Too Long, but Back...Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Hello everyone!! It has been way to long since I've last had a food post. Life has been...well its been busy. There has been quite a few things and changes that have happened and work is keeping me busy, but thankfully I have a job.

I have been thinking a lot that I am ready to get my life going. Not that it hasn't but I need to focus on making things better and trying to figure out what I really want to do. I will still continue to blog and hopefully show you guys good dishes.

I asked on Facebook if I should feature a savory dish or a sweet dish and sweet won. So I am really excited to show you guys this recipe. It is perfect for the summer and oh so good! Its from Pioneer Woman and I actually saw this about a year ago and haven't made it until recently.

This sweet dish is a Strawberry Shortcake. This was really good. I love strawberries and the cake matched it perfectly. The cream cheese frosting is divine too. Its sweet, and has a vanilla flavor that matches the cake very well. I think this would also work well with a whipped cream (cool whip type) of frosting.The Pioneer Woman has great photos of all the steps so click the link to see them if you need to.  I really hope you guys try this, its simple and perfect for the summer.

I tried making a whipped cream frosting, which turned out pretty good, it wasn't sturdy enough to hold the layers together.

This iw what you want by poking the holes, you want the juice to sink into the cake.

This is how you make it.

Ingredients/recipe

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman


1-1/2 cup Flour
3 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
9 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
1-1/2 cup Sugar
3 whole Large Eggs
1/2 cup Sour Cream, Room Temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Frosting Adapted from Annie Eats

10 oz. cream cheese, chilled
6½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3¼ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4 tsp. vanilla extract

For the cake:


Grease two 9 inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Don't forget to spray or grease the parchment paper.  (I didn't have a 2 inch deep one, so I found this worked well).


Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and corn starch. Next, cream 9 tablespoons butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just barely combined. DO NOT OVER MIX!

Pour the batter into two 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, until it is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from cake pan as soon as you pull it out of the oven, and place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely, about 1 hour.

While the cake is baking, stem the strawberries and slice them in half. Place into a bowl and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir together and let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoons sugar and allow to sit for another 30 minutes. Mash one more time than divide them.

While the cake is cooling go head and make the frosting by mixing the cream cheese with the butter until combined. Slowly add the sifted confectioner's sugar. Once combined add the vanilla extract.

When the cake is cool, place one cake on a cake plate so the bottom is facing up. I poked a few holes in it with a wooden spoon. Take one half of your strawberries and some of its juice and put on top. Place in the frezzer for 30 mintures to chill so the strawberries don't move as much when you put on the icing. Do the same with the second cake.

After the cakes have chilled, take some of the frosting and spread it over the strawberries on the bottom cake. Top the bottom cake with the top layer, spreading the icing over the strawberries carefully. Once the top is covered, put the frosting on the sides of the cake.

Serve the cake chilled and store the cake in the fridge.

I hope you guys try this and as always, Enjoy!

Smoky Guacamole

Greetings! How is everyone? I am so excited because of this heat wave we are having in the Midwest. It is actually suppose to be hotter than I thought, but it is going to make a great weekend. I am also excited about this weekend because its Memorial Day weekend which means good food. I am hoping to bring out the grill to do some grilling.

One problem I always have is coming up with sides. I don’t know why, but I can never think of anything and I always like to try something different besides potato salad. One thing that I really love is dips. I love chips and love dipping my chips in the dip. 

This one dip is so simple and amazing, and you guys are going to love it. Guacamole! This couldn’t be simpler. You pretty much throw everything into a bowl and mix. One thing that I tried this time was soaking my red onion in the lime and lemon juice. I saw this on Rachael Ray, of course lol, and thought the flavors of the guacamole were amazing. I added two small chipotle in adobo to the mix to make a smoke guacamole. This is optional you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. The guacamole tastes great also without it.  I hope you guys try this this weekend and enjoy!

Here’s how you do it.

 

Ingredients/recipe

½ small red onion, finely chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lime

Salt

2 avocados

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

Cilantro- to taste

2 small chipotle in adobo from the can , finally chopped. (this is optional, do not through in the while can!)

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

First chop your onion and put in a small bowl, add the juice of the lemon and lime and salt. Let sit for ten minutes.

Put your chopped avocado, cilantro and garlic in another bowl.

Once the onion has been sitting in the juice for ten minutes add to your avocado mixture, mix and enjoy!

 

To help your guacamole from browning fast, cover with plastic wrap and put it directly on the guacamole. The juice from the lemon and lime will also help, but I find that keeping the plastic wrap on top helps too.

Enjoy!

First snowfall, Pumpkin Gingersnaps and Holiday Extravaganza

Hello! Happy Friday and TGIF! I am really excited because I have the weekend off! It’s been a few weeks and now I get to enjoy the weekend. I don’t have much planned just a little bit of cooking and relaxing as much as I can.

 Yesterday we also had our first snowfall! It was crazy seeing the stuff again, but I guess its that time. Did you guys have any snow by you?

So I have been talking about my holiday extravaganza for awhile now and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Last year I made 16 different types of cookies/bars/treats for the holiday. I wish I had better pictures of all the cookies. I don’t know what came over me, but I started my normal holiday baking and I kept reading more food blogs and food magazines and I just went over the top. My biggest problem was I didn’t keep better track of the treats I made. The same goes for my Thanksgiving treats last year. I know I made Gingerbread cake balls, a Pumpkin Roll and a Jell-O pumpkin dessert but I can only find one picture of them.

Anyways this year is totally different. I am planning and  watching the paper for good sales and coupons. I’ve bought a TON of butter already and plan to buy just a few more. I found an amazing deal on butter so I have been stocking up (1.99 to be exact and if you know butter prices this is a steal). I use real butter so it’s a bit more expensive so I have to watch for sales on it. I also bought my sugar and would like to get two more bags but I really have to concentrate on my chocolate and flour now. 

I have dug out all my holiday baking books, have bookmarked a ton of different cookies and I starting the planning. So far I have the usually on the list, Fudge, Peanut Butter Balls (two batches), Rolo cookies and snicker cookies. These always fly off the dessert plate first. I will share more as the week goes on and I should have my list narrowed down by next Friday along with planning my side dishes I am bringing to my friends for Thanksgiving (more on that next week).

Since I have been talking about baking so much I wanted to share a cookie with you. This comes from one of the food blogs I visit Two Peas and their Pod. They have a ton of good recipes and I saw this one and really wanted to try it. I really love the taste of ginger and I saw these pumpkin gingersnap cookies. I had to try these because I thought the two flavors would be amazing. The result was a super moist cookie that was amazing. Mine didn’t have two much of a pumpkin taste to it, so if you are afraid of it, don’t be.  One thing about these cookies, don’t take them out of the oven too soon. My inflated and as soon as I took them out they flattened. Don’t be afraid to bake them an extra minute or two. Since these are from another blog here is the link to find their recipe. I hope you guys try these and enjoy!

Everything I go through, plus more!

mmmm cookies, Two Peas and there Pod had better pics, but mine were still good!

Pumpkin Gingersnap cookies recipes found here