Happy One Year Anniversary Love From the Kitchen - Let us Eat Carrot Cake!

Happy 1st Birthday Love From the Kitchen!! I first started this blog one year ago today, with the recipe of Alabama Barbecue Sauce...and look how far I've come now! A lot has happened in the past year! I've tried a lot of new recipes, some I've hated but most all I've liked! I've shared with you lots of family favorites, and I've met a lot of crazy cool people!

Thank you to all my readers who stop by each day to see what I've got cooking, who leave comments (I love comments!!) and who even try my recipes! So here's to another (and more!) year of great food and fun kitchen adventures!!

To celebrate any sort of event, cake is a must, and my one year bloggy anniversary is no exception! I decided that since Easter is only 4 days away carrot cake is a very appropriate way to celebrate!

I found this specific carrot cake recipe over at Allrecipes, a little over a year ago. Last year at Easter time, I was looking for a carrot cake recipe to share at a family gathering and this one seemed to fit the bill. I kind of forgot about it since then, so when I was searching for a carrot cake recipe this year to make for Easter and I stumbled upon this one in my recipe box I knew I had to make it again! It's just too good to not make more than once! This carrot cake is also incredibly easy! What's not to love?!? This is sure to be a hit at any Easter celebration that you head off to this weekend...or any celebration on any weekend for that matter!

Ingredients...

...4 eggs

...1 1/4 c. applesauce

...2 c. sugar

...2 tsp. vanilla

...2 c. flour

...2 tsp. baking soda

...2 tsp. baking powder

...2 tsp. cinnamon

...3 c. grated carrots

Directions...

In a large bowl, wisk together eggs, applesauce, sugar and vanilla. Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon until well incorporated. Lastly, stir in grated carrots. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes. When cake is done, remove from oven and let cool completely. Using a biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter, cut circles out of the cake and frost. You can split the circles in the middle and add a frosting layer as well, if desired.

Thin Mint Cupcakes

I'm typically not a huge mint fan, but when it comes to Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies I just can't get enough! I ordered two boxes this year, and then instantly regretted it. Two boxes of Thin Mints sitting in my cupboard? Do you know how hard it is to resist eating them ALL myself?!?!? 

Must.

Show.

Restraint.

In all honesty though, I'm very proud of myself. In the first week of having these two boxes of cookies in my posession only 1 sleeve of cookies disappeared. With the exception of the 1/2 3/4 sleeve that I used in this recipe. So I guess that means that almost a whole box disappeared in the first week. But only half of that box was because I ate them. How's that for restraint!

I found the concept for these cupcakes over at Real Mom Kitchen (she just has the best recipe ideas, doesn't she?!?) and decided to run with it. You have two options here, you can either use a box cake mix (which I did. mostly because I have 20 some boxes of cake mix in my stockpile, so why not, right?)  or you can make your own homemade cupcakes. I am also going to mention that this frosting recipe didn't work out for me. I wish better luck to you. I was hoping for a fluffy frosting that I could pipe onto these cupcakes. I somehow managed to create frosting water, despite that I followed the recipe exact. It actually tasted fab and I totally fell in love with the way it drizzled down the sides so for this time, I was 110% content with what should have been considered a flop. Someday I'll figure out how to make amazing frosting...

Someday.

Ingredients...

Cupcakes...

...1 boxed cake mix
...1/2 sleeve of Thin Mint cookies (I used 3/4 sleeve)

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Crush cookies and stir into batter. Bake according to package directions.

Frosting...

...2 c. powdered sugar

...3 oz. cream cheese, softened

...1/2 c. butter, softened

...1/4 c. milk

...1 tsp. vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter on low speed until well mixed and there are no lumps. Slowly add powdered sugar and continue beating on low, switching to medium speed. Add in milk and vanilla and beat on medium speed until well combined. Add food coloring until desired shade of green is reached.

Popcorn Cake

It's hot here. Really, really hot here. And me being the fr

ugal (crazed?) person that I am...we haven't turned on the air conditioning yet. Yep. We're crazy...

I wanted to make a cake. But that requires turning on the oven...which makes our kitchen feel like a bizzilion and one degrees instead of the normal million degrees :) So I found this recipe, which was really good and required no extra heating of the kitchen...

The Ingredients...

...18 cups popped popcorn
...1 bag marshmallows
...1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
...1/2 bag of chocolate chips

Directions...

Pop popcorn and place in large bowl. Melt butter and marshmallows together and stir into popcorn. Once everything is mixed well, add chocolate chips. Press into greased angel food or bundt cake pan and let cool. Turn onto plate and enjoy!

My Thoughts...

This was a painless, heatless treat...and it was good! It was basically a really giant popcorn ball, but in cake form. I will definetely be making this again...it was delicious!

For more delicious recipes, check out Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!

Rhubarb Cake

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, I have more rhubarb lying around than I know what to do with! And there's even more at my dad's farm to be picked! And being the frugalista that I am, we all know that I will not be letting all of that deliciousness just go to waste! Instead of making scotcheroos as planned for this week, I decided to use up the bounty that is rhubarb. I made a rhubarb cake...

Ingredients...

...1 1/4 C. white sugar
...1 t. baking soda
...2 C. all purpose flour
...2 eggs
...1 C. sour cream
...3 C. diced rhubarb

Streusel Topping...

...1 C. white sugar
...1/4 C. butter, softened
...1/4 C. all purpose flour
...dusting of ground cinnamon

Directions...

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 c. sugar, 2 c. flour and baking soda. Stir in eggs and sour cream until smooth. Fold in rhubarb. Pour into baking pan and spread evenly. In a small bowl, combine sugar and butter until smooth. Add flour until clums form. Spread over cake batter. Dust cinnamon on top of everything. Bake at 350* for 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

My Thoughts...

This was good! I made some mistakes though, so I'm sure yours will come out looking different than my picture does. I accidentally only put in 1 C. sugar to the batter. So I accidentally shorted the batter 1/4 of a cup. I also only cooked mine for the 45 minutes, so that's why its pretty gooey looking. I was going to toss the rest back in to finish cooking, but this is very bread pudding-ish...and it's good! So I'm just going to leave it. Otherwise this is a great way to use up that extra rhubarb, and it's a nice change from the typical pies and crisps. I give this two thumbs up!

For more great recipes, check out the Recipe Swap going on over at Grocery Cart Challenge!