cinnamon roll cake

Cinnamon Roll Cake… All That Ooey Gooey Goodness in Cake Form

 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving week! I am almost finished with day three of my detox from carbs and wine, and let me tell you how much it pains me to even look at this photo. It is only because I’m already past the withdrawal phase that I can post this. I think it was the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and this cinnamon roll cake that put me over the edge… carb overload! And don’t think this is a long-term thing, I only plan on torturing myself for a few more days.

My sister, brother-in-law, and my niece came and stayed with us last week and we had a great time. My sis and I stayed up late one night in our jammies laughing and watching Cupcake Wars. What a blessing to just hang out and catch up with her. She is also a master chef in the kitchen, so I loved cooking Thanksgiving dinner together. She didn’t even get mad at me when we had to run out to the grocery store a half an hour before the turkey was done.

This cinnamon roll cake is both a dessert and a breakfast, especially if you’re a fellow carb-addict. This recipe has made the rounds in the foodie blogosphere for good reason, and this will definitely become a repeat recipe in our house. The boy and family LOVED it! It really does taste like an ooey, gooey cinnamon roll, but it’s way easier than homemade cinnamon rolls. This would make the perfect breakfast for Christmas morning. You can even make it the day before and warm it up before serving.

On a totally unrelated note, thank you to my friends and readers who have let me know about my spam-posting impostor over the past few weeks. I was in denial, hoping it would go away. It didn’t! And no, that was not me trying to sell you false eyelashes, or whatever else was popping up here. The boy has a whole theory about the spam posting impostor and he could be right (he usually is and that completely frustrates me).

Jen from Swank Web Design, who created my blog design, has updated everything and I think the problem has been fixed. If you are looking for a blog designer, I cannot sing her praises enough. I love working with her! She is so creative and incredibly efficient. While Jen was updating things, I had her add a section to my sidebar called “The Essentials”. Many of you have asked for my frosting, sugar cookie, and gingerbread recipes, which I know have gotten buried in my blog posts. All of the essential recipes are now right there, just in time for holiday baking.

Hope you’re having a carb-indulgent week for me! More carbs next week… I promise!

 

 

Cinnamon Roll Cake (Posted by Holly at Life as a Lofthouse)

12 servings

 

CAKE:

3 cups Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Sugar

4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 1/2 cups Milk

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

1/2 cup ( 1 stick)  Butter, melted

TOPPING:

1 cup ( 2 sticks) Butter, softened

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons Flour

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

GLAZE:

2 cups Powdered Sugar

5 Tablespoons Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 glass baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

 

In an electric or stand mixer add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well , slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into the prepared 9×13 baking pan.

 

For topping, In a large bowl mix the 2 sticks of butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together until well combined and creamy. Drop evenly over the batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.

 

Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean.

 

FOR GLAZE:  In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla together with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.



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Adorable Thanksgiving Printables

If you read my post from yesterday, I have to tell you there are not enough rum soaked cherries in the world to ease a mom’s anxiety of the first playoff game. The game was intense. During the last inning, our team was up by one with the bases loaded, and our coach (the boy’s dad) brings in the boy to be the closing pitcher… no pressure. Last night the boy was the hero and struck the next two batters out to win the game. It really was a great moment for him. He was exhausted and so was I! I’m not sure whether to be thankful or not that this team is still in the playoffs and now scheduled for an entire weekend of baseball games. (Did I mention I’m out of rum soaked cherries? We’re taking the Bailey’s and hot chocolate for tonight’s game!)

Here is something to be thankful for… these free Thanksgiving printables from some of my favorite blogging designers. Enjoy!!

Don’t tell me you’ve already made your Thanskgiving grocery list, please lie to me. Your honesty will only make me feel bad about the current lack of organization in my life. When you finally do get around to making your list, this is a great way to map it all out. Love this Menu Planner  made by Wendy at Weswen Design.

 

Amy always shares great printables with her readers. I love how simple these are to put together. You can print the  Candy Bar Wrapper at her blog Living Locurto.

I love these festive patterns and colors Rebecca at Somewhat Simple used when she created these flags. It’s as simple as printing, cutting, gluing to a toothpick, and sticking in your Thanksgiving treats.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sunflowers and thought this  Sunflower printable pack was a great Thanksgiving motif created by the amazingly talented Kim of TheTomCatStudio

If you want simple and elegant these Place Cards by Kim of Today’s Creative Blog would look great at each place setting.

How clever are these? I’m not a left-over kind of girl, Thanksgiving is my only exception. These Leftovers Tags  are perfect to have ready to go when sending guests home with food. These were made by Tricia at Worldlabel.com

This complete set is a freebie too created by Ashley of Cupcake Express posted at Catch my Party .

I am of the philosophy that kids should be kept busy during Thanksgiving dinner, so that parents can enjoy their wine and turkey dinner. These Placemats are perfect for the Kiddie Table (created by Kirsten at Embellish)

It’s Written on the Wall has posted this Thanksgiving Subway Art plus eleven more to choose from. You can print them on your home computer or have Costco print them in an hour.

