Mini Strawberry Dessert Cake with REAL Whipped Cream

Mini Strawberry Dessert Cake with Real Whipped Cream

You need this in your tummy. 

I am totally serious.

It is light and refreshing and captures the essence of summer so perfectly.

Mini Strawberry Dessert Cake with Real Whipped Cream, 

I love you. 

I don't think it matters that you were the first dessert I had since banishing sugar from my life after 12 weeks. 

My love is true. 

And you... were yummy.

 Before this day, I had never tasted homemade whipped cream. Nor by any stretch of the imagination had I ever made whipped cream from scratch.
Not once.
Sure I had seen people serve it on desserts at parties, but I thought it would taste like the store bought stuff so I politely skipped that dessert.

Now that I have whipped up this deliciously sweet topping in my very own kitchen, it's like my world has gone from black and white to technicolor.
 Like I was blind, but now can see.
I am here to take a stand and say: Real Whipped Cream matters.

 To make this perfectly yummy summer dessert you need:
Heavy whipping cream
Sugar
round cakes from the grocery store
Strawberries
Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee bits

 I used the larger carton of heavy whipping cream
a little less than a cup of sugar and blended the concoction in my ninja blender.
It took less than a minute.

Epilogue (which really should have been the prologue):
I was asked to make a dessert for teacher appreciation day. Something they could serve the teacher's at lunch. I was trying to think of something refreshing that could serve a lot of people. This dessert came to mind and at first I was going to make a whole bunch of individual cakes.

But since I have a wee baby who loves to monopolize my time, I though to myself,
"Ain't no one got time for that!"
I needed something that I could just throw together without worrying too much about presentation. And for some strange reason I thought that I should try to make my own whipped cream so that my dessert had somewhat of a homemade feel to it.
Best decision of the day.
I layered the dessert like a lasagna, starting with the cakes on the bottom.
When the day was done, I posted my creation on face book.
These were some of the comments:
"This was such a hit. Both beautiful and yummy! Thank you so much!"
"It was delicious!! Thank you!!!!
" It was AMAZING!!! Thank you!!"
"You were responsible for that?!! Thank you!!"
"People were literally sticking their fingers in the pan to scrape every last bit of it off!"

The sad new was, I didn't get any. So I had to make it again so I could try it out.
So good.
So very good.
Especially when you let the whipped cream sit on the cake for a while.
You know, really let the cake soak of some whipped cream goodness.

Even my biggest critic loved it!  

 Make it.

 Share it.

Eat it now:)
And lick the spoon.

Happy eating!
XOXO,
Amy

Grandma's Holiday Trifle...Yum!

Christmas, Thanksgiving, The 4TH of July, Easter...any time the whole big fam gets together, there is only one consistent food based request; Grandma's Trifle.

Don't you think that it would be so fun to have a signature dish? Something that your family and friends looked forward to eating? Something that was your specialty?
I gotta work on my signature dish.

I want people to say, "Oh, I hope Amy brings ______ to the dinner tonight!" Hmmmm, I'll get back to you when I have discovered my masterpiece.

This rich dessert is layers and layers of yummy goodness and I just happen to be very fond of the woman who makes it. I am kind of lucky to have the best Grandma in the whole world. She has been an anchor in my life. She was the one I could always go to if I needed a little extra love, or a listening ear or a whole pizza and the Disney channel all to myself.

When I would stay home sick from school, I knew if I called my Grandma she would bring me movies to watch and a snack to eat. She was awesome!!

To this day when anything happens in my life their are two people who I call, My Mom and my Grandma.

Isn't this trifle just gorgeous?!

 We were lucky enough to have my Grandma visit our house and show us in person how to make this decadent dessert.


 Here she is, whipping it up with my girls!!! Notice how the toffee is layered on the outside of the brownie? Remember that, ok?!

 How lucky are they to be learning to cook with their Great Grandma!!!

 Ok! Here it is:

 You need:
2 Boxes of Brownie Mix
1 Box Large Instant puding mix
1 Box small instant pudding mix
1 Huge tub of Cool Whip (16 oz)
1 Small tub of Cool Whip (8 Oz)
1 Bag of Toffee Bits (** Side Note Quote: "My grandsons always tell me there is never enough toffee, but one bag is enough. -Grandma)

Make boxed ingredients according to instruction. Let Brownies cool completely and get ready to layer!

Bottom Layer: Broken up brownie pieces. Use toffee to line the outside of every layer. Their purpose is decorative as well as being tasty! ( look at the picture again and pay attention to the toffee!
Next layer: pudding, decorate sides with toffee
Next layer: Cool whip, decorate sides with toffee
Reapeat
Top it with a strawberry, or cherry, or the left over toffee or whatever makes your little heart go pitter patter.

Depending on the size of your dish, you may have left overs or you may need to double your batch. But trust me, what I just gave you makes a lot! And it is rich so it is hard to eat very much.

My Grandma said she has never tasted this trifle. Isn't that funny. She must snack while she is making it and then finds herself full upon the completion of her masterpiece!

Hope you love it! Maybe it will become your signature dish!

XOXO,
Amy

So- Easy- Can't- Stop- Eating- It Peach Cobbler

"That was you who made the peach cobbler wasn't it? 
I was the one who had to clean all the dishes and when 
no one was lookin' I licked the dish clean!"

Funny right?! One of the elderly ladies in our ward told me that the day after our ward party. On a table full of desserts this was the first to go! You can make it too and be the hit of the next party!

You will need:
2 cans of country peach pie filling
One box of vanilla cake mix (I used classic white in this particular time, but I like vanilla better)
and a lot of butter (I used my country crock, it might have been equal to 1 1/2 sticks of butter)
Dump the pie filling in the dish, dump the cake mix on top, and cover the surface area with little pats of butter (it looks neater if you have a stick pf butter that you slice up and plop on, I just used a spoon to dish mine out of the butter tub)

Cook on 350 for 40-45 minutes but start checking at 35 minutes. The butter should be completely melted, the top should begin to turn a golden color and the pie filling should start to bubble through the sides.

Here is a close up of the crust and the bubbly pie filling:

mmm . . . so good. It can be served alone or with ice cream or whip cream. (My husband saw me writing this post and said, "Did you just make some?!" He was sad when he realized that these were pictues from the ward party:))

You can do the same thing with cherry pie filling or apple pie filling. I usually make cherry cobbler using vanilla cake mix, but I have also made it with chocolate cake mix on occasion and it is quite a decadent treat!

Happy cooking!

xoxo, Amy