Culinary Concoction's By Peabody's Dr. Pepper Vanilla Float Cupcakes

Here is where you can find this fun recipe, one I have been wanting to try for a while.  I hadn't been able to find Dr. Pepper Vanilla Float soda, and so I have held off making these, but when I found my store had the pop again, I made these.  They are cute, fun, easy and flavorful, but unfortunately, they didn't taste enough like a vanilla float to us :(.  Anyway, I followed Peabody's recipe exactly, so follow the link to the recipe, and for 24 cupcakes, each cupcake was 307 calories.  We all gave these an 8.

Cake Batter Pancakes

So we found these delicious pancakes at tastykitchen.com, I love that site, and we loved these.  The boys gave these a perfect 10, and Aaron and I gave these a 9.  Each pancake was only 78 calories each, because this made a lot, and there is no oil or butter in this recipe, which cuts down on the calories.  Anyway, I followed the recipe exactly, I just didn't make the glaze, which would probably be even more delicious, because my family always says they just want syrup, sigh :).  Try these, they are great!

Birthday Cake Batter Cinnamon Rolls

So these might be the most delicious things ever :).  I found this recipe for cinnamon rolls on tasty kitchen, and although I made a few changes, I will just link to the recipe and tell what I changed.  I really dislike shortening, so I used butter in this recipe instead of shortening, and I used 8 T of butter rather than 6 T of shortening.  Also, I let the dough double in size both times, before and after shaping cinnamon rolls, rather than just doing a quick rise before rolling out the cinnamon rolls.  Lastly I made 41 cinnamon rolls, rather than the 16 the recipe called for, and each cinnamon roll was 243 calories. These had great flavor, they do taste like a cinnamon roll birthday cake, and the texture was so light and fluffy, just so great.  I loved these, and I'm looking forward to making them again!

Cake Mix Waffles

Cake mix waffles, what an easy thing to do.  You take a cake mix, follow the instructions on the box, and instead of baking the cake, you make waffles!  I didn't add oil, I added pumpkin instead, so it was healthier and I used up the left over pumpkin I had.  These came out pretty soft, I think because there was no oil, but other than that they were great.  Owen and Aaron gave them a 9, and Noah and I gave them an 8.  These are so easy, it is great to not have to do as much for dinner ;).  The cheese in the picture was from the scrambled eggs we had with our waffles.

Ding Dong Cake

So we tried this Ding Dong Cake the other day when we had friends over, and it was super duper good, and really tasted like a Ding Dong!

 

The original recipe I posted before, but here it is again.

 

Ding Dong Cake

1 box devils food cake mix
8 oz. cream cheese softened
3 c powdered sugar...
1 stick butter softened
8 oz. cool whip
1 tub milk chocolate icing

Prepare and bake cake as directed on box. (2 round cake pans)

Filling: Mix and cream the butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and fold in cool whip.

After cake is completely cooled split layers spread filling on each layer and stack, do not spread filling all the way to the edge of the cake, the weight of the cake will press it out to the edge once you are finished, this keeps the filling from mixing with the icing.  Then ice entire cake with the chocolate icing. You will be able to put a thick layer of filling between the layers.

I made the cool whip layer just like it says to, but I decided I wanted to make the cake as moist as possible.  I started with this recipe, and adjusted it to my needs.  Here's what I did.

1 box Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
1 small box chocolate pudding
6 T vegetable oil
1/2 c skim milk
4 eggs
1/2 c plain yogurt
15 oz canned pumpkin
2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Grease and flour 2 9 inch cake pans.  Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together, then pour evenly in the two pans.  Bake for 30-40 minutes.  Cool completely.

This was super good, and not very difficult.  The filling is so delicious as well.  I used store bought frosting, because I was trying to make things easy, but using your own favorite chocolate frosting recipe would work even better (because of the consistency).  Happy day!
I gave this a 9, Owen gave it an 8, because it is super rich, and Noah gave it a perfect 10.



Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Last week we made some yummylicious cupcakes.  I really liked this recipe because it's easy and kid friendly.  Whenever I use cake mixes, I feel like I'm cheating, not really cooking, but when it comes to kids helping out, cake mixes are the way to go.  The boys helped me make these, and they had fun.  I found the peanut butter frosting to be too thick, it was hard to pipe, but the chocolate frosting recipe worked out really well.  I got the recipe from Our Best Bites second cookbook, but here is a link to it on their website.  I will put a picture up soon, I promise :)  The only critique I would have of this recipe is that you have to use the liners, otherwise the cupcakes get hard quickly and they are too crispy without the liners.  Other than that, this is a great recipe.  Noah and I gave them a 9, and Owen and Aaron gave them an 8.  Coming up soon, a chicken recipe, and a lamb recipe, and a potato recipe.