbow chip and Cherry Chip. Yes it tasted good, in fact, it tasted really good! I had some dad’s at the party ask me what flavor cake it was, because it was that good!

What Size Cake?

I opted to make a little bit of a smaller cake than I normally do; 15×21. Two boxes of cake mix did the trick and I baked it for about 30 minutes. Definitely check it when the timer goes off because every oven bakes differently.

Colors I Used For The Details

For the details, I used Wilton Buttercup Yellow and Burgundy for the colors. For the black, I bought pre-mixed black in a tube and put it into a piping bag. It’s difficult to get a good black frosting! I had to put a lot of burgundy food coloring in to make it not look like a pinky rose. For the lettering, I Googled “Harry Potter Font” to get the shape of the letters as accurate as I could! See below for my video on how I decorated it!

I hope you enjoy this!! Follow me on Fun and Frosted for more Fun!!

One Happy Camper Birthday Cake!

Franklin Is One Happy Camper

My nephew Franklin just turned one and he had such a fun birthday party theme. He was “One Happy Camper”. This theme was perfect because he is always so happy and smiley! Just look at him!

Of Course he needed a cake (or two) for his party! (recipe below!) I love making the cakes for my family. It is so fun, and I always get to partake in eating them! LOL

The hardest part about making a cake is deciding on what to make. So when the theme is chosen by someone else it makes it easy for me!

I decided to do a tent and a campfire in the woods for the sheet cake. I frosted the bottom half with chocolate buttercream (recipe below) for the “ground” and used regular buttercream (recipe below) dyed blue for the sky. Once that was all smoothed out I did the details! Making the fire was my favorite part. I got the new Wilton color swirl coupler. How it works is you put up to three colored frostings that are in separate bags in the same coupler. So when you go to pipe the frosting it swirls the colors together out of one tip! Genius! It was super easy.

Here are the tips I used for the decorations

  • Logs
  • Tree
  • Writing
  • Tent
  • Fire

Here are the colors I used for the cake decorations. I always prefer to make the piping bags with the frosting before I start. It can be time consuming and when your in the “zone” decorating it’s hard to stop and fill more bags…

Since this was a 1st birthday party, we needed a smash cake of course! This was super fun and easy to make. I frosted the cake with chocolate buttercream (recipe below) and made a big campfire using the frosting and the color swirl tool I mentioned above. How easy is that?! Franklin definitely “smashed” this cake. It was such a mess, but well worth the cleanup. (especially because I didn’t have to clean it!)

How cute are these cookies?! I sadly did not make them, but someone did and they were awesome! We were all “One Happy Camper”!

The party was such a great time and a big success! As long as the birthday boy was “One Happy Camper”, so was everyone else!!

Check out my other cakes by visiting my cake gallery and also below are some more posts you might enjoy. Subscribe to Fun and Frosted to stay in the loop!!

12×18 Sheet Cake great for any Occasion
A Birthday Party in the Trees
Frozen Birthday Cake

Lemon Buttercream

Lemon Buttercream is so delicious! My dad is a true lemon lover and he just celebrated his 66th birthday. So what better to make then lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream! I will say he probably loves chocolate more than lemon, but my mom does not and I aim to please everyone!

This lemon buttercream has just enough sweet and tart to make the perfect frosting. It is so simple to make and I used real lemons. My kids liked watching me make this because they could not resist taking the left over lemons and licking them……soooo sour! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Anyway you only need 4 ingredients! Butter, lemon, powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream (or milk will do).

This buttercream tastes so good on lemon cupcakes, and it’s not too much lemon, I swear! Both kids and adults were raving about these cupcakes! And if I am being completely honest, I made the cake from a box mix – Betty Crocker Super Moist Lemon! So good, and soy free!

As you can see below the buttercream has the perfect consistency for piping!

Ingredients

1 Stick of unsalted butter

Juice from 1 lemon

5 cups of powdered sugar

4-5 Tbsp of heavy whipping cream

Instructions

You need to start with your butter at room temperature. You can put it in the microwave for 15 seconds to speed up the process.

Then in your stand mixer, cream the butter.

Add in the juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Then add in the powdered sugar 1/2 a cup at a time while continually mixing. while alternating with 1 tbsp of cream until all used

Gradually add in the rest of the lemon juice.

