Cooking with Beautifully Complex : Strawberry Dream Cake

If you like Strawberries and are looking for a nice cool Spring or Summer dessert this is quick and easy to make. I am pretty sure it's not low calorie though, LOL.  It is very moist and has a lot of flavor.  I recently made this for Easter Dinner. I got the recipe from my mother several years ago and thought I would share it on the blog.

Cake mix & jello powder

Beat eggs & add to mixture

Split mashed strawberries in half

Add 1/2 berries, oil & water, mix for 5 minutes

Pour into pan & bake for 30-35 minutes

Poke holes using a straw while cake is warm

Poke holes all over the cake

Add sugar to berries, stir and spread over cake

Let cool completely & add whipped topping

COMPLETE RECIPE

1  box Yellow or White Cake Mix ( I prefer Duncan Hines Butter Golden)
1   3 ounce package Strawberry Jello
4   eggs
1   cup vegetable oil 
1/4  cup water
1   16 ounce package of frozen strawberries (completely thawed, smashed & halved)
1/2  cup powdered sugar
1  medium container of Cool Whip

Combine cake mix, jello powder and eggs. Mix well.

Add oil, water and 1/2 of the smashed strawberries. Beat with mixer on medium for 5 minutes.

Spray a 9 X 13 pan or glass dish with non-stick spray.  Pour batter into pan & bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While cake is warm use a straw to poke holes all over the cake. Mix the other 1/2 of the mashed strawberries with the powdered sugar. Spread over the top of the cake, allowing the mix to fill in the holes in the cake. Let cake cool completely.

Once cooled. Spread cool whip over the top and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
You can place a few fresh strawberries on top in the center for a nice presentation. 


Slice & Enjoy !


Have you tried any new recipes lately ?

What is your favorite cool dessert ?

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?


Beautifully Complex

Recipe for Romance ! * Photo Heavy *

Greetings my Blog Peeps !

I have been MIA, getting ready for the nuptials coming up in.....28 days !

My beautiful sister, along with a couple of my Bridesmaids hosted the most wonderful shower for me in my hometown last month. My little Sissy is super creative and I love her to life !

The invites read...

Help the Bride-to-Be learn to cook up the perfect "Recipe for Romance." Join us and the award-winning Chef Derek Nettle in the kitchen at the Venue 104 Bistro where he will teach us the fine art of making Italian cuisine. Please bring a gift for the Bride to help her and the Groom keep the romance alive.


Myself and 14 ladies had the most amazing day ! We had the entire restaurant for almost 4 hours. They set up one side with tables for us to partner up and cook & the other half of the restaurant was where we ate all the food that WE had prepared under the direction of the Chef.

We had such a great time. I am still getting emails & texts about what a unique, fun and non-traditional idea it was. My sister is the best. She and one of my other bridesmaids put it all together & I was totally blessed that day.   Here are some pics....

They were setting things up

I was focused !

My beautiful Bridesmaid

Even my mama learned something new !

My lovely sister, the creative one.

Trying to get it just right

We were teasing her because she NOT known for cooking

He was teaching me a trick !

On the menu was Panzanella Salad, spinach Stuffed Cannelloni, Classic Turkey Meatballs and for dessert, Butter Cake with Macerated Berries and Mascarpone. It was all delicious and we learned quite a few tips, tricks & techniques from the Chef & his Assistant.

We even made our own croûtons !

Yummy Dessert

My stepdaughter & her baby surprised me !

They were so hungry they forgot to take off their gloves LOL

By the look on her face, the romance gifts got a little spicy !

The Chef was funny & friendly !

Such a fun group !

It was a wonderful day, not soon to be forgotten. I was so appreciative & just happy to be in this place in my life.


What's the most original party idea you have ever experienced ?


Thoughts ?   Comments ?  Questions ?

Beautifully Complex

Fall Festival Once Again

Every year, myself and a couple of friends get together with the kids (and now some grand kids) to carve pumpkins and do some baking to celebrate the kickoff of fall. It usually turns into a party later in the evening and this year we added some new folks to the mix. We let the girls invite some of their friends to participate and some of our other friends and their children came to join in on the fun.....

They were really concentrating on those pumpkins !

The little guy trying to get in on the fun too !

We made two recipes one for the younger girls was pretty simple. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars. I found both on Pinterest of course ! LOL

Prep work

For the older girls, I picked a recipe that was a little more involved and let me tell you, it was a great choice. Pumpkin Creme Cheese Muffins were well worth the extra steps.

* If you make this recipe, let me offer you a time saving & convenient tip: For the creme cheese filling, instead of using the plastic wrap & cutting into pieces, just mix the creme cheese and sugar and put it into a piping bag & pop it in the freezer while you mix up the batter, then just follow the same instructions except just squeeze the cheese out using piping bag. It is quick and much for convenient than the steps listed in the recipe.

Voila !

My friends daughter did a phenomenal job with this recipe, all I did was supervise and direct. She is quite the little baker and really enjoys it and it is fun for me too. Let me tell you, those muffins tasted so.dang. good ! Seriously I did not know pumpkin could taste so good.  You will really enjoy this recipe.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown !

It was a fun Saturday afternoon/evening &I think we adults enjoyed it as much or more than the kids did.




Do you have any fall traditions ? 

Do you have any really good pumpkin recipes ?

