Strawberry Shortcake

This is such an easy, yet delicious Strawberry Shortcake to make.  It's one that I actually forgot about and haven't made it in years.

1 round Angle Food cake
10-12 fresh strawberries, cleaned and sliced thin
1 pkg. strawberry jello
1 carton cool whip

Evenly place the strawberries in a jello mold (or bunt pan sprayed with non-stick).  Place the cake on top breaking it and pressing it down so it will fit.  Mix the jello with 1 3/4 cups of hot water until dissolved.  Pour over the cake allowing it to soak down to the bottom as well as into the breaks in the cake.  Refrigerate 3-4 hrs.  Pop out onto a plate and fill center with cool whip.

Comments:  This is such a moist cake yet not soggy due to the jello.  It's so good and you can even do this with other flavors such as blackberries, peaches, etc.  You can also use frozen strawberries if fresh aren't in season but get those without the juice.  Plus, you can make this with sugar free jello helping to make it more diabetic friendly.

Humming Bird Cake

1 package Yellow Cake Mix (without pudding)

1 package (3.4 oz.) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling

4 eggs

1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple, drained; reserve pineapple juice

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ cup finely chopped pecans

1 medium-size banana, mashed

¼ cup chopped Maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 2 cake pans.  Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, pineapple, juice from the pineapple and enough water to make 1 cup, oil and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Beat with electric mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Add pecans, banana and cherries.  Mix well.  Pour into cake pans.  Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese frosting

8 ounces cream cheese softened at room temp

¹⁄₂ cup butter softened at room temp

3 ^1/2 cups powder sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 pineapple slices, well drained and cut into small pieces

In a bowl whip cream cheese and butter until well blended.  Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time blending well after each addition.  Mix in vanilla. 

Ice the bottom layer and side.  Sprinkle half of the pecans and half of the pineapple over the top.  Add 2nd layer.  Finish icing and sprinkle top with remaining pecans and pineapple.  You can add chopped cherries for more color if wanted.

Comment:  This is a combination of 2 recipes that I found for Humming Bird Cakes.  The 1st one used made a tube cake but I wanted layers.  It also didn't have the added nuts and pecans on top.  Plus its frosting was a drizzle so I found a recipe for a cream cheese frosting I liked and decided to use it.  Another change was the pineapple.  I didn't have a can of crushed but did have a can of slices.  I simply drained it well, crushed and drained again.  I ended up using 4 circle slices for inside the cake and then the 3 slices that I drained and cut into small pieces for my topping.  By using the larger can (20 oz.) of slices I ended up with 1 cup of juice and didn't have to add water.  This sure is a delicious cake!  Moist and full of flavors.

Blackberry Upside Down Cake

2-3 cups fresh blackberries
1 stick butter, cut into chunks
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put butter in 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish and place in the oven as it preheats.  In a medium size bowl whisk flour, sugar, milk, egg and vanilla until smooth.  After oven preheats remove baking dish and evenly spread butter around bottom.  Add blackberries.  Pour batter evenly over berries.  Bake 35 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Comments:  This can be made using just about any fruit.  I've made it with apples, strawberries and blueberries but I always use fresh fruit.  I'm sure this can be made with thawed frozen fruit but it may take a bit longer to cook due to the liquid in frozen fruit.  This dish is good without being too sweet, easy to make and everyone seems to love it.  One thing I do when it first comes out of the oven is to dot it with a little butter and sprinkle a light dusting of sugar over the butter after it melts.

Comment from Carol:  The blackberry cake was out of this world.  Mom and I ooohed and aaahed as we ate it and wondered how we could be so lucky!  It is not too sweet but respects that special tartness of blackberries.  The sugar sprinkled on top is in just the right place.

