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thanksgiving desserts

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Happy Friday! The long weekend is here and it’s time to celebrate the Canadian Thanksgiving! No turkey feast is complete without the dessert. No matter how much turkey or stuffing one has had, there is always room for dessert. According to Q, dessert goes into a separate compartment. Below are some great recipes to round out your meal.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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sour cream cake with cherries

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One of my favourite parts of summer are the delicious cherries that we get to enjoy. I could eat bowls of them, just by myself. Not only delicious fresh from the market, they are even great when used for baking. Cherry pie, yum!

I had been thinking about this for a while and I finally had a chance over the weekend to try it out.  One of my go-to cake recipes studded with cherries. The cake came out of the oven with the cherries blackened and the flavour intensified from the roasting.

It was a really great combination, served with a sprinkle of icing sugar right on top.

Sour Cream Cake with Cherries

1 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup cherries, pitted and halved

Combine the butter and sugar and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs until incorporated.  Add the sour cream.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add to the butter and egg mixture.  Put batter in a greased 9″ x 12″ baking pan and top with the halved cherries. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Once cooled, cut into squares and sprinkle with icing sugar.

1 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Combine the butter and sugar and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs until incorporated.  Add the sour cream.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add to the butter
and margarine mixture.  Put batter in a greased pan and bake at 350
degrees for 1 hour. – See more at: http://www.foodmamma.com/2013/03/sour-cream-cake.html#sthash.cuDnwAay.dpuf

1 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Combine the butter and sugar and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs until incorporated.  Add the sour cream.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add to the butter
and margarine mixture.  Put batter in a greased pan and bake at 350
degrees for 1 hour. – See more at: http://www.foodmamma.com/2013/03/sour-cream-cake.html#sthash.cuDnwAay.dpuf

sour cream cake for mom’s birthday

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Happy Birthday to my beautiful mom! She is a selfless person with a big heart and always puts her family first.

Since we keep Q busy with activities all week, we celebrated my mom’s special day yesterday. We had a delicious dinner out and ended the evening with cake. You’ve got to have cake!

I made one of my go-to’s – sour cream cake. I have been making this for years and don’t remember where the original recipe comes from. It takes minutes to prepare and bakes in an hour. It always turns out moist and is a favourite of many.

I love the versatility of this cake. It can be smothered in buttercream for a delicious birthday treat or baked in a bundt pan with a layer of cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts in the middle. This is also great as cupcakes, after adding a handful (or few!) of chocolate chips.

Happy Birthday Mom!! Love you!

Sour Cream Cake

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar for three minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until combined.  Mix in the sour cream. Add the dry ingredients and beat until combined. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
 

chocolate coconut cupcakes

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I am truly lucky to be surrounded by family.  Life gets busy, but every month, we have a family lunch for all of us to share a meal and spend some quality time together.

There are many birthdays to be celebrated in November so of course, cake was in order. I tried out these chocolate coconut cupcakes from So, How’s it Taste? 

The cupcakes were really easy to make and were baked in less than 30 minutes. I decided to go with a classic cream cheese frosting, which paired really well with the coconut and the chocolate. To top it all off, I toasted some coconut in the oven while the cupcakes were baking, which provided the perfect crunch with every bite.

These were great and perfect to celebrate both the young and the young at heart.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes
From, So, How’s it Taste?

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. coconut extract
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and coconut extract; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Gently fold in shredded coconut.

Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Fill cups 3/4 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes.

happy birthday to my sister!

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It’s my sister’s birthday today! Wishing she was here so that we could celebrate her big day. Instead, my sister is living her dream, working in the developing world, trying to make a difference. 

Wishing my beautiful sister the happiest of birthdays!  Can’t wait to celebrate with you soon. Love you!


sour cream cake

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My father-in-law celebrated his birthday on the weekend, and we definitely needed a cake to cut and enjoy. My FIL has two favourites – the tres leches and just plain cake. Since we had the tres leches last month for my MIL’s birthday, I opted for the plain cake.

Sour Cream Cake

This plain and simple cake is one of my favourites as well. It is moist and buttery and is so comforting dipped in a cup of tea. Since we were celebrating a birthday, I added some icing to make it more festive.  With or without icing, it’s always well received.

Sour Cream Cake
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Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Instructions

  1. Combine the butter and sugar and beat for a couple of minutes.
  2. Add the vanilla and eggs until incorporated. 
  3. Add the sour cream.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add to the butter and sugar mixture. 
  5. Put batter in a greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
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coconut cake with a red velvet surprise for mom’s birthday

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Today is my mom’s birthday!  We celebrated with family time, good food and of course, cake.

For her special day, I decided to do a twist on one of our favourite cakes – coconut.  I had made some red velvet cake pops the day before for a birthday and decided to incorporate the two.  Since the cake balls that I make are made of just cake (no icing), I placed the cake balls in between the coconut batter before baking.

