Coconut Cherry Pandan Cupcakes

These cupcakes are made with this Pandan Sponge cake batter here. My favorite cake. For the frosting, I made it as written but added coconut cream, a drop of red food coloring and almond extract along with the coconut extract. The pipette is a shot of cherry juice. SO yummy.

Nice and fluffy inside.

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Coconut Pandan Sponge Cake

If you ask me what my favorite cake is my answer would probably be this Coconut Pandan Sponge cake, Chinese bakery vanilla sponge cake, Chocolate cake... I like other cakes a whole lot, like Hummingbird cake, and Whole Wheat Carrot cake. I think this Coconut Pandan is top 2, top three at the least.  I got this recipe from a sweet girl on Instagram. I changed the flavors to what we like. It's so yum.

Instant Pot White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

Look at this little beauty. Perfect for Valentine's day, Christmas, Saturdays... you know any time. This pepperminty treat is creamy and so good. I make this in the Instant Pot, but also have a recipe for the oven below. I'm planning on stocking our freezer with a few different cheesecakes for a get together in the Spring. Cheesecake freezes so well, and making these smaller 7 inch ones means more variety and flavors. The great thing about it is that you can use any flavor candy you like and switch it up. It's the Girl Scout cookie season, so Thin Mints would be a great crust and crumble in a cheesecake. Oreo crust and cherry cheesecake? Sounds perfect to me! What are your favorite cheesecake flavors and combinations?

2016 Let Them Eat Cake- Cookies and Cream Oreo Drizzle Cake

Oreo drizzle cake with cookies and cream chocolate, Oreo cookies, a chocolate macaron, and a chocolate "10".

A couple of weeks ago I shared a Lemon Raspberry cake that was for my oldest's birthday. This week I'm sharing this Oreo cake which my middle girl requested. She actually asked for Oreo, and I went with it. This is my first drizzle cake. It came out pretty good considering I didn't get the chocolate the correct consistency before I put it on the cake.

2016 Let Them Eat Cake- Cherry Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

These cute little cupcakes are some of my favorite. The vanilla and cherry are so good together, and well, these are just cute. Pixie requested cherry cake for her birthday, so I came up with these. The pipettes were too long, but I guess that just meant more cherry juice. I have found shorter ones but these were fun.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bundt Cake

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bundt Cake

Sometimes you can cake, sometimes you want cheesecake. Sometimes you want both. This cake is similar to the Pumpkin Spiced Cheesecake muffins we love. Layers of pumpkin cake, a layer of cheesecake filling, topped off with a cinnamon streusal or a pumpkin spice glaze. Despite all the layers it's very easy to put together and bake up. This is the perfect coffee cake, Afternoon tea cake, or after meal dessert.

2016 Let Them Eat Cake- Lemon Raspberry Ombre Layer Cake

Lemon Raspberry Ombre cake

I haven't shared too many birthday cakes in the past. I guess maybe I have but it just feels like it's been a while SO today I'm sharing my twelve year old child's cake! TWELVE y'all! Can you believe it? I simply can't. It's crazy. Seems like it was just yesterday she was a wee little peanut at just five little pounds. Sigh. On to cake...

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I know it's Take It Tuesday but Jonas brought 30 inches of snow, at least! So no lunches to post, sorry about that! But I thought I would share the cake I made for Christmas this year.  We usually make a cake for Jesus every year, it's usually the same recipe also. This whole wheat carrot cake. It's the only carrot cake recipe I'll make. It's just that good. I made it without the cheesecake layer, then slathered it with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. For decoration I printed out a line drawing of Jesus, Joseph and Mary then topped that image with wax paper. I melted some chocolate and outlined/traced the picture. I also did some sheep and a shepard free hand. 

The gold stars are sugar stars I found. It came out pretty cute I think. The kids thought it was cool. I've used this method for cupcake toppers and it works beautifully.

I hope you all are having a wonderful New Year. My children are enjoying a 7 day weekend, and I'm loving every moment we're being blessed with! Did you get a lot of snow?

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Pumpkin Roll

Yum yum. I used the Libby's pumpkin roll recipe for this. I changed a few things around. I used my Pumpkin Pie Spice mixture. I used more cream cheese in the filling, and added a pinch of Pumpkin Pie Spice. I also added more vanilla to the batter. I may type up my changes later, but for now, find the recipe here on the Libby site.

Let them eat cake! Five cakes for the holidays.

Whole Wheat Carrot Cake

The holidays are fast approaching and I know that means lots of cooking, and lots of desserts! I thought I would round up some cakes. I chose cakes because my kids have been baking so much since we moved this past Spring. They baked the Whole Wheat Carrot cake pictured above and I wanted brag on them a bit,  my 7 and 9 year old did such a great job! It's one of our favorite cakes since early on in our marriage. The carrot cake is moist and flavorful. If you like cheesecake, this Carrot Cake Cheesecake Cake has a layer of cheesecake in the middle. So good.

