cool whip

Punch Bowl Cake

Leah Short — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Saturday was a rainy, dreary day here in Nashville. Perfect for baking, if you ask me! This cake is long overdue for an appearance on the blog. Punch Bowl Cake has a lot of history in my family. My mom would make this cake for my Papa’s birthday and we’d have it for holidays, too. I’ve made it a few times as an adult and it brings back so many memories. It also helps that it’s quite delicious with not much work to put it together.

Read more on Punch Bowl Cake

The post Punch Bowl Cake appeared first on Leah Claire.

Banana Pudding Poke Cake

Leah Short — Mon, 27 May 2013 17:49:11 +0000

Remember the Nilla Wafer dessert from last week and how I mentioned it came to be because of a dessert that didn’t? Well, this Banana Pudding Poke Cake is the dessert that I was writing about. For the holiday weekend (Happy Memorial Day!), I wanted to make a dessert to bring to my mom and her coworkers. Perfect excuse for me to make this cake. I love poke cakes. I’ve made strawberry and key lime, so now it was time to try banana pudding.

So, how’s it taste?

You know just the other day I was tweeting about how much I hate fake banana flavoring. I think it’s disgusting. Banana popsicles? Gross. Banana taffy. No thank you. (insert noise of a record scratching) Why in the world would I make a cake using that fake banana flavored pudding? I wanted to keep it true to the recipe, but I kid you not I had an internal battle that I should’ve used vanilla pudding right up until I poured it over the cake. After tasting the banana pudding on its own, I was certain I’d hate this cake and wish I had used vanilla and freshly sliced bananas instead.

Read more on Banana Pudding Poke Cake

The post Banana Pudding Poke Cake appeared first on Leah Claire.

Nilla Wafer Yogurt Freeze

Leah Short — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:57:58 +0000

Here’s a recipe that happened because another one didn’t. I’m starting to get pretty good at not letting food go to waste when my plans don’t work out. Which is a good thing, since wasting food is a huge pet peeve of mine. I bought a box of Nilla Wafers not too long ago because I’ve been dying to make a cake that’s a twist on a classic dessert (no spoilers here since I still want to make it). I planned on making this cake for a coworker’s birthday, but then luck would have it, I found out she didn’t like one of the main ingredients, so I switched to plan B. That left me with a box of Nilla Wafers. If I opened them, mindless snacking would surely ensue. I’m not going to pretend that still didn’t happen. Right there on the side of the box was a recipe for Nilla Wafer Yogurt Freeze. Three ingredients and no harder than waiting for them to freeze. Sold!

So how’s it taste?

So good! I just whipped them together and thought, “Ok these will be decent for a low calorie snack.” Really had no expectations. Oh yum! I made two flavors, one key lime and one strawberry. Both were really good and so refreshing, but the strawberry had me going “OMG these are incredible!” I think it’s because the strawberry yogurt I used had chunks of real strawberry. These treats would be great with any fruity flavor of yogurt. I think they’d be super tasty with some frozen fruit sprinkled in there, too. You can really have fun with this dessert!

Read more on Nilla Wafer Yogurt Freeze

The post Nilla Wafer Yogurt Freeze appeared first on Leah Claire.

Key Lime Poke Cake

Leah Short — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:45:33 +0000

If you’ve never heard of or tasted a poke cake, you’ve been missing out. It’s a cake you literally poke holes in so a filling can ooze down in it. I’ve been making a strawberry version for a long time, but for some odd reason haven’t ventured into other flavors. Enter Key Lime Poke Cake. Take a white cake, fill it with basically key lime pie, and finish it with a cool creamy vanilla-lime topping. It’s as if pie and cake had a baby.

So, how’s it taste?

It’s pretty freakin’ awesome if I do say so myself! It’s a sweet white cake smothered and injected with key lime pie. The only thing that’s missing is the graham crackers. I am not a fan of white cake, but gussied up like this I could eat the whole pan in one sitting! Ok, not really but I’d make a pretty good dent in it from trying. What I like best about this cake is that it’s so refreshing. It’s perfect for summer. The cake is sweet so it balances out the pucker from the filling, as it’s pretty tart. The original recipe gives you the option to add food coloring, which I did, and it turned it an odd shade of green. You can’t really see it in my picture, but I recommend the natural look. The filling is also pretty thick, so you can’t see it well in this picture as it didn’t drip down the holes as lovely as the picture over on Betty Crocker’s web site. I’m convinced they doctored their slice.

Instead of frosting like the original recipe, I used a different topping. Frosting would be too thick and too sweet for a cake like this. I opted for vanilla pudding mixed with whipped topping and speckled with lime zest for my cake instead. It’s much lighter and fits with the overall taste better. I made this cake for my mom and her coworkers and it received rave reviews. I had to hold myself back from eating a second piece when I delivered it. (Yes, I gave them a cake with a piece missing. I am a food blogger with no shame!) I decorated the finish cake (please forgive the phone pic) with strawberries, lime slices, and mint to set off the pale yellow topping.

Yield: 15 servings

Key Lime Poke Cake

Ingredients:

Cake
1 box white cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)
1 1/4 cups water
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
4 eggs

Key Lime Filling
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup Key lime juice or regular lime juice
1 tsp. grated lime peel

Topping
1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding and pie filling
1 cup milk
3 cups frozen non-dairy whipped topping (a little less than one 8 oz. tub)
2 tsp. grated lime peel
fresh strawberries, optional for garnish
fresh lime slices, optional for garnish
fresh mint leaves, optional for garnish

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with baking spray with flour.

2. In large bowl, beat cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

3. Bake 27 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. With handle of wooden spoon (1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter), poke holes almost to bottom of cake every 1/2 inch, wiping spoon handle occasionally to reduce sticking.

4. In medium bowl, stir together filling ingredients (mixture will thicken). Pour over cake; spread evenly over surface, working back and forth to fill holes. (Some filling will remain on top of cake.) Refrigerate 1 hour.

5. For topping, prepare pudding mix according to package directions using 1 cup milk. Fold whipped topping and lime zest into pudding mixture. Spread over cake. Garnish with fresh strawberries, lime slices, and mint, if desired. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

cake by Betty Crocker
topping by Duncan Hines

The post Key Lime Poke Cake appeared first on Leah Claire.