Fresh & Fruity Jello Cake

Hey friends! I'm really excited to tell you all about this cake! It's been a favorite of my family's since I was a little girl and we eat it quite often in the summertime. It's so light and refreshing and just the perfect ending to a warm evening with friends and family!

Fresh, Fruity Jello Cake

Now, growing up, my mom would make this with a boxed white cake mix and Cool Whip. However, since I am now a pastry chef and you are here for a dessert that's a little more impressive, we'll start with a light, airy sponge cake as the base.

Vanilla Sponge Cake (adapted from here)

1 cup all purpose flour
11/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
5 whole eggs
1 cup sugar
1 t vanilla
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin pan with liners. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined. Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry. Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake until lightly golden brown and tester inserted into middle comes out clean.

While the cake is cooling, make your favorite flavor of jello, leaving out the cold water. In other words, only use the boiled water it calls for and don't add the cold once it's done cooking. Next, prepare your cake for the jello. For this presentation, I cut the cake into two layers and poured jello over both.

For the whipped cream I don't really follow an exact recipe. The ingredients I use are heavy whipping cream, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla. The amount of sugar is dependent upon the type of dessert I am making (more for a less sweet cake or pie, and less for a sweeter one). The finishing, and most important, touch is the fresh fruit. You can use whatever you want for this cake. I chose raspberries and blueberries. Traditionally, my mom uses just strawberries. You're probably already thinking this, with the time of year that it is, but this dessert is a great choice for the Fourth of July. In fact, I usually make it every year, forming the American flag on top with strawberries and blueberries. This time I chose to fill the cake with the whipped cream and fruit and then topped it with the same for a more rustic, homemade look. I love how creative you can be with this cake!

Just have fun with the flavors, start your own family tradition, and most importantly....

....enjoy!

Have a wonderful, safe summer and take time to make lots of memories! Time spent with loved ones is more important than any thing you can own and even more than any cake you will eat (it's close...but, yes, even more than cake!) :) Until next time, happy reading and more importantly, happy cupcake-ing!

Happy Cinco de Mayo ~ Tres Leches Cupcakes

It's official. Mexican food is my favorite and Cinco de Mayo is now officially my new favorite holiday! :) I decided to try Tres Leches cupcakes and was pleasantly surprised! I've had good tres leches and bad tres leches so I took awhile before deciding on which recipe to try. This one is fantastic! The cake is a perfect sponge cake - light, fluffy, and delicious - and soaks up the three milks perfectly. Topped with a fresh whipped cream, these cupcakes are the perfect ending to a spicy Mexican night!

You start with a sponge cake from The Pioneer Woman....


1 cup AP flour
1-1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
5 whole eggs
1 cup sugar
1 t vanilla
1/3 cup milk


Then add the traditional mixture of milks....


1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened, condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin pan with liners.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.

Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake until lightly golden brown and tester inserted into each cupcake comes out clean. 

Combine the three remaining milks. When cupcakes are cool, poke holes in each one and slowly pour small amounts of milk mixture over each. (I took the papers off each one and then poured mixture 1 teaspoonful at a time, let it soak in, and repeated pouring for a total of about 3 teaspoons of mixture for each cupcake.)

Let cupcakes sit about 30 minutes to soak up the milk mixture and top with whipped cream. I made mine by whisking 1 pint of heavy cream with about 1/3 cup of confectioner's sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. If you like, you can top the cupcakes with a maraschino cherry. 

These cupcakes are seriously good and I hope you give them a try. They have a slight caramel taste and are just wonderfully light and fluffy. 

If you guys have been paying attention on Facebook, you've seen an announcement about a future giveaway.  Well, I need 15 more followers and I'll be giving away a sweet Cupcake Love Package: 1 box cake mix, 1 tub frosting, a decorator tip, sprinkles, assorted cupcake liners, and a surprise! So, spread the word and tell your friends to join us with either Google Friend Connect or BlogLovin! 

