Golden Butter Cake & Raspberry Chocolate Frosting

GOLDEN BUTTER CAKE &

RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cup(s) (plus 2 Tbsp.) flour
• 1 tablespoon(s) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1 cup(s) milk
• 2 teaspoon(s) (pure) vanilla extract
• 1 cup(s) (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cup(s) sugar
• 4 large eggs

Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper or waxed paper; grease paper. Dust with flour.
2. In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. In measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla.
3. In large bowl, with mixer at medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth, scraping the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula.
4. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto racks; remove paper and let cool completely.

*You could also use a boxed cake mix. Pillsbury makes a good butter cake mix. It’s the same as a regular boxed cake without oil and the addition of butter.

Cake “Slop” (we’re BBQ fans!)

2 tablespoons of butter, melted completely

about 3-4 tablespoons of liquor  (I use Amaretto but you can use anything that suits your fancy. Stay away from super sugary liquors though… they don’t bode well)

*Mix well and “slop” over the cake. Just coat the entire top of the cake with the mixture. You don’t want your cake to end up soggy. Just make sure you don’t do that. Use good judgement. There should be a little extra mixture left when you’re done.

Raspberry Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

3 1/2 Cups of Powdered Sugar

8 ounces of Cream Cheese, softened

1 tablespoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of  Raspberries

1/3 cup of coco powder

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Frosting Directions:

Soak raspberries in liquor for about 30 minutes. Then crush the raspberries in a bowl. Sift through strainer to get rid of all the seeds.Then, with a hand blender, mix the cream cheese, butter and half of the powdered sugar together. Once combined mix the rest of the powdered sugar and coco powder (sift these together to avoid clumps in the frosting) and vanilla into the mixture until completely combined. If the mixture is too thin add more powdered sugar until the right consistency (a little thicker than cake batter). Then mix in the raspberry “puree”. Mix until the entire mixture combined.

This will make enough frosting to frost a two 8 inch round cakes, 24 cupcakes, or a 13×9 sheet cake

SCOTT MENU PLAN 6/10 – 6/16

This picture belongs to Hello Sunshine Photography. You must have permission to use or copy.

A MENU PLAN INSPIRED BY WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE

This week I am shopping and menu planning from things I already have in my freezer and pantry. This may surprise some of you. But this is how you work off a stockpile and keep your grocery bills down. This week my grocery stores were not having many good deals on items my husband and I use. Therefore I did not go grocery shopping AT ALL (I did however use my $15.00 stockpile budget, more on this at a later date). My husband is very picky about the types of products he eats and how long it takes to prepare said products. It really limits my menu options but I can still have a variety and please his picky bum.

Alright, now I used to menu plan based on day so I knew what to take out of the freezer when and marinate what and so on and so forth… But now that I currently am a stay at home wife (it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, believe me) I have much more leeway with what we are cooking for dinner. This has led to us not really staying too much on a schedule it’s more so of what do I want to do for dinner. Now I just create a list of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and desserts: yes in my house it’s a meal). I pick from that list and then cross it off. Then I know what I have left and can choose anything from that list. SO MUCH EASIER!!! Did you read the page on menu planning? I suggest you take a gander at it. I am sure it will help decrease your grocery budget and make dinners much easier.

Breakfasts: (Me only)

Cereal

Waffles

Eggs

Pancakes

Muffins

Lunches (Again.. Just me)

Cold cut sandwiches

Soup

Leftovers

Quesadillas

PB&J

Dinners (ahh.. finally it’s both of us)

Grandma’s Soup with Chicken w/ Refried Beans and Tortillas (Pasta Starts, Chicken, Tomato Sauce, Chicken Stock, Onion)

Chicken Teryaki w/ Vegetables & White Rice

Pork Tenderloin w/ Potatoes and Salad

NY Strip Steaks with Rolls and Green Beans

Annie’s Homemade Pasta & Meat Sauce (sorry, I am not sharing this recipe…)

Red Beans and Rice or Jambalaya (This is the only boxed meal my husband and I will eat)

Desserts: (so we may have multiple sweet teeth)

Double Chocolate Brownies

Butter Cake with Almond Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Some sort of cookie… My husband will change his mind 100 times before baking them.

Alright… So off of THIS menu plan which recipe do you want to see most?! If I receive requests I will post the most wanted recipe and pictures for all to see (except my homemade meat sauce.. sorry folks family secret). If I don’t.. I will just pick one I like and post it. Either way stayed tuned for a recipe for the SCOTT KITCHEN!

RECIPE Wednesday!

This is an easy way to use those boxes of cake mix that we get for cheap or free on a regular basis. Now, I do prefer a homemade cake with homemade frosting but this is an easy and quick way to make a box cake taste delicious!

White Cake with Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Bake you cake as you would normally do. I am using a white cake mix. (I got about 8 boxes for free, we eat a lot of cake). You could do cupcakes if you’d like. I prefer to do 2 eight in round cakes to stack. I like the presentation better. Even though it is just me and my husband.

*Tip: If you are doing a cake. Coat your cake pan with butter or oil whichever your normally use but then sprinkle flour into the pan and coat the entire pan. This gives the bottom of the cake a little crust and it turns out more sturdy. It won’t stick so you won’t have problems stacking your cake and icing it.

Now once your cake is done cooking and completely cooled. You will want to coat it with this easy mix to ensure the cake will not dry out quickly.

Cake “Slop” (we’re BBQ fans!)

2 tablespoons of butter, melted completely

about 3-4 tablespoons of liquor    (I use Amaretto but you can use anything that suits your fancy. Stay away from super sugary liquors though… they don’t bode well)

*Mix well and “slop” over the cake. Just coat the entire top of the cake with the mixture. You don’t want your cake to end up soggy. Just make sure you don’t do that. Use good judgement. There should be a little extra mixture left when you’re done.

Now it’s time for the fun part… The frosting. This is the homemade touch that will send your cake out of this world.

Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting

3 1/2 Cups of Powdered Sugar

8 ounces of Cream Cheese, softened

1 tablespoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of Blackberries

Crush the blackberries in a bowl. There will still be little pods left. Leave them. It gives the frosting texture. Then, with a hand blender, mix the cream cheese, butter and half of the powdered sugar together. Once combined mix the rest of the powdered sugar and vanilla into the mixture until completely combined. If the mixture is too thin add more powdered sugar until the right consistency (a little thicker than cake batter). Then mix in the blackberries. This will turn the cake purple. Mix until the entire mixture is purple and combined.

This will make enough frosting to frost a two 8 inch round cakes, 24 cupcakes, or a 13×9 sheet cake.

It’s delicious and will stay moist for about 4 days. It never lasts that long in my house but I know from prior experience. Ha.

I hope you enjoyed the recipe and try it out at home. It’s a good way to spice things up without taking too much time or money.

Stay tuned next Wednesday for another homemade recipe from the Scott Kitchen!

Happy Baking Adventures

Annie!