Category Archives: Cooking and Recipes

World’s Best Cake

You did it! Congratulations! (If I only had a neon sign I could hang in my window.) But trust me, this is the best cake you will ever have. Today I made it to celebrate a birthday, but really any occasion would do. 

Follow this recipe and you can’t go wrong!

  • 1 box of plain white cake mix
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter, melted
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening and dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set pans aside.

Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer until the batter looks well blended . Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.

Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your figure, 27 to 29 minutes. Let cool. And while you wait, you can make the frosting.

  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter
  • 2/3 unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4  teaspoon salt

Place the butter and cocoa powder in a bowl and blend with an electric mixer until the mixture is soft and well combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar, 1/3 milk, vanilla and salt. Beat with the mixer for 2 to 3 minutes until the frosting is fluffy and is lighter in color.

And then frost the cake until your heart’s content. (It really is the best part!)

I was never an architect.

But thanks to an old kit from Williams Sonoma, I am able to make gingerbread houses… from scratch! And with it’s planned out design, all I have to do is make, roll out and cut the dough. Let it bake and then decorate to my heart’s content!

My mom says they will be the centerpiece for Christmas dinner. I don’t know if they are worthy of a centerpiece, but Liz and I sure had a fun time making them!

And can we talk about these 3D tree cookies?!

Christmas Tradition: Cookies!

It’s a tradition in my family that I make Christmas cookies (aka gingerbread cookies) every year. I spend about 5 hours rolling, cutting, cooking and decorating these bad boys (usually by myself), but this year I was blessed with a mother who joined in to help!
And while wondering through William Sonoma, I came upon a can of crushed up peppermints that they had packaged and sold as “Peppermint Snow” (props for the cleaver title!). And of course, it was $24. So I took the idea and made my own, spending only 88 cents.
It was super easy and quick to make. I just took the candy canes (that I found at Walmart for 88 cents), but them in a zip lock bag and hit them until they are small, even pieces. Adding it on top of cookies made a perfect Christmas touch, plus it pairs perfectly with gingerbread. Mom and I probably made around 100 cookies today. So if you’re in the neighborhood, swing by and I’ll hook you up with some delicious cookies and a glass of milk!
PS – It’s a pet peeve of mine when Mr. Gingerbread is without a Mrs. They are always cut out together, and decorated to match. (Call me a romantic!)