Beth from It is What it is created these favor tags in four different color schemes. She posted several ideas on how to use them that you must check out. My favorite is the tag attached to the wine bottle…perfect to bring to the Thanksgiving hostess.

Wishing everyone a great pre-Thanksgiving weekend!



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ch cookies

Life is Just a Bowl of Rum-Soaked Cherries

Seriously, a bowl of cherries doesn’t do much for me… but a bowl of rum-soaked cherries is definitely something to get excited about.  I sent my parents off on their road trip with oatmeal raisin cookies (my dad’s favorite). Since I was already making oatmeal cookie batter,  I found dried cherries in my cabinet and decided to experiment. These cookies were supposed to have chocolate chips in them as well,  but in all honesty I was on my second glass of wine and completely forgot to add them. I remembered to add chopped up walnuts to the batter, which is a twist on my go-to oatmeal cookie recipe.  The people at the Fisher Nut Company were kind enough to send me a whole variety of nuts to use with my holiday baking. The cherry-walnut combo was great. I really think the cherry-walnut, and chocolate combo would be even better, so you’ll have to let me know if you bake a batch.

The boy is in the play-offs for baseball this week, which causes lots of anxiety (for me, not him… he’s fine). Why my son decided pitching was his calling in life, I’ll never know. I try to remind myself that it’s just for fun, but watching the boy up there on the pitching mound is nerve-racking… not what I’d call “fun”. I think  I now have just the trick to make it more enjoyable. If you’re at the game tonight and see me with a ziploc full of cherries, it’s our little secret that they’ve been soaking in rum, okay?

 

I will be back tomorrow posting some great Thanksgiving printables!

 

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies (Adapted from my Go-to Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

1 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups oats (not instant)

1 1/2 cups rum soaked cherries

½ cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup chocolate chips (don’t forget)

Directions

Pour dried cherries into a glass bowl. Pour 1/2 cup dark rum over cherries (spice rum works too). Add enough water so that all cherries are covered in the liquid and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, set aside. Combine butter, sugar, dark brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a hand mixer on low. To cream, increase speed to high and beat until fluffy and the color lightens. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until no flour is visible. (Over mixing develops the gluten, making a tough cookie.) Now add the oats, nuts, and cherries; stir to incorporate.

Fill cookie scoop with dough. Drop 2-inches apart onto baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake 11-13 minutes (on center rack), until golden, but still moist beneath cracks on top. Remove from oven; let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

 



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Turkey Treats for those non-pie lovers

Happy Friday everyone! I can’t believe how fast this month is flying by. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, so it’s time to start thinking about turkey treats. My parents are heading out on their first road since becoming homeless, and they will be gone for Thanksgiving. I know what you’re thinking, how dare they leave me on a major holiday (okay, that’s what I was thinking). I might have been a little bitter, but my sister and her family are driving here from Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. The boy and I are SO excited to have them with us. Usually, they stay at my mom’s and we have to share them, but now that my parents are drifters, we get them all to ourselves. My sister and I are excited to make Thanksgiving dinner together. We’re of course making the traditional Thanksgiving pie, but we also need something festive and sweet for the non-pie lovers. I went in search of some adorable turkey treats created by other food bloggers and here’s what I found. Now comes the tricky part…  figuring out the cutest.

 

Two Oreos, a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, and a Whopper disguised as a turkey? This is my kind of dessert posted at ourbestbites.com .

Martha Stewart has a turkey cupcake how-to posted on her site.

 

I love these M&M turkey favors posted at the Party Animal blog. Wouldn’t they look cute at each place setting at the kiddie table?

 

How simple and yummy does this turkey rice krispie treat look that Ali from Gimme Some Oven created.

This turkey cake pop posted by Maria on Martha Stewart’s Dreamers into Doers page is the cutest one I’ve seen for Thanksgiving.

Turn a chocolate cupcake on its side, get some Nutter Butters and a few other goodies and you can make these turkey cupcakes (created by Jeanne Benedict)

I love this turkey cupcake cake for a big group posted at Atomic Cupcakes.

Why did I just buy the giant turkey cookie cutter when this cookie made using a circle and heart cookie cutter looks so much cuter. Bee in our Bonnet posted a step-by-step photo tutorial on how to make these.

Happy Weekend Everyone!!



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cute as a button 1

Cute as a Button Baby Shower Cookies and Cupcakes

If you read my blog, you probably know how badly I wanted a baby girl. I love and adore the boy and wouldn’t trade him for anything, but getting him to play Barbies or be excited to go to the mall with me just isn’t going to happen. Since the mall and Barbies are out, I do get excited to make girly cookies and cupcakes   Last week these were made to celebrate a newborn baby girl. Bridget at Bakeat350 made “cute as a button cookies” awhile back that I loved, and I thought the idea was a perfect one for this “Sip and See” party.

The only additional step with these cookies was making the fondant buttons. It was really pretty simple with Wilton’s pre-made fondant on hand. Bridget made the process even easier by posting a step by step photo tutorial on how to make them. The words were written on the royal icing using my new Americolor food writer markers. These markers are now my favorite of any of the food-safe markers I’ve tried. LOVE THEM!

