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 💗

Snowman Hot Chocolate Bombs!

Today is the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century and we're over here celebrating!

 Celebrating with Hot Cocoa Bombs!

That's right..we jumped on the hot cocoa bomb train!

Choo Choo baby!

They really are simple to make and fun to watch melt after you pop them into a mug of hot milk. Let's make 'em!

I used hot cocoa mix, white and black candy melts, mini marshmallows, orange decorating icing, and sprinkles.

I also used this silicone mold with 2 1/2 inch semi-spheres and this beautiful spoon that belonged to my sweet, candy making Memaw!

Melt white candy melts in microwave in 30 second increments on 50% power, stirring each time until melted smooth. Spoon about a tablespoon into each well using the back of the spoon to spread and cover the entire half sphere making sure you get all the way to the tippy top.

Place into the fridge for about 5 minutes to set, then add about an additional 1/2 tablespoon of melted candy to make a second coating.

Pop into the fridge for another 5 minutes, remove and unmold. These were so easy to work with. Just turn the mold upside down and gently peel back away from each candy piece. it works like a charm!

The next photo step is in my camera that will not upload to my computer! It's really easy though! Just warm a plate in the microwave for 90 seconds, take a half sphere and place it upside down on the heated plate for a couple of seconds to smooth out the edge. 

Now fill with a scoop of hot cocoa mix, mini marshmallows, and sprinkles. Take another half sphere, smooth the edge on the warm plate and place on the other half to complete your snowball!

These blue sprinkles are so pretty but after the cocoa bomb melted, they all just sunk to the bottom of the mug! 😜

Let's decorate our snowmen!

I melted a few black candy melts in a decorator bag and cut off a tiny tip to pipe my eyes and mouths.

I used a tube of orange icing with a #3 tip to pipe my noses.

Aren't we "snow" cute?!!

Now all we have to do is heat up some milk and pour it over our sweet snowballs and watch 'em melt!

Ooooh yum!!

Y'all! I love how these turned out and now I just want to make more! So many possibilities!

Hot Cocoa Bombs 

12 ounces white candy melts

10 black candy melts

6-7 tablespoons hot cocoa mix

mini marshmallows

Wilton orange decorating icing

Sprinkles (optional)

Tools needed:

2 hot cocoa bomb silicone baking molds

spoon for spreading

#3 tip for icing

coupler to attach tip

cake decorating icing bags

Melt white candy melts. Spoon 1 tablespoon into molds and smooth over entire semi-sphere. Pop into fridge for 5 minutes to set. Spoon an additional 1/2 tablespoon into each mold for a second coating. Pop into fridge for another 5 minutes until set. Remove mold, turn upside down and gently remove finished candy pieces.

Warm a plate in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Turn one of the half sphere candies upside down on plate for a couple of seconds to melt a smooth edge. Fill with 1 tablespoon hot cocoa mix, marshmallows, and sprinkles. Now take another half sphere, melt edge smooth and place atop the first one. Smooth the melted candy around the center. I used a gloved hand and smoothed with my index finger.

Now it's time to decorate!

Place about 10 black candy melts into a decorator bag and melt in microwave in 30 second increments on 50% power. Stop and gently knead bag after each "zap" until melted. Snip off tiny tip of bag. Pipe eyes and mouths for snowman faces. 

Attach #3 tip to orange icing tube, attach coupler and pipe carrot noses. And that's all there is to it!

My recipe yielded 5 hot chocolate bombs.

How adorable are these sweet snowballs?!

Hope you have fun making these!

Thanks for stopping by!

John 3:16

'til we sweet again, Karen!💗

Happy New Year Candy Clocks!

It's time to wish you all a

Happy New Year!

I'm thankful for God's blessings in 2020,

and praying for a better year in 2021!

John 3:16

'til we sweet again, Karen 💗

Marshmallow Christmas Yule Logs

Merry Christmas Eve!

This is my absolute favorite time of year.

A time to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! 

It is truly humbling to think that He gave His life for mine. And He gave it for you too!

He was born to die...for my sins and yours.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Every year since our first-born grandson Joseph was able to read, we've had him read the story of Christ's birth as told in Luke chapter two. Jojo-he's still a baby to me- is a newlywed now, but I hope this is one tradition that never changes! And, if it's cold enough we get to enjoy this wonderful part of the Christmas season by the fireside.

That's where these yule logs come in. Simple, fun, and sweet yule logs. Made with marshmallows! Let's get crackling! 😜

I used: marshmallows, chocolate coating, holly and berry sprinkles, lollipop sticks, and a dinner fork to make the "bark"

Insert lollipop stick into two marshmallows. Cut tip off another marshmallow and attach the sticky side to the top marshmallow.

Dip in melted chocolate and place on parchment. Let sit just until chocolate begins to set and then drag the tines of the fork through it to resemble tree bark.

Attach holly and berry sprinkles and sit back and sing a few Christmas carols..'cause now you're done!

Go ahead and make some! "Yule" be glad you did!

