Need a knockout (but easy) dessert recipe!

[Cindy B]

I'm not the one that posted the red Velvet suggestion, but you can buy red velvet cake mixes at the super. The recipe is on the box. Then you can frost it and then sprinkle some red and green decorative sugar crystals over the top.

I'm not a real fan of box cakes.. but that is something to think about.

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

No, no, no to boxed red velvet cake. I'm not above a mix for many things but my grandma makes the BEST red velvet cake ever. I also found out she uses the same recipe as the Waldorf Astoria hotel Here it is and it's not easy, it's time consuming but OH SO GOOD!!


Original Red Velvet Cake

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter extract
1 1/2 ounces red food coloring
3 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour (carefully spoon and level — don’t pack flour)
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Frosting
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 cup milk
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 9-inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray. For a higher ratio of cake to frosting, use two 9-inch pans. You may also use three 8-inch pans. If you use three 8-inch or go with two 9-inch, you will probably need to tack on about 4 minutes to the cook time due to the batter being deeper.

Using high speed of electric mixer, beat shortening and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs, vanilla extract and butter extract, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Make a paste of red food coloring and cocoa powder, then stir that in. Or, do what I did and stir the red food coloring and cocoa in, then beat. When the batter turns red, stir in the salt and beat so that it’s very well mixed. Starting and ending with flour, add the flour and buttermilk alternately to batter, stirring so that flour gets absorbed.

Place the baking soda in a little cup. Add the vinegar to the baking soda, then stir the fizzy vinegar mixture into the cake batter to lighten it.

Now, dump the cake batter into the pans, dividing evenly.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. Let cakes cool in pans on a rack for 10 minutes. Flip out of pans and cool completely. Note: If your oven runs hot, cook the red velvet cake at 325 degrees F. The cakes will turn out dry if over-cooked.

Make the frosting. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together 3 tablespoons of flour and 1/4 cup of the milk until smooth. Whisk in salt and remaining milk. Turn heat to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick and creamy. Let it cool completely.

Using your electric mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the thoroughly cooled flour mixture. Beat and beat until the icing is fluffy and no longer grainy (this may take a while, depending on how good your mixer is). For this recipe, I recommend using a stand mixer.

Cover cake with frosting.

 

[Octoberbride03]

Eggnog pound cake

Found the recipe on Pinterest and made this last week for a party and people loved it. It tastes great and its easy to make. Yes it does use a box mix but you are punching it up so i don't think anyone could tell the difference. You can also do it as cupcakes and there is a recipe for cream cheese icing with the cupcake recipe.


http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/eggnog-pound-cake-10000001940931/

 

[clutter]

Love the brownie santas!!!

How about brownie trifle. Easy (you can make homemade brownies if you don't want to make a box mix) and a real crowd pleaser.

http://www.food.com/recipe/brownie-trifle-16028

You could sub candy cane pieces for the toffee for the holidays.

 

[laurie31]

This is seriously amazing. I made this last year for Christmas and people couldn't stop talking about it! And while you can make the cakes from scratch if you had the time, I just used a red velvet mix and a white mix. Add 1 tsp peppermint flavor to the white mix. Alternate spoonfuls of each color in your cake pan, and it turns out like the picture. Also add peppermint to the cream cheese icing. You can garnish with crushed peppermint if you like. It was SO easy, but tastes wonderful, like you baked all day.

 

[usnuzuloose]

made this at turkey day and it was amazing!

Doing a few for Christmas.


http://www.eatliverun.com/no-bake-nutter-butter-nutella-pie/

This just changed my mind about what I am making for a dessert! Thank You for sharing

 

[The Princess]

The santa brownies look great may have to make them myself. Thanks for sharing all these wonderful recipes

 

[stacy347]

made this at turkey day and it was amazing!

Doing a few for Christmas.


http://www.eatliverun.com/no-bake-nutter-butter-nutella-pie/

My daughters LOVE Nutella ~ thank you for posting this one!!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Here is my Chocolate Mint Dessert I posted on the other thread. It is very good and rich. You would not believe how easy it is too make. For 20 people I would make 2 desserts. This serves about 12.


I will post my family's Christmas dessert. It is very easy to make although it may appear hard to read the steps. It needs at least 12hrs of chilling in the fridge so you have to make it the night before.

Very delicious and rich for Christmas.

Chocolate Mint Dessert

1 Box Famous Wafers, crushed (they are chocolate cookies)

1/2c small dinner mints crushed (the butter mints, not the starlight peppermints)

6tbsp of melted butter

half pint whipping cream

1 1/2c mini marshmallows

8" square pan (I use a blue glass dish, I do not recommend foil because you want the crust to set & not as pretty)

Mix butter and crushed wafers in a bowl. Pack half of mixture in the bottom of pan to form a crust.

