Chocolate Dump Cake (or better known as "death by chocolate" cake)

I grew up loving my mom's pineapple cherry dump cake. Just the thought of it brings back some great memories. So when I stumbled upon this recipe for chocolate dump cake, I could not resist. The best thing about this recipe is that it is amazingly simple. Seriously....anyone could do this. Even if you are not a baker, just trust me on this one, you can do this!! So go gather up your whole whopping, 4 ingredients and get to baking.

 This is the link to the original recipe! Chocolate Pudding Dump Cake

Ingredients:
1 chocolate cake mix ( I used triple fudge cake mix)
1 small package instant chocolate pudding
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 1/2 cups semi sweeet chocolate chips


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°
Prepare the pudding with the milk according to the directions on the package. Add the dry cake mix and stir well to combine. This will produce a thick batter consistency. Pour the batter into a greased
9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips onto the top of the batter. Bake for approx 22-26 minutes (depending on how gooey you like your chocolate cake). If you don't like your cake gooey, just cook it until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
I like to leave mine a bit gooey as it continues to cook a bit in the hot pan after you remove it from the oven.

Peeps Sunflower Cake

My boss showed me this adorable cake that she found on the Internet yesterday and I decided to make it today to try it out. It was really easy and other than the fact that my sunflower "peep" edge doesn't look as round as the original, I'm happy with it overall.  I probably could have simplified it and used store bought cake and frosting, but that wouldn't have been as much fun!

1 store bought cake mix ( I used scratch, but you can use this to make it easier)
2 tubs chocolate frosting
chocolate chips
19-20 peeps

Bake cake according to pkg directions in two 9 inch round pans. Cool completely. Turn one of the cakes out onto a pretty platter. Put a thin layer of frosting on the top and place the other layer of cake on top of the frosting. Frost the entire two layers of cake with chocolate frosting. Place peeps ( I didn't pull my peeps apart, I just bent them a little bit to make them "rounder") around the edge of the cake to form the sunflower. Next place chocolate chips in circles around the middle to make the "seeds"

Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

Is it live or is it Memorex? Is it a plate of spaghetti or a cake?
When you read the title you were probably thinking "that's disgusting" right? Well calm down sparky, it's just a cake! ;)
This was so much fun to make and I can't wait to take it to work tomorrow! It's super easy and anyone could make this. It just takes a little time and effort. Right now just looking at it is making me very hungry for dinner, so I have to type this quickly and go make something to eat. Maybe spaghetti? haha
If anyone reading this ever decides to make this cake.....please let me know how it turns out for you!

1 box chocolate cake mix
2 tubs vanilla frosting ( I make my own..it's much better and less sweet, if you want the recipe, let me know)
2-4 drops yellow food coloring
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1 (16 oz) bag or tub of frozen strawberries, thawed
White chocolate, for grating ( I used white chocolate chips and just chopped them finely instead of grating)

1) Make the cake batter according to the package directions.
2) Pour the batter into two 8 inch round cake pans, that have been sprayed with Pam. ( I only had one round pan, so you can make one in a round pan and one in any other kind of pan you have available.)
3) After you bake them, let them cool completely. Put the first round cake onto a nice serving platter. Take the other cake and crumble it into a large bowl. Crumble it with your fingers until it is a very fine crumble.
4) Squeeze a handful of cake crumbs into a 2 inch ball. Roll until it looks like a meatball. Roll 3 of them. Set them aside.
5) To frost the cake. Spread about 1 1/2 cups frosting smoothly onto the cake. Use a spatula to make the sides smooth.
6) Arrange the "meatballs" on top of the cake.
7) Mix the remaining frosting with the yellow food coloring and the cocoa. Transfer to a pastry bag with a small round tip or if you don't have that you can put it into a baggie and cut a small corner off and squeeze it out of the sealed baggie.
8) Pipe the colored frosting onto the cake, around the meatballs, in figure 8 patterns to look like spaghetti.
9) Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor until smooth with only a few chunks. Spoon between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup of the strawberry puree onto the top of the meatballs and noodles to look like tomato sauce.
10) Grate white chocolate, or chop white chocolate chips and sprinkle over the cake to look like Parmesan cheese.

Mint Chocolate Chip Filled Cake

Well, last night I could not sleep at all. I laid in bed tossing and turning and just couldn't shut off my brain. So when John left for work early this morning (4:30) I decided to just get up and start my day. I had plans to make a
"mini" cake today for my neighbors birthday, using my new fill and frost pans I bought for Christmas. They are pretty handy, and make filling a cake so simple! Anyway, I made a chocolate cake, filled  it with an amazing mint chocolate chip buttercream filling. Making filling was fun and I would definitely make it again, and I can't wait to try different variations on the flavors! I had plans to frost it with a home made buttercream frosting, but suddenly the thought hit my brain to try making home made fondant. I have never  tried anything like this. It was super easy to make and covered the mini cakes very well. I know that I didn't get it smooth and it doesn't look "professional" but hey....not only am I running on 3 hours of sleep, but I have never done this before. I guess it's not too bad for a first attempt. Fortunately I had all the ingredients here at home and didn't have to run out to the store. After I frosted the first cake and decorated it, I threw together the second one, (which is obvious from the pictures), threw some coconut on the top, just to finish it off and sliced it so you could see the filling on the inside. Yes, I will definitely take the "unsliced" one to my neighbor for her birthday haha! When all was said and done, I had extra cake batter so I made chocolate cupcakes with the leftover batter and frosted them with my leftover filling. The filling would not pipe through the decorator tip, because of the big chocolate chips, so I had to improvise, which is why the cupcakes are not the best decorated either!

 Here is the finished mini birthday cake!

This is what the filling looks like in the above pictured cake, though this is just the filling on a quickly thrown together one for the picture

This is my new cupcake batter pourer. It really helped. No muss...no fuss. It's great for pancake batter too :)

These were the cupcakes I made out of the leftover batter