The Best Bundt Cake. Period.

A lady in my neighborhood made this for a church activity and I immiately fell in love! I am a succor for any kind of Bundt cake! She told me where she got the receipe: www.thepioneerwoman.com

Ingredients:

5 whole eggs

1 package fo white or yellow cake mix

1/2 cup oil

1 package (small) instant vanilla pudding

1 cup half and half

1 t. almond extract

2 T sugar

2 T cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat eggs well until foamy. Add all remaining ingredients, except for the cinnamon-sugar mixture, and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed. Prepare a bundt pan with spray oil and coat the pan with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Pour batter into the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

To get cake our of the pain in one piece, allow it to cook for only 3-5 minutes. Then invert the bundt pan onto a plate and allow to cool and for the cake to slide out of the pan.

The recipe didn't have a frosting to go with it. I made a simple powdered sugar and water frosting. At the church activity, they made homemade whipped cream and put it on top of each slice.

Bunny Cakes

It has been a tradition in our family to have Bunny Cake for Easter. It just wouldn't be the same without it!! My mom decided 2 or 3 years ago that we all needed to know how to make them so now we get together every year to make them. They turn out SOOO cute!

Make a cake mix of your choice. Morgan and I (Krista) split a chocolate cake and yellow cake so our cakes would have both flavors. Make them in 9 inch round pans. When cooled down, cut the cakes in half and place them up against each other, with the flat part down. See picture above. Put frosting in the middle of the halfs so they stay together and on the bottom so it stays on the pan or cake plate.
Now frost and decorate anyway you want!

We cut the ears out of paper and color toothpicks black for the wiskers. We use those hostess cakes that are covered in marshmallow and coconut for the tail.

Enjoy!!

Happy Easter!

Grilled Pears a la Mode

We have been getting a lot of pears in our Bountiful Baskets and when we can't eat them fast enough, we tried making this. It is our new favorite.

5-6 pears

1 stick of butter (we did about 3/4 stick)

1 1/2 c brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Ice Cream

Cut the pears in half and put into a bowl.

Pour melted butter over the pears.

Add all the other ingredients to the bowl. Cover bowl and shake it all up.

Put the pears on the grill and cook 4-5 minutes on each side until crisp and soft.

Add ice cream to the pears in a bowl and use the extra butter sauce for the topping.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Found this recipe on Pinterest. It is amazing!

1 lb. large stawberries

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used the low fat)

4 T. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

graham cracker crumbs

Rinse stawberries and cut aroudn the top of the strawberry. Remose the top and clean out with a paring knife if necessary. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add cream cheese mixture to a piping bag or baggie with the corner snipped off. Fill strawberries with cheesecake mixture. Once stawberries are filled, dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. Refigerate until served.

Mini Cheesecakes

You can either make these cheesecakes plain and put pie filling on top or you can do what I did and put a swirl of jam in them. So yummy!

24 vanilla wafers

2 pkgs 8 oz cream cheese (I use the neufchatel cream cheese)

3/4 c sugar

2 eggs

1 T. vanilla

1 T. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat until light, using your kitchen aid or a hand mixer. Put vanilla wafers into tcupcake liners in the muffin tin. Fill 2/3 full with cream cheese mixture and back at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

I used homemade raspberry jam to swirl in the cheesecake. I put jam in a baggie and cut off the tip. Place 3-4 little blobs in each cheesecake. Use a toothpick to swirl. Then cook.

Chocolate Sheet Cake

We certainly don't do anything fancy around here, but when something is cooked up that we think you might enjoy, we love to share! These are a buttermilk brownie cake that has been a favorite of ours for years. Very easy to make when you need something spur of the moment, which I happened to need last night at 10:00 p.m. Hope you love them as much as we do, pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy!

Recipe:
2 cubes butter or margarine
1 c. water
3 T. cocoa
Bring just to a boil and pour into bowl.
Add:
2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
Mix well with hand mixer and add:
½ c. buttermilk
1 t. soda
1 t. vanilla
2 beaten eggs
Mix with hand mixer.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. on greased cookie sheet with sides. Let cool and frost.

Frosting:
1/3 c. buttermilk
2 T. cocoa
1 cube butter or margarine
Bring to a boil and add 3 c. powdered sugar. Mix together with hand mixer and frost.

--Lori