If you want your buttercream to be creamier – add in more cream!

Store in the refrigerator if you are not going to use right away. You can store for about a week (depending on the expiration date of your butter and cream).

Put in a piping bag and decorate your dessert or spread on with a knife!!!

Cinnamon Buttercream

Buttercream is arguably the best part of a dessert. Lately I have been making a good amount of buttercream frosting, and this is my new favorite. With the holidays right around the corner this is the perfect recipe. To me cinnamon represents all the smells and tastes of the holiday season. I just love it!

This recipe is great for holiday desserts, and sweet breakfast treats too! Can you imagine this on banana bread?! I can, and I am going to make some, just as soon as my banana’s turn ripe enough!

I created this cinnamon buttercream to go with my cinnamon cupcakes for a work party. They turned out so delicious and it was just the right amount of cinnamon. Everyone at the party, adults and kids alike, thought I bought them and that is always the highest compliment!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 6 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream or milk

Instructions

  • In your stand mixer (I use my KitchenAid) with the paddle attachment, add the softened butter. If you don’t have enough time to let this softened, you can stick it in the microwave for 15 seconds or so and it should do the trick!
  • Beat butter on medium to high until creamy
  • Add vanilla and salt
  • Gradually add powdered sugar and alternate adding in cream
  • Continue beating for 2-3 minutes on medium
  • Turn to high speed once sugar is incorporated
  • Add in the cinnamon and fully mix it

If frosting is too stiff add in more milk or cream 1 tsp at a time and beat until combined.

Spread on Cake and/or put in piping bags

Enjoy 🙂

Be sure to subscribe to Fun and Frosted and be the first to know about my new blog posts!

Check out these other great Fun and Frosted recipes

Easy Buttercream
Cinnamon Swirl Cake
Red Velvet Bundt Cakes

Cake Pan Release

And It’s Soy Free!!

Cake pan release is such a necessity! There are a variety of ways you can grease your pans, but using this recipe makes it so easy!

Why is this recipe so great?

I love this cake pan release recipe for a few reasons. One, it’s easy. Two, it’s cost effective. Three, I have a soy allergy and if you don’t then you probably have never noticed that MOST cooking and baking sprays have soy lecithin in them. Now, I have done a lot of reading and soy lecithin apparently does not have enough soy protein residues to cause an allergic reaction. My allergist even said I should be fine eating it…well he was wrong and I had an allergic reaction, so I stay away from it all together…

What are the ingredients

This cake pan release only has three ingredients! Canola Oil, shortening (I used Spectrum – It’s organic and made from palm oil) and flour. All of the recipes I have seen online use Vegetable oil (contains soy) and Crisco (contains soy).

How long does it last?

The great thing about Cake Pan Release is that you can store it for as long as the expiration date is on the ingredients you use. It does not need to be refrigerated. Just store it in your pantry in an airtight container and you are good to go!

How to make

Combine all of the ingredients into your stand mixer (I cannot live without my KitchenAid!). Mix together on low and then increase to medium speed for a few minutes. It may look a little lumpy, but it once you keep mixing they will smooth out. Don’t worry about it if it is a little lumpy. Once fully incorporated transfer to an airtight container. I chose a glass jar! It’s as easy as that!

How to use

Use a pastry brush and spread all over the pans. It’s great for really detailed pans like a bundt pan. You can really get in the grooves with the pastry brush. The cakes will just fall right out!

Homemade Cake Release!  Ensure that your cake doesn’t stick to the pan!

I hope you enjoyed this blog! Subscribe to Fun and Frosted to get more recipes!

Baptism Cake

A Joyful Occasion

A Baptism is is such a joyful occasion. It brings close family and friends together to celebrate one’s christening. It’s a very special occasion and is also a great excuse to have cake 🙂 One of my dearest lifelong friend’s baby girl is getting baptized and asked that I would make her cake. Of course I cannot pass that up. I love making cakes, almost as much as I like eating them. Knowing that I am contributing to someone’s special day brings me great joy.

