Pumpkin Crunch Cake

I know Thanksgiving is over, the time when we are still using pumpkin.  However some of you may still do pumpkin pies at Christmas or perhaps you are looking for a tasty alternative for dessert.  I opted for this instead of pie this year.  Much easier to make and you can get many more servings from this over one pie!

Same pumpkin-like custard on the bottom with crunchy topping.  I have pecans on top however you don't have to put them if you don't wanna.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake
JennyMac's Lipsmack also on Just a pinch

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 box yellow/french vanilla cake mix
1 c. pecans, chopped
2 sticks of butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly grease a 13X9 cake pan.

2.  Place in a large mixing bowl: pumpkin, milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, spice and salt. Using an electric hand beater, mix well for about 1-2 minutes.

3. Pour pumpkin mixture in greased pan. Top with cake mix. Pat the cake mix down. Sprinkle pecans. Pour all over with melted butter.

4.  Bake in 350 oven for 60 minutes or until set. (Jiggles just ever so slightly)

5. Best served warm or at room temperature.  Enjoy with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. If refrigerated the 'crunch topping' will get very hard (from the butter) so you may want to warm it up a bit in the microwave before serving it 'leftover'

Enjoy!

Spice Cake Mix Cookies

Sometimes other people in our lives move us to do something. I was wanting to make these spice cake mix cookies for two reasons.

1. K-man LOVES spice 'anything' especially with raisins. He also loves maple. I combined all these favorites of his in a cookie so he'd be very happy. However, summer time is not when we associate 'spicy' baked goods. We tend to think of fall or winter or the holidays for that kinda stuff. I didn't really care about that kinda like wearing white after labor day.

2. I have a friendship with a fellow food blogger. Ginger from Once Upon a Gourmet Gin, she is just a casual blogger just like me....nuthin' ferocious. One thing that we had in common was our love to create new cookies from cake mixes. I swear we both were chugging out like 1-2 a month for awhile there. I think we may have 20 creations between us. Anyhow, Gin has not been blogging lately but devoting more time with her family rather than blogging and I miss her. I made this cookie as a shout out to her. Miss ya Girl!

So if baking cookies NOW in the heat is not your thing....or the spice part of it is a turn off during the summer then perhaps print this out to use when you ARE in the mood for a soft spice cookie. Okay? Good. Let's commence the cookie goodness.

Spice Cake-Mix Cookies
JennyMac Lipsmack Creation

1/2 tsp. rum extract (substitute any extract you prefer)
1/2 cup raisins
very hot water
1 box spice cake mix
sprinkle of cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
few drops maple extract
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
variable milk (approx 1 Tbsp)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place raisins in a small bowl, cover with hot water; stir in rum extract. Let soak to 'plump' while you prepare the mix.

In a large bowl place the cake mix and sprinkle some extra cinnamon to your liking. Mix. In a short drinking glass, beat up the two eggs, extract then the oil. Pour into cake mix and combine.

Pour off hot water from raisins. Take your hand and squeeze the excess water and put the raisins into the cake mixture. Stir well.

Drop by Tablespoon (or small cookie scoop) onto parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes.

Prepare the frosting in a small bowl. Add powdered sugar, a few drops of maple extract and 1 Tbsp. maple syrup. Mix. Use milk to achieve the perfect consistency. Not too stiff not too soupy. Add drop by drop if need be. Set aside until cookies are cool or slightly warm.

Do not glaze cookies right out of oven or you will have more frosting on the counter than the cookie....

Frost cookies with approx 1 tsp of glaze. Swirling spoon around to form a small circle. Gravity will take care of the rest.

Moist, cakey, spicy, chewy....I tasted one for quality control. The rest go to K-man....I am a chocolate girl.

Gin, here's to ya! I've not forgotten about you my friend and cake-mix buddy!

Here is a link to my cake mix labeled cookie posts and Gin's Most Lemony Cookie of all time.

Enjoy!

Quick Fix!

Of course, all my biscotti has been put into gift bags and long been given away. Despite us wanting a little chocolate cookie fix, I also wanted to have 'something' in case I needed some quick Christmas Cheer. My remedy is the cake mix cookie for mixing up a batch PDQ (pretty darn quick).

Dark Chocolate Craving Killers

1 (18 1/4 ounce) box devil's food cake mix
1/4 c Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 c. chocolate chips (I used Hershey's sugar free choc. chips )

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Stir dry cake mix, cocoa powder,oil and eggs in a large bowl until dough forms.
3. Add chips and mix. Shape dough into 1" balls.
4. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until center is JUST SET.
6. Remove from pans after a minute or so and cool on wire racks.
7. Enjoy!!

