Peanut Butter and Banana Pupcakes

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Yesterday was a special day in this house.  Black Lab #4, my Ruby, turned 10! When your a dog in this house and you make it to 10 years of age, that calls for a celebration! And if you know me personally, you'll know that one of my favorite ways to celebrate a birthday is with cupcakes! So, PUPcakes it was.

These are so easy to make and you probably have all the ingredients on hand.  For the cake I used a super-ripe mashed banana and some applesauce as the base of the wet ingredients.  If you don't have one of those ingredients, pumpkin purée or smoother puréed fruit would be fine. You might even stroll down the baby food isle. (I really don't think your doggers will be too picky.)  The frosting is simple a 1:1 ration of cream cheese and peanut butter (I just used traditional peanut butter, not the natural or organic).  I don't know one dog that doesn't like peanut butter.  As for the garnish, it's just Milkbones and finely chopped bacon because I felt like getting fancy and let's face it, even in the dog world, bacon makes everything better.  

Now, I made these treats for my dogs, but really, there isn't anything in the cake that a human couldn't eat outside of any allergies.  In fact, when my husband walked in he saw them on the table and asked if he could eat one.  I said sure, but you might want to take off the Milkbone first😂.

There was a lot of smelling and drooling as I was making these, but if they could speak, I think they would say the wait was worth it!

Happy Birthday, Rubes!!

Apple Butter Pound Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting

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OMG! Why did it take me six years to make this?!? This is one unbelievable cake!! It tastes like Fall in sugar form! There really aren't enough words to tell you how good this cake is! (I have writer's block trying to think about how to describe how incredible it tastes, so let me just write about the recipe because you will need to make this cake ASAP.)

This is a cold-oven pound cake. And by that, I mean you turn the oven on AFTER you put the pan in the oven.  It is an old technique that produces a tall cake with a nice crisp crust. I love the crispy bits, don't you? The one thing that I want to point out is the bake time; it will vary depending on how quickly your oven heats up. The pilot light in my gas oven is a little slow to start (because I use it so much), therefore it took my cake a bit longer than 80 minutes to bake. To keep the top from browning too much, I lightly covered it with a sheet of aluminum foil towards the end of the bake time. 

As far as the recipe, I really didn't change much to the cake, but I did to the glaze/frosting.  The original recipe called it a glaze, but I knew by looking at the magazine photo that it was more of a pourable frosting than a glaze.  So to achieve that, I made sure that the base of the frosting was completely cooled before I beat in the confectioners' sugar.  And let me tell you that I am super glad that I went for the pourable frosting.  Holy yum and cue the sugar rush! 

The cake and frosting is all you need, but if you feel like getting fancy, dress the top of the cake with some dried apple chips like I did. Just make sure you wait to garnish until you are going to serve the cake, otherwise the apple chips will soften and loose their crunch.

Now, please don't do what I did and wait six years to make this cake!  It is sooooo good!!

Piña Colada Cake

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Can't get to a tropical beach for an island getaway and a glass of the popular drink made with frozen pineapple, pineapple juice, coconut, cream, and rum?  Then... MAKE THIS CAKE! I already know how good this cake tastes, but boy oh boy, is the picture making me drool as I type and it's bringing back fond memories of taking that first bite this past Sunday (cue the ocean breeze).  However, you are going to probably take one look at the recipe and say, "Nope, not happening."  It is a long recipe that requires serval parts and steps, but I guarantee that It comes together fairly easily.

The filling is a cooked combination of pureed pineapple and rum (the alcohol is cooked out) that is thickened with cornstarch.  It can be made up to a day ahead (easy prep work).  The cake itself is a simple yellow cake that is made in a rather unconventional way.  Instead of creaming the butter and sugar first, the butter, sugar, and flour are blended together before adding the wet ingredients.  The frosting is a traditional confectioners' sugar buttercream flavored with a little more coconut.  The assembled cake is garnished with toasted coconut and thin slices of pineapple (that I did dry on paper towels so they would slide around on the top of the cake and make the frosting wet).

I just have one warning before you read the recipe.  There is a copious amount of butter in the cake and the frosting!  But, you are only eating a sliver or a slice (ok maybe two).  Just try not to think about it, don't tell you guests, and wait to feel the island breeze when you take that first bite.

Now, if upon reading the recipe and you still don't want to tackle it, here are some other tasty sweets for your Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!

Frozen Strawberry Margarita Pie

Margarita Cream Cake

Margarita Ice Cream

Tres Leches Cake