Big Hero Six Birthday Party Food

I can't believe there's a number nine candle on that top cupcake. What on earth? I just keeps going faster and faster and people keep getting older and growing. These kids. I'm so blessed that they are healthy, happy, and growing. But come on now. Where are all my babies: Sigh.

Super Strawberry Cake and Shakes!

Is it strawberry season yet? I can't wait! I enjoy strawberries just by themselves. But I also think they are fantastic in this cake, which also has pureed strawberries in the batter. I also chopped strawberries and put them in the middle frosting layer.
Strawberry Freezer Jam is something DH grew up on. I haven't made it in ages!

Diva makes a mean Strawberry White Chocolate Milkshake too.
How do you enjoy your strawberries? What's your favorite Summer fruit?

I haven't blogged this cake, but I just took a vanilla cake recipe. Added strawberries and a tiny bit of strawberry flavoring. :) 

Strawberry White Chocolate Milk Shake

Peppermint Cheesecake Cake

As I FINALLY sit down to write this post I'm thinking, I should make another cake. I really like this cake. It's really good. But I shouldn't, because then I'd eat it. I mean I would share with the people around here but still. I'd be eating this goodness. It's so good. There are two tender vanilla cake layers, a layer of  peppermint cheesecake studded with Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses in this cake, then it's covered with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting. Oh my.

Hello, Sweetie.

I think this may be the cake we make for Christmas this year. Maybe New Year when Sherlock is on. Anyone else watch Sherlock BBC?

Give Peas A Chance Peppermint Cheesecake Cake

2 layers of vanilla cake links to recipes below
1 layer of Peppermint Candycane  Cheesecake- recipe below
Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses for decoration

Peppermint Candy Cane Cheesecake

3 packages of cream cheese- 8 ounces each, softened
4 eggs
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream, or plain thick Greek Yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
2/3- 1 cup chopped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses
1 tablespoon flour

Bake your favorite vanilla cake, add 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the recipe. Bake two cake layers and let them cool. Wrap well and place in the freezer while you bake the cheesecake. It's best to line the bottoms of the pans with parchment, this is the easiest way to cut parchment to fit HERE.

For the cheesecake-
Prepare the same pan you used to bake the cakes by lining it with foil or parchment. Spray with cooking spray.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Whip/beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy in a mixer. Beat in the eggs until incorporated. Add the sugar, butter, sour cream, and extracts to the cream cheese mixture. Beat well.
Toss the candies in the flour and fold them into the cream cheese mixture.
Pour batter into the prepared cake pan.
Bake the cheesecake for 20-25 minutes- depending on the size of your pan. An 8 inch pan will take longer to cook. It will wiggle in the middle, that's okay, it will set up once cooled.
Let the cheesecake cool completely.

To assemble the cake-
Once cooled loosen the foil around the cheesecake, especially the sides carefully.
Place the cheesecake layer in between the two cake layers. 

At this point you can wrap the cake well and place in the freezer until you are ready to frost the cake.
Add a thin layer of frosting to the cake, it doesn't have to be pretty. It just prepares the surface of the cake and holds in the crumbs. Place this in the freezer for about 20 minutes.
Frost the cake with the remaining icing.
Decorate the cake with chopped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses.

* I use Philadelphia cream cheese, full fat for the cheesecake.
* I use less sugar for the cheesecake, but I don't like things too sweet.

*Use your favorite vanilla cake, make sure it has butter, lots of butter if possible :) Or in a pinch use the Doctored Box method below.

Doctored Box Cake

1 box of cake mix
Add one extra egg
Substitute milk for the water
Substitute butter for the oil, an 1 and 1/2 the amount
Mix and bake as directed.

American Girl Ice Cream Social- Birthday Party

I tell you. The girls strung the signs so that H that's so far away from the "appy" is kinda bugging me. Yes, I'm a firstborn. Sigh, not that it matters. I'm so glad the girls helped and had fun.

I know that today is technically Take It Tuesday, but I haven't packed but one lunch. School is starting though, like next week. I'll pack some then. Today I want to share Diva's American Girl Ice Cream Social birthday party. We love our parties here on Give Peas A Chance. She was allowed to invite just a handful of girls to join us for an afternoon of crafts, carousel rides, glitter tattoos, and ice cream social madness. I kid, it wasn't madness it was really fun! I can't believe I have a NINE year old though. I'm old. Happy Birthday sweet girl!! We're so blessed to have you in our lives.
This post is going to be picture heavy, so get ready for it.

Let's start with food. Really though, there wasn't food. Just ... sweets.

 I forgot the platter I was going to put her "cake" on... and the candles. Will I ever remember the candles? So Diva, just like Piglet, did the "pretend to blow out the candles" thing. Oh well. Anyway. The cake was three cupcakes, and a sugar cone that  I tacked down to the lid of ... I don't know what that lid is from? Anyway. I tacked down the sugar cone, and cupcakes with frosting. Put the cupcakes and cone on top of the frosting. Then I grabbed a jar of sprinkles and dumped it in there. (This party was not here at home, or I would have found a platter, I was improvising.)