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex

Cooking with Beautifully Complex: Shrimp n' Grits

I have Mr. Mixologist to thank for exposing me to the low country delight that is Shrimp n' Grits.  He has made it for me on numerous occasions and when dining out, I always like to try it to see and taste the different variations of this dish.  At my birthday dinner, I ordered it and enjoyed it so much that I promised myself that I was going to try my hand at making it myself just to see how it would come out. There are several recipes online but I settled on one & then just tweaked it a little bit to my liking.

Shrimp n' Grits Recipe 

Chopped Bell Pepper

I made two slight changes to this recipe.

First, I added 1/2 cup of diced bell pepper because I saw this in
other recipes & I like the texture and taste.

Oh & some people call what I call green onions, "scallions". FYI

Chopped Green Onions

Fried Bacon ! 

I rarely eat regular bacon these days, but I wanted to stick to the recipe. 

I love my turkey bacon but I must say this pork was good ! LOL

Chopped Bacon 

Grits Cookin' 

A second change I made was......
Instead of 4 cups of water I cooked the grits with 1 cup of milk & 3 cups of water to make them just a little bit creamier.

Chopped Parsley 

Sauteed Shrimp & bell pepper

Now on to the shrimp .......
First I sauteed the bell pepper in the pan I cooked the bacon in. I poured out almost all of the bacon fat & just left a light film in the pan, then cooked the shrimp.

The rest of the veggies & bacon

Cheesy Grits ! 

Voila !

Excuse the presentation but I was hungry & an anxious to try it. LOL

The finished product 

The one thing I would do differently next time is to make a bit of gravy for the shrimp mixture. Mr. Mixologist knows how to make gravy, but I really don't. Mine always comes out tasting pasty. There are several recipes that add cream or milk to the shrimp mixture & next time, I may try one of those, but overall this was a good recipe and tasted pretty darn good.


Have you ever had Shrimp n' Grits ?

Have you tried any new recipes lately ?

Beautifully Complex 

Cooking with Beautifully Complex : Twisted Banana Pudding

I got this recipe from a girlfriend about 7-8 years ago. It's called Twisted Banana Pudding because it has a little different twist to it and all of the ingredients are fat free. I doubled the recipe when I made it for Mother's Day (in the pics) which is why it looks so big, but I am going to post the standard size recipe.

INGREDIENTS 8 oz. fat free cream cheese (softened) 8 oz. fat free cool whip ( or larger depending on size of dish ) 1 can fat free Eagle brand condensed milk 1 box fat free instant vanilla pudding 1 box fat free instant banana cream pudding 1 box vanilla wafers  (I like the bite size mini wafers) 6 bananas 4 cups 2% low fat milk  (to mix the puddings with)  Mix the puddings per the directions on the box add 1/2 of the cool whip, the condensed milk and the cream cheese, mix together with mixer or heavy spoon. Lay wafers in the bottom of the dish

Pour the pudding mixture on top of the wafers, top with sliced bananas.

Top with the remaining cool whip add wafers around the edge. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.

* Optional sprinkle top with a few chopped nuts & a little cinnamon.

Viola ! A twist on an Ol' School Favorite.

I rarely tell anyone that this recipe has cream cheese in it or that all of the sweet ingredients are fat free. I let the pudding speak for itself.

Hope you enjoy it.

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex 

The Great Pumpkin

This past weekend, I spent some quality time with my best girlfriend's two daughters. On Friday night the girls came over while their Mom went out. We ordered Pizza & played Monopoly which I haven't played in forever. Why oh why did Mr. Mixologist beat us mercilessly ? LOL I mean it was really bad. He had property on every side of the board with Hotels on half of them. It was a whipping to remember. He talked a lot of noise while he had us all on skid row which made it worse. I was the first one to go bankrupt. The girls got a lesson on how to lose gracefully, even when its hard. LOL  He has promised to give us another opportunity to redeem ourselves.

Sunday afternoon, I went over to the their house along with another girlfriend to have our annual  Halloween Craft and Baking Day. My best friend is sooo not into crafts OR cooking so she recruited us years ago to fill in with these types of activities with the girls. Our other girlfriend always handles the pumpkin carving & I handle the pumpkin inspired baking.

Concentrating to get it just right ! 

This year I decided to let the 9 yr old make some Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting. I found the recipe on one of my favorite sites, A Taste of Home Cooking. I also located a recipe & video for a Pumpkin Cheesecake for the 13 yr old to make.

Finished Project 

I packed up the equipment from my kitchen, grabbed my laptop & hit the store & headed on over. When I arrived they were already focused on getting their pumpkins just right.

Mixing it up !

The 9 yr old got started on her cookies which were very simple & extremely tasty. The brown butter frosting was sooooo good that we were all  licking our fingers ! If you decide to  make them I promise you won't be disappointed.

Ta Da ! Ready for the Frosting

Both girls enjoy cooking and baking and I always have a good time planning cooking with them & they always appreciate it and have fun doing things in the kitchen.






                                                                                                                                                              

Getting it just right

The 13 yr old is a pretty good baker so I picked a cheesecake since it was a bit more challenging. She made her own crust from scratch using graham crackers & ginger snaps. I just delegated, reviewed the recipe with her & pretty much just supervised.

Final touch before bedtime

Cheesecakes take a long time to bake & many hours to set, usually overnight, so I didn't get to see the finished product on Monday morning, but I heard today that it was yummy.

Pumpkin Carvers Extraordinaries ! 

Beauty & Baking Skills

The Girls & their Mom

Have you had any Fall Holiday Fun ?

Got any good recipes to share ?  If so drop the links in the comments.

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?


Beautifully Complex