To. Die. For. Recipes (2024)

This cake is a once a year favorite for my birthday. I got this recipe from my friend Julie. She gave me some helpful tips to result in a dense, fudgy, decadent, unforgettable cake. This starts with an incredibly moist chocolate cake, frosted with peanut butter cream cheese frosting, topped with peanut butter, dark chocolate ganache, and finished with chopped peanut butter cups. To Die For!!!
Follow these tips for best results: First, do not overbake the cake. If you do, you won't get that fudgy effect. Second, get the Hersheys special dark cocoa for an extra dark cake not only in taste but in color. Third, the cake can be made a day or two before you need it, as it tastes better the longer the flavors meld together.

Fudgy Decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Cake:
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dark or dutch process)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c neutral oil such as canola or vegetable
1 c sour cream
1 1/2 c water
2 tbs vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8 or 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray liberally. Line the bottoms with parchment paper. Combine in a medium bowl the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water, then blend in vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until blended. Divide batter even;y between the two pans.
Bake for 30-35 min. or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for 20 min. Then freeze them in the freezer for about 30 min. (this is so the cakes don't fall apart when you invert them.)

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting:

10 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick of butter, softened
5 cups powdered sugar
2/3 c peanut butter (creamy kind)

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter till fluffy. Add powdered sugar gradually. beat until fluffy. Add peanut butter at the end until well combined.

Chocolate PB glaze:

1 c semi-sweet chocolate
3 tbsp smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 half n half

combine all ingredients except for half in half in a bowl, microwave in 30-sec increments until chocolate is melted, whisk the mixture to make smooth. Whisk in half n half, beating until nice and smooth.

Assemble the cake: Place one cake round on a cake plate, cover liberally with frosting, top the next layer and continue to frost until cake is covered. Pour ganache over cake and top with chopped peanut butter cups (About 6-7 peanut butter cups) (this is optional). Place in the fridge for a few hours for the cake to set.

My sweet little 4 year old loves lemons. He loves anything sour. When we were out shopping the other day, he begged me to buy a lemon cake mix for his birthday, which isn't for another 6 months. With such excitement in his eyes, I told him we would make a special lemon cake for the family that night. He was thrilled beyond belief.
A good cake to me needs to be moist, the frosting has to be TDF, and there shouldn't be any dry brown edges. I set out to accomplish that with this recipe. This cake is moist, has a lemon syrup drizzled into the cake, as well as a lemon buttercream frosting on top. It was amazing! It's not super sour, but the flavor of lemon is prominent in every bite.

Cameron's Ultimate Lemon Cake

1 box Lemon Cake Mix
4 eggs
3/4 c water
3/4 c oil

Lemon glaze:
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
1 c powdered sugar

Lemon Buttercream:
4 tbs butter, softened
zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt
2-3 c powdered sugar
milk to desired consistency

Preheat oven to 310 degrees. Grease a bundt pan or a 9x13, set aside. Combine all ingredients for the cake, and pour into prepared dish. Cook for 30-40 minutes or just until done, don't over bake. Combine ingredients for lemon glaze. When cake come out of the over, prick several times with a fork, all over, and slowly pour lemon glaze over the whole surface. Let sit until almost cool. If using a bunt pan, invert it onto a plate. Mix lemon buttercream ingredients together until desired frosting consistency. Frost the top of the cake. Enjoy!

My almost 3 year old is having his birthday on Tuesday. I wanted to make him some cupcakes for his friends at church. I normally use a box mix, but I didn't want to have 24 cupcakes laying around. So I found this fudgey devils food recipe that uses no milk or eggs. It turned out SUPER moist and fudgey. This will be my new chocolate cupcake base for years to come. Of course the mint buttercream matches perfectly with the cakes. You could really do any buttercream frosting and it would be awesome.

