A Variety Of Carrot Cake Recipes To Suit Every Taste Bud

It doesn't have to be difficult to make a delicious homemade carrot cake recipe, and I'll show you exactly how with this tasty recipe right here! Out of all the carrot cake recipes I have tried, this homemade carrot cake recipe is one of the easiest and also one of the most delicious. Your kids will surely love and enjoy this yummy sweet and healthy treats.

When I was growing up I remember my mother telling me to eat carrots because they were good for my eyes, since she knew that I detested eating carrots in its plain form, she began experimenting with them. It is only because of the effort that she put into each recipe that today I relish carrots. Here are some carrot cake recipes that might help instill the same love for carrots in your children.

Vegan Carrot Cake

Required Ingredients

• 2 cups of grated carrots
• 1½ cup of raisins
• 2 cups of water
• 1½ teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoons of allspice
• ½ a teaspoon of cloves
• 1 a cup of sugar
• ½ a teaspoon of salt
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 cup of soymilk

Instructions

• First preheat the oven to 350 °F.
• Gently simmer the carrots, raisins, water and spices in a medium-sized saucepan for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Then add the sugar and salt and cook for more than 2 minutes.
• Once that is done, remove from heat and cool completely.
• Now take a large bowl and combine the baking soda and flour in it.
• Add the carrot mixture and the soymilk and combine nicely.
• Grease a 9*9 inch baking pan and then pour in the batter.
• Bake this mixture for an hour.
• Your carrot cake is ready if the toothpick comes out clean.

Low Fat Carrot Cake

Required Ingredients

• 6 white eggs
• 1⅓ cups of white sugar
• 1 cup of applesauce
• ½ a cup of skim milk
• 1½ teaspoon of vanilla extracts
• ¼ a teaspoon of ground cloves
• ½ a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 cup of whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 can of crushed pineapple with juice
• 2 cups of shredded carrots
• ½ a cup of chopped walnuts
• ½ a cup of raisins

Instructions

• First take a large bowl and beat the egg whites in it.
• Slowly beat in the applesauce, skim milk, sugar and vanilla.
• Then stir in the dry ingredients in this order. First put in the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and flour.
• Now stir in one ingredient at a time, beginning with the pineapple (with the juice), carrots, walnuts and raisins.
• Pour this mixture lightly into a lightly greased 9*13 pan.
• Bake this in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

Wheatless Carrot Cake

Required Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 lemon
• ⅓ cup of marsala or white wine
• 2 cups of grated carrots
• 1 cup of groundnuts
• ½ a cup of cornmeal (preferably not coarse ground)
• ½ a teaspoon of baking powder
• ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon
• A pinch of salt
• 1 cup of sugar
• ½ a cup of lemon or orange juice

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Now separate the eggs, remove the lemon rind and chop, grate the carrots and also grind the nuts.
• With that done, beat the egg yolks and sugar until it is thick and light colored. Measure enough lemon juice, marsala and wine to make ½ a cup. Add this and the chopped rind to the yolk mixture and mix this well.
• To the yolk mixture also add carrots and groundnuts.
• Take a separate bowl and mix cornmeal, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and stir this into the yolk mixture.
• In a large bowl beat egg whites to firm peaks. Now gently fold the yolk mixture, ⅓ at a time, into the whites taking care not to deflate the whites.
• Once all that is done, pour the mixture into the prepared van and bake it until a cake tester or table knife stuck into the center comes out clean.

Strawberry Cake Is One Of The Most Exotic Ways To Delight The Taste Buds

A strawberry cake is among the most enchantingly tasting cakes. It’s a cream filled cake that actually tastes so great. Milk is incorporated in the elements which makes it creamier. Sugar and egg can also be put into its elements to really make it nicer. Its bread consists of chiffon cake – an even and creamy cake full of strawberry fruits. This strawberry is even caramelized and placed like a filling from the cake. The icing and also the toppings comprise strawberry. It is simply usual to locate ground strawberry fruits combined with cream and offered because the icing. The fruit can also be the main one giving the attractive color pink towards the cake.

With the season of strawberries around, strawberry cake filling is one of the most exotic ways to delight the taste buds! Are you wondering what strawberry cake filling is? Well, imagine a normal cake filled with yummy strawberries and strawberry sauce, that's what is called strawberry cake filling! Any cake can be added with strawberry filling, but the taste of strawberry will be brought out if you add the strawberry filling to non-flavored cakes like simple yellow cake recipes or white cakes, etc. It is entirely your wish, if you like to eat chocolates and strawberries together, then you can try any of the following strawberry cake filling recipe with chocolate cake also! Now let's learn to make strawberry cake filling, from the following recipes.