Whip cream, FOLD in marshmallows and mints and then gently with spatula spread on top of crumb mix in pan. Add rest of crumb mix on top to form top crust.

Refrigerate 12hrs.

Tips for whipping cream if you don't know how....use a metal bowl for best results. I put beaters and bowl in freezer while I crush the cookies and mints. Whip till you have soft peaks. Fold in your mints and marshmallows gently.

Crushing the mints, I use a meat hammer in a ziplock bag. Sometimes they are not so fresh and hard to crush, even though they are butter mints. If you can get ahold of fresh ones you are better off.

I crush the cookies in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin.

 

[1novascotian]

Gingerbread Cheesecake!

http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/gingerbread-cheesecake-120899.aspx

18 Peek Freans Ginger Crisps, crushed (about 1-1/4 cups)
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 pkg. (250 g each) Philadelphia Brick Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
3 eggs
4 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup whipping cream


HEAT oven to 350°F.

MIX crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan.

BEAT cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add molasses, vanilla and spices; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 45 to 50 min. or until centre is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool completely before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.

MICROWAVE chocolate and whipping cream in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 min; stir. Microwave 30 sec to 1 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring every 30 sec. Pour over cheesecake.



This is sooooo good! I have no idea why it only has 3 stars on the website, when I made it everyone raved about how good it was.

 

[grafxgirl]

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle!

I started making this a few years ago and it is a hit every single time. Very easy to make.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-gingerbread-trifle-recipe/index.html

 

[OceanAnnie]

Those little brownie hats are the cutest things!! I'm going to give them a try!

Thank you OP for the thread, and thank you DisneySarah (and others) for the recipe(s). I'm sure I'll try others from this thread too.

Merry Holidays!

 

[Minnesota!]

The Nutella pie is SOOOOOO good and very very easy. It was gone in a flash at Turkey Day - so I am making at least 2 this time.

And I am going to attempt that Egg Nog Pound Cake from up thread, too.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

I am going to try to make that nutella pie for Christmas, yum!

The 3 layer cake with the red/white cake mixes looks great too, I might make that one as well!

 

[maslex]

I'm looking at maybe making that flourless chocolate cake. MMM

 

[xJenna]

If you're a chocolate lover, this was delicious when I made it and super simple.

http://www.marthastewart.com/315685/chocolate-ganache-tart

I ended up buying a crust because I was crunched for time.

 

[BDL]

My mom makes a trifle that is fairly easy, very delicious and never makes it to the end of the party.

She starts by baking a choc bundt cake (Betty, Dunkin...etc) and then breaks it up into big pieces (not sliced).

In a large glass bowl, line the bottom with Cool-whip

Then follow this order til you reach the top:
-cake
-choc pudding (packs is fine)
-Cool-whip
-Choc shavings or Oreo crumbles
Repeat

At the top you can add Strawberries or other fruit or cookies at the top.

It's not exactly from scratch. But delicious and a lot less clean up.

 

[Squirlz]

My mom makes a trifle that is fairly easy, very delicious and never makes it to the end of the party.

She starts by baking a choc bundt cake (Betty, Dunkin...etc) and then breaks it up into big pieces (not sliced).

In a large glass bowl, line the bottom with Cool-whip

Then follow this order til you reach the top:
-cake
-choc pudding (packs is fine)
-Cool-whip
-Choc shavings or Oreo crumbles
Repeat

At the top you can add Strawberries or other fruit or cookies at the top.

It's not exactly from scratch. But delicious and a lot less clean up.

Don't forget the ground beef!

 

[disykat]

Don't forget the ground beef!

and peas!

(anyone who hasn't seen that episode of Friends is saying "what the heck?"

 

[beck0321]

get a few of the graham cracker pie crusts......or the little individual ones..

for one pie..
one can of sweetened condensed milk.
one pkg of cream cheese...
one third cup of lemon juice
a teaspoon of vanilla.

use cream cheese that is softened..
whip with electric beater...
add the sweetened condensed milk.
and whip ...until mixed..
add the lemon juice and whip some more..
(not long really ...just until it is mixed together)
add vanilla n pour in the shells..or pie crusts.

double this recipe and you could have a good amount..
Refridge for three or so hours
on top use a can of some of your favorite pie fruits..
like blueberry, or cherry...I love those two..

have fun

Was this a recipe that came on a pie shell a long time ago? I remember I used to make something like this when I was a kid, but never saved the recipe. I was just thinking about it the other day, how I wanted some!

I wanted to add that MIL makes Paula Dean's Gooey Pumpkin Cake every year and it's GOOD. She made the regular one for Mother's Day this year and that was GOOD too!

http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/view2/gooey_butter_cake
http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/view2/pumpkin_gooey_butter_cake