Devils Food Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream

Cake:
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 c sugar
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 c cocoa
1/2 c oil
1 c water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs vinegar

Mint Buttercream:
4 tbs butter, softened
1 pound of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp mint extract
Dash of salt
milk (enough for a good consistency)
green food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, line muffin tin with liners. Combine dry ingredients into a bowl. Add wet ingredients to the dry ones, mix well, until smooth and combined. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. My batch made 16 cupcakes. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until done. Do not overbake.

For the frosting. Combine all ingredients except milk and food coloring into a bowl. Add milk a little bit at a time until smooth but still stiff enough to spead. Add green food coloring if desired. Taste frosting, adding a sprinkle more of salt if needed. Frost cooled cupcakes.

This dessert is really something. It is extremely gooey, and moist, and very simple to throw together. This is a great dessert to make instead of a regular cake or a pan of brownies. My husband approved of it, and he is becoming quite the critic these days. He lets me know if a recipe is "blog-worthy" or not. I completely trust him, he has been testing my recipes for 7 1/2 years now.
Anyways, this is a fun, easy alternative to your regular German chocolate cake with the frosting. Very simple and easy...give this one a try.
I found this recipe here.

Upside Down German Chocolate Cake

1 German cake mix, prepared according to box directions

1 cup coconut

2 cups chopped pecans

1 cup melted butter

1 pound powdered sugar

Oh my! I made these for New Years Eve this year, and my husband could not get over how good they were. We have a passion fruit tree in our front yard (yes, we live somewhere tropical...Hawaii), and my husband Jared is in heaven! He loves to make juice from them. I'm not really into eating them since they are really sour. However, they have a distinct taste of the tropics, and I thought it would be wonderful to use the juice/pulp of our fresh passion fruits. The result was beautiful! If you don't know, here is what the inside of a passion fruit looks like:

It can either have a yellow skin or purple skin, they taste about the same.

Pretty weird looking, but the juice made a wonderful, tropical buttercream. The vanilla cake was a perfect platform for the frosting, as it was the star of the show. Sometimes scratch cakes are overrated, so I used a box cake mix. If you make sure you don't over cook the cupcakes, you will have the most moist cake. I usually turn the heat down 25 degrees and bake a little longer, that way there is even cooking and the cake does not get brown. If you can't find passion fruit in your grocery store, I have read on some blogs that you can get it in paste form? Anyways, this was fun to make and tasted heavenly!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Passion Fruit Buttercream

1 box vanilla cake mix, prepared using cupcakes
4 tbs softened butter
2 passion fruits, pulp removed and pushed through a mesh strainer (about 4 tbsp juice)
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbs milk
1/4 tsp salt ( more or less according to your palate)

Bake cupcakes as directed on the box, let cool completely. To make frosting, remove pulp from passion fruits and push through a mesh strainer to get all the juice out of the pulp, making sure no seeds are in the juice. Combine softened butter, tsp vanilla, passion fruit juice and about 3 cups of powdered sugar. Mix well, and if you need to add milk to thin out the frosting, add a little bit at a time. Add more powdered sugar or milk to get to the right consistency. Spread frosting on cupcakes.

OMG! TDF is all I can say about these. I made them on Sunday for a family get together, and I loved how these turned out. They are moist, and fluffy and flavorful. The spiced cream cheese frosting just finishes the whole thing off. If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, you could use cinnamon instead. I also used the nuefatchel cream cheese (1/3 less fat), and you could not tell a difference, it just allows you to eat 2 cupcakes because you are saving on calories and fat! (That's how I justify having 2....:))

These really are very good and should be made any time during the year. Some of my friends have said that pumpkin is not available at their grocery store yet. My advice is to buy several cans, and keep it in your pantry for the off season times. Who says it needs to be fall to enjoy the deliciousness of pumpkin? (Double the batch to make 24 cupcakes)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup canned pumpkin purée (8 ounces), not pie filling

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese

1 lb powdered sugar (more or less)

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 c butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners. Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. Divide the batter among the prepared tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely. For the frosting, combined softened cream cheese, with softened butter, whip together until smooth. Add powdered sugar gradually, while beating. Add vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice. Adjust the sweetness of frosting you your taste, add more powdered sugar if needed. Spread frosting on cupcakes, be generous.