Recipe #1
Ingredients

• 2 cups hulled strawberries, crushed
• 3 tbsp boiling water
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
• ½ cup whipping cream

Process

Add sugar to the hulled strawberries and set them aside. In cold water soften the gelatin and once it is softened, add boiling water and stir until the gelatin dissolves. Add the dissolved gelatin mixture to strawberries and let cool. Now whip the cream, until its stiff. When the strawberry mixture is of syrup thickness, add the whipped cream to it. Refrigerate until it sets.

Recipe #2
Ingredients

• 1½ tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 pints ripe strawberries, hulled, sliced in ½ if large
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

Process

Make a puree of half of the strawberries in a food processor. While blending, add honey, lemon juice, maple and vanilla; until it forms a smooth sauce. Now add the remaining strawberries and crush until chopped, do not make it a liquid.

Recipe #3
Ingredients

• 1 lg. angel food cake
• 1 tsp almond flavoring
• 1 (8 oz.) container whipped cream
• 1 can milk
• ⅓ c. lemon juice
• 1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen strawberries, thawed and undrained

Process

First cut 1 inch slice of the angel food cake. Reserve it. Make a tunnel, by scooping out the center. Leave 1 inch at the bottom of the cake. The center cake which you had removed, cut that into pieces. Except strawberries, mix all the other ingredients and reserve 1½ cup. Add the cake pieces to the whip mixture and fold in strawberries. Now fill the tunnel with cake and whip mixture. Replace the top layer which you had removed. Cover the cake with reserved whip mixture. Refrigerate for chilling. When chilled, decorate with fresh sliced strawberries and almond slices (if wanted).

Recipe #4
Ingredients

• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 ½ - 3 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen, if using frozen thaw and drain)

Process

Take a large sauce pan and mix all the ingredients. Cook until the mixture thickens, over medium heat. Let it cool completely. This was one of the easy strawberry cake filling recipes. You can make it whenever you want, and that too in just a couple of minutes!

These were some of the easiest strawberry cake filling recipes. If you want, you can also add any of your favorite flavors to it, but make sure that the yummy taste of strawberry is not lost.

Birthday Cake To The Person's Heart

Birthdays are incomplete without cakes and to make the cake appealing to one's eye, it has to be designed in a way where it catches everyone's attention. Cake designs have always been a part of constant change thus leading to a lot of variations but at the end of the day, the design should be closest to the person's heart for whom it is being made for. There are endless possibilities but the cake has to be designed with the age and preferences of the person in mind.

If the birthday boy or girl is a sports freak, then the design can be of a cricket bat, a football or rugby ball or in fact a stadium. For your kid's birthday cake you can get your baker to design a cake that resembles the child's favorite cartoon character or sports star. Irrespective of the gender of your child, you can get the cake in the shape of a mermaid, airplane, ship, pirate or colorful clown. If it's a girl then you can design the cake with a real doll on the cake, to be precise a Barbie. Gadgets like computers or laptops or I-pods can also be interesting for young adolescents. If your kid likes to read, you can also order for a cake that looks like a book, specifically a Harry Potter one.

Kids would also love animal cakes like an alligator cake or an elephant cake, butterfly, cat or a dog cake. Car, bulldozer, police cars, bikes would also be a good idea for cakes. Even train or tractor cake would be innovative. A superman insignia or spaceship designed cake can also be a favorite with kids. For kids birthday cakes you can also try making a fish as a design, it can be a flounder or school of fish. Cakes can also be designed in the shape of burgers or hotdogs, candies, fruits and even drinks. There are various things that you can think of and gift your loved ones.

Birthday Cake Designs for Adults:
When it comes to adults the design does not matter much, the flavor is more important. Another characteristic of cakes ordered for adults is that they have alcohol as an ingredient, mostly rum. Still in the case of women, they would certainly like floral designs and men would definitely like something based on sports. In case of adults, naughty birthday cake designs can also be considered like a playboy bunny or the TV remote that he loves the most or his car keys that he always forgets. Similarly in the case of women it can be her stilettos or her purse that can be used humorously.

Birthday Cake Photos:
There are various sites on the Internet that help you to get a fairly good idea of how the design would look after you have made it or bought it as a cake since you can view clip arts which show you the colors and the designs quite vividly. It's always better to view those clip arts and get a printout of it so that you can show it to your baker and he can understand your concept better if there's something new that you are trying to do. Or else you can try the designs for birthday cakes given in this article.

If you really want to add some zing to the birthday that's approaching, you can either prepare a birthday cake yourself or order for one but do remember if you are ordering one, confirm with them a week in advance since all the good bakeries remain fairly busy and might just lose your order. Therefore to be on the safer side it is better to recheck and if you are making it yourself make a dummy cake before the final one, to correct any flaws it may have.

Tips To Make Pool Party Cake Easier

The coolest part of the party was the cake, modeled after the above-ground pool in their backyard in New Hampshire. Make this cake and we guarantee your guests won't hesitate to plunge right in.

