Every year for Valentines Day my husband makes me a special dinner and uses a recipe that he has never tried before. I absolutely love it and look forward to it every year! We have also somehow created a new tradition with my three year old son. He was asking me what a cupid was and I explained to him that a cupid was like a special kind of baby/angel that flew around on Valentines Day and shot people with arrows to make them fall in love and delivered boxes of Chocolate to good boys and girls on Valentines day. So he got very excited thinking that if he was a good boy the Cupid would hide a box of chocolate for him on Valentines Day. Lol now he is always telling me I need to be good so the Cupid will come. It is kind of like a cross between Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, but he brings it up several times a day and even asks me to tell him the story of the Cupid when he goes to sleep at night. I don’t know how this happened! Anyway it is a new Valentines tradition we have lol! What are some of your Valentines Day traditions?
This 5 layer cake is based on a cheesecake I saw at the Cheesecake Factory. They have two layers of red velvet cake and one layer of cheesecake. I decided to try it with 3 layers of red velvet cake and 2 layers of cheesecake. Instead of using plain cheesecake, I made raspberry swirl cheesecake. It gives the cake a lot of yummy flavor and looks so pretty with the red and pink frosting. This cake is perfect to make for your Valentine this year!
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (16 tbsp) softened butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4- 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
- 1- 3 oz. package cook and serve vanilla pudding
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 TB sugar
- 3/4 cup raspberries
- 18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
- 1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 4 eggs
- 1 ounce red food coloring
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup cold milk
- Ingredients (to cover one 8 inch cake)
- 1 1/2 cup sweetex or crisco
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon meringue powder
- 2 pounds powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup milk or water
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease two 8" pans with shortening, line the pans with parchment and then grease the parchment. Lightly flour the pans and tap out excess over the sink. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.
- Add cream cheese a little at a time until smooth.
- Scrape bowl down and beat again on medium speed, adding eggs one at a time.
- Add remaining ingredients.
- Mix again until smooth.
- Divide batter evenly between pans. You should have 8 cups of batter, so 4 cups in each pan. Blend Raspberries with sugar to make puree. Pour big drops over half the batter in the pan and swirl with a fork.
- Add the rest of the batter and do the same with the rest of the puree. Do this with both pans of batter.
- Smooth batter with offset spatula and bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour.
- Cheesecake will puff up during baking, then deflate when taken out.
- Do not turn out cheesecakes when they are finished baking. Put them directly in the freezer, and leave until frozen solid.
- Turn out frozen cheesecake layers and peel parchment from the bottoms.
- Tip: if your cheesecake does not come out right away, just set it on a burner on the stove for a few seconds. Then cover the pan with saran wrap and flip it over onto a cutting board
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Grease and flour two 8 inch pan.
- Mix together cake mix, 1 box pudding mix, eggs, oil, food coloring, water, vinegar, and cocoa. Pour into prepared pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 to 40 minutes.
- Cool.
- mix the sweetex, salt, and meringue powder with electric mixer to blend aobut 30 seconds
- Add the milk in the bowl, then add the sugar and blend by hand with a spatula until the sugar is absorbed into the liquid
- put bowl back on the mixer and beat on medium speed for 2-5 minutes until smooth and a little fluffy.
- if mixture is too stiff, you can add more liquid. if it is too runny add more powdered sugar
- OK so after you make both cakes, a total of 5 cakes, stack them with a thin layer of buttercream between each layer with raspberry filling on top of the buttercream. I used a store bought filling. Freeze untill completely frozen. Then you can take it out and frost it any way you like. I used a crumb coat of buttercream and piped on pink petals.
ENJOY!
Shamene
Try these other Valentine’s Day Treats
My cake was featured here!
http://www.kleinworthco.com/2014/02/30-valentine-desserts.html
http://www.nibblesbynic.com/
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It’s a few days after Halloween, and I find myself eating my son’s Halloween candy more often than I would care to admit! Do you do this too, or is it just me? I eat the candy bars first: my favorite are the Butterfingers and anything else chocolate! The Butterfingers are just sitting there calling to me! And as if my son’s loot wasn’t enough, there is a whole bowl full of candy leftover because we didn’t get that many trick-or-treaters this year. What should I do with all this leftover candy? Eat it till it’s gone? Throw it away? The perfect answer was to make this Butterfinger brownie ice cream cake and use up all the Halloween Candy once and for all!
I had the opportunity to go to Utah to visit my sisters and their families for Halloween this year and also to be there for my newest niece’s blessing! After the blessing we had over fifty people coming over for dinner. I knew this would be the perfect chance to try out this delicious recipe that I have been wanting to make! I live in California where it is always sunny and didn’t think twice about making an ice cream cake in November! The funny thing is that on the day of the blessing it started snowing. I have never eaten ice cream cake in the snow before! The snow coming down turned out to be a beautiful back drop for my cake!
This cake can be made with any candy bar, but I chose Butterfinger because it is one of my favorites and I also had two bags leftover from Halloween 
This cake should also be made the day before you plan on serving it, so it can freeze overnight. You can make your own ice cream, or buy it. I decided to make this recipe super easy, so I used brownie mix, store-bought ice cream, and ready-made chocolate and caramel syrup. You need to try this cake. It is so rich and delicious!!
Recipe adapted from Life Love and Sugar
Ingredients
- one box of brownie mix
- two quarts of vanilla ice cream
- chocolate syrup
- caramel syrup
- 2 bags of fun size butterfingers chopped
Instructions
- Make brownie dough according to instructions on back of box.
- Grease two 8-inch pans (preferable springform pans) and line the bottoms with parchment paper to allow for easy removal. Bake at temperature on box, reducing baking time to about 20 minutes
- When brownies are done baking, allow to completely cool.
- Line the sides of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper. The parchment paper should stick up above the top edge of the pan, since the cake will probably be a little taller than your pan. If you want, put a cardboard cake circle in the bottom of the pan.
- NOTE: You should be using the same 8-inch pan you used for the brownies. Not all 8-inch pans are exactly the same size. Your brownie needs to fit in this pan.
- Put the first brownie layer in the bottom of your pan.
- Spread 1/2 cup caramel sauce and 1/2 cup chocolate sauce over the brownie. Top with first group of chopped snickers.
- Top with half of the Vanilla ice cream.
- Add second brownie to the pan, on top of the ice cream.
- Again cover with 1/2 cup caramel sauce and 1/2 cup chocolate sauce. Top with second group of chopped snickers.
- Top with remaining ice cream.
- Allow ice cream cake to freeze completely.
- When frozen, remove from springform pan and remove parchment paper from sides.
- Top with additional caramel sauce and chocolate sauce, allowing it to drizzle down the sides.
