Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 21 oz. can Comstock Apple Pie Filling

DIRECTIONS: 

Heat oven to 350 degrees for shiny metal or glass pan or 325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan.
Grease bottom only of 13x9 pan and sprinkle lightly w/cinnamon.
Mix butter yellow cake mix as directed on back of box.
Spread cake batter in pan.
Spoon apple pie filling on top of cake batter.
Sprinkle crumb topping on top of apple filling. (recipe @ bottom)
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Crumb topping:
4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
6 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix together with fork until crumbly.



BEFORE:

AFTER:

I got the inspiration to do this cake from a good friend of mine who used to bake something like this when we worked together @ UCSF. My husband, TJ, absolutely LOVES this so it's for certain that I'll be making this often.

INGREDIENTS:

1 box chocolate cake mix        1 cup chocolate chips + 1 tsp flour

3/4 cup french vanillakahlua    1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate 

                                            pudding mix
 

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven as directed on box.

2) Mix all ingredients together as directed on box.

3) Add chocolate pudding mix.

4) Mix  together chocolate chips and flour then add to batter.

5) Bake as directed on box.

6) Let cool before cutting.

NOTE:

My husband says you can taste the kahlua more when the cake has been refrigerated. 

At least perfection to me. Like I mentioned before, I LOVE shortbread or any butter cookie. I prefer it to be soft and crumbly though. That's how I prefer all my cookies. I don't like them crunchy. I guess that's why I don't like biscotti. I like mine chewy and soft. So, for me, I perfected my shortbread. It's very simple. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick softened salted butter            1 stick softened unsalted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar                        1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F 

2) Cream together butter and sugar.  

3) Add vanilla extract and 1/2 cup flour.

4) Add another 1/2 cup flour.

5) Add last 1/2 cup flour.

6) Spread into buttered 8x8 baking dish.

7) Bake until golden brown. Cool before cutting.

Next time I make this I'm going to try scooping it with a mini dough scooper (kinda like an ice cream scooper) and putting it on a cookie sheet. I'll let you know how it goes. 

I absolutely LOVE shortbread or any kind of butter cookie. So I decided to try baking it myself. I searched online for a pretty easy recipe and decided to make up my own after finding out what the basic ingredients are. My first try was a bit more salty than I had wanted and I believe that is because I used more salted butter than unsalted. But I believe that this recipe would make a good crust so here it is.

INGREDIENTS: 

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter*           1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter*

1 1/2 cups Bisquick                            1/3 cup packed brown sugar 

*Make sure butter is softened. This makes it easier to work with. 

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2) Cream together butter and sugar

3) Blend all ingredients well. Dough will be sticky.

4) Press into 8x8 buttered dish

5) Bake until light golden brown. Cool before cutting. 

I think that if you use 2 cups of Bisquick then the dough will be much easier to handle. I also believe that part of the reason this shortbread was a bit on the salty side is that Bisquick is a baking mix that has salt added already. So, you might want to switch the measurements of butter. (i.e. instead of 1 stick salted make it 1 stick UNsalted and 1/2 stick of salted OR go completely unsalted) 

As I mentioned in my previous post I baked a cake and cupcakes using yellow cake mix and pumpkin puree. I wasn't able to take pictures of the cupcakes because I was so busy. I had made them for a baby shower. The white filling in the middle is a cream cheese filling that I whipped up. But first with the cake. I used one box of yellow cake mix and followed the directions on the back. Just add whatever amount of water, oil, and eggs it says on the box. But to the mix I also added one can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, and 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. I first mixed all of the dry ingredients together then I added the water, oil and eggs. I added the pumpkin puree last. This cake comes out very moist. The cream cheese filling that I made was 8 oz. cream cheese, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 T milk. If you want your filling to be creamier you can add more milk. Just do it a little at a time. I like the cream cheese as both a filling and a frosting. That is totally your choice but when I use it as a filling next time I will make sure that it covers the whole cake and not just the middle. I am also going to try making the filling a bit creamier and then swirl it with a butter knife to get a marbled effect. Next time I will tell you about the easy shortbread recipe that I tried.

I love to bake. But I also have 4 children. So baking from scratch is sometimes not a possibility. This blog is about things I bake from boxed cake mixes and such with some personal tweaking. I don't promise something extraordinary, just easy but yummy. The above picture is a lemon cake that I baked spread with some guava jam on top. It was pretty yummy. I've also baked pumpkin cupcakes and cake made from yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin puree. I will be posting that as my next entry. Not all my entries will be about pastries though. I will have some about other types of dishes but mostly about pastries.