Easy Pumpkin Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake

One yellow cake mix with pudding

One can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/3 cup oil

3 eggs

4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Empty cake mix into mixing bowl. Add pumpkin, oil, eggs and pumpkin pie spice. Mix. Bake according to package instruction.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz cream cheese, softened

2 stick butter, softened

8 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla

Beat one cream cheese and butter with electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add 2 tablespoons  milk & vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in 8 cups powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, until smooth. Makes 4-1/3 cups.

Cindy getting an extra taste of the frosting!!

Bobby loved this cake...so much he ate 2 slices last night and then told me this morning I needed to take it to work because it was too good.  So I brought it to work today for 'breakfast' for the girls!  So far everyone has liked it...

Sweet Baking,

Kim

 

Orange Blossoms

These were a big hit at work!! 

Cookie:

1 box Orange Cake mix

2 eggs

½ cup oil

Mix, roll into balls, bake at 350 for 12 mins

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp (or as much or little as you like) Orange extract

2 – 4 tbsp milk

Stir, adding milk to make it creamy, frost cookies on the flat side to keep the glaze from dripping off the sides.

Sweet Baking,
Kim

Mr.Goode Bar Chocolate Cookies

1 box devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
10 mini fun size candy bars, chopped

mix all ingreds except candy, roll dough into 1 in balls or bigger then I flattened out the ball in my hand and added the pieces of candy to the center of the ball and rolled it up again and place on the cookie sheet, bake at 350 for 12 mins.

If you dont want to add candy you can roll the balls in powdered sugar before baking and they turn out to be Chocolate Krinkles! yummy too!

 

Snickerdoodles from Cake Mix

I love to bake, can you tell?  But I dont always have time for 'homemade' stuff. Sometimes I have to do short cuts to bake or cook for the family.  Some of my favorite cookies to make are ones made from cake mixes.  My homemaking teacher from Gunter High School (Marilyn Davis) gave us a recipe my freshman year in high school (way back in 1984) that has been with me ever since.  It is probably the only 'recipe' card I kept from the recipe box we made that year.

This is my version of Snickerdoodles...

(I forgot to add the ground Cinnamon in the pictue)

Ingredients

1 Yellow cake mix
2 Eggs
1/3 cup Vegetable oil
1/2 cup Cinnamon-Sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
2 teaspoons Ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons Nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large bowl mix cake mix, oil, eggs, nutmeg, ground cinnamon, and vanilla extract.
3. Stir until well blended.
4. Place your Cinnamon-Sugar in a small bowl
5. Form cookie dough into 1 inch balls.
6. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture until completely covered.
7. Place on cookie sheets.
8. Bake@ 350 for 12 mins or until lightly browned.

Sweet Baking,

Kim

We are family....

It has been about 15 days or so since my last posting...not that I have any readers yet - but my Labor Day weekend was spent in Sulpher, Oklahoma at the Mathis Family Reunion.  I went by myself to Gunter, Texas to pick up my Mom and then headed North to Sulpher.  From my house to the Chickasaw National Park was 322 miles, and suppose to be 6 hours but with construction and traffic and a few stops along the way it was more like 8 hours. 

I dont know if my Mom and I have ever gone off together by ourselves without my son, or stepdad, or my brother.  It was great and she had the best time!  It was so good to see my family...I hadnt been in 4 years.  It's always one thing or another...or a Hurricane!  Yep remember Katrina...who can forget? 

I didnt bake anything to take for the dinners...but the food was awesome.  Something about food cooked outside on the camping stove and over an open flame just makes me feel like a kid again...only I have to drive to get there now and wash dishes when it is time to clean up.  But things I dont mind.  I might have gotten a little grumpy a few times...but hey that is what happens.  We talked, and laughed, hugged, and ate! 

Here are a few pictures of my AWESOME family...we aren't the Brady's or the Hilton's but I love them all! 

The Mathis Family - Saturday, Sept 4, 2010

Chris, Kristie, John (peeking his head in), Me, Ray, and Josh - These are 6 of the 9 grandchildren of my grandparents Leslie & Lana Mathis.  Renee was not there until after we took the picture...Denise and Billy couldnt make it and we missed them very much!

My Mom Leslie and my cousin Carol -

This is front of the main fountain were the actual sulphur water is pulled out of the ground...it is suppose to be healing water...healing what I am not sure because if you have ever smelled sulphur water...you know it is an awful 'rotten egg' smell. YUCK!!

Snicker Cookies...

So Clayton requested some kind of cookie made with Snickers Candy bars after I made the wonderful (if I do say so myself) Butterfinger Cookies this past weekend.  So after searching online and in my books I found a recipe that seemed simple enough.

Snicker Cookies

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp. milk
24 miniature snickers  (I used 3 regular size candy bars cut into 8 pcs)


Combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter and peanut butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat in honey and milk until well combined. Mold roughly 1 tablespoon of dough around candy. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, Bake 12 – 15 minutes at 350 degrees.


Makes 24


I started mixing and then realized no egg...hmmm okay.  When it came to the honey and milk...the smell of the 2 was not pleasant. 

Lets just say I wasnt impressed with the cookies too much.  Clayton said they were good, but the peanut butter overwhelmed it.  They seemed too heavy...maybe if the snickers were chopped and mixed in the dough....I dont know.

next time I think I am going to try a different one I found tonight on another blog...I will get back on this subject later.