Strawberry Cake

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is a beautiful day to share with your friends and loved ones just how much you love them.

Better yet, why not show them how much by baking them this delicious cake!

This Strawberry Cake recipe has been in my family since before I was born. There are many variations to it and your family probably has one of them!

It has never failed to get raves and deservedly so with the tasty, moisty cake and scrumptious strawberry icing! My first memory of it was my 5th birthday when my Aunt Anna Maye made it for my party and tinted the frosting lavender. It was a thing of beauty!

Let's make it!

To make this easy cake you will need, eggs, water, vanilla, oil, white cake mix, a tub of strawberries, and strawberry Jell-O.

My favorite way to prepare a cake pan lately is by spraying with Pam baking spray.

You will need a 13x9 pan for this cake.

To a mixer bowl, add 4 eggs, 3/4 cup canola oil, 3/4 cup water, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1 box white cake mix, 1 (3ounce) box strawberry Jell-O, and 1/2 of the 16 ounce tub of thawed strawberries (with most of the juice being drained off). Mix on low speed for 30 seconds and then on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.

While cake is baking, prepare the frosting.

To a mixer bowl, add 1 stick softened butter and beat till creamy. Add 4 cups confectioner's sugar, remaining (mostly drained) thawed strawberries, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix till light and fluffy. Set aside until cake is completely cooled.

So I'm over here being all simple today and I'm frosting the cake in the pan.

Mmmmmm! 😋

Now y'all..ain't this perty?!

Just for more 'perty', I added a swirl of frosting and sweet sprinkles.

One bite and you'll be hooked!

You're going to 💗 it!

Strawberry Cake Recipe

1 box white cake mix

1 (3 ounce) box strawberry Jell-O

1 16 ounce container frozen strawberries divided to use half in cake and half in frosting (thawed)

4 large eggs 

3/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup water

2 teaspoons vanilla

Into a mixer bowl add eggs, oil, water, vanilla, cake mix, Jell-O, and half of the (mostly drained) strawberries. Mix on low speed 30 seconds till combined. Then mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake on 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.

Strawberry Frosting Recipe

1 stick butter (softened)

4-5 cups confectioner's sugar

Remaining half of drained strawberries

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter in mixer bowl. Add 4 cups confectioner's sugar, strawberries, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy. If frosting is a little runny, mix in additional sugar. Spread on cooled cake and enjoy!

Wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Thank you for stopping by!

John 3:16

'til we sweet again, Karen 💗

Marshmallows for Valentine's Day

💗HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!💗

It's going to be a sweet one!

My Valentine is taking me on a unique and fun dinner date! We'll leave out early this morning to drive up to North Carolina. We'll be dining in a restaurant that has been converted from a theater and reaches as far back as the 1920s! Although its theater days have long ago passed, diners today enjoy watching old black and white silent movies on the still hanging screen!

I. Can't. Wait. 

But before I go I want to share with you my homemade marshmallows that I've cut into sweet shapes with Valentine cookie cutters.

I mean, who wouldn't want LOVE letters for Valentine's Day?!

I purchased my cutters at Walmart.

My ingredients include, juice from a jar of maraschino cherries, light corn syrup, egg whites, vanilla and almond extract, granulated sugar, water, and unflavored gelatin.

The cherry is not very pronounced in the marshmallows but does add a nice flavor. If you don't care for cherry, just sub out water instead.

1.In a small bowl with the cherry juice, stir in the unflavored gelatin and set aside.

2. In a 4 quart saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water.

3. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Attach candy thermometer and continue cooking without stirring until temperature reaches soft ball stage. I cooked mine to 238 degrees.

4. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin mixture.

1. In a mixer with wire whisk attached, beat egg whites till stiff peaks form.

2. With mixer on low, slowly pour in hot candy mixture.

3. Turn mixer up to high speed and mix candy for 9 minutes.

4. Pour marshmallow mixture into a sheet pan prepared with non-stick spray.

 Let stand at room temp till set. About 4-5 hours.

With cookie cutters sprayed liberally with non-stick spray, cut out marshmallow shapes. Coat candies completely with powdered sugar.

Now you can share the L-O-V-E!

Cherry and Almond Flavored Marshmallows

2 tbsp plus 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold maraschino cherry juice

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

2 large egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Sprinkle gelatin over a small bowl filled with the cold cherry juice. Stir and set aside.

Lightly spray baking sheet with non-stick spray and set aside. 

In a heavy bottomed 4 quart saucepan, stir together sugar, salt, corn syrup, and water. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Attach candy thermometer making sure it doesn't touch bottom of pan and continue cooking without stirring until candy reaches soft ball stage. Mine was ready at 238 degrees. Remove from heat, stir in gelatin mixture and set aside.

In mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. With mixer on low speed carefully pour in hot sugar mixture, turn mixer on high speed and mix for 9 minutes, adding flavorings about halfway through.

Pour marshmallow candy into prepared baking sheet. Let stand at room temp until set. (about 4-5 hours)

Now you can cut the marshmallows into shapes with your cookie cutters! Just spray each cutter liberally with non-stick spray, dab off excess and press through candy. Drop marshmallows into a bowl filled with powdered sugar to coat completely.