Ingredients
        1/2 gallon quality ice cream (any flavor)
        1 1/3 8.5-oz. pkgs. fudge sticks (chocolate or peanut butter)
        2 cups heavy cream
        1/4 cup sugar
        1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
        Blue food coloring
        Gummy rings
        Gobstoppers
        Paper umbrellas
        Plastic figures
        Licorice
        Decorators' frosting

Instructions
Step 1 Begin by making the ice-cream base of the pool cake. Let the ice cream soften at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes, then ask your kids to help you spoon it into an 8-inch round springform pan, souffle dish, or plastic container. Pack the ice cream into the mold and smooth out the top. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Step 2 After the ice cream has frozen solid, unmold it by dipping the container quickly into a pan of hot water; if necessary, you can also loosen the edges of the ice cream with a knife. Invert the mold onto a large plate and carefully lift off the pan to reveal the ice-cream cake.

Step 3 Your kids can then carefully place the fudge sticks (we alternated plain and chocolate-peanut butter) along the sides of the ice-cream pool cake, the cookies will resemble the panels of an aboveground pool. Return the cake to the freezer while you prepare the whipped cream.

To make the blue whipped cream waves, pour the cold heavy cream into a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until the cream begins to thicken and soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until stiff. Mix in several drops of blue food coloring. Frost the top of the frozen cake with the blue whipped cream, then return it to the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes or until set.

Next, let your kids turn the cake into a bustling pool with gummy ring inner tubes, Gobstopper beach balls, paper umbrellas, and plastic swimmers. Add a licorice ladder with licorice rungs (use decorators' frosting to glue it together).

Now it's time to take the plunge into the pool cake. For best results, serve it immediately and do not let it stand at room temperature for long. Store leftovers in the freezer. Feeds 10 to 12 hungry swimmers.

Tips:

To add variety, you can layer different flavors of ice cream or mix in candies (chocolate fish, anyone?). The trick is to loosen the ice cream without melting it, so don't hold the mold in the hot water for more than a few seconds. Ask your children to work quickly while they place the chocolate cookies around the outside -- otherwise, they'll have a melted "pool" of ice cream. For foolproof whipped cream, chill the bowl and beaters in advance. Take the kids with you to buy pool accessories at a party supply store, suggests Gail. "They have a better concept than we do about what makes good pool toys." 

Delicious Pudding Cake Mix Recipes

Cakes are a weakness for people who have a sweet tooth. Be it a birthday, wedding or an anniversary, people love to have cakes and pastries as their dessert. Baking a cake is an art, at which some people are experts. But, people who are apprentices at cooking, can have a difficult time while baking one. Baking a cake is a long procedure and needs a lot of time and patience, as one wrong measure can ruin the cake. However, now one can make use of the ready-made cake mix packets (flour, sugar, baking powder and flavoring), that are readily available in grocery stores. Cake mixes were introduced in 1947-48, by General Mills and Pilsbury, and since then, many companies have come out with their own cake-mixes. Combining pudding with the cake mix has also become common among many people.

Lemon Pudding Fruit and Nut Cake

Ingredients

• 3¾ ounces lemon pudding mix, instant
• ¼ cup apricot brandy
• 1 package spice cake mix
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cup apricot nectar
• 8 ounces sifted powdered sugar
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 4 ounces candied pineapple
• 2-3 tablespoons apricot brandy
• 4 ounces candied cherries
• 8 ounces walnuts
• 8 ounces dates

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven at 350° F. Chop the pineapple, cherries, walnuts and dates and keep them ready.
2. In a small bowl, break the eggs one by one, stir well and set aside.
3. Take cake mix in a large mixing bowl, and add ¼ cup apricot brandy, pudding mixture, apricot nectar and vegetable oil. Pour the eggs into the mixing bowl for at least 2 minutes, till it becomes smooth. Sprinkle chopped nuts and stir again.
4. Grease a 10 inch baking pan, and spread the batter in it evenly. Keep it in the oven and let it bake for 55 minutes. Before taking it out, check whether the cake is completely baked.
5. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes. In a small bowl, take 1 cup sugar and add apricot brandy to it. Mix well and pour over the cake. Your fruit and nut cake is ready to be eaten.

Choco-Chip Pudding Cake

Ingredients

• 8 ounces chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1 packet chocolate pudding mix
• 2 cups milk
• 1 packet chocolate pudding mix, instant
• 4 ounces nuts, chopped

Preparation

1. Cook pudding with 2 cups of milk, as instructed in the packet cover and keep aside for cooling.
2. In a large mixing bowl, empty the contents of the cake mix and combine it with the eggs. Beat it to make a soft and fluffy batter. Pour in the pudding and stir till it blends completely.
3. Grease a 9x13 sized baking pan and spread the cake batter into it. Drop in chocolate chips and nuts and bake in a preheated oven at 350° F, for not more than 30-35 minutes.

