Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This cake was actually a practice run for my daughters second birthday. The recipe and cake was delicious and well liked by everyone, everyone but my daughter that is. When I offered her a piece of the cake she just blankly looked at me with a puzzled look, here I was all excited about her trying the cake and she seemed to not understand why. I'm not sure why she wasn't crazy about it but I knew it was necessary to find another recipe.

Recipe from The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
2 cups finely shredded carrot
Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Coat 2 (8 inch) round cake pans with cooking spray, and dust with 1 tablespoon flour.
3. Lightly spoon 2 1/4 cups flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 2 1/4 cups flour and next 5 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Beat granulated sugar and next 7 ingredients at medium speed of a mixer. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in carrot.
4. Pour batter into prepared pans. Sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 375º for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.
5. Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread with 3/4 cup cream cheese frosting, and top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Store cake loosely covered in refrigerator. Yield: 16 servings

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
1/2 cup (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese, chilled
1/4 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions
1. Beat first 4 ingredients at medium speed of a mixer until smooth. Gradually add sugar to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until blended (do not over beat). Yield 2 cups

Stuffed French Toast

I was requested by my wife to make stuffed french toast for dinner one night, and only because it's so delicious I had to say yes. So with a quick visit to the Internet I pulled up an old recipe from, yup you guessed it, Guy Fieri. I'm not sure when exactly he had featured this recipe or when I saw the actual episode, but I knew it was one I wanted to try. I made one small change to the recipe and used whole wheat bread, which worked out quite well.

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 (2-inch) thick slices bread (I used regular whole wheat bread with no problem)
2 bananas, very thinly sliced
1 cup strawberries, very thinly sliced
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Maple syrup

Directions
Combine milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla in a shallow bowl. Set aside

For assembly, spread a thin layer of the cream cheese onto 1 side of the bread slices. Top half the slices with the fruit.
 Place another piece of bread on top, cream cheese side down, creating a sandwich.

Preheat a griddle to 30 degrees F. Lightly brush with the butter.

Give the milk mixture a quick stir, and dip the sandwiches into the batter, coating all sides.

Place on the griddle. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side, then turn on the edges and cook to brown evenly.

To serve, slice sandwiches in half on the diagonal and transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup.

Philadelphia Caramel-Pecan Cheesecake

My wife and I LOVE cheesecake, so when my wife came across this recipe in our Kraft Magazine she quickly thrust the magazine at me and said "Make this please!" This was my first attempt ever at a cheese cake and guess what, I didn't get a picture of it. How sad is that! I will say it was very tasty and definitely worth fixing, but I'm sure there has got to be some simpler recipes out there.

Ingredients
50 Nilla Wafers, crushed (about 1 1/2 cups) (I put them in the blender and pulsed it till coarse)
1 cup chopped Planters Pecans, divided
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup Breakstone's or Knudsen Sour Cream. (I used the Target brand)
3 Tbsp. Flour
1 Tbsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping

Directions
Heat oven to 325°
Mix wafer crumb, 1/2 cup nuts and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Beat cream cheese ans sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Add sour cream, flour and vanilla; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.
Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Erfrigerate 4 hours. Drizzle with topping; top with remaining nuts. Let stand until topping is firm.

Roll Ups!

This dish has become a staple at all family get together, it's always the first thing my wife is asked to bring. So when I told her I wanted to do some quick and easy snacks for a football game, she quickly volunteered herself to make these.

Flour burrito tortilla shells
1 tub of Whipped Cream Cheese
Garlic salt
Dried Beef

Lay a tortilla shell out and smear with cream cheese covering the entire shell. Then season the cream cheese to taste with garlic salt. Next lay a line of dried beef across the center of the shell, from one side to the other. Finally, take an edge opposite of the dried beef and roll the tortilla shell up. Slice the tortilla into approximately one inch slices.

As you can see, we barely got a photo of these that's how popular these are. In fact one package of tortilla shells and a small tub of cream cheese will feed only 4 people, so be prepared to double or even triple this recipe.

Tropical Creamy Dessert

Here's another recipe from my wonderful mother-in-law, yes I'm probably kissing up a little bit, but she really is awesome. She got this recipe from Kraft as well and it was so good, I only wish we had more. If you haven't noticed yet we had a whole dinner that revolved around Caribbean flavored foods and of course we had to have a dessert that kept with the theme. This dessert is rich, light, and very full filling.

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. grated lemon zest

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 cups chopped assorted fresh fruit, such as papaya, strawberries, pineapple and mango

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup prepared TANG Orange Flavor Drink Mix

1/2 cup Baker's Angel Flake Coconut, toasted

1. Beat cream cheese in small bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add milk, lemon peel and juice; mix well

2. Spoon evenly into 8 dessert glasses; cover. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Place fruit in medium bowl. Add sugar and prepared orange drink; toss to coat. Spoon evenly over desserts; sprinkle with coconut.