Easter Dessert: Fruit Ribbon Cake

Happy Easter everyone! I hope all who celebrate had a wonderful day! I went to see my in-laws for a while. Jimmy stayed for dinner. I ate with my parents.

I found this dessert in Better Homes and Gardens Simply Better booklet Easy Cakes. I think it was free with another book I received. I thought this was a really good cake for Easter. Colorful!

This was really delicious. I didn't have the raspberry preserves, but I had strawberry. I used that instead. Good substitution. I finally know what lemon curd is! Really good!

Fruit Ribbon Cake

Ingredients:

1 pkg 2 layer size white cake mix, and ingredients to make

1 1/3 cups seedless red raspberry preserves

2/3 cup lemon curd

1 8 oz container frozen whipped dessert topping, thawed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour two 8x1 1/2 inch or 9 x 1 1/2 inch round cake pans; set aside.

2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake according to package directions. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Removed from pans. Cool on wire racks. Using long blade serrated knife, cut each layer in half horizontally.

3. To assemble, place one split cake layer on serving plate; spread with half of the preserves. Top with second layer; spread with lemon curd. Top with third layer; spread with remaining preserves. Top with fourth layer. Spread whipped topping over top and side of cake. If desired, cover and chill for up to 4 hours.

Store in fridge.

Good 'n Easy Apple Cake

I found this recipe in Southern Plate cookbook (Love, Love the book!). I didn't have the apple pie filling, so I substituted a can of peach pie filling. So, I actually made Good 'n Easy Peach Cake! Christie was right...very easy to make. And, man is it GOOD! Loved it hot and cold. I served mine once with Cool Whip and the next time with vanilla ice cream. Both ways are delicious. It took the cake over to my parents for dinner's dessert. My mom called me the next day to tell me that this was one of the best cakes she has ever had!

Good 'n Easy Peach Cake

Ingredients:

CAKE:

1-21 oz can apple (or peach) pie filling

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

TOPPING:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup chopped pecans

4 T margarine or butter, softened

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease 13"x9" pan. Pour out filling onto plate and coarsely chop with knife. Place in large bowl and add cake mix, eggs and 1 cup nuts; mix well. Pour into baking pan.

Mix all the topping ingredients well with a fork and sprinkle over top of the cake.

Bake 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Taste of Home Favorite Sugar Cookies

I was asked by a fellow scout mom to bake 100 cut out cookies for the Coral Springs, FL Relay for Life which was yesterday. I told Kim yes as long as I do not have to ice them. She said she would have the ones that purchased the cookies ice them. The cookie cutter was a little small so hard to deal with. It's in the shape of the cause ribbon you see on cars. I had a few rejects and re-dos, but all in all, I ended up with about 84 cookies.

I used this recipe at Christmas time and they came out wonderful. The second batch I only chilled for about 45 minutes and were easy to handle.

Favorite Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Combine flour and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for 1-2 hours.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with 2 1/2 inch cookie cutters. Place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Crescent Lemon Honey Buns

I was in the mood to bake something this morning. I looked through the Pillsbury Breakfast & Brunch Made Easy, March/April 2011. I actually had all the ingredients for these. While my son was still sleeping I whipped them up. We ate them with scrambled eggs and sausage patties.

These buns are much smaller than the picture in the book, but they are so delicious! We loved them! The lemon flavor wasn't over bearing at all. We added the coconut which was great in them. I would definitely make these a lot.

Crescent Lemon Honey Buns

Ingredients:

1 pkg (3 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup flaked coconut, if desired

1 T honey

1 tsp lemon juice

1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp butter or margarine softened (I used a tablespoon. Came out great)

1 T lemon juice

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray. (I used a stone and it didn't stick)

2. In small bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, coconut, honey and 1 tsp lemon juice with wooden spoon until smooth.

3. Unroll dough onto work surface and separate into 2 large rectangles. Overlap long sides to form 13x7 inch rectangle; firmly press edges and perforations to seal. Spread cream cheese mixture on rectangle. Starting with 1 long side, roll up; press edges to seal. With serrated knife, cut into 12 slices. Place cut side down on cookie sheet.

4. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. In small bowl, mix powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice; spread on warm rolls. Cover and refrigerate any remaining rolls.

Campbell's Beef and Cheddar Soft Tacos

Last night was the second night in a row that my son made dinner. Monday night we had Schwann's frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu's (it was national chicken cordon bleu day) with rice. Last night we had these tacos which was on the back of the cheddar cheese soup. It was so souper (he he!) easy to make and fast. Good work night meal. I appreciated Jimmy's help in the kitchen since it was a busy, tiring day at work. He's such a great kid!

The picture is off the Campbell's website. I totally forgot to take a picture!

Campbell's Beef & Cheddar Soft Tacos

1 pound ground beef

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup

1/2 cup Pace® Picante Sauce

8 flour tortillas (8-inch), warmed

2 cups shredded lettuce

• Cook the beef in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, stirring often to separate meat. Pour off any fat.
• Stir the soup and picante sauce in the skillet and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling.
• Spoon about 1/3 cup beef mixture down the center of each tortilla. Top with the lettuce. Fold the tortillas around the filling.