Easy Coconut Cake

1 yellow or white cake mix
1 tsp. coconut flavoring
1 cup shredded coconut
1 can (17 oz.) grated coconut in extra heavy syrup
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven per directions on cake mix.  Mix cake mix following the directions on the box.  Stir in coconut flavoring and shredded coconut.  Bake in loaf pans (2-4 depending upon size) or 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish until tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.   In a small sauce pan stir together grated coconut and milk.  Over med. heat let the mixture barely come to a boil. Remove from heat.  Spoon evenly over hot cake. 

Comments:  I love coconut and when I found a can of Conchita Grated Coconut on sale at one of my local grocery stores I had to buy it.  I had no idea what I would do with it since I had not only never tried it but also never seen it before.  Well, it makes the best coconut icing you'll find.  I added the 1/4 cup of milk because I wanted it to soak into the cake some and the 'extra heavy syrup' is just that - heavy so the milk and heating both thinned it down enough to allow it to seep into my cake without even having to punch holes.  I have a friend who's favorite cake is coconut so I gave a loaf of this to him for Christmas.  He said he was in coconut heaven.  So where do you find this can of lust?  In the Mexican/Spanish section of the grocery store.  It is well worth searching for.

Nutty Pineapple Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple with juice, undrained
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pecans
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray a 13 x 9 x 2" baking dish with non-stick spray.  In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, eggs, pineapple with juice, coconut and nuts.  Stir with a spoon until just combined and all ingredients are moist.  Spoon into prepared pan.  Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserteed in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool.

Icing
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a bowl beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.  Gradually beat in sugar and vanilla until smooth.  Frost cooled cake with icing.  Garnish with nuts and coconut (optional).

Comments:  This was a recipe for an Hawaiian Wedding Cake that looked like my kind of cake.  I did make 1 change and that was to decrease the sugar by 1/2 cup.  The original called for 2 cups and I used 1 1/2 cups.  This cut down the sweetness and I think made it even better.  I also changed from walnuts to pecans.  The icing is the perfect recipe for cream cheese icing that can be changed by changing the flavoring.  This icing would be great using Rum flavoring, orange, black walnut or just about any other flavorings you might like. 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple, drained
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a 9" cast iron frying pan melt butter in oven.  Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter.  Evenly distribute pineapple.  Sprinkle with pecans.  In a large bowl beat remaining ingredients on medium speed for 4 minutes.  Pour batter over pineapple.  Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Turn onto a platter.  Cool at lest 10 minutes before serving. 

Comments:  The original recipe for this came from Betty Crocker Kitchens.  I made 3 changes.  The original recipe called for pineapple rings with cherries in the center, I omitted the cherries and used crushed pineapple.  My mother used to make her Pineapple cakes in a well cured cast iron frying pan. so in hopes of coming up with the same taste I remember from my childhood,  I decided to use the cast iron frying pan instead of the 9" round pan called for in the recipe.  I didn't accomplish the taste from the past but I have to admit that this is one of the best Pineapple Upside Down Cakes I've ever eaten.  The butter and the nuts combined with the pineapple are unbeatable.  Additions?  How about a little coconut!  Yum.

Coca Cola Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl mix:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

In a saucepan over medium high heat stir and bring to a boil:
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup coca cola
1/2 cup buttermilk

Take off heat and add to flour mix and whisk until combined.

Add:
2 eggs
1 tsp., vanilla extract

Mix and pour into pan.  Bake about 30 minutes.  Don't over-bake.

When cake is nearly done make the glaze by mixing in a saucepan:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup coca cola

Bring to a boil.  Remove and slowly stir in 4 cups of confectioners' sugar.  Whisk until smooth.  Add 1 cup chopped nuts.  Once cake is done and out of the oven  (toothpick should come out clean), pour warm glaze over hot cake.  Serve warm or cold.

Comments:  This recipe was on Pinterest and posted by MayFlaum I followed this recipe to the letter and apparently it's delicious!  I don't eat chocolate so I can't say personally but all of my food testers have raved about it's moistness, flavor and richness.  For my cocoa I used Dark Chocolate so the coloring came out almost black!  It really looked great.  A cherry on top would have been perfect.