Rainbow Cupcakes

I'm making cupcakes for my sister-in-law's upcoming wedding in July. For her birthday last year, I made this yummy rainbow birthday cake. She absolutely loved it and requested it for her wedding. 


In addition to the bright wild colors, the cake is super moist and has a wonderful vanilla flavor. The whipped cream cream cheese frosting is light and fluffy with the perfect amount of sweetness. It's a cake mix cake, but it's so delicious that you devour every bite and don't think twice about what's in it.


The bride-to-be decided it would be fun to do cupcakes for the wedding instead of cake. So, I decided to do a test run on the recipe to make sure it would work come nuptial day.


Below is the colorful batter ready for the oven.

They all puffed up nicely with slightly crisp edges that were really tasty!

The cupcakes themselves turned out very moist and fluffy. I hate dry, dense cupcakes. Blah.

This whipped cream frosting is sooo good! It's light and creamy and goes really well with the cupcakes. The only problem is that whipped cream frosting can be a bit runny which makes it impossible to pipe. Since this frosting is so delicious, I tried using a stabilized whipped cream to see if that would thicken the frosting enough to pipe it. And...it worked!! So, this is the recipe I'll use for the wedding!! 

Here are some cute mini cupcakes my daughter made with her little cupcake pan. 

Someone decided to snitch a bit of frosting while I was taking pictures. Made me giggle.

I think these cupcakes are so cute and fun! Perfect for a birthday party or any occasion really. Plus, you can color the batter any way you want.

 I'm excited to make these psychedelic but oh-so-tasty cupcakes for the wedding!

Moist White Cake
Ingredients
1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.


* I use a french vanilla cake mix and add a teaspoon of vanilla.

Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions
In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in whipped cream.


* I used 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar instead of the granulated sugar and stabilized whipped cream to help thicken up the frosting. Worked well. Also, chill your mixing bowl and beaters before whipping the cream.

Southern-Style Strawberry Cake

Three layers of moist strawberry cake are slathered with delicious vanilla cream cheese frosting and topped with pink coconut and fresh strawberries. Yowzers!

I needed a dessert to take to a 'girls night in' and found this beautiful cake on joythebaker.com. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it! Who cares if strawberries aren't in season and are hard to find at the grocery stores here? Not me. I wanted to make it anyway. The lovely and bright pink hue of this cake comes from a white cake mix and strawberry jello. Yes, this uses a cake mix. But, with the right add-ins you can't tell it's from a box and it has a wonderful strawberry flavor.

This cake was fun to make and assemble. I haven't made a layer cake in a while, so I had a good time in the kitchen putting this together.

Three layers of strawberry cake get filled with fluffy vanilla frosting. I added sliced strawberries in between each layer for a more pronounced strawberry flavor. I would recommend doing this to balance out some of the sweetness.

Layer #2

And more strawberries.

A glorious mound of frosting to coat the top and sides of the cake. Yum!

Coconut is tinted pink and sprinkled on top. This cake is bursting with pink! For a more neutral cake, leave the coconut white.

Fresh slices of strawberries are the finishing touch.

Here it is! I thought this cake turned out so beautiful.

This cake was really moist and bursting with strawberry flavor! The frosting was really tasty, but also really sweet. Maybe a tad less next time? The fresh strawberries, sweet coconut and vanilla frosting were a delicious combination of flavors. All the ladies at 'Girls Night' loved this cake and I will definitely put this recipe in my files and make it again!

Slice - Dig in - Enjoy

Inspired by: Joythebaker

Original Source: Patty Pinner, Sweets

Southern-Style Strawberry Cake

1 (18.5 ounce) box white cake mix (without pudding)*

1 (3 ounce) package strawberry jello

1 Tablespoon self rising flour

4 teaspoons granulated sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the cake, combine to cake mix, Jello, flour and sugar in a large bowl.  Mix well.  Add the oil.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition  Add the water and strawberries and mix well.  Divide the batter evenly into three 8-inch round baking pans that have been oiled and floured.  Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and the layers pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer the layers from the oven to wire racks.  Let them cool, still in their pans, for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, run a knife around the inside edge of each pan, then unmold each layer onto the racks to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese, softened

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

2 (1 pound) boxes powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

pink food coloring

4 sliced strawberries

To make the frosting, in a bowl combine the cream cheese and butter.  Beat until soft and pliable and no lumps remain.  Add one box of the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract.  Beat until incorporated.  Add the second box of sugar and mix until incorporated.  If you would like a smoother consistency, and a slash of milk.  If you would like a thicker consistency, and a bit more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is achieved.

Put the coconut in a small bowl and sprinkle with two or three drops of pink die.  Mix with hands to distribute the color and wash hands immediately.  Once the cake is frosted, decorate the top of the cake with the shredded coconut and sliced strawberries.  

* I could only find cake mix with pudding in it, and it turned out fine.

