Holiday Bundt Cake

This Christmas I came across a cool bundt cake on Pinterest and decided to give it my own twist! Looking for that perfect Holiday dessert that doesn't take hours to complete? Looking for that signature desert? Look no further you found it, I'll show you how I made my Christmas themed bundt cakes!

Here's what the finished product looks like!

First gather your basic baking supplies! I bought my bundt cake pan from my local K-mart for 9 dollars which was a steal!

You will need:

Cake Mix

What the cake mix calls for

Food Coloring (whichever colors you choose I used red and green)

A bundt pan

metal bowls

spatulas

PAM

Sprinkles (If desired- but recommended)

     I highly recommend EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) for baking, I always use it!

 Mix up your cake mix with the recommended ingredients! I love using my Kitchen Aide. 

I used both regular and gel food coloring, I prefer the red in gel form! You can find it at local places or big corporation stores such as Meijer. 

 SEPARATE THE CAKE MIX INTO BOWLS DEPENDING ON HOW MANY COLORS YOU WANT TO USE. For example I used two bowls because my cake mix was red and green! I also used my Kitchen Aide bowl though, because you HAVE TO KEEP WHITE CAKE MIX. You start the bundt cake with white cake mix and end it with white cake mix as well to hide the surprising colorful inside. 

 Here's my finished food colored cake mix! Spray the bundt pan with Pam now! If you forget spraying with Pam it will stick to the pan (IT HAPPENED TO ME) Pam worked better than anything else, I've tried other items for bundt cakes as well and they just don't work like Pam.

Put down WHITE CAKE MIX FIRST, and then you can create your inner design of the cake!

Here's what my design looked like! Layer the red and green and try to not let it touch the middle or the sides of the cake pan, because then you will be able to see the red and green and it won't be a surprise! 

Make sure you finish the cake with white cake mix on top, and make sure you leave enough white cake mix at the beginning so you have enough for this step! This was my first trial and I guesstimated under of what I needed. 

Bake your cake in the oven, my cake box said 28-32 minutes, I did 26 and stuck a tooth pick in it and it was ready!

Let your cake cool for about 5 minutes!

Now get a cookie sheet and lay it on a flat surface. Turn your bundt pan over so it's on the cookie sheet and your cake should slide right out!

This is my secret recipe to all my cupcakes and cakes, and it's not a recipe at all! Wrap the cake in cling wrap or anytime of aluminum foil and make sure air can't get in to the cake. Now keep the cake on the cookie sheet and slide it into the freezer. I freeze all of my cakes for 1-4 days and let them thaw out and they are the moistest cakes I've ever eaten! I'd definitely give this a try, and it helps the bundt shape stay solid for this particular cake! If you don't have time an hour of freezing can also help!

Take your cake out of the freezer and let it thaw (don't forget to take the wrapping off of it now)! Mine thawed for ten minutes and seemed to be completely thawed. 

Leave your cake on the cookie sheet because now we're get to the fun part! Take small cups, I preferred measuring cups because it pours much more smoothly from it's tip, and put icing in it! It doesn't have to be much icing at first either, because you can make more. Now comes the hard part.. decide what color you want to ice the cakes! My second one was wreath themed, so I chose a lime green and forest green food dye. Both of my cakes were Christmas themed so it just depends on what the baker wants! You are going to mix the dye in with the icing now (I just used a spoon in the cup it's simpler this way), DON'T COMBINE CUPS AND FOOD DYES : SEPARATE CUP FOR EACH COLOR! I put my icing in the microwave for fifteen seconds so it was nice and runny, which let me have the perfect drizzled effect on the cakes that I desired! It's all up to the baker! Now it's time to add sprinkles if you desire. I feel sprinkles really added to my cakes so I'd recommend them! Making this cake was really simple, and I'm contemplating making it my signature dish at parties, everyone needs one of those anyways! Now that you're finished icing and sprinkling your masterpiece moving the cake from the cookie sheet can look like a hard task but it's so easy! 

As you can see I removed my cake with two spatulas, it helps to move the spatulas around the underneath before you pick up the cake so it doesn't break! Make sure the container or dish you want to serve your cake on is near. Boom your cake is ready to eat and a beautiful desert for any Holiday party!

The first inside of my cake looked like this, but when you make this cake a few times you'll understand how and where to layer the cake mix for the best surprise on the inside! 

Until next time,

Christerest

I get most of my baking Ideas for the Holiday's from my favorite site (Pinterest). I go a little overboard organizing my boards (you can find my profile here). Here's some of my favorite pins I've seen this year for the holiday season! I'll be posting some of my personal Holiday creations later this week!

