Mini Fresh Strawberry Cakes

This one's for you...

dad.

[and Uncle David, too]*

I received an early birthday present (yes, I've mentioned it's my birthday month once before, and you will hear about it again)!  My lovely Aunt and Uncle presented me with this Nordicware Flower Cake Pan last weekend and I wasted no time in putting it to use.  These are the same wonderful people who have given me my Le Creuset French Oven and Soup Bowls, the kitchen towel seen in this post, and this super cute petite popover pan. 

They know me oh-so-well.

What to make, what to make? Fresh strawberry cake.

I first made this cake in traditional cake pan form a couple of years ago for Easter and it was a huge hit.  I've wanted to bake it ever since, but I make a lot of strawberry cake at the bakery every week, so it's always nice to play around in the kitchen at home and during the holidays, thus, it hasn't been made since, which is a bit of a tragedy because this is strawberry cake at its finest.  Bright and cheery too, it's the perfect thing to present dad this Father's Day to say "hey dad! you're kinda awesome. and i kinda love you, too" (don't be afraid to say that last part, he'll kinda appreciate it). 

Mini Fresh Strawberry Cakes

Makes 6 Flowers (+ a few mini cupcakes) or 1 (8-inch) cake round**

6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pureed strawberries
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pink or red food coloring

Generously grease six flower pans (or one cake pan).  In medium mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk and whisk until blended.  Blend in the pureed strawberries and a few drops of food coloring (I got a little happy here, hence my dark cakes).  Fold in the flour, baking soda and salt and whisk until no lumps remain.

Divide the batter between the pans, filling about two-thirds full.  Discard remaining batter or use for a few mini cupcakes (I got 7).  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Move to a cooling rack and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges, if needed, and invert the pan to release the cakes.  Cool completely and decorate as desired. 

*Also dedicated to Adam, father to my beautiful nephew, Benjamin!
**If you want to make a two or three-inch layer cake, double or triple the recipe as needed.

Adapted from A Good Appetite.

Strawberry Cake White Chocolate Blondies

Oops! I did it again...


Strawberry style.

My co-workers made me do it.  And they voted these even better than the cake batter version.

After receiving rave review after rave review, I caved and promised to whip up another batch for everyone.  People were actually racing to these.  Some people stayed late awaiting my arrival so they could snag one.  Others told me to hide them.  Others advised me not to tell anyone.  No lie.

This time, though, I thought I'd mix things up a bit and opted for strawberry batter tossed with white chocolate chips.  The sprinkles stayed though because well...I pretty much love sprinkles!  They're happy and fun and that little sugary crunch makes everything better.  (ps if you ever bring me a donut, make sure it has sprinkles on it.  oh, and that it's a yeast donut.  with white glaze.  kthanksbye.)


i'm bringing chocolate cupcakes to work in the morning.  my friends are getting spoiled.

Strawberry Cake White Chocolate Blondies

Makes one 7x11-inch pan

1 box strawberry cake mix

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg

1/3 -1/2 cup milk (I used almost 1/2 cup-- maybe 6-7 tablespoons total)

1/2 cup sprinkles

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 11x7 baking pan with nonstick spray. Combine first four ingredients in a large bowl, adding the milk slowly. You want to cake batter to be as dense and thick as possible. Mix in the sprinkles and white chocolate chips. Pour into prepared baking pan, sprinkle a few more sprinkles on top and bake for 25-30 minutes until edges are just turning brown (I stopped at 25*). Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes so the center sets, before cutting into squares.

*The blondies will look like they are not fully done because the center will be quite gooey, but that’s what you want! After about 30 minutes of cooling, they will be easy to cut using a serrated knife.

*Do not use black sprinkles swirled into the blondies. It will turn the batter black before baking.

 Adapted from my Cake Batter Blondies which were adapted from here!

Fresh Orange Strawberry Bundt Cake

This is a love hate relationship.

I'll just say it: this. cake. sticks.  I learned this the hard way last year (sorry, mom.  I blamed it on you for telling me to dump it out of the pan too soon.)  The result was one mess of a cake; half on the serving plate, half in the pan.  Unfortunately, I could blame mom again.  I left her in charge of spraying the bundt, afterall (and picking up my dirty dishes, used ingredients, etc.  My sous chef [baker?]).  But I know better.  This cake is just plain trouble.  Not sure if it's the "moistness", the pan itself, or it's just out to get me, but it's a pain in the bundt.

Ok, now that you're probably planning on not making this cake, let me convince you otherwise because this thing is pretty much no less than amazing.  So good, in fact, that after the fall-out last Easter (no pun intended), I was still determined to make it again this year, strictly to reexperience the deliciousness that is this cake.  Super moist, tender, light, flavorful- pretty much all the yummy adjectives that food writers frown upon. 

Don't let the sticky pan issue stop you.  Simply slice straight from the bundt.  Works like a charm.  Or grease and flour the h*$# out of it. 

