Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake

This cake is very  light and can be used with chocolate wafers (which are really hard to find...try Fresh Market), but I used Oreo cookies that I separated. It's easy to make and tastes like an ice cream chocolate chip cake minus the thick ice cream texture. 

Ingredients:

4 cups heavy cream

3 tsp. sugar

1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. vanilla

1 & 1/2 packages Nabisco chocolate wafer cookies (or Oreos)

Directions:

Combine the cream, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whip until soft peaks form. Do not overmix. Place a cookie in the center of a plate that is at least 9 inches in diameter. Arrange 6 cookies around the center one, formng a circle. Spread about 3/4 cup of the cream mixture onto the cookies. Repeat layers, ending with the whipped cream. Garnish if desired with chocolate shavings, nuts, cocoa, etc. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours. 

Nutella Cupakes

This came from one of my favorite blogspots, Fresh From the Oven. Just so I get this out, I really feel guilty for using these pictures that aren't my own. I feel like I'm committing the unforgivable sin of plagiarism. I won't keep doing it, but I hate giving a recipe without a picture...it's no fun and gives no motivation or desire for you guys to make it. 

I made these cupcakes and they were very easy and delicious. I used the mini-muffin pans to make them smaller, but they are so pretty and swirly!

Ingredients:

10 tbsp. butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 & 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

Nutella, 12 tsp. (1 tsp. for each cupcake)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 min. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. The batter won't look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains. 

Fill each muffin liner with bater. They should be 3/4 full. Top each cake with 1 heaping tsp. of Nutella; swirl in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the Nutella. 

Bake for 20 min. and allow to cool on a wire rack. 

Mandarin Orange Cake

So it has been over a month since I've last posted anything on the website; I'm afraid I've become quite lazy with taking pictures of my recent discoveries. Because of this, the few recipes I'm going to put up don't have pictures that I've taken.  Instead I'm just going to steal the pictures from the original website just to get things started up again...I promise to take my own pictures next time. 

This cake recipe was given to me by my dear friend Ashley who raved about how wonderful this cake was. I myself haven't made it or tried it, but my mom did and she said it was easy and absolutely incredible. The oranges in the cake batter apparently make the cake very moist and light. 

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 ounce) package of yellow cake mix

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 (11 ounce) can mandarin orange segments

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, oil, and mandarin oranges with juice. Beat until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 min. Allow to cool. 

To make topping: In a large bowl, beat together whipped topping, pineapple with juice, and dry pudding mix until blended. Spread on cake.