 So we had vanilla ice cream. Just vanilla to keep it simple. 

Toppings and such 

Fruity Pebbles
Mini Chocolate Chips

Sprinkles of all sorts
Mini Oreos

Teddy Grahams
Cherries

Strawberries
Red Hots
Mini Biscotti
Magic Shell
Whipped cream

Sugar cones
Mike and Ikes
Marshmallows (both the Mike and Ikes and Marshmallows were for the favor bags too, I didn't want to take any sweets home with me)
I also avoided gummies, caramel, nuts, and stuff like that because of Diva's braces and allergies.

Jello Poke Cake

Good ol' Jello Poke Cake.
So easy. A ba-gillion million flavor combinations are possible. It's not good for you, but who cares. It makes people happy. I even used COOL WHIP :o really, I did. But see, I put a strawberry on top, and that's fruit. And fruit is healthy. TA-DA!
 Find the original post here with the crazy lopsided cake on Give Peas A Chance.

Slider Cupcakes

Having a cookout this summer? Birthday party? Want to make a fun dessert? This weeks ManIc MoNdAy features Slider Cupcakes. I first made these in 2009 for Piglet's birthday. They are very easy, you can see the original post HERE on Give Peas A Chance.
Vanilla cake buns sprinkled with sesame seeds

Brownie hamburger patties

Coconut flakes tinted green for lettuce

Red and yellow icing for mustard and ketchup.

More burger toppings

Use tootsie rolls, in two colors and stretch it out to make bacon

Use yellow or orange Starbursts and stretch them out to make cheese slices

Use yellow fruit leather to make cheese slices

Serve this with

Toasted strips of pound cake as fries

Use strawberry jelly for ketchup

GPAC Blueberry Tiramisu

I took this picture at least one year ago, maybe longer? It's taken me this long to sit down and finish this post. It's quite silly, I have several posts like this. A list of ingredients so I don't forget, with measurements. Sometimes pictures of notecards with scribbles. Ingredients. Measurements. Notes. A folder full of edited pictures that need homes on here. Drafts that need tweaking before publishing. I'm always behind, but this is a hobby. This is fun, so I don't get too stressed. Book? What book?

Carrot Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Cake

Welcome to the best Carrot Cake post EVER. No really.
Carrot cake. Vanilla bean. Cheesecake. Cake.
Moist carrot cake layers, a layer of creamy vanilla bean cheesecake, smothered in a Cinnamon vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, topped with candied carrot curls. HELLO.
Perfect for any occasion really.
This cake takes some planning to make. There are quite a few steps but the methods themselves are easy. I made two of these carrot cakes, a round and a square. It's a long story, that had to do with not having enough cake pans, and what not. In the end I dropped a layer on the floor and had to toss it, so I had enough extra batter to redeem myself. I guess I just knew I needed that extra batter.

 To find the recipe for the cake and cheesecake follow these links
  Carrot Cake
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Frosting and candied carrot curl recipes are at the bottom of this post.

Some notes:

• Just like the Chocolate Mint Cheesecake Cake, this is cake/cheesecake/cake/frosting. I don't put extra frosting between the layers of cake. 
• The candied carrot curls on top were easy to make, and I got a great simple syrup for my tea out of it. The recipe for that is below.
• If you are making this cake and placing the layers in the freezer  in between steps, thaw before serving! It tastes better fully thawed.

Banana Cake Bars

I found these Banana Bread Bars on Pinterest, here is the original link for you. I made very slight changes. I know it says Banana Bread Bars, but let's face it this is cake. Just baked thinner. It doesn't have the same texture as a bar brownie or blondie at ALL. It has a moist tender crumb though, very cake like. So very easy to make also.
I reduced the amount of sugar, and this is still PLENTY sweet for us. I added some spices that we like in our banana bread. I think the icing/frosting is a great addition, but this can be eaten without like a snacking cake. I also like less frosting/icing on my piece. 

Chocolate Mint Cheesecake Cake

Okay, so I realize that my picture taking (lack of) skills are sad. You already know that, we're cool with that. Well, enter my photo shop collage making skills. I am not cut out for all this fancy stuff, I used a tutorial online. So... don't laugh okay? Just enjoy the goodness that is this amazing cake. And amazing it was. Cheesecake cakes aren't new, they are all over Pinterest, there's a gorgeous white cake one with crushed candy cane's that is just so pretty. I've seen Red Velvet ones that make me swoon, the Red Velvet one at The Cheesecake Factory is one of my favorites. My girls wanted Ande's mints though, so I went with that. This is very simple, I promise. If I can do it, you can do it. I am not a great baker. Nor can I frost cakes if you look closely you can see that.

For the frosting I only had enough whipped cream to cover the top. So sad, but I stabilized it and put it on the top. I used a regular chocolate frosting for the sides of the cake. 

 Use your favorite Chocolate cake recipe for this. You can bake the layers and put them in the freezer as you go.