Southern Coconut Cake

I've been on a cake kick lately. Sometimes I go through baking phases and focus on one type of dessert, like cookies or cupcake, etc. For the last month, it's been cake. I rounded out my cake swing with this delicious coconut cake and it definitely filled my craving. Layers of moist coconut cake are filled with coconut cream and topped with a real cream cheese buttercream frosting and piled with flaked coconut. Divine!

I made this cake for a little family party we had at our house for my little girl. Since it's a fairly sophisticated cake, I piped some pink and purple flowers on it in honor of the pint-sized birthday girl.



I used two 8x8 round pans for the cake. After they cooled, I cut each cake in half crosswise to make four layers. With the extra coconut milk leftover from the cake batter, I made a coconut whipped cream filling that I used for the top and bottom layers. The middle layer got a generous crowning of extra buttercream frosting.

After all the layers are filled and stacked they get a generous coating of frosting and coconut.

It's hard to see in the photo below, but I sprinkled silver sanding sugar on top of the coconut to give it a pretty sparkle. This cake would be gorgeous with or without piping and decorations.

Everyone loved this cake! It's moist and rich and bursting with coconut flavor. The frosting is just amazing( a lot of work, but worth it). You have to try this cake.

Slice * Smile * Enjoy

Southern Coconut Cake

From Sky High Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

Inspired by Completelydelicious.com

Makes one 8-inch layered cake

5 egg whites

1/2 cup milk

1-2 tablespoons coconut flavoring or extract*

3 cups cake flour

2 1/3 cups sugar

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

For the Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting:

12 ounces cream cheese, slightly chilled

1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup water

3 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment paper (The original recipe is for a triple layer cake, but I only have two 8-inch pans and so I adjusted the cooking time for two thicker layers instead of three thinner layers.)

Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk slightly. Add the 1/2 cup milk and coconut flavoring and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and coconut milk and combine on low speed. Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the egg white mixture in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing just long enough to incorporate between additions. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto cooling racks to cool completely.

To make the frosting, put the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed until fluffy and smooth. Add the butter 1-2 tablespoons at a time, mixing until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until creamy. Set aside.

Combine the granulated sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 238 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

Meanwhile, have the egg white in the bowl of an electric mixer, ready for when the syrup is at the proper temperature. Slowly add the hot syrup to the egg whites, while mixing on medium-low. Take care not to cause the hot syrup to splash. When all of the syrup is incorporated, raise the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture has cooled to body-temperature and it forms stiff peaks.

With the mixer on medium-low, add the cream cheese and butter mixture one spoonful at a time. When all is incorporated, raise the speed to medium and whip until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.

Frost the cooled cakes and cover with shredded coconut.

* For the coconut whipped cream filling I whipped one cup of chilled heavy whipping cream until soft peaks formed and then added the remaining coconut milk leftover from the cake batter, 1/4 tsp coconut extract and a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar. I whipped this mixture until stiff and frosted the bottom and top layers of the cake.

Princess Cake

How to Make this Princess Cake
• • • • • •
For the princess dress bottoms you'll need this Wilton Mini Wonder Mold Pan, Found Here. 

Make your cake batter. I chose to doctor a white cake mix with fresh strawberry puree and strawberry oil.

Make sure you grease and flour the cups really well or the batter will stick!

For the first batch of cupcakes, I filled the molds a little too much (3/4 full) and they puffed over the sides. This wasn't a bad thing, but I did have to shave off more cake to get it level.

I did make a second batch and filled the molds about 2/3 full and they came out perfect. 

Unmold and let cool completely.

Trim off tops of cupcakes so they'll sit level on the cake.

For the dolls, I used my little girl's Disney Princess Favorite Moments Dolls. Found at Toys R Us, Target, etc. They're about three and a half inches tall and fit prefect in the mini wonder mold cakes.

I wrapped the doll legs in plastic to keep them fairly clean.

I used a knife to cut a small hole in the top of the cakes. I also scrapped out some of the filling to make room for the doll. Before inserting the dolls make sure you put their shirt tops on. Or you can pipe the bodice on with frosting.

After all the dolls were placed in the cake bottoms, I frosted each skirt to match the dolls bodice.

I baked two cakes. I used strawberry for the dolls skirts and then I baked one 9x13 chocolate cake to set the dolls on top of. I frosted the chocolate cake in white frosting and sprinkled it with silver sanding sugar for a pretty princess sparkle.

After the 9x13 cake was frosted and the skirts with the princesses in them were frosted, I placed the four princesses on the rectangle cake. I used wooden dowels to secure the dolls on the cake. Then I piped on the dress details and added candy flowers, etc. I finished by pipping a border and a few flowers on the rectangular cake. I used a star tip for all the designs.

Here's the finished cake. My little girl loved this! It wasn't too hard to make either. I baked the cakes the day before and did the assembly and frosting and piping the morning of the party.

Supplies Needed

Wilton Mini Wonder Mold Pan

9x13 baking dish

Piping bag and Star tip

Wooden Dowels

Food Coloring (I used AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste)

Candy Flowers

Glitter, Edible Sparkles

Favorite Moments Princess Dolls or Doll Picks