Turtle Cake

This cake is rich, gooey, and a favorite of Bryan's.  It is quick and easy to make and a hit whenever and wherever it is served.

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong, brewed coffee
1 stick butter

1 14-ounce package caramels

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup pecan pieces

Instructions:

Y'all, I was so excited to be making this yummy cake that I forgot to take a photo of the assembled ingredients but here is a mish-mash collage of most of what was used.

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Combine eggs, oil, and coffee and beat in cake mix.
• Pour half of batter into a 13" x 9" pan.
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• While this is baking, melt butter and caramels.  

Don't these look beautiful resting on that pretty little saucer?  Mike helped me to unwrap these little nuggets of wonderfulness and I think that helped him to appreciate the deliciousness of the cake!

I do this melting in the microwave by zapping on high for a minute and stirring.  Then, zap again in thirty second intervals till all is melted and creamy and beautiful.

• Add condensed milk to the melted butter/caramel mixture and stir till blended and smooth and creamy and luscious.
• Pour half this mixture over the baked half of the cake.
• Sprinkle with half of chocolate chips and half of pecans.

After the caramels looked so pretty on this saucer, I decided I'd have to get a shot of the morsels of wonderfulness on it too!  Isn't this a beautiful sight?

• To add another layer of yummyness, pour remaining cake batter on top and bake for 20 minutes.
• Remove cake from oven and pour remaining caramel mix on top of warm cake.
• Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and pecans.

This cake is divine served warm from the oven!  (Mainly because it looks so beautiful and tasty that I cannot wait to give it a taste.)  It is a little slice of heaven no matter when it is served, though.

Pumpkin Pecan Pound Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla pudding mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
1 can pumpkin
1 cup chopped pecans

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Mix cake mix and vanilla pudding mix together in a large mixing bowl.
• Add vegetable oil, water, and eggs and mix well.
• Mix in pumpkin. 
• Fold in pecans.
• Spray bundt pan and pour mixture into pan.
• Bake 45 minutes.

This tastes like a sweet bread.  You could top with a dollup of whipped cream cheese.  I got this recipe from a teacher-friend, Amanda Lemmons.  She makes it with bananas instead of pumpkin.  She says she has also used a chocolate cake mix with the bananas to make chocolate-banana cake.  I have added pureed strawberries before and glazed witha powdered sugar glaze.  I have also replaced the pumpkin with apples and glazed with a caramel glaze before.  It is a versatile recipe and a baked cake freezes well!

Fall Treat!

Sea Turtles

This recipe was published in the 2011 edition of Christmas With Southern Living. 

4 cups chopped pecans
2 (11 oz.) packages of caramels
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (4 oz.) chocolate baking bars, chopped
1/4 cup shortening, divided in half
2 (4 oz.) white chocolate baking bars, chopped

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Bake pecans in a single layer in a large jelly-roll pan 5-6 minutes or until toasted and fragrant.  Cool completely.
• Melt caramel and cream in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until smooth.
• Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
• Drop 1 Tablespoon of caramel mixture at a time over pecans and chill 10 minutes or till caramel is firm.

• Carefully lift candies and transfer to a serving platter.

• Redistribute pecans on pan and repeat proceture if needed spooning caramel mix over pecans.
• Microwave white chocolate and half of shortening on high 30 seconds until melted and stir till smooth.
• Spoon  1 Tablespoon chocolate mix onto each candy.

• Repeat melting and spooning procedure with chocolate.
• Let candies harden at room temperature or in refrigerator.

Makes about two and a half dozen candies.