These little Christmas cuties would make for some sweet little table favors at your holiday meal!

Way down here in Atlanta, we may get a few snow flurries on Christmas morning! That is a very rare occurrence around here and it would sure help our chances of burning a real yule log! 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

John 3:16

Thanks for stopping by.

'til we sweet again, Karen 💗

Disney Sweets and Christmas Treats!

We went to Disney and ate the World!

Christmas is my favorite time of the year! And y'all know I love some Disney and of course all things sugary! So won't you join me on our sweet adventure?!

Y'all! Disney bakers! They create some of the most fun snacks and treats you ever did see and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a few. Here is just a small sampling of their many offerings! Eight to be exact!

We begin with the very festive Mickey's Holiday Cookie.

I found this one in Disney's Hollywood Studios at Rosie's All-American Cafe for $4.99.

It's a vanilla butter cookie covered in a red tinted white chocolate with sugar snowflakes. 

It was okay. Kind of bland really. In fact, I ate only one ear and ending up tossing the rest.  I would have saved it for the grandkiddos to try, but they were all on the Tower of Terror ride with Pawpaw, my hands were freezing (yes it can get cold in Florida), and I had no container for it. 

But it is a lovely cookie and super Christmassy!

Ah, still at Rosie's All-American Cafe, here we have Olaf's Snow Flurry Cupcake for $7.99.

I liked this one.

It's a yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream, snow fairy sugar and this cute little Olaf glow clip.

The frosting was thick, creamy and yummy with the fun added crunch of sugar sprinkles. I actually liked the frosting better than the cupcake itself. This one is a cutie!

This was my favorite!

This absolutely adorable Orange Christmas Bird hangs out at the Sunshine Tree Terrace in the Magic Kingdom. He sells for $5.99.

He's made with orange-scented white chocolate mousse and filled with orange curd and topped off with a white chocolate face and Santa hat. Also he sits atop what tasted like vanilla cake that paired well with the creaminess of the mousse. 

I loved this so much. It was very orangey which was very okay with me and that thin, crunchy shell was perfect. 

I will be going back for more of this one!

Orange you happy just looking at this cross section..i know i am!

Another Magic Kingdom find was this Pistachio Chai Tea Float at the Aloha Isle for $6.49.

It's a pistachio soft-serve ice cream with spiced Chai tea and a red velvet cake pop ornament.

Tasty! This was my first experience with Chai tea. I liked it fine but not sure I loved it. My grandson Isaac and I ended up switching drinks which meant that I also got to enjoy my all-time fave Pineapple Dole Whip Float... so we were both happy!

The red velvet cake pop was a nice addition and really made this float P🌟P! 

This little-it's actually huge-beauty can be yours by visiting Karamell-Kuche in the Germany pavilion in EPCOT.

This Gingerbread Salted Caramel Buttercream Cookie Sandwich sells for $5.99.

If I liked gingerbread I would have loved this cookie! It had the perfect moist and chewy texture with a delicious caramel frosting filling. If you like gingerbread, this one is for you!

That filling!😋

Next up in the Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle is The Clock Strikes Twelve dessert and it is "right on time" yum!

This is a dark chocolate mousse with a dark chocolate ganache and raspberry coulis. This dessert was the final course of our pre-fixe meal so I don't have a price for it. But I couldn't leave it off because, well..look at it! 

The mousse and ganache were really delicious. I don't care for raspberry but everyone else enjoyed their coulis. The clock on top is made of white chocolate and two of our grandkiddos, Isaac and Lydia ate the pansy garnish! I opted out!😄 

This wonderful treat is a do-over for sure!

I was really excited to find this gorgeous Happy Holidays Grand Cake Pop for $7.99 in the Gasparilla Island Grill at the Grand Floridian. It took a little of the sting out of check-out day from our beautiful resort. And this was prettier in person than it shows up on camera!

This is a triple-chocolate cake pop covered in white chocolate with a festive white chocolate Mickey ears piece.

I loved this Christmassy treat! The chocolate shell was nice and thick with a satisfying crunch against a super moist and tasty chocolate cake pop center! Win!

So last but definitely not least was another surprise favorite for me! 

This one is from Disney Springs' Goofy's Candy Company. It's the Mickey Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallow Wand priced at $4.99.

I loved every single thing about this one. 

The marshmallow, dipped in chocolate and then coated in crushed peppermint was total chewy, gooey, oh my sweet goodness!

I wish I had brought home a dozen of these. But, this is also one of the easiest for me to re-create at home. And so I will! 

Well, that's all there is and there ain't no more!

Until we return to Disney, that is!

Hope you all enjoyed our trip down Sweet Street, USA! See ya real soon!

John 3:16

'til we sweet again, Karen💗

Chocolate Covered Caramel S'mores

Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse!

We'll see ya real soon because we're taking the grandkiddos to Walt Disney World!!

So last year all I wanted for Christmas was our first Disney annual passes. My sweet Santa came through once again and boy have we had a blast using them! 

