Tag: easy dessert

Categories
Dessert

Reese’s cake nearly got the ‘butter’ of me this time

With a boxed cake mix and only a few frosting ingredients, this cake boasts the flavors of a Reese's candy bar.
With a boxed cake mix and only a few frosting ingredients, this cake boasts the flavors of a Reese’s candy bar.

There are so many neat videos online that give an insider’s view of all kinds of professions.

For some reason, I can get absolutely lost watching someone power wash a driveway, paint fingernails or frost cakes and cookies.

And then I have it in my head that I could also easily accomplish any of these seemingly mundane tasks—especially if it deals with the kitchen.

I think that’s why I got especially frustrated this past weekend when I could not, for the life of me, properly frost the chocolate cake I was planning on taking for a family lunch. The thick peanut butter frosting only wanted to stick to my knife, my hands or itself, but it was completely immune to sticking to my soft cake.

It was one of those moments where Joey came in the kitchen, asked how things were going, and then slowly backed away and out of the room after seeing the frustration on my face.

So, the bad news is that I didn’t make a beautiful, video-worthy cake this week. It was definitely not winning any beauty contests. The good news, though, is it tasted pretty darn good, and despite being tough to frost, it actually came together really quickly.

The recipe I used came from the blog “Oh, Bite It!” You can find the original post at https://www.ohbiteit.com/2014/03/inside-out-reeses-peanut-butter-cake.html. I didn’t adjust any of the ingredients, because this was incredibly easy, but I will give you some ideas on how to better frost this cake in my version below.

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Reese’s Cake

With a boxed cake mix and only a few frosting ingredients, this cake boasts the flavors of a Reese's candy bar.
Course Dessert
Keyword cake mix, chocolate cake, creamy peanut butter, easy dessert, layered cake, peanut butter, powdered sugar, Reese’s

Ingredients

  • 1 chocolate cake mix and ingredients from package
  • 2 cups creamy peanut butter
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Prepare your cake mix in two eight-inch, round cake pans, according to the package directions. Set them aside to cool.
  • In a glass mixing bowl, beat the peanut butter, powdered sugar and salt until it is fluffy and well combined.
  • Pop the bowl into the microwave for a few seconds (start with 20) to thin the frosting out a bit before frosting your cake.
  • Place one of your cakes onto a plate and slather a thin layer of frosting on top. Top with the other cake and cover the whole layer cake to your liking with the rest of the frosting. If it’s still difficult to work with, microwave it just a bit more. Just be careful not to make it so runny that you have the opposite problem to thick frosting.
  • Serve your cake immediately or store in an airtight container.

This really was tasty. I used a devil’s food mix, but I also could have easily just used my from-scratch chocolate dump cake recipe that I love, if I wanted to.

At our family dinner, my four-year-old niece informed me that she only wanted to eat the frosting. Considering the amount of candy I watched her eat that afternoon, I don’t think leaving the cake on her plate was a bad decision.

But I must admit I was a little grumpy as I watched her scrape all of my hard-fought icing off of the cake. “If only she knew what I went through to get that on there,” I thought.

But then I remembered she’s four. You don’t get much sympathy from a four year old.

This piece first appeared in print on April 28, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Breakfast Dessert

With new recipes, you ‘cinna’ some, you lose some

Cinnamon roll cake is made very simply, with refrigerated cinnamon rolls and a few extra ingredients.
Cinnamon roll cake is made very simply, with refrigerated cinnamon rolls and a few extra ingredients.

I’d like to think I’m not easily swayed by pretty pictures, but I was totally taken in last week by a photo of these amazing-looking molten cinnamon rolls.

They promised a warm, inviting cinnamon roll with oozing, melty cream cheese in the center.

Of course, I immediately bought a couple tubes of cinnamon rolls to give it a try.

I followed the recipe very closely (which everyone who knows me realizes was a struggle for me), and after wrapping little scoops of a frozen cream cheese mixture with the pre-made dough, I couldn’t wait to see my delicious molten cinnamon rolls come out of the oven.

The timer dinged, and I couldn’t wait to let them cool even a few minutes before I scooped one out and cut it in half.

And…nothing.

The cream cheese mixture had simply melted into the dough. All I accomplished was making some cream-cheesier-tasting cinnamon rolls, and nothing else.

