Easter Egg Carrot Cake~Holiday Recipe Club

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It's time again for Holiday Recipe Club! This is only my second post with the club, and so far, it is really fun!! Each month we are given three ingredients to choose from to make a recipe. We must use at least one of the  holiday related ingredients. Our ingredients this month are spinach, eggs, and carrots. I choose carrots and eggs, and came up with Easter Egg Carrot Egg! I have used this carrot cake many, many times, and it is delicious!

 Easter Egg Carrot Cake

{adapted from The Cake Doctor, by Anne Byrn}

1 box Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Cake Mix

1 (3.4 oz.) Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix

2/3 cup Orange Juice

1/2 cup Vegetable oil

4 Eggs

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

2 medium Carrots, shredded

1/2 cup Golden Raisins

Mix all of your ingredients, except for the raisins and carrots,

 together in your mixing bowl.Mix for 1 minute, then scrape 

bowl. Mix for 2 minutes more.

Add raisins and shredded carrots. Mix in with spatula.

Pour batter into greased and floured egg shaped pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Take a toothpick around the edges on the cake, and then

let cool for 15 minutes. Remove cakes from pan.

 Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces softened Cream Cheese

1 stick softened butter

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 pounds Confectioners Sugar

Cream together the Cream  Cheese, butter, and vanilla.

Add sugar and beat until well blended.

Use a Wilton tip # 21 to cover the egg cake in little stars.

Cover the entire cake with the stars. 

Make some orange frosting with Wilton Orange.

Using a Wilton tip #5 squiggle a small carrot on the top of the cake.

Tint a small amount of frosting Americolor Forest Green.

Using a Wilton tip #2, frost some green on to the top of your carrot.

Now you have an individual dessert for each person 

for your holiday dinner.

Happy Easter!!

 

Improv Challenge~Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies!

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Today is the day for the Improv Cooking Challenge!   This is such a fun challenge, I just love participating! This month our ingredients are carrots and ginger. I immediately thought of carrot cake, but I was looking for something a little smaller, like cookies. This got my brain thinking about cookies, and then whoopie pies, the ultimate cookie!

Carrot Cake Whoppie Pies

(adapted from Whoopie Pies by Sarah Billingsley)

2 cups Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Ground Ginger

1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Salt

8 tablespoons Butter, softened

1/2 cup packed Light Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 cup Grated Carrots

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder,

cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt together. 

Set aside.

In the bowl that you can use a mixer with, 

cream together the butter and both sugars. 

Cream on medium for  4-5 minutes

until light and fluffy. 

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.

Mix in vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Add carrots.

Chill the batter in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

While the batter is chilling, make the cream cheese filling.

This is a recipe I have used for a very long time. I love it!

Cream Cheese Filling

8 ounces Cream Cheese

5 tablespoons Butter, softened

2 teaspoon Vanilla

2 cups Confectioners Sugar

Cream the cream cheese and butter together.

Add vanilla.

Add sugar 1 cup at a time. You might need more

if you want thicker filling.

Put filling in a pastry bag with a Wilton #12 tip.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use a small cookie scoop, and place circle of dough

on your baking sheet. Cook for 10 minutes.

Let cool!

Pipe the filling onto the bottom of 1 cookie,.....

and put the other cookie on top.

Delicious!

Thanks for stopping by The Freshman Cook!

Chocolate Cake w/ Cherry Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

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It's time again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge! This is such a fun challenge. Each month we are assigned a featured food. This month it is chocolate cake! Yum! Our job is to go out into blog land and find a chocolate cake made on a fellow bloggers blog. Then make the cake, and post it on your blog. There are some rules, of course, so once you join, you'll have to read the fine print. But you are going to join, right? It easy, fun, tasty, and really interesting! You will love it!! You should join!
I found my chocolate cake on a blog called Chef in Training. This blog is so incredible! I love it. It is authored by Nikki, who has the most incredible recipes ever! Her chocolate cake is the BEST! EVER! I am in love with her Copycat Wingers Sticky Fingers recipe. I love Wingers, so I can't wait to make them.  Her Navajo Tacos recipe looks incredible and honestly, I never met a Navajo Taco that I didn't devour! But wait until you try the chocolate cake!! Here it is:

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE EVER!

1 box Devil's Food cake mix 

1 small pkg Jello instant chocolate pudding mix 

1 cup sour cream 

1 cup vegetable oil 

4 eggs, beaten 

1/2 cup milk 

1 tsp vanilla 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well.

The batter will be thick.

Pour the batter into your prepared pans.

Let cook until done, about 20-30 minutes.

Let cool on a cooling rack.

  Cream Cheese Icing

2  8 ounce Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 cup Confectioners Sugar

Make your icing by creaming the cream cheese 

and the butter together. Add the vanilla.

Slowly add the confectioners sugar.

Make sure it incorporates and mix well.

Cut the two layers in half, widthwise.

Cover each inside half with a thin layer

of cream cheese frosting.

Then on top of the bottom cream cheese

frosting, place a layer of cherry filling.

Put the top on the cake.

Frost bottom layer.

Do the same thing to the top layer. 

Add top layer to cake before frosting. 

Frost top.

Decorate how you wish. 

Because it is the season of love I 

thought this cake was begging to be decorated with a heart!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some changes:

I changed a couple things from the original recipe.

Nikki used chocolate chips in her cake. I omitted them.

In Nikki's recipe she decorated with chocolate icing and

Skor candy bars. It looked beautiful, and I'm sure it 

tastes heavenly. But when my husband discovered that I was 

baking a chocolate cake, he asked if I would make cream cheese

icing and add cherries to the layers.

Because I can't say no to him, I honored his request.

It was delicious!

My husband swears that this cake is 

the moistest, unbelievably best chocolate cake he has ever had!!

He is right! You will love this!

Here is the original recipe.

Thanks Nikki for making this such a great

Crazy Cooking Challenge!