Fresh Orange Strawberry Bundt Cake

Makes one (10-inch) bundt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs
Juice of 1 orange

Zest of 1 orange

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 ounces plain or vanilla yogurt

12 ounces fresh strawberries, diced

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in orange juice and orange zest.  Alternate beating in the flour, soda, and salt and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.  Gently fold in the strawberries.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool for about 45 minutes to an hour in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.  Or slice and serve straight from the pan!

Adapted from Foodista.

Strawberry Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt

I have ice cream every night.





Every. Single. Night.

But this isn't news to you.  I mentioned before how I like to have a little stash of frozen treats on hand at all times.  A coconut popsicle one night, a strawberry vanilla ice cream sandwich the next, a bowl of red velvet blue bell after that.  You get the picture.  (Yes, these are the current goodies that reside in my freezer).

This little fetish is nothing new, however.  Ever since I was a little girl I would cherish my nightly bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream after dinner.  That was the stuff.  (And it still is pretty awesome- Nathan will occasionally surprise me with a cone when I get home from work).  I would meticulously pick out all of the cookie dough chunks and eat the ice cream first, saving a milky pile of little chocolate chip balls until the very end- kinda like I find myself doing with this fro yo: picking out the chunks and eating them piece by piece.  Maybe it's a subconscious desire to be nine years old again, wearing my silky purple pajamas from Limited Too while sitting on the floor of my parents bedroom watching Nick At Nite.  Or maybe it's just an excuse to play with my food...

Either way, it's refreshing and wonderful and would be equally delicious using chopped golden oreos or graham cracker chunks.  Get on it.

Strawberry Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt

1 cup chopped strawberries

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups plain yogurt

1 kingsize Cookies and Cream Hershey's bar, chopped

Place the strawberries and sugar in a blender or food processor.  Pulse until smooth.

Combine yogurt and strawberry mixture in canister of ice cream maker.  Freeze according to manufacturers' directions.  (The chopped candy will go in near the end of the mixing process!)

Chelsea Original :)

  

Strawberry Shortcake Popsicles

Icepops for Pop!

Ok, ok, I realize Father's Day was two days ago but let me explain my reasoning behind this post.

Sunday evening I was creeping around on various blogs I follow and Shelly from Cookies and Cups did a pretty good job detailing that every day is Father's Day in her house:

"My husband gets food cooked for him everyday and he gets gifts bought for him quite regularly.
Those are basically the two defining characteristics of having a “day”, right?"

Well said.  So, even though it's now after Father's Day, you can still make these for that favorite pop in your life!  Or just make them because they're strawberries, golden oreos, cheesecake pudding and deliciousness on a stick.

Dad, if these wouldn't melt in the mail I would surely send them your way :)  Thanks for being such a great pop!

Strawberry Shortcake Popsicles

Makes 8 popsicles

8 vanilla sandwich cookies (such as Golden Oreos)

8 hulled strawberries

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 (3.4 ounce) package cheesecake flavor instant pudding and pie filling

2 cups milk

Place cookies in blender or food processor.  Blend on high, stopping to stir occasionally, until cookies become fine crumbs. Reserve.

In clean blender or processor, combine strawberries, sugar, and water. Blend on high setting until smooth.

Combine pudding mix and milk in a large bowl. Beat with whisk until thick, about 2 minutes. Stir in cookie crumbs.

Fill ice pop molds 1/3 full of pudding mixture. Layer with strawberry puree to 2/3 full; top evenly with remaining pudding mixture. Place sticks into molds, and freeze overnight. Run molds under hot water if difficult to remove pops.

Adapted from All Recipes.



Strawberry Loaf Poke Cake

This is your Memorial Day dessert. 

I knew I wanted to make something red, white and blue for the weekend and I brainstormed for something other than the patriotic berry-lined flag cake.  After giving some thought and browsing through my "to-make recipe collection", I stumbled across a recipe for Strawberry Loaf Cake.  Sounded pretty good, but I needed some blue.  I then remembered how I used to make a lot of poke cakes for a catering company I worked for (typically you bake a white cake, poke holes all over the top as soon as it comes out of the oven, then pour a mixture of jello-flavored hot water over it allowing the juices to seep down into the cake, and finish it off with some coolwhip).  Bingo.  This was going to be a twist on the tried and true poke cake. 

I came across some berry blue jello, grabbed a carton of whipped topping and set about my plan.  Fingers were crossed it came out like I had envisioned.  Lucky for me it did!  The red strawberries and blue jello kept their distinct colors in the bread (I was afraid they might bleed together and turn the whole thing purple!) and the juices made the loaf incredibly moist.  It was a winner!

Strawberry Loaf Poke Cake

Makes one 9x5 loaf

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped

1 cup water
1.5 ounces berry blue jello

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean.  Meanwhile, heat up water until hot and almost boiling.  Pour jello powder into water and stir until dissolved.  Once loaf is removed from oven, gently poke holes over the top using a knife or fork and pour gelatin over cake.  Let rest in pan on wire rack until completely cooled.  Store leftovers in the fridge.

Adapted from AllRecipes.