Friday, March 30, 2012

Citrus White Cake


So, I was trying to find a good recipe for a white cake, without breaking the bank. I love to use cake mixes, but sometimes the flavor its just wayy too artificial. Yesterday I was playing around with the flavors and I hit the jackpot with this one. Me, my sister and a friend really enjoyed the final result!!! If you want, you can take the extra step and use some good quality rasperry jam as a filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream to frost. Here at my house me and sissy ate as soon as came out of the oven. Yummm!
White Lemon Cake
1 Box of white cake mix ( I used Duncan Hines )
3 eggs
1 cup of water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter extract
Juice and Zest of 2 lemons
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray two 9 inch pan with cooking spray and
set aside. ( I used a big loaf pan , but it will work both ways )

In a large bowl, beat the cake mix, eggs, water, oil, zest, lemon juice and vanilla
until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove cake from oven and let cool.!

Busy in the kitchen!


I have been pretty busy yesterday and today getting ready for my friend's baby shower! I already made the cupcakes and cake pops, made some pompoms and got all the drinks ready! I'm excited and I will post pictures tomorrow once we get the whole decoration done!!!
Much Love!!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Chocolate Cupcakes

So, I'm throwing another shower this weekend with a couple friends for our good friend Jenny. She already have 4 boys, but without knowing she got preggo again and guess what: It's a GIRL!!
We are very excited and I'm sure she will be very happy when she sees what we did for her.
I'm gonna me making all the sweets and decoration, so I decided to do a little trial on this cupcakes.
THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE
Adapted from Kevin & Amanda
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
1 tsp butter extract
2 cups mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a very large bowl, mix together everything except chocolate chips.
Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Pour batter into cupcake tins. For cooking time, I usually do the toothpick test to see if it's ready.

Baby Shower Cupcakes



My sister got pregnant after 5 years since she had my niece. It was a big surprise and everybody was really excited. Because she didnt have much a baby shower with my niece, I decided to throw her a good shower for the baby boy.
I make a diaper cake, cupcakes, cake pops, pretzels and little fingers foods!
The cupcakes I made one of my famous white cake with strawberry cream filling.
WHITE CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY FILLING
White Cake ( I can't remember where I first saw this recipe )
1 box white cake mix
3 large eggs
1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Divide the muffin liners on the muffin pan and
set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the cake mix, eggs, water, oil and vanilla until smooth.
Pour into prepared muffin pan. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cupcakes from the oven and let cool 10 minutes.
Now, this is a extra step for those people who like their cake nice and moist and wet. Grab some condensed milk and evaporated milk, mix both together and with a brush you can put some on top of the cupcakes, just so they absorve all that nice juice and flavor. If you want keep it on the light side, you can use Ginger Ale to keep the cupcakes moist as well.
Now for the filling:
1 can of condensed milk
3 egg yolks
2 tbs of corn starch
1 tbs of vanilla extract
10 medium strawberries
Cut your strawberries in little pieces, very little, enough to fill the cupcakes and set aside. In a sauce pan mix all igredients together and make sure they nice and incorporated. You might want keep on low heat and keep stirring, since it becomes very messy in a matter of seconds. When the mixture becomes nice and creamy, enough to fill the cupcake without being runny, your cream it's ready to go. Now, grab the berries and mix with cooled cream and start filling the cupcakes.
For the frosting you can use your favorite kind of frosting, or in my case, the swiss meringue buttercream!
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Monday, March 26, 2012

Fun Weekend at Walt Disney World!

Living close to Walt Disney World it's one of the great advantages of living in Florida, other than the great weather. Me, hubby and baby girl go there all the time since it's very close to home.
We took a drive this weekend and it was beautiful as always.
We stayed at this nice hotel and went to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. It was really busy and the lines were kinda big, so we didnt really hit all the rides and attractions, but my daughter still had a blast. Can't you tell??
They have this great pineapple float that I'm gonna try and make it at home. I will let you know the results!!! Now, let me get back to trying to start a diet!!! :P

Thursday, March 22, 2012

1000 ways meat!

So, I know I haven't posted anything in a long time, but this dish it's something that everybody who comes and eats at my house, wants the recipe, that's why I decided to post it.
The name came from the fact that we can eat in some many ways and it's so easy. With bread, with rice, with mashed potatoes. I made a shepards pie out of this meat and let me tell you. It's Awesome!!!!
Everything start with a little ground beef and it just becomes this mix of great flavors!!
Easy Peasy Meat
2 pounds of ground beef ( You can use ground turkey as well )
2 yellow onions
2 green peppers
2 little packets of Goya with azafran
1 can of Rotel ( any kind will work ). I always use the one I have available
Cilantro ( as much as you can eat...I'm addicted to this)
Start sauteeing the onions and the green peppers with some olive oil. Once they nice and brown, you add the grown beef and mix, I always like to break the meat in nice little pieces. At this point you can add all the rest of the igredients and let it cook for a good time ( or you can eat right away ), but I like to let the flavors blend nicelly.
Usually while the flavors blend, I go in my pantry, grab some tortilla chips and eat some of the meat as a little dip, just because I can and I'm hungry.
My kind of sheppards pie: Once the meat is all done, you can lay the meat on a pirex plate with some mashed potatoes on top, add some cheese and put in the oven for 5 minutes on broil. Perfectionnnnnnn!!!
Or if you want keep it simple, you can eat with a nice bowl of white rice.