Can you guess what tops my list of must-dos every trip? Yep! I have to check out all the fun new treats created in the Disney candy kitchens.

I follow a lot of Disney vloggers so I already know which Christmas themed treats I wanna try and I'm going to be posting them right here at Sugartown Sweets so you can see all the festively sweet and sugary fun!

One of our favorite spots in all of WDW is, Karamell-Kuche (German for caramel kitchen), at EPCOT.

Everything in the shop is made using Werther's caramel!

Here I have recreated their caramel s'mores using my own homemade marshmallows and caramel recipes!

It sure was a fun way to gear up for our trip to see the Mouse!

Of course you can use store-bought marshmallows and Werther's caramels, but if you have the time and don't mind getting a little sticky, get the family together for some fun in your own candy kitchen!

For our marshmallows, we need: sugar, water, corn syrup, unflavored gelatin, and salt.

For the s'mores we will also use:

48 graham cracker squares, caramel, and 3 ten ounce bags Ghirardelli chocolate wafers.

Pour gelatin over cold water in mixer bowl with whisk attachment and set aside.

Combine sugar, hot water, corn syrup, and salt in heavy bottomed 4 quart saucepan over medium heat.  Stir until sugar is dissolved, attach candy thermometer, and continue cooking without stirring until mixture reaches 235 degrees (soft-ball stage)

Remove from heat.

Slowly pour hot sugar mixture into mixer bowl with gelatin mixture mixing on low speed.

When fully combined, add vanilla and turn mixer to high speed. Whisk for 10 minutes.

Prepare 3 cups fitted with decorator bags. Fold the tops of bags over cup edges and fill bags with marshmallow mixture. Cut tips off bags to pipe.

Pipe marshmallow onto 24 graham cracker squares. 

Let marshmallow set for 2-3 hours before popping into broiler for a couple of minutes to toast.

Make caramel or melt down Werther's chewy caramels to top marshmallows. If making your own, let cool down a bit first. Here is my caramel recipe.

Pour remaining caramel into lightly greased, parchment lined pan to set. Cut into squares to use later for drizzling onto s'mores.

Oh my word. Open-faced s'mores!

Top treats with remaining graham squares.

 

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments on 50% power stirring each time until melted and smooth. Dip s'mores into melted chocolate and place on parchment lined pan until set.

Melt down about 9 caramel squares in microwave in 30 second increments until fully melted. Drizzle onto s'mores and let set.

If you're using store-bought caramels, I used about a cup of melted caramel.

C.A.R.A.M.E.L.

Time to taste!!

Oh y'all, I ain't gonna brag..well wait! 

Yes I am!!

Hubby really loved these and scarfed down two as soon as he walked in the door!

They're a hit!

Vanilla Marshmallows

2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in mixer bowl with whisk attachment and set aside.

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup hot water

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a heavy bottomed, 4 quart saucepan, combine sugar, hot water, corn syrup, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Attach candy thermometer and continue cooking without stirring until mixture reaches softball stage-235 degrees.

Remove from heat. Slowly pour hot sugar mixture into mixer bowl with gelatin mixture. Whisk on low speed until all combined. Add vanilla, turn mixer on high speed and continue mixing for 10 minutes.

If you simply want to eat these "out of hand", pour the mixture into a pan lined with parchment sprayed with non-stick spray. Let set and cut.

 

Since we are piping these onto graham crackers for our s'mores,  I set up 3 cups with decorator bags folding the top edges over the top of the cups. Then I filled each one with marshmallow mixture and snipped the tip off each bag to pipe.

With 24 graham cracker squares lined up on a parchment lined pan, pipe marshmallow onto each cracker. Let sit 2 -3 hours before popping into oven on broil for a couple of minutes to toast the marshmallow.

I piped the remaining marshmallow into my silicone mold pan lightly sprayed with non-stick spray.

Caramel

Now we can top each treat with a dollop of caramel and top with remaining graham cracker squares.

You can melt down caramels for this step or you can make your own. Here is my caramel recipe I posted last month to make caramel apples. It's my family's favorite!

If you do make your own, let it cool down a bit before you dollop! When cool, dollop caramel onto marshmallow and top with another cracker.

Pour the remaining caramel into a lightly greased, parchment lined pan.

You can cut these into squares later and melt down to drizzle on top of the s'mores.

Dipping Chocolate

3 ten ounce bags Ghirardelli chocolate wafers

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments on 50% power stirring each time until melted and smooth.

Dip each s'more in chocolate and place on parchment lined pan to set.

Caramel Drizzle

Now that our s'mores are ready for their caramel drizzle, melt a few squares of caramels (I used about 9) in microwave in 30 second increments until melted. I added just a smidge (teaspoon or so) of cream to make it more "drizzly".😊

I made 20 s'mores and used a little less than a cup of caramel for my drizzle.

Drizzle away!

Hope you enjoy your Chocolate Covered Caramel S'mores!

Ok! Disney, here we come!

John 3:16

'til we sweet again! Karen 💗