Pinterest Project - Firecracker Cake

Last week I found this recipe on Pinterest for a Firecracker Cake.  I thought it looked beautimous so I had to try it.  I'm not much of a baker.  I just don't have the patience for it.  But Bean and I made this cake together yesterday and we had a lot of fun and Bean proclaimed it the "best cake ever".

Standards are low when you're 4.

Here's Betty Crocker's.

All professional and whatnot.

Here's ours:

We had no patriotic sprinkles but life will go on.

Here's the full recipe and then I'll tell you how I changed it up a little.

1

box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box

Red food color

Blue food color

1

container (12 oz) Betty Crocker® Whipped fluffy white frosting

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Generously grease 12-cup fluted tube cake pan. Make cake batter as directed on box, using water, oil and egg whites. Pour 1 cup of the batter into small bowl; stir in red food color until well mixed. Pour another cup of the batter into separate bowl; stir in blue food color until well mixed.
2. Pour red cake batter into bottom of pan. Carefully pour remaining white batter over red batter in pan. Carefully pour blue batter over white batter. (Blue batter does not need to cover white batter completely; it looks better if it just forms a ring in the center of the white batter.)
3. Bake as directed on box or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place cooling rack over cookie sheet. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack. Cool cake completely, about 30 minutes.
4. When cake is cool, divide frosting evenly into 3 microwavable bowls. Microwave 1 bowl of frosting uncovered on High a few seconds until smooth enough to drizzle over cake. With spoon, drizzle all of white frosting back and forth around cake in a striping pattern. Repeat microwaving second bowl of frosting until smooth. Stir in a few drops blue food color until well blended. Drizzle over cake, scattering frosting back and forth. Repeat with remaining bowl of frosting and red food color, making sure red, white and blue frostings can be seen on cake. Let cake stand at room temperature until frosting is set before serving.

Makes 12 servings

Okay, so what did I do differently?

I added some cherry extract to the red cake batter.  Yep, changed it up so much.

After all, there's nothing that says "America" more than imitation-cherry flavored cake and baseball, right?  Isn't that the saying?  Anyhoo...

It was scrumptious!  Maybe not the best cake ever but hey, my standards are low for a...nevermind.  Try the recipe.  You'll love it.

Baking's not my bag.

During the holidays many people head into their kitchens to make delectable goodies to share with their family and loved ones. There are so many wonderful recipes floating around the internet that it causes excitement and mistaken baking abilities in people that have no business trying to bake anything. I am one of those folks.

I found this recipe for S'mores cookies and I knew they would be a big hit at the in-laws. All the kiddos love s'mores and cookies so what would be better than slapping both of them together for one mighty fine dessert, right?

This is how they are supposed to look when real bakers who know what they are doing make them.

Property of Cheat Day Cafe.

This is my first batch.  I use the term "batch" loosely.

Not quite right. Let's try this again, shall we?

This is my second batch.

What in the world? How hard can it be to make some danged cookies?  I will admit to forgetting that I was baking anything during the making of the second batch.  Just slipped my mind.  But at least these are starting to look like cookies in the general round shape of cookies.

The only thing that I did differently from the recipe was that I did not have any sticks of margarine. I only had a tub of butter. So I grabbed a big spoon and estimated the required amount. Yes, I said "estimated". A tablespoon is a tablespoon, right? Guess not. I can't believe not measuring out butter exactly could cause this. Paula Deen never measures out her butter and she is famous for her cooking.

I will say that the first batch actually tasted pretty good.  Maybe this weekend I will try it all again. I promise to use sticks of margarine and to actually measure the stuff.