Holiday pizza! This one's perfect because you can eat it the whole month of December and it's not the most difficult thing you can make. Lots of compliments are sure to be made about this cute pizza idea!

Ice skating penguin cookies are to die for! You can find the tutorial for them here! I'm attempting these this Holiday season, and I'm excited to show them off at Christmas parties, they're just too cute.

Reindeer treats are a new take on a regular Holiday treat! I always get these without the antlers, so why not spend a little more time and make them adorable?! 

Christmas tree Rice Krispy treats look very intricate but they're not! Here's a tutorial on how to make them. I really like the way these are set up and how it looks like the tree farm has just gotten a light snow. This is my favorite Holiday pin that I've came across this season!

These cookies are adorable! The decoration skill level looks high, but if you have the patience and skill to attempt these I would. 

A healthy Holiday treat is never the wrong treat, especially if it's cute like this! These snowmen are simple and might get those picky children to try something new!

Watermelon snowman, this is another cute healthy Holiday treat! I really like this one because I'm a huge fan of the watermelon creations, and this one looks like it could be a beginner level!

There's no better way to end a blog post than with cookies. When you can virtually send cookies through the screen and eat them I'll be sure to send some your way!

Until next time,

Who Doesn't Like Cupcakes?

This past summer I got really into baking cupcakes! Mainly just with boxed cupcake mixes, to make it some-what easy, and then I decorated them. Sometimes elaborate, sometimes just normal but hey I was getting better! Here's a few of my creations with instructions on how to make them!

The Inception Cupcake!

This cupcake was my all-time favorite to make. You can make this cupcake with many variations. 

I bought these items from the store:

Betty Crocker- Super Moist chocolate & red velvet cake mix

Mini Reese's Cups (bag form)

Maraschino Cherries

Reece Peanut Butter cone coating

I already had these items:

Cupcake liners

Circle rainbow sprinkles

***I made the icing*** 

 I baked the cupcakes in the oven as the instructions on the box stated and let them cool before I iced them. I then used my homemade icing with a big round tip and iced them. Before you put the cone coating over the icing I'd strongly suggest putting paper towel (two layers at the least) or tin foil under the cupcakes! The cone coating is messy and drips all over the counter making a huge dried up mess if you don't (I learned from experience). After I did that I drizzled my cone coating from the top of the cupcake (two times if necessary). I quickly sprinkled the sprinkles so they dried in the cone coating as well! After that I stuck my mini Reece Cup on top and iced it as well! Nothing is better than a cherry and sprinkles on top, however not everyone likes the taste of them so I'd alternate each cupcake with the cherry option. 

Variation: You can bake mini cupcakes and put them on top as another option! I did both when I made these. The Reece Cup option just looks more clean cut.

Minion Cupcake

This cupcake is very simple! 

Bought:

Twinkies

Eye Candy 

Brown long sprinkles

Black tubed icing

Blue food dye

Betty Crocker- Super Moist vanilla cake mix

Had:

Cupcake liners

This cupcake was a huge hit. I baked the cupcakes as the box stated and while they were in the oven I dyed the icing blue. After the timer went off I let the cupcakes cool, while they were cooling I cut the Twinkies in half. I attempted decorating the Twinkies when they weren't on the cupcake but I wouldn't recommend that (so many smashed Twinkies). I ice the cupcakes with a knife, I wouldn't suggest to much Icing because then the Twinkies can fall off, and stuck the Twinkies on top. While the Twinkies were on the cupcake I then used some of the blue icing to put the eye's on and used the black tubed icing for the goggles and mouths! Don't make them all happy, you can make silly faces too! After that I finished them with the final touch of their hair with the brown sprinkles. You can put any amount on each one, I'd alternate though because no one wants their minions to look alike! Finally a finished product!

The Hippo Cupcake 

This cupcake was elaborate on the decorating! I used fondant, which tastes gross but looks amazing. I bought the fondant white and I'd recommend buying the color you plan on your fondant being on the finished product because as you can tell fondant doesn't take very well to dye's! I baked and iced these cupcakes normally and did the fondant by hand and with the help of a tooth pick. I'd recommend wearing gloves while working with dyed fondant, because the color will stay on your hands for quite some time if you don't! I dipped my toothpick into black food dye and then stuck it into the fondant for the eyes, just be careful because as you can see with this example the black can get everywhere. The shape of the hippo was very simple, oval with another oval, and then shape them when you connect the two. The white bow was my favorite accent to this cupcake because it made it cute and girly! This cupcake took a lot of time to decorate so I'd recommend baking the cupcakes one day and decorating the next!

Until next time!