I wanted the cupcakes to coordinate with the cookies, so I carried over the flower and button theme.  Don’t you just love how the buttons look in the center of the flowers… so adorable and girly I can hardly stand it.



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cooke favor 1

Halloween Wrap-up & New Roomies

My new roommates moved in last Sunday, so it’s been quite a week. I never planned on having roommates. In fact, when I got divorced there was even a discussion about not having roommates in the best interest of our boy. For six years, I’ve kept good on that promise, and in doing so, our house has become the boy’s safe haven.

So I’ve broken a promise… sort of, but I really did find the best roommates possible. Roommates who cook dinner and do my laundry. Roommates who pick up my groceries and watch the boy when I need them to. They’re also roommates who plan on traveling the world and staying here in between vacations. Most importantly, the Naughty One approves, and is in fact in her glory with them here. Our roommates are named Grandma and Grandpa. My parents have given up their huge party house and are moving on to the next chapter in their lives, destination unknown. We are excited to be their home base when they need a break from traveling. They’re here for ten more days before heading out on a 30 day road trip.

Prior to the move-in, we hosted our annual pumpkin carving party. I’ve decided there are two types of food/party bloggers… those who pretend to have parties and blog about them, and those who actually do have parties, forget to take pictures at their parties, and when they actually remember to take pictures, the pictures turn out pretty crappy. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have a fabulous party with crappy pictures than vice-versa.

Wishing you all a fabulous week ahead. I’ll be back this week to share photos of the baking orders I somehow found time to  cram in during moving week.



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grave yard

Halloween Graveyard Push-up Pops

Our pumpkin carving party is this Friday night. It’s one of my favorite celebrations that we have all year. Good friends, good food, martinis, desserts, and prizes… it doesn’t get much better than that. I have some grand party plans, but seeing how it’s only a few days away, we’ll see how much I can pull off.

I’m serving Mexican food, a crowd favorite around here. It also happens to be the easiest dinner for me to put together for fifty or more people. But as much as I love Mexican food, cocktails and dessert are still what it’s all about.

The boy and I have been on a cake push-up pop kick for awhile, so we decided to create Halloween cake push-up pops for the party. The boy came up with the idea of  a push-up pop graveyard, so  this is what I’ve come up with… now to make a bunch more and a graveyard!

The push-up containers can be purchased from a variety of vendors. They can be purchased in bulk, but if you’re not in the market for more than 100, go visit Cupkate’s Event Design online storefront and buy them from Kate. She has them in stock. The goal of these was to keep it simple. The biggest time investment was making a Duncan Hines chocolate cake, pretty simple. I am of the belief that some occasions require homemade buttercream, birthdays, showers, and Valentine’s Day to name a few. However, there are other occasions where taking the shortcut is your best bet. This is where the pre-made icing comes in. Milano cookies were used to make the tombstones. I had black royal icing on hand to pipe on the cookies. As an alternative, the Food Writers made by Wilton, or melted chocolate chips or candy wafers could also be used for the design. The little candy bones are also from Wilton. We buried them in the layers of chocolate. Finally, we topped them off with chocolate candy rocks that we found from the candy store.

Want some more Halloween Push-up Pop inspiration? See what Christi of Love From the Oven created. I love the candy corn colored push-up pop! I might need to make some of those too.

 



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pumpkin bread

Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread and One Giant Pumpkin!

Last weekend we took our annual road trip to find our giant pumpkin. We’ve been driving out to Bate’s Nut Farm since Blake was a baby. It’s always a family affair.  My BFF Keri and her family join in our adventure too. The Naughty One was part of the fun again this year (I think she was more excited than the boy!). It ended up being quite warm, so we alternated between me carrying the Naughty One and letting her ride in the wheel barrow (and we wonder why she is such a little sausage).

Here’s our pumpkin. There’s a whole system in place to move the giant pumpkin from field to wheel barrow to car to the doorstep. I keep the weight of the pumpkin a secret, and we reveal it the night of our annual pumpkin carving party. It always hits the triple digit mark. All of our guests get to guess the weight, and whoever is closest wins a prize. According to the boy, my prizes aren’t all that great so I’ve got to come up with something new this year. He used to think I was so cool. What has 5th grade done to him? I have a week before our party to come up with some 5th grade approved prizes (that the little ones like too). Any suggestions? The adult prizes are so much easier, no one ever seems to complain about winning a bottle of wine.

 

I made up a batch of pumpkin bread this week and decided to use up my stash of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I chopped them up and folded them into the batter.  These mini loaves, like the Reese’s Banana Bread turned out to be a great combo.

This recipe is very adaptable, and the loaves come out very moist. You can substitute the peanut butter cups for chocolate chips, toffee bits, chopped nuts, or any other kind of baking chips and I think it would still taste great. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think the batter would also work well for pumpkin muffins.

 

printable recipe

Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini pumpkin pans*.  In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in peanut butter cups. Fill pans 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake approximately 40 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for ten minutes before removing from pans.

* I made 10 mini loaves from one batch.

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

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