Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Everyone always wants mine and Mom's Red Velvet Cake recipe and we always tell them it is no secret so after a few requests today I am going to post the recipe for everyone! This is a great recipe and I swear once you have a homemade Red Velvet cake you will never want to eat a store bought or frozen one again! LoL Mom and I have used this recipe to make layered cakes and cupcakes and it works great for both. If I am baking for people why do not like pecans I prefer to make cupcakes so I can top them with different toppings (usually pecans and red sprinkles) but if I know that everyone that I am cooking for will eat pecans I love to make the layered cake because it looks so pretty!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

Cake

• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 2 cup Crisco oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 ½ cups plain sifted flour
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 oz red food coloring
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 2 tsp cocoa
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
• 1 cup buttermilk

Cream Cheese Icing

• 1 stick butter or margarine (room temp.)
• 1 (8oz) pkg. cream cheese (room temp.)
• 1 box confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
• ½ to 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream sugar and oil; add eggs. Beat well. (Make sure the cream and oil is creamed!)
3. Sift together flour, salt, and soda; set aside.
4. Add food coloring, vinegar, and cocoa to the sugar and oil mixture. Add vanilla flavoring.
5. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk; blend well. (Make sure you do not skip this step. If you do not alternate the flour mixture and buttermilk it sometimes does not come out the same for some reason.)
6. Pour batter into 3 round cake pans or can use 1 sheet cake pan. (If making a layer cake line the bottom of the round pans with parchment paper and grease the pans so you can insure your cakes come out of the pans cleanly.)
7. Bake for about 35 minutes. Let layers cool after baking.
8. For icing: Beat together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla flavoring. Add nuts if desired.

I make cupcakes with this recipe all the time. This recipe will make like 3 dozen cupcakes and they will probably need to cook between 15 and 20 minutes. 


I hope everyone enjoys this recipe!!!!

Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta

I do not make pasta with homemade sauce very often because I find that sometimes it can kind of be a little pricey but this dish is worth every penny!!! My mom actually found this recipe online but it is so good and it looks pretty!

Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta:

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
• 4 ounces linguine, cooked al dente
• 2 teaspoons cajun seasoning (your recipe, Cajun Seasoning Mix or store-bought)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 thinly sliced green onion
• 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes (I added way more sun-dried tomatoes than this to give more flavor)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Red Pepper Flakes to taste (Be careful with these because they can become very spicy/strong after being cooked for a little while or after being stored in the fridge after being cooked.)

Instructions:

1. Place chicken and Cajun seasoning in a bowl and toss to coat. 
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté chicken in butter or margarine until chicken is tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Reduce heat add green onion, heavy cream, tomatoes, basil, salt, garlic powder, black pepper and heat through (I added more Cajun seasoning and a few red pepper flakes for more heat in my sauce. I also cooked the sauce for a little while so it would thicken up).
4. Pour over hot linguine and toss with Parmesan cheese.
    

The thing to remember when it comes to seasonings and herbs is to add as much or as little as you like. If a recipe calls for a spice that I do not care for or that my family does not care for I replace it with something else or just leave it out. 

 

S'mores Bars

If you know me, you know that 95% of the time I like to cook meals and desserts that are quick and easy. The other day I really wanted some s'mores but had no graham crackers or chocolate bar but I found this recipe and it is so easy and delicious.

S'mores Bars:

Ingredients:
 
1 pouch sugar cookie mix
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 bag chocolate chips
1 bag marshmallows

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F. 
2. In food processes blend one cup of graham crackers (I just crushed the crackers in a plastic bag, the less dishes the better)
3. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix (according to directions) and cracker crumbs.  
4. Press into ungreased 13×9-inch pan (I would actually grease the pan with Pam).
5. Bake 13 to 15 minutes. 
6. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to melt. (I had to pop mine in the oven for just a few seconds)
7. Spread chocolate evenly over crust.
8. Set oven control to broil. 
9. Sprinkle marshmallows over melted chocolate. 
10. Broil with top 5 to 6 inches from heat 20 to 30 seconds or until marshmallows are toasted. (Watch very carefully because one second they are not toasted and the next second they will be burnt)

I think these would be great for a get together but if you would like to use them as a party food I would not actually place the marshmallows on top and toast them until close to the time you are going to serve them. They taste more like a s'more when they are warm!

Southwestern Egg-rolls

So this is my first time ever blogging! This weekend I decided that I wanted to try cooking something different so I found a recipe for Southwestern Egg-rolls with an Avocado Ranch dipping sauce and they turned out pretty good.
Sorry the picture is not very good but being new at this blogging thing of course I forgot to take a picture of them while they were on the platter.

Southwestern Egg-rolls with Avocado Ranch:

Ingredients for Egg-roll:

• 1- 15 oz can of whole kernel corn
• 1- 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1- 9 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry with paper towel
• 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese (I think that they could have used 3 cups)
• 4 oz can diced green chiles, drained
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (I used more salt than this because I love salt)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 package of egg roll or wonton wrappers (I tried using wonton wrappers with a few and I don't think they turned out as well)

Avocado Ranch Dipping Sauce: (I had to double this recipe)

• 1/2 cup ranch salad dressing
• 1/2 medium ripe avocado, peeled and mashed
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon grated lime peel (I didn't have a lime so I used a squeeze of bottled lime juice)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. In a large bowl mix all the egg roll ingredients together ( except the egg-roll wrappers).
3. There should be instructions on the back of the wrappers about how to roll them.
4. Once they are all wrapped place egg rolls onto parchment paper on a baking sheet.
5. Brush a small amount of Olive Oil onto each roll and cook for 15 minutes (I had to cook mine for almost 30 minutes and I turned them about 3 times). You will have to turn them once.
6. They are ready once they are golden brown.
7. For the ranch sauce I used a miniature blender to just grind everything up.

I was able to make about 14 good sized egg-rolls with this recipe. I made these for dinner but they would also be a very good appetizer.  The text that I have placed in red is how I changed the original recipe.