The Cake

I always error on making more than enough cake, because nothing is worse than not having enough…and who doesn’t love leftover cake? I use my Wilton 12×18 sheet pan, which gives you a lot of room to decorate. Mostly I use store bought cake mix and love changing up the flavors. This time I went with Betty Crocker Party Chip! Always a favorite! I want to point out that my cakes are ALWAYS soy free. It’s as simple as using canola oil instead of vegetable oil and checking the ingredients on the cake mix. There are plenty out there that are soy free. I am allergic to soy so it is important to me! Another step most don’t think about when it comes to allergies is the baking spray. I grease the pan with butter and flour because the baking sprays have soy in them…

Easy Buttercream

Normally, I use store bought buttercream because I am so crunched on time, but I was feeling like Betty home-maker today so I made my own. This recipe is fast and easy and, oh yeah, it tastes AMAZING! What I like about homemade buttercream is that it has more body or stiffness to it than the store bought frosting does. Easy Buttercream has a rich taste, not too butter-flavored and isn’t too sweet! (But nothing is ever too sweet for me) For this cake, I did two batches of the Easy Buttercream (recipe below) to frost and decorate the 12×18 sheet cake. To get this beautiful color, I used Wilton’s Rose Petal Pink gel food coloring. I first took some of the plain white frosting I made out of the bowl and set aside, then colored the rest pink. Then, I took some of that out and then dyed the rest darker to give me a few shades of pink. When dying your frosting its always easier to do the big batches in your Kitchen Aid stand mixer, that way you get even color throughout.

Decorating The Cake

This cake was fun to decorate. I wanted it to be simple, yet elegant. In addition, this was a great opportunity to try some new buttercream flowers, with my new Wilton Tips, #129, #190 and #30. These tips make it simple to create flowers! Make sure you do a few test flowers before trying on the cake! That way you can ensure you get the right technique. Be sure to check out my video below to see how I decorated it! I knew I wanted a bunch of flowers and a cross, but I pretty much winged the design. I usually go in with a solid plan, but I was feeling good about it!

Recipe For The Sheet Cake

12×18 Sheet Cake great for any Occasion

Recipe For The Buttercream

I hope you have enjoyed this cake! Be sure to subscribe to my blog to see more from me! Here are some other cakes you may enjoy.

Frozen Birthday Cake
A Birthday Party in the Trees

Spooky Spiderweb Cake with Spider Cupcakes

Halloween is in the air! I love making treats for any holiday, especially kid oriented treats. Who wouldn’t want a spiderweb on their cake? Well, in any normal circumstance, me, but we’re talking about Halloween here so I will let it slide…

I have two boys, ages 5 and 7. They torment me with anything and everything SPIDER related. I can’t stand it! They love fake spiders, bugs and snakes. Anything creepy crawly (they love the real ones too). They will put fake spiders under my covers, so when I go to pull the covers back to go to bed I will see it. I ALWAYS scream! My heart pounds, my palms get sweaty and after that I’m too wound up to go to bed. They will put the fake spiders on the floor behind me and walk away. They then call my name so I turn around, I scream every time. My husbands doesn’t understand why I have to scream each time, I don’t either!! My body just does it!!!!!!!! Ahhhhh!!! However, when it comes to real spiders in the house, my boys always come to my rescue, they get that tissue or shoe and do what needs to be done. So in honor of their love for spiders I am making this dessert for them to celebrate HALLOWEEN.

What You Need

This dessert is sooooooo easy to make! Any busy parent can tackle this treat, and your kids will surely appreciate it.

Directions

  • In your stand mixer (Mine happens to be Kitchenaid – the best!) Make the cake per the directions on the box
  • Split the batter between the cake pan and the cupcake tin
  • Let the cake cool completely before frosting! You don’t want the frosting to melt!!
  • Frost the cake with the chocolate frosting using a spatula
  • Frost the cupcakes with the chocolate frosting using a piping bag and tip #1M
  • Put the 10 marshmallows in a bowl and microwave for 15 seconds
  • Using your hands, grab the marshmallow mixture and pull on it so it gets stringy. Lay over the cake. (make sure the frosting is somewhat dry. The marshmallow is so sticky it may pull up some of the frosting when you are laying it down) There is your spiderweb!!

I hope you have fun making this Spooky Spiderweb Cake! Be sure to check out my Halloween Cookie Cake!!