Next weekend, my family and I are going on a little vacation so, in honor of summer and the beach, I'll be making S'mores Cupcakes this week. Yum! Until then, happy reading and, more importantly, happy cupcake-ing!

Linking up here: SerendipityAndSpice, SumosSweetStuff, FlourMeWithLove, ToastieStudio, SkipToMyLou, LadybugBlessings, CoveredInGrace, CrazyForCrust, PincushionCreations, GingerSnapCrafts, MrsFox'sSweets, 733Blog, MichellesTastyCreations, SomewhatSimple, HousewivesOfRiverton, SevenAlive, ACreativePrincess, BearRabbitBear, LiveLaughRowe, OneArtsyMama, TwoSasters, PetalsToPicots, http://www.notyourordinaryrecipes.com/, LadyBirdLn, KitchenFunWithMy3Sons, WhipperBerry, TheGrantLife, BubblyNatureCreations

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie in a Cupcake!

When faced with two such delicious options as pie and cupcakes...why choose? Instead, let's put them together into one new, completely delicious and tempting sweet treat! I'm so excited about these cupcakes it's not even funny. Seriously. I may not even share them with anyone. Actually, I take that back...I just did the math on how many hours I'd have to spend in the gym and how many calories I'd have to give up over the next few weeks to make up for it. Nevermind. I'll just make the one that I do eat last. :)

My all-time favorite pie is strawberry rhubarb. If you've never had it, you must give it a try. You MUST. The tart rhubarb pairs so well with the sweetness of the strawberry that you'd think they were made for each other. A match made in heaven. A treat for your taste buds. I really could go on and on but, suffice it to say, it's fabulous.

Rhubarb - just beautiful!
*original photo here*

Here in Florida, we have a hard time finding rhubarb because it's such a hit or miss thing for the grocery stores to have it in stock. I actually mentioned this to my boss's wife and two days later she came into work with a package of this delicious vegetable for me - sweetest lady EVER! Rhubarb looks like celery but is a pink color and can be found with the berries. Funnily enough, not two days after she brought this in for me, I found a larger package at Publix and bought it too. I chopped all of it up and it's been sitting in my freezer, just waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Well, now I have and I'm sharing it with you.

Coconut Cream Cupcakes - Light & Refreshing for Summer!

Hey friends! We celebrated another birthday at work last week and it was delicious! To say that the birthday girl LOVES coconut would be an understatement. She adores it. She talks about it all the time. In fact, everything she got that day had something to do with the stuff. Her husband started her day off with her favorite coconut candy. She got to work where I had coconut creamer for her coffee. Then, of course, the special cupcakes I made for her were....yep, Coconut Cream cupcakes with a pineapple and coconut cream filling. We also had vanilla ice cream and crushed pineapple to go on top.

The recipe comes from a cake we used to make at a bakery I ran in Georgia. I have never been much of a coconut fan myself. I like it fine, but it's not usually something I would pick when given a choice. However, this cake is so light and delicious that it has made a coconut lover out of me. The secret to this cake is coconut creamer from CoffeeMate and I have only ever been able to find it at Walmart - don't ask me why. No idea why other stores don't carry it. But, trust me. Save yourself the time and frustration looking for it at other places and just go straight to Walmart. Anyway, back to the cupcakes....

I wanted to do these a little differently to make them more special for the birthday party. I pulled the liners off the cooled cupcakes and cut them in half horizontally. I then put a heaping tablespoonful of the filling on the bottom layer, cut a whole out of the middle of the top layer, placed it on the filling, and then filled the hole with crushed pineapple for an extra layer of flavor. Pineapple and coconut - such a classic summer flavor combination! I piped the coconut whipped cream on top of the whole thing. The cupcakes look like mini layered cakes and everyone really loved them!


Coconut Cake:

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 1/2 cups AP flour
3 t baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Coffee Mate coconut creamer
2 t vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with milk and creamer. Add vanilla last and stir until combined.

Bake at 350 degrees until lightly golden brown and toothpick inserted in middle of cupcakes comes out clean.