Since I have been neglecting the food blog lately, I decided to give my followers 2 new recipes today, so here you go! Thanks for following!

So you are thinking this cake is going to be jiggly like jello huh? Nope. It's just the opposite. The lemon jello is used in the cake mix to flavor the yellow cake mix. It gives the cake a more authentic lemon flavor than an already flavored lemon cake mix. I have made this recipe with a lemon cake mix and a yellow cake mix and the yellow cake mix is hands down WAYYYYY better. If you are a lemon lover, you will absolutely fall in love with this lemon concoction. The lemon glaze gets poured onto a hot cake, so that you are left with a decadent, moist, tart dessert, that is incredibly simple to make.

Lemon Jell-O Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 small pkg lemon jello
3/4 c. water
4 eggs
3/4 c. oil
2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c. lemon juice

Mix jello package, eggs, water, oil, and cake mix for 4 minutes. Add 3/4 c. oil, mix until blended. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan or bundt pan. Bake cake at 325 degrees for 35-40 minutes (or slightly longer if using a bundt pan. While the cake is baking, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice to form a glaze. When you remove the cake from the oven, immediately prick cake all over with a fork. Pour glaze evenly over cake. Let cake cool completely before serving.

I'm sure you have heard of the traditional "Better than Sex Cake" or some prudes like to call it "Better than Robert Redford Cake"...(uhhhh so 1970's). The chocolate version uses chocolate cake, caramel topping, toffee bits, and whipped cream. It is quite good, but I think I like the tropical vanilla version better. I first tried this recipe when my sister Lana made it for her husband's birthday...it is his favorite cake. I LOVED it! There was something about the flavor combination that just made me say, "This is to die for...". I immediately went home and made the cake for my family. The reason why this recipe is different because instead of using vanilla pudding, you are using sweetened condensed milk, and this is what gives it the TDF factor! This dessert is so simple, you can't mess it up, and you only need a few ingredients. There are so many different combinations that you could use if you don't like pineapple, for instance you could used sugar coated strawberries or any berry for that matter. The key to this cake is the time you let it refrigerate so that it gets really cold, and the cake absorbs all the sweetened condensed milk, and becomes incredibly moist and flavorful. YUM!

Pina-Colada Better Than Sex Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container or frozen whipped topping or fresh whipped cream
1/3 c. toasted coconut (optional)

Bake cake according to directions on the box in a 9x13 pan, do NOT over cook! After hot cake come out of the oven, using the end of a large mixing spoon or fork, poke holes all over cake. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the cake, and spread to make an even layer. Drain crushed pineapple slightly, then coat the cake evenly with pineapple. Place cake in the fridge for at least 3 hours or up to 12 hours. When ready to serve, evenly spread whipped cream or whipped topping over the cake,and sprinkle with toasted coconut for garnish. Store in the fridge.

This recipe is from my sister Lana. Lana, when she tries has talent in the kitchen, even though she doesn't think so. So, thanks Lana for a wonderful recipe! This Mexican sweet corn cake is an exact match to what you get at El Torito or Chevy's. If you haven't ever been to either of those restaurants, let me describe it to you. It's a sweet corn pudding that is buttery and creamy and goes perfect with any Mexican meal. But, I actually think you don't HAVE to make Mexican food to have it. It is a wonderful side to any meal. There are never any leftovers, and it is very addicting.

Mexican Sweet Corn Cake

1 can sweet corn, drain, reserve 1/4 c. juice
1 stick butter
1/2 c masa harina
1/4 c evaporated milk
4 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine butter and masa harina. Process until well blended. Add evaporated milk, cornmeal, baking powder and sugar, process to mix. In a blender, pulse corn and reserved juice to break up kernels. Add blended corn to flour mixture, mix well. Spread mixture into an 8x8 greased glass pan and cover with foil. Bake 25-35 minutes, or until set. Do not over bake! Serves 6-8.