cake mix | Just About Baked

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Melted Ice Cream Cake

April 5, 2016
Mir
Let Them Eat Cake, We Scream for Ice Cream!
38 Comments

This one is a total game-changer. Oh, how I love it. Ready, everyone? Here we go!

So I was browsing through one of my oldie but goodie cookbooks a while back, The Cake Doctor. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the author takes cake mixes and turns them into other treats. It’s a great book and I suggest you buy it immediately, if not sooner.

While browsing, I came across this magical recipe. It’s so easy: a box of white cake mix, three eggs, and a pint of ice cream (flavor of your choice) to give the cake its taste. That’s it, folks. I picked coffee ice cream and away we went! Results are right here.

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Red Velvet Cheesecake Bars

January 21, 2016
Mir
Bars n' Brownies, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
24 Comments

Okay, Valentine’s Day. I’m ready for ya!

Who am I kidding? I’m ready all year long! Nothing is more fun than the hearts and flowers and chocolate. Especially the chocolate. And the treats! I really can’t get enough. Too bad Kenny hates Valentine’s Day. More on that some other time.

These red velvet cheesecake bars should get your holiday going. The bottom is a super-easy cake mix cookie bar, and the top a simple layer of cheesecake. And let’s not forget the heart sprinkle bling.

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Easy Pistachio Cake

I know tomorrow is Pi Day, thus pies are being posted right and left. But kids, I couldn’t wait to share this one. I’ll share a pie next week sometime. We cool?

Do you remember the red pistachios? Do they still exist?

I loved those things. They got red dye all over my hands, but I always thought they tasted better than the regular kind. My grandparents always kept them around for me. And then one day, they disappeared. I haven’t seen a red pistachio since.

Things have a habit of disappearing, unfortunately. There’s a great poem by Elizabeth Bishop called “One Art” where she talks about what she calls “the art of losing.” It’s a great poem, and my English teacher self highly recommends it to you. But I sometimes get creeped out by how much I’ve lost without even realizing it until after the fact.

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Hidden Treasure Girl Scout Cookies

February 25, 2015
Mir
C is for COOKIE!
20 Comments

Having choices never makes life easier. It just makes life better. Think about it: 40 years ago, women couldn't do so many important jobs because we weren't considered worthy. Gradually, thanks to women's rights and some common sense, the general…

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Candy Corn Cake Mix Cookies

My son just had his half-birthday. I don’t know how many of you do that, but kids seem to love it. Hey, any excuse to get a special treat one more day out of the year!

I may have mentioned before that my son doesn’t like chocolate. So whenever it comes time to bake for him, life gets complicated. Because you know, he’s picky. He’s not fond of caramel either, or certain textures really get to him. But candy? Candy is always okay. And candy corn is even better! And when baked into a cookie?

Yep. Happiness!

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Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

August 1, 2014
Mir
C is for COOKIE!, Cakes, Let Them Eat Cake
26 Comments

I’m starting to feel it. The sense of looming dread begins as August begins and summer starts its slow descent toward autumn. Sorry about the gloom, everyone. But as much as I love summer, I hate how short it is! Shakespeare wrote that “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” Duh, Will. Tell me something I don’t know, okay?

Someday I’m going to live in a warm climate. Someday.

But for now, I just have to do things to keep myself from getting all maudlin. Enter these whoopie pies!

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Magic Middle Cookies

When I was in college, this really eccentric husband-wife team oversaw my dining hall. They looked like a sweet older couple, but he always made really dirty jokes and she would shoot you the evil eye forever if you so much as left a scrap of food on your plate. But they fed me, so I was grateful.

Every now and then, they’d serve the best slice and bake cookies in the universe. No, I’m not exaggerating, so leave me alone. They were really the best. And I’ve hunted them down for years without any luck. It’s so sad!

They were rich chocolate cookies, huge ones, with an amazing peanut butter center that reminded me of a Reese’s peanut butter cup. Can you wonder at all why these were my idea of perfection? Years later, I learned that this kind of cookie is called a Magic Middle. And while they are magical, they can take a while to make with both the cookie dough and the peanut butter center dough. So I made up a shortcut, a cheat, a whatever. And they taste even better than the labor-intensive ones!

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Pink Velvet Cookies

My kids don’t eat my desserts.

Let me backtrack. When I became a mom, I decided I would bake for my children. They would take freshly made cookies for granted, know the exact texture and thickness of a perfect brownie, and crave my homemade creations with nostalgia when they grew up and left home.

I didn’t realize that small children don’t really like anything decadent. You have to keep it simple. Like, a plain cookie. A sugar one. With nothing else. Sigh. It doesn’t really appeal to my creativity, I’ll tell you that!

But I finally hit upon a cookie that both they and I love! Thank the powers above, because I was in the mood to be cute and girly today, not boring.