Thanks for stopping by!
'til we sweet again, Karen 💗 

Chocolate Candy Hearts of Many Colors

So here we are on the sweetest of all days!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted some cupcake toppers for sugar crafting time with my grandbabies and these are it.

They are so easy that I'm going to delight my 4 year-old granddaughter in letting her make some of her own. Of course I'll have to set the microwave, but she can do the rest!

I wanted to use a few different colors for my Valentine hearts and they ended up looking like my old 70's tie-dyed t-shirts. Cool!

 Wilton's Stack-N-Mold candy molds are the simplest way to make molded candies. The candy melts directly in the mold itself.

 The design in these Valentine hearts molds are pretty intricate and they all didn't turn out perfectly, but I love them and am definitely buying more!

The directions tell you to stack 3 candy melts into each cavity. But as you can see from the candy melts photo above, there are some melts bigger and some smaller. For the regular size melts I used 3. For the smaller candies I used 6. This still did not fill up the mold, but you can use more or less to make the finished candies thicker or thinner.

 Place candies in molds and melt in microwave for 2 minutes on 50% power. Gently tap and shake the mold. Then return to microwave for 30 second increments on 50% power until smooth and melted. Make sure to tap and shake each time.

Aren't these pretty!?

After melting, just place the molds in the fridge until candy is hardened.

Then flip the molds and press out finished candy hearts. 

This one with pale and dark pink colors was my favorite!

These were fun and sweet, just like our Valentine's day will be this year.

My husband and I are celebrating the entire day with our grandbabies so Mommy and Daddy can have a night out together. We can't wait!

Hope you all have a great time celebrating as well!

Have a sweet Valentine's, Karen💗

Strawberry Sweethearts

The closer we get to Valentine's Day, the more chocolate dipped strawberries we'll find.

Dipped, dunked and decorated strawberries.

These yummy Wilton Strawberry Candy Melts are the perfect choice for dipping these beautifully red strawberries.

I guess you could say, they were made for each other!

To get started, you will need:

fresh strawberries, candy melts, small candy eyes, large conversation hearts, ready-made chocolate frosting, jumbo heart sprinkles, confetti sprinkles.

You will also need a star tip (i used wilton #32) for piping hair, a small round tip (i used wilton tip #3) for piping arms and noses, a decorator bag or baggie to fill with the frosting, and parchment paper.

Melt candy melts at 30 second intervals at 50% power in microwave, stirring each time until melted and smooth.

Dip two strawberries into melted candy and place on parchment paper with sides touching. 

 Attach the candy heart and hold in place until set. Attach candy eyes.

With a frosting filled bag fitted with a small round tip, pipe noses and arms.

Time to pipe the hair. Just two quick squeezes for each strawberry, and you're done!

The "sweet nothings" on my conversation hearts were off center and just not pretty, so I chose to turn them backwards. Then I photoshopped my own words onto the hearts.

Hope you all have the sweetest of Valentine's Days!

Keeping life sweet, Karen 😊

Peeps Flower Pops

Hmmm..what to get my Mom for her (day before) Valentine's birthday.
Candy or flowers..or both!!

Yes! Here's a crazy easy and cute as can be Valentine's Peeps treat. 

Peeps Strawberry marshmallow hearts with Mike and Ike candies makes for a sweet flower pop to give to your special Valentine.

I think my Mom is gonna 💓 these!

You will need several..oh no, wait, just three items to make your flower pops. Peeps hearts, Mike and Ike candies and lollipops sticks.

Well, one more. You will also need a sharp knife.

Insert the lollipop stick into the heart.

Cut the green candy in half.

Press the sticky cut edges onto the lollipop stick.

You're done!

Now let us all celebrate this sweet holiday with those we love most and watch our love grow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sweet thoughts, Karen 💗

Love Letters Marshmallows

I Love Love Letters...

and now I love love letters marshmallows!

I have been admiring some really beautiful love letters cookies from afar, well..on google images anyways. And while I love me a good cookie, decorating marshmallows has become one of my favorite things.

I fell in love with marshmallows several years ago after seeing Meaghan's super adorable marshmallow creations.

Here are the ones I made today and if I may say, they're so pretty in pink!!

There are lots of sweet ways you can decorate your envelopes. Here's what I used for these.

Cute little alphabet stamps from Purple Cupcake, a teeny heart cutter, food writers, hearts and kisses sprinkles, food color spray, fondant, fondant roller and S'moreMallows.

The Wilton pink fondant is a bit dark, so I added a little bit of white fondant and kneaded it to create a softer color.

Roll it out and using a sharp knife, cut out a "flap". Use this same method to cut out "postage stamps".

Since pink is like the best color on the planet, I used this food color spray on a couple of the marshmallows.

Use a food color pen to write your love letter.

Dab a little water to the back of fondant flaps and other candy pieces and attach to marshmallows.

I used one of the tiny little alphabet stamps to impress an initial into the fondant heart below. (center marshmallow)

Absolutely everything about Valentine's Day is wonderful and absolutely nothing can beat a love letter..

 Pure sweetness.

Happy Valentine's Day, Karen