Easy Apple Jell-O Poke Cake

 

 

This cake is one of my favorites to do in a pinch. The best part is the combinations are literally endless. But the main staples are a box of cake mix, a box of instant pudding mix and a packet of dream whip.

Normally I do a chocolate cake with some kind of berry Jell-O, but this time I saw the Jolly Rancher Apple Jell-O and thought I'd give it a try. Next time I will probably add some caramel syrup to the pudding/frosting to make it a caramel apple cake.

This cake is super easy to make, made even easier by using the throw-away pans.

Tip: I make this cake the night before it's needed, just to make sure it's nice and cold/set. If you're in a hurry though, you can do it about 5 hours ahead of time.



Step 1: prepare cake mix as usual, you don't need to grease the pan. 35 minutes at 350 in my oven and it's perfect. When the cake is almost done baking, prepare your Jell-O. I use the smaller box, but if you have a big box, go for it, it'll just make the cake more Jell-O-y.










Jell-O is ready to go!

 Step 2: As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, go nuts and poke a bunch of holes in it.
Then pour on your Jell-O, cover it and stick it right in the fridge

 

Step 3: The Frosting- These directions are also on the back of the Dream Whip box- With an electric mixer, combine 1 packet of instant pudding mix (4 serving size), 1 packet of Dream Whip and 1.5 cups of cold milk. Mix on high until stiff peaks form (if you're using skim milk this might take awhile) That's your frosting, it's that easy. Keep in mind, this cake needs to stay refrigerated, so only take it out when you're ready to serve. Enjoy!!

 

 

Some flavor combos:
Vanilla cake - Orange Jell-O , vanilla frosting w/orange rind it takes like a Creamsicle
Chocolate cake- Raspberry Jell-O, chocolate frosting
Vanilla cake- Lemon Jell-O, vanilla frosting
Chocolate cake- Cherry Jell-O, chocolate frosting - a family favorite!

One thing I've been wanting to try but haven't yet is to layer the Jell-O. If someone wants to try this let me know how it comes out!

*You could also make an adult version and instead of the cold water in the Jell-O add some Vodka for a Jell-O shot cake! *

Hello Kitty Party

This past weekend was my oldest daughter's 4th birthday party! Today is her actual birthday and while I'm still coming down from the weekend I thought I'd share her birthday party. It was Hello Kitty themed and she loved it. I had a lot of fun planning it and luckily for me HK is absolutely everywhere so it wasn't too hard to find ideas for the party.

First were the invites, these were again done by my lovely friend. She did an amazing job as usual!

 

Everything after that pretty much fell into place, I decided to go with a small HK cake and coordinating cupcakes. All of the toppers were purchased at Party City. The cake pan and cookie cutters were from Amazon. For the round chocolate decorations on the cake, I got those at JoAnn fabrics in the cake section. They were an easy add on and a less painful way to decorate than piping all of the detail on the cake.

We did another bounce house this year, even though it was much colder than last year all of the kids still had a blast

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Door sign from Etsy

Cookies were decorated with edible markers

 

She's 4!!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

My daughter turned 3 on Sunday and we also had her birthday party. You guessed it, the theme was Minnie Mouse! Of course I had to add my own twist on it and included zebra, because what's a party without zebra print?!

First, I have to thank my wonderfully talented friend Kat for our invites!

The rest of the pics are pretty self explanatory so here they are!

The cupcakes were dressed up with royal icing bows "glued" on to oreos with mini oreos as the ears.

The cake itself was  6" around, and the topper was made from a styrofoam ball and cardboard covered in fondant. With a gumpaste bow and candy melts for polka dots.

Happy Birthday!

The finished cupcakes!

Up close and personal

Goody bags (Minnie cookies inside) With printed custom thank you card.



Chocolate Chip S'more Cookie Cups

Seriously, all I'm going to say about these is YUM.

So easy to make. All you need is:

Package of ready to bake chocolate chip cookie squares
Mini Marshmallows
Chocolate bar
Mini muffin tin


press the cookie squares into the muffin tin cups
sprinkle on the marshmallows
put a piece of chocolate in the middle

bake at 350 for about 12 minutes

seriously, that's it.
oh and EAT THEM ALL

S'mores Cupcakes

ok i'm really late on posting this, as i made these for the superbowl. but after i collected myself after my team's loss i forgot that i had taken pictures of the finished product. and what do you know, a whole month went by (and then some!)
So here are the cupcakes, chocolate cake batter, a fluff buttercream icing, topped with crushed grahm crackers and a nibblet of chocolate.

I think they came out pretty darn good, considering i made them from scratch! (my first batter) i did get the recipe from Pinterest Here.

Here they are:

The pictures from pinterest look much better but they tasted good!
I also made for the big game:
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Honey Teryaki Chicken Wings
Crescent Rolls pizzas
Everything was super yummy, i just wish the game had had a different ending, oh well. Better luck next year!