These were just awesome. Of course, during the holidays you have people drop by every so often and it was nice to have these hanging around to serve with coffee. Hot coffee and a moist fudgy dark chocolate cookie= perfection.


Enjoy,

Karma and Kookies...

Karma, what goes around comes around. The nice/bad you do will come back to you? Hmmmm. Not sure if that always works that way....

Like many of you I have neighbors on either side of me. We all get along just fine. We hang out and do stuff with my neighbor on the right but not the other really with the ones on our left (we say 'hi,' have chats every so often but we don't socialize with the 'lefty' neighbors like we do our 'righty' neighbor).

Well my garden was booming so much that when my green beans took off they grew right from the pole I provided and onto the fence. So much so that the beans seem to be growing more in my 'righty's' neighbor's yard than mine. We joked and said that she should charge us rent, etc. We've been provided our righty neighbor with lots of veggies from our garden (she's more into flowers that veggies). When the beans were taking off...I told her that no way I was going to go into her yard and pick the beans for us to eat. Since she is putting up with our 'growth' on her side....HAVE AT IT. Enjoy the beans. See, I've been sharing my summer bounty.....

Yesterday K-man were eating breakfast on the deck and noticed over our stockade fence that shields us from our 'lefty' neighbors multitude of toys (they run a child care in their house) that 4 cucumbers were growing over it. They'd been there for days apparently due to their size. "Wow" I said to K-man...."look at that Karma, we've been providing veggies to our 'righty' neighbor that now our 'lefty' is doing the same for us...how nice"

Not even 2 hours later.....I was talking to our 'righty' neighbor about 'her' beans and how Karma was working that our 'lefty' neighbor is doing the ......GASP! I looked at the fence and they were GONE! They reached over (their heads - because the fence is tall) and snatched them back. Weird. They snatch the veggies that may grow....but their ivy and other viney weeds they let grow all over our fence though. Go figure!

So Karma, doesn't always work, like you think!

Since I was so sad about my cucumber loss....I had to make some cookies to cheer me up....LOL (not really, I never really need an excuse to make cookies!) I decided it was TIME for another edition of CAKE MIX COOKIES....

I went to my posting archive and I can't believe I've made 9 different cookies with cake mix....

1. Strawberry Flavored Cake Mix into Chocolate Covered Strawberry cookie
   
2. Brownie mix into a Triple Chocolate XXX cookie
3. Chocolate Cake Mix into Mexican Chocolate Crackle Cookies
   
4. Lemon flavored cake mix into Low fat Lemon Blueberry
   
5. Coconut Cake Mix into Almond Joy Cookies
6. White cake mix with pistachio pudding into Blarney Stone Cookies
7. Cookie Cookie cake mix into Oreo Cake Mix Cookies
8. Orange Cake mix into Orange Cookies
9. Yellow cake mix into Crazy Chip and Dip Cookies
10. Butter Pecan cake mix into....

Backward German Chocolate Cake Cookies
(named by K-man after he tasted one before I told him what was in it)

Normally a German Chocolate Cake is where the cake is chocolate and the frosting on top is coconut and pecan. But these little backward beauties are coconut pecan cookies with a chocolate top!

1 box Butter Pecan Cake Mix
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, toasted
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
Naturally Nora's Cheerful Chocolate Frosting (or whatever chocolate frosting you have on hand)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the first five ingredients together.

Shape dough into 1" balls and place onto silpat/parchment papered cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until center is JUST SET. Trust me, if you cook too much they will be hard and crunchy. 8-10 minutes makes for a soft and chewy cookie so be sure your heat is accurate on your oven. Mine is off since I have a pizza stone in it...my oven is about 25 degrees hotter than the dial says.

Remove from pans after a minute or so and cool on wire racks.



Top with prepared chocolate frosting.





Enjoy the yumminess!

Orange you glad I made cake?

Clearly I am totally getting a kick out of playing with cake mixes. Someone needs to give me a job in a test kitchen!

After I received my blog giveaway prize of Naturally Nora I purchased some more. I gave some away to friends. Makes me feel better seeing the REAL ingredients. Click on the graph below here so you can see what I am talking about....










I saw Donna's Poke Cake on Tasty Treasures and I made some with Nora's mix....(again the "BEEP, memory card is full" thing I mentioned before- sigh) and since I had a half box left I remember a cake I used to make awhile back (Donna's cake triggered this memory and I wasn't going to make two chocolate poke cakes back to back).

Orange Jell-O Cake
(you are thinking about how you poke the white cake and drizzle jello in it for a rainbow affect after you cut it? NO, this ain't it-LOL)

First: Do you want a 13X9 size cake? Or a 8X8 size? K-man don't need a huge pan but 8X8 works nicer for us. Follow the green or red amounts for the size cake you are making...