Banana Pudding Yellow Cake

Ingredients

• ¾ cup mashed banana
• 1 package banana flavored pudding, instant
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1 packet yellow cake mix
• 1 dash vanilla extract
• ¼ cup vegetable oil

For Glazing:

• 16 ounces confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 4 ounces chopped walnuts
• white icing

Preparation

1. Take a large bowl, and mix the pudding and cake mix. Make a hole in the middle of the batter and put in eggs, water, mashed bananas and oil. Stir till all the ingredients are mixed well.
2. Transfer the batter into a 10 inch greased baking pan and bake it in a preheated oven for 50-55 minutes at 350° F.
3. Take it out of the oven and keep aside for cooling.
4. In a small bowl, take sugar and mix it with milk. Pour over the cake and top it with white icing. Decorate it with chopped nuts and your banana pudding yellow cake is ready.

Baking a cake has surely become a simple task with the use of cake mix. Try these pudding cake mix recipes and come out with cakes as delicious as homemade cakes, made in the traditional way.

Flower Birthday Cake Ideas

Nobody likes to have a plain birthday cake no matter how great it tastes. A birthday cake should not only taste delicious, but should also be great to look at. A well decorated birthday cake is what every birthday girl or boy looks forward to. A very popular design in birthday cakes is the flower birthday cake. There are two ways in which you can make a flower birthday cake. One is to make a simple sponge cake or chocolate cake and then decorate it with flowers made with different types of icing.

The other is to shape the cake like a flower and then cover it with plain butter icing or royal icing. The first method of decorating a regular cake with flowers made with icing is a simpler method to master. Before you try to mold flowers with icing for your flower cake, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. You need to choose the right icing with the right consistency for making the icing flowers. The icing needs to be a bit stiff, so that it can hold the shape of the petals of flowers. If the icing is not of the right consistency, the flowers will simply not hold their shape and it will ruin the birthday cake. Here we are going to discuss how to make a flower birthday cake.

Some of the best icing for making a flower birthday cake is buttercream icing and royal icing. You can also make fondant flowers by using fondant for decorating a flower birthday cake. Whichever type of icing you choose, make sure that it is of the right consistency. If you notice that the icing is not holding the shape of the flowers, then the icing is probably not stiff enough and you need to add a bit of icing sugar to it. On the other hand, if you notice cracks on the flowers, then the icing is probably too stiff and you need to add a bit of liquid. Given below are a few ideas on how to make flower birthday cake decorations.

How to Make a Carnation Icing Flower
To make a carnation flower with icing you need royal icing of a stiff consistency and a disposable piping bag. Place a wax paper on your work table and pour the royal icing inside the piping bag. Attach a number 12 round decorating tip to the decorating bag and then pipe a small dot or ball on the waxing paper. Hold the piping bag at a ninety degree angle to the cake and pipe some stiff petals in the center of ball by using a wiggling up and down motion. Finish by piping some ruffled petals along the edge of the circle. Your carnation icing flower is ready and you can use it to adorn the birthday cake. Make several carnation icing flowers in different colors and place them on top of the birthday cake for a beautiful flower birthday cake.

How to Make Drop Flowers
Piping drop flowers is one of the easiest icing flowers techniques to master. To make drop flowers, you will need a piping bag and stiff buttercream icing. Hold the piping bag so that it is at a ninety degree angle to the cake. Now squeeze the top portion of the piping bag, with gentle pressure and pipe a bit of icing on the cake. When you have the desire drop flower size, lift the tip of the piping bag in one smooth motion. Attach a writing tip to the piping bag and pipe a small dot at the center of the drop flower. Use different colored buttercream icing to make small and medium-sized drop flowers to decorate the birthday cake.

How to Make a Rose Icing Flower
To make a rose icing flower you need frosting in pink color, a piping bag, rose tip, wax paper and a rose nail. Pipe a small amount of frosting on the rose nail and then place the wax paper over it. This will ensure that the wax paper does not move when you start the icing process. Hold the piping bag over the rose tip at a ninety degree angle and then using medium pressure, squeeze out a bit of frosting on the center of the waxing paper. Now rotate the rose pin as you steadily squeeze out icing in a swirling pattern. Squeeze the piping bag in an arc while rotating the rose pin in the other direction. Make three swirls in this way to make a small rose. The arcs should overlap each other so that they look like petals. Once this is done, make five more swirls over the first ones, making sure that the edges are angled inwards. Your rose is ready. Slide the rose nail off the wax paper and place the rose in the refrigerator to harden before using it to decorate the birthday cake.

These were three flower decorations made with icing and frosting that you can use for making a flower birthday cake. Flower birthday cakes can make anyone's birthday more special and fun.