I was a little worried about the red velvet balls over baking but the resulting cake turned out perfect.  The coconut cake was moist and the red velvet was a nice surprise.  Topped with a coconut cream cheese frosting and shreds of toasted coconut, it was the perfect way to celebrate my fabulous mom.

doodle cupcakes for q’s 4th birthday

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I can’t believe my little man is four today! The time is just flying by, it seems like he was just born. He is the most precious gift and my life would not be the same without him in it.

As with all birthdays in our house, we celebrate all week long and his celebrations started on Friday at preschool. There were cake pops and Spiderman and he came home so happy that he got to celebrate with his school friends.

For his actual birthday, I wanted to ensure that it was extra special and the cake always has a part in that. For the cake, I loved the idea that I saw on Sweetapolita with the doodle cake. I knew Q would have a blast decorating his own cake.  I decided to make cupcakes with individual toppers which we all decorated together. It was a lot of fun and it gave us a project to do on Monday evening.

The toppers were made with fondant which I cut into circles with a cookie cutter. I’m not sure why, but fondant really scares me. Well, it did anyways until I found this fabulous recipe via Pinterest.  A fondant made with only marshmallows and icing sugar via Clockwork Lemon. It didn’t take long to come together and, when it did, it was perfectly smooth for some of Q’s (and mamma’s) artwork.

I decided to forego on the icing and instead use a glaze. I’ve been using this recipe for years and it’s so simple to make.

The resulting cupcakes are perfect for celebrating a 4 year old!

Chocolate Glaze

3 TB water
2 TB butter
3 TB cocoa
1 cup icing sugar

Place the water and the butter in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil.  Take it off the heat and immediately mix in the cocoa. Gradually add in the icing sugar and keep mixing until you get the proper consistency.

Marshmallow Fondant
From Sweetapolita

1 cup mini marshmallows
3 TB water
1 to 2 cups icing sugar

Place the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and coat them with water.  Warm them up in the microwave in ten second intervals until the marshmallows puff up and can be stirred.  Slowly add icing sugar into the mixture.  When it starts coming together, grease your hands with butter and knead the mixture until it stops being sticky and can be rolled out.

ice cream cake…and hubby’s birthday!

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We celebrated hubby’s birthday on Monday.  It wasn’t a big celebration, just a small family dinner with his mom’s cooking and loved ones.  Hubby loves ice cream cake from DQ so this year, I thought I would tackle it myself.  The best part of the store bought cake is the middle layer with the fudge and the chocolate crunchies.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found how to make them with only two ingredients! Although the original cake is all ice cream, I added a layer of chocolate cake, to make it even better.

The verdict?  Hubby loved it!  In fact, he made sure we took the leftovers home, always a good sign.  The crunchy middle tasted just like the DQ version. The chocolate cake with the fudge, the crunchies, ice cream and whipping cream all together made the perfect bite.

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake
(Adapted from Our Best Bites and Brown Eyed Baker)

1 layer chocolate cake (I used this recipe)
3 TB fudge sauce
2 cups Cookies and Cream ice cream, softened


Chocolate crunchies:
2/3 package oreo cookies
3/4 to 1 bottle Magic Shell

Whipping Cream:
1 cup whipping cream
1 TB icing sugar
 
Line a springform pan with saran wrap.  Place a layer of your favourite chocolate cake at the bottom.  Spread a layer of fudge sauce on the cake.

Place the oreo cookies in a food processor and pulse until crushed – small bits not powder. To the crushed cookies, add 3/4 to 1 whole bottle of Magic Shell.  Spread this over the fudge layer of the cake. Place in the freezer for a couple of minutes.  Take the softened ice cream and create a layer on top of the crunchies.  Let freeze overnight.

The next day, whip together the cream and the sugar.  Ice the cake with the whipping cream. Top with mini Oreos or shaved chocolate. Place back in the freezer until ready to eat.

chocolate cheesecake

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We had a small family get together at my sister-in-law’s new place last weekend.  When we got the invite from her and her hubby, I offered to make dessert, and cheesecake automatically popped into my mind.  It had been a long time since I had eaten cheesecake, let alone made it.  Q decided we should make chocolate and I willingly obliged.

It was a great afternoon with spending time with family and eating good food. Both the kids and the adults kept themselves busy carving pumpkins. The seeds were scooped and roasted making them a perfect snack to go along with all the carving.

I found this recipe on the Hershey’s website.  I didn’t have enough chocolate cookie crumbs so mixed them with graham crumbs and it worked out just fine. The cheesecake was a hit.  This can be made into one big cheesecake or mini ones made in cupcake tins.

Chocolate Cheesecake
Adapted from Hershey’s

1.5 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
6 TB melted butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 packages softened cream cheese
4 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1 can condensed milk
1 TB vanilla

Add the melted butter into the crumbs and blend well.  Press mixture into bottom of 9″ springform pan.

Melt the butter and mix with cocoa until smooth. Set aside.

Beat cream cheese.  Add cocoa mixture and mix well.  Gradually beat in condensed milk until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Pour batter into pan prepared with the crumb crust.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until set.  Let cool and garnish with whipped cream and chocolate.