So then I had the problem of another tube of cinnamon rolls in my fridge to solve. I was so sure that my molten rolls were going to be a hit, I already bought a second tube in anticipation. Well, as always, the Internet provided, which is where this week’s very simple recipe comes into play.

This comes from the blog “Love Bakes Good Cakes.” You can find the original post at https://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/cinnamon-roll-crumb-cake/. I added extra cinnamon in my version.

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Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cinnamon roll cake is made very simply, with refrigerated cinnamon rolls and a few extra ingredients.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword brown sugar, canned cinnamon rolls, cinnamon, cinnamon roll, easy breakfast, easy dessert

Ingredients

  • 17.5- ounce tube refrigerated cinnamon rolls
  • 3 tablespoons butter melted
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 rounded teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an eight-inch cake or pie pan by spraying it with cooking spray.
  • Pop open the tube of cinnamon rolls. Set aside the frosting, and start by placing one cinnamon roll in the center of your prepared pan. Unroll the next cinnamon roll and create one, giant cinnamon roll shape by wrapping it around the roll in the middle. Continue until all of the rolls are used.
  • In a bowl, mix the butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon until the mixture is well-combined and crumbly.
  • Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top of the cinnamon rolls, and bake for 25 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned.
  • Drizzle or pour the frosting over the top of the cake, and serve immediately. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

This was very simple, but it had a wow factor, since it cuts into nice slices for serving. It looks a lot more complicated and impressive than it really is to make.

The addition of the extra crumble on top was really yummy, too, and this was great with a cup of coffee.

And I was glad I was able to find a use for my tube of cinnamon rolls after all. I always hate it when a recipe doesn’t work out, but in this case, at least it wasn’t terrible to have to eat my mistakes.

This piece first appeared in print on March 31, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

You’ll pine for this no bake cheesecake

No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.
No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.

It seems like barbecues and gatherings happen at a moment’s notice during the summer. As a lover of dessert, I often find that these gatherings are full of all kinds of delicious salads and entrees but are often lacking on the sweet side of the palate.

Obviously, I’ve taken it upon myself to fix this issue.

Unfortunately, making dessert quickly can sometimes be tough, so this week’s recipe is a great one to file away for a time when you need something sweet and don’t have a lot of time to make it.

And I even bought a pre-made graham cracker crust rather than making my own. I decided to

make this a true no-bake experience.

(Although you can easily make a graham cracker crust in the microwave with a glass pie plate if you want to. Just melt one-quarter cup of butter in a nine-inch glass pie plate in the

microwave. Stir in one-quarter cup of sugar and a cup of finely crushed graham crackers into the butter and then press the mixture into the pan. Microwave for about three minutes and cool before filling.)

This recipe for a no bake pineapple cheesecake came from the blog “The Shabby Creek Cottage.” You can find it at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/pineapplecheesecake-in-a-jar.html.

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No Bake Pineapple Cheesecake

No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.
Course Dessert
Keyword cheesecake pudding, crushed pineapple, easy dessert, graham cracker crust, no bake, summer dessert, whipped topping

Ingredients

  • 1 graham cracker pie crust
  • 2 3.4- ounce boxes cheesecake instant pudding
  • 20 ounces crushed pineapple in pineapple juice
  • 8 ounces whipped topping

Instructions

  • In a bowl, combine the instant pudding and pineapple (juice included). Mix well.
  • Fold in the whipped topping and then pour the mixture into the pie crust.
  • Smooth until it looks nice and refrigerate at least two hours or until completely set up.

If you want the pieces to come out of the pie perfectly, I’d suggest freezing the pie rather than just refrigerating it. We ended up with big, delicious globs of cheesecake on our plates rather than perfectly formed pie slices (but no one complained about that one).

This was a very refreshing dessert, and if you like pineapple, you’ll like this. I also wondered if placing just a few maraschino cherries on top wouldn’t be good, too, with its nod to pineapple upside down cake, but it doesn’t really need anything more to be absolutely perfect.

Also, if you can’t do the graham crackers, just make the filling and refrigerate it. It’s good all on its own, or you could put the filling out as a dip with graham crackers on the side if you wanted a smaller dessert option.

No matter what, you can’t go wrong with a yummy homemade dessert that you can make with almost no effort so you can go out and enjoy time with family and friends.

This piece first appeared in print on July 7, 2016.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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