1 - 1/2 box cake mix (or follow your ingredient instructions for your OTHER favorite mix)
1 - 1/2 cup milk
1/2 - 1/4 cup oil
3 - 2 eggs*
1 - 1/2 cup mandarin oranges, drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I lined my cake with the non stick foil since I was making a small cake. You can grease, flour or line your pan(s).

Mix your cake mix with the milk, oil and 2 of the egg yolks *(I whipped my egg white separately and folded them in last to give my cake more PUFF. Fold in your oranges and pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 35 - 25 minutes or until toothpick come out clean. When cake is cooled, prepare your jell-o according to the package (small jell-o for 8X8 and larger box for 13X9).




Poke your cake with a fork









Pour on your dissolved jell-o.


Put in fridge until dessert time!

If you totally want a short cut...just buy a pre-made angel food cake from the grocery and put the large box of jell-o in it.


Cut a square in half and fill with whipped cream....

Top with some mandarin oranges...

Yummmm! But K-man doesn't like whipped cream much....he preferred it this way...

Very light and refreshing! Whether you bake your own cake or use the pre-made angel food cakes from the bakery....you'll love the fun you can have with jell-o flavors!

Here something fun to help celebrate your 4th of July in a foodie way....

Playing with my food...

Wheeeeeeee! I got my prize!

I entered Mommy I'm Hungry's blog giveaway and this is what I won....

More importantly....I got a handwritten letter from Nora too....writing notes is a lost art. How sweet of her!!!

Soooooo, I am looking at my two cake mixes....thinking....hmmmmmmm. I will make a cake with the one....what should I do with the other for FUN? Should I make a cake? Cupcakes? Hmmmm, it's been awhile since I made a cake-mix cookie though....hmmmmm. How about BOTH!!!!!

So here is how I did it....


I weighed out the mix and put half in a bowl. The directions called for 1-1/4 cups of milk, 1/2 cup oil and 2 eggs.
I figured for a half batch of cupcakes (the box makes 24) I would use 1/2 cup plus 2T milk, 1/4 cup oil and 1 egg.






For fun....I had some extra cookies hanging around. Some oreos and some chocolate cookies. The mix seemed like it needed more 'friends'....lol. Got out the ol' rolling pin...*crunch-crunch* K-man yelled from the basement "Come-in!" hahahahahaha







Here's half of the mix and the 'extra friends' added.









I baked the cupcakes for the time recommended on the box....nicely rounded tops.....

...and the mix cut in half made *18 cookies. *Not all shown for they were being tested for 'quality control'

For the cookie cake mix recipe:

Half of cake mix
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
2 tsp. milk

Mix. Add milk by tsp until it comes together more like a cookie dough. Bake @ 375 for 10 minutes. Let set on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and transfer to cooling rack.













Cook's Notes: These were awesome! Often times I can detect this 'taste' that all cake mixes have. It's weird, no matter what flavor the cake mix....they all have this 'fake taste' thing going on....Not this mix. AND, it was so nice to read the ingredients and be able to not only recognize what they were but also to pronounce them all. LOL. Thank you so much Naturally Nora.....and I promise....to make my next box...unadulterated! The Chocolate frosting was incredible...I will never use the canned stuff every again! Thanks Rachelle for the giveaway....good pick!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry or Easter Egg?

Or another cake mix cookie? Bwahahahahahahhaa.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cookies

18 oz cake mix Strawberry Supreme
1/2 cup dried strawberries, chopped
1/2 c. strawberry puree (or until dough is a little looser than the firmer doughs of past)
2 eggs
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Stir dry cake mix, puree, 2 eggs until softer dough forms.
3. Using two spoons, plop dough down on parchment papered cookie sheet and carefully shape cookies into egg/oval shape.
4. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until dough is set.
5. Remove from pan after a minute or so and cool on wire racks!
6. Melt chocolate chips in separate ziploc bags in the microwave about 1 minute. Knead bag until chocolate is evenly melted. Snip small hole in corner of bag. Drizzle designs to resemble egg decorating designs!

So I ask again...Chocolate Covered Strawberry (Gourmet Gin's influence!) or Easter Egg?

XXX Cookies!

If you are a fan of the Lipsmack here, you are well aware of my obsession with cake mix cookies. I've decided to give it a rest and try something new....BROWNIE MIX! Lololololollol. Gotcha! I've been so busy making K-man these citrus-y based cookies...I've been dying to have another chocolate one. Time for some chocolate porn!

Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies

1 box family style brownie mix (I used Duncan Hines chewy fudge)
*about 2 eggs (I used egg beaters)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (plus more for tops)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup coarsely chopped chocolate wafers cookies (mine were little chocolate cats from Trader Joe's)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place mix in a large bowl. Add your walnuts, chips and chopped cookies to fully distribute through the brownie mix.

The brownie mix was already using 2 eggs and 1/2 cup oil plus 1/4 cup water. I know I didn't want/need the water but I wanted to ensure that my brownie batter was going to be stiff enough....So here is the tricky part:

*I filled my 1/2 cup with egg beaters A LITTLE LESS than 1/2 cup. Pour onto mix. Place 1/2 cup of oil in mix. Slowly stir to see how it comes together. You want a stiff dough. I know I added just a splash more of the oil/egg until it came together as I wanted.


Use your small cookie disher or ice cream scoop to form into balls.

I then took each ball and dunked them into more chopped walnuts. Just half of it. Flip the ball over and....





Place onto cookie sheet and use hand to slightly press down. The nuts help to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers.

Bake for 10 minutes. If you eat one right out of the oven, you will think the middle is not done yet...but as they sit, they will firm up. You don't want to over cook them!

See? You want them fudgey and gooey in the middle!

Got milk?

Guilt Free Cookies!

If you have been following my blog you are already aware that I am on a personal Cake Mix Cookie Challenge. Over @ Once upon a Gourmet Gin, Gin has been trying to keep up with me...LOL. Hahahaha, nah, she's been bitten by the same bug as me. In fact a few days ago, she beat me to the lemon cake mix cookie (drat)....so now I must buy another lemon cake mix so I can try out her recipe! :) Afterall, she 'claimed' it to be the most lemony cookie of all time. She put some sour stuff in hers to make it super lemony. So, I must verify. LOL.

Alas, here is my version:

Guilt Free Lemon-Blueberry Cookie

1 box Lemon Cake Mix
1/2 cup egg beaters (1 egg= 1/4 cup & no fat)
1/2 cup applesauce (instead of the oil, but I think this should have been 1/4 cup, I felt there was TOO much moisture)
zest of one lemon
capful of lemon extract
1-3.5 oz package of dried blueberries
powdered sugar




Place your cake mix in a bowl.











Add whole package of blueberries and zest of one lemon. Mix. (I was afraid to add the juice of the whole lemon for I was thought it would make the mix too watery- I should have used less egg/applesauce and gone for the lemon juice - but hindsight is 20/20!)






Add your egg beaters and applesauce (sorry no pic of applesauce, I move too fast for my own camera sometimes!)







Mix altogether and scoop using small ice cream scoop into a small bowl with your powdered sugar. Roll around and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (it did not stick to this, but did a little to the silpat)

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.





Let cookies set on cookie sheet for a few minutes before you move them to the cooling rack.








Plate for cuteness factor....


Baker's notes: You read my thoughts above how I thought there was too much moisture. I should have mixed the egg and applesauce together FIRST then added little by little until I achieved the right cookie dough consistency. These cookies were lemony enough but no real tartness. The blueberries were wonderful but the cookies were more 'cakey' than crisp/chewy. Back to the drawing board...LOL. Don't get me wrong they were good - enough but in my mind I wanted chewy and tart...like a lemon bar. BUT....

K-man ate one of these and came up to me and said "honey, you deserve a special kiss for these!" Wow, well he loved them. Isn't that all that matters? SO, if Gin's cookies are better.....wonder what K-man would give me then? LOL.

You can't pinch me if I made something GREEN!

Just what you've been waiting for...more COOKIES! Pistachio Cookies at that. Quick and simple made from cake mix (of course, I haven't exhausted my cake mix cookies ideas yet!)

So run by the store and whip some up for your family tonight!

Blarney Stones

1 box white cake mix (yellow cake not recommended for the cookies will be a yellowish/green)
1 pkg. pistachio instant pudding
4 egg whites
Green food coloring
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp oil
3/4 c. ground pistachios
Semi Sweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix white cake mix with pudding. Grind up pistachios in food chopper and add to dry mix. Mix egg whites and oil together and add enough green food coloring to make you happy. The pistachio pudding will be slightly green but perhaps not enough to get a darker green. The desire is too get a good color of green...we don't want our cookies looking like lil' vomit piles, hence the reason for not using yellow cake mix. Add the liquid to the dry and mix. The dough should be soft firm. Place by mini ice cream scoop onto cookie sheets. Don't flatten them for you want them to look like little rocks. Cool on cooling racks until room temperature. Melt chips and dip bottoms of cookies in the chocolate. Place in fridge to set. Enjoy!

Kiss Me, I made you the last of St. Patty's Day Goodies!