Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake

repost

If you like pumpkin flavored treats, you'll love this layer cake!

Two light and fluffy pumpkin cakes are cut in half and slathered with a pumpkin cream cheese filling to make a rich and decadent four-layer cake.

The cake is topped off with toasted pecans and caramel sauce. A very delicious combination of flavors!

Cutting into the cake exposes all the creamy, pumpkin layers. Yum!

Heaven

This cake is delicious, beautiful and easy to make. What are you waiting for?

Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake
Source: Kraft Foods
1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans


HEAT oven to 350°F.


BEAT cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans.


BAKE 28 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely.


BEAT cream cheese in medium bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently stir in COOL WHIP. Cut each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. (Do not frost top layer.) Drizzle with caramel topping just before serving; top with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers.

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.

Halloween Cake

Dress up any basic frosted cake with some Halloween Peeps and you've got an easy and festive dessert.

Take it a step further and add a spider web on top with some melted chocolate and some cute little spiders made from large M&M's.

Keep the Cake Coming!

I know, I know. I've posted about this cake like three times now! It's just that I've gone to three birthday parties recently and they all requested that I bring a dessert and this cake was just fitting. For each party though, I decorated the cakes completely different and they've all turned out pretty neat and everyone absolutely loved them. So, why not?  That's why I love this recipe, it's very versatile. You can make the cake batter any color to fit any theme and there are countless ways to frost and decorate the cake.


My latest creation....

Here's how to do it...

Take your white cake batter and divide it between as many bowls as you want colors. Add gel or liquid dye to each bowl and stir with a spoon and see what you get. Add more coloring if you want a more vibrant hue.

Oooohhh

Aaaahhhh

WEeeeee

Once you have all your colorful batter mixed...

Just spoon medium-sized dollops into your greased (I like Pam baking spray) cake pan. I chose to use a 12-cup bundt pan.

Keep layering the batter...

...and layering, until you run out. I like to tap my pan to make sure all the batter settles. Then bake your cake according to your recipe.

While the cake bakes, make a tasty frosting. I choose this whipped cream cream cheese frosting and it was delicious! Slightly sweet and perfectly fluffy.

And once the cake has completely cooled, frost and decorate as desired. 

After I frosted mine, I made a purple glaze out of powdered sugar, vanilla, milk and purple dye. I drizzled that over the top of the frosting and then sprinkled on Betty Crocker pearl Cupcake Gems.

For fun I added a fruity center by tossing blueberries, strawberries, cherries and blackberries with a little powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla. This cake is delicious on its own, but the fruity center just adds a little something.

My favorite part of this cake is cutting into it and seeing all the crazy designs! How fun is that?

Now, make a wish!

For the cake recipe, click here. Also, I like to add vanilla and a splash of almond extract when using a cake mix.

Crunchy Glazed Dobos Torte

I was in the mood for something different and a bit adventurous and this layer cake fit the bill. Four layers of homemade vanilla cake are filled with chocolate buttercream, then glazed with a caramel sauce. The caramel hardens once poured on the cake and forms a crunchy, brittle topping. Once all the layers are assembled, more chocolate buttercream is spread around the sides .

As far as appearances go, I thought it was an ugly cake. I tried to spruce it up by patting some ground almond on the outside, but that didn't help.


All-in-all, this was a tasty cake. I thought it was a little too sweet, but it was good. The crunchy caramel top definitely made this cake and gave it something extra and the chocolate buttercream was also very delicious and creamy. The problem was with the vanilla cake. It was spongy in texture and was a bit too chewy for the creamy frosting. I would substitute a white box cake mix and add extra vanilla or almond extract next time.

Vanilla cake batter is poured into four 7-in rounds on parchment paper and then baked.

The baked cakes need a little assistance getting off the parchment.

The yummy chocolate buttercream frosting

The "Ugly Duckling" finished product.

If you would like this recipe, let me know in the comments section. I can copy it out the cookbook.

The Day After: I liked this cake better the next day. I refrigerated it overnight (wrapped in plastic) then let it come to room temperature for a half hour the next morning before slicing a piece. I really liked the crunchy caramel topping and the chopped almonds mixed with the buttercream was really good. The flavors were really light and delicate and perfectly balanced by the crunchy brittle.