St. Patrick's Day

I know I'm a little late, but I wanted to let you know what I made for St. Patrick's Day. My son is very small part Irish on his dad's side and loves to have an "Irish" meal. I oblige of course.

Some of what we had was previously made:

Corned Beef and Hash

Best Ever Potato Soup

Grandma's Irish Soda Bread

The new recipe I made this year was Betty Crocker's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie. Man, was that awesome!

Ingredients:

2 pints mint chocolate chip ice cream, slightly softened

1-6 oz ready to use chocolate flavored pie crust

1 1/4 cups crushed chocolate mint cookies

1 cup chocolate fudge topping

Directions:

Spread 1 pint of the ice cream in pie crust. Sprinkle 1 cup of the crushed cookies over ice cream. Cover and freeze 1 hour.

Spread remaining pint of ice cream over cookies. Cover and freeze about 3 hours or until firm.

Let stand at room temperature about 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with fudge topping; sprinkle with remaining cookies. Cover and freeze any remaining pie.

Raspberry Coffee Cake

This was made in March.

I saw this recipe on Nancy's A Recipe a Day. Nancy always has some yummy stuff. This was really, really good! I didn't have raspberry, so I used strawberry jam. I love strawberries, and will chose them over raspberry. I had seen this recipe and had printed it; one morning, I woke up and had to have it! I was so glad I made them!

Raspberry Coffee Cake

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup seedless raspberry preserves ( I used strawberry)

powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Beat cream cheese, butter, and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and beating until mixture is smooth.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the cream cheese mixture at low speed until the mixture is well blended.

Spread into a greased 9×13 pan. Spoon preserves over the top and swirl carefully with a knife. I used more than 1/2 cup preserves ~ more like 3/4 cup.

Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until the cake begins to leave the sides of the pan.

Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Cut into squares.

Makes 12 ~ 15 servings.

Before putting in oven.

Right after coming out of oven.

Old Fashioned Coconut Meringue Pie

I made this on March 14 - Pi Day! It's another recipe by Southern Plate's Christy Jordan. She has such delicious recipes. I LOVE Coconut Cream Pie! It's one of my all time favorite pies. This came out delicious, but I thought just a smidgeon salty. I think it's because I used salted butter. Otherwise, I thought it was great tasting. I did not make a meringue topping. I used the Cool Whip I had in the freezer. For the crust, I used Cristy's Mix in the Pan Pie Crust. Talk about simple!

Mix in the Pan Pie Crust

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cup Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Sugar
1 teaspoons Salt
1/2 Cup Cooking Oil

2 Tablespoon milk

Directions:

Mix flour, salt, and sugar in pie pan. Slowly add milk and oil. Mix well with a fork and pat out to fit pan.

Bake at 350 until brown, usually about ten minutes.

Coconut Meringue Pie

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

stick margarine, melted

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs, separated

1 heaping cup coconut, sweetened flaked

9 inch pie shell, baked (or the above Mix in the Pan Pie Crust)

Directions:

Mix flour, sugar, salt, margarine, milk and egg yolks in large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk until thick. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and coconut. Pour into baked pie shell. Top with meringue.

Meringue

3 egg whites

1/4 cup sugar

Whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar. Continue beating on high speed until soft peaks form. Pour onto top of pie and spread to edges to seal well. Sprinkle additional coconut on top. Bake at 325 for ten minutes or until top is golden. Refrigerate until completely cold before serving.

Cheesy Chicken and Chicken

This is another yummy recipe from Southern Plate. This was so super easy to put together and hardly any ingredients. I made this Tuesday night for dinner. When I got home from work, I shredded the chicken and served over rice. Delicious!

Ingredients:

2 - 3 lbs boneless chicken breasts

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can cheddar cheese soup

Directions:

Add chicken to crock pot. Mix soups, pour over chicken.

Cook on high 3-4 hours, or low 6-8 hours.

When done, the chicken will fall to pieces.

Make rice and serve chicken and cheesy gravy on top.

Banana-Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

I found this recipe on an email I received from Betty Crocker. I already had the cake mix and the bananas....so, I made them last night to eat with dinner tonight when my friends came over for homemade lasagna. The banana taste was slight; I would not have minded more. I used regular chocolate chips, which was good too. These were yummy. I used a different Betty Crocker frosting. It had chocolate chips. Made the cupcakes rich, but still great. They were good without the frosting, too.

If you want the recipe, you can find it here.

Savory Pepper Steak

I received a booklet with slow cooker recipes from Southern Plate. I found some that I wanted to make. I decided to make the Savory Pepper Steak recipe for Wednesday night. It was pretty easy to put together. It tasted really good. The sauce was tasty and I liked how the peppers got really soft.

I actually made this on March 5th. I just haven't had much chance to post lately.

Ingredients:

1 lbs 1/2" thick round steak, cut into strips

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper

1 medium onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 large green peppers, cut into strips

1-16 oz can stewed tomatoes

1 T soy sauce

2 t Worchestershire sauce

Directions:

Combine flour, salt, pepper. Toss with steak to coat. Place in crockpot with onion, garlic, and "most of" of the green peppers. Stir, combine the rest of ingredients and pour over meat mixture.

Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours.

An hour before serving, turn to high and add remaining green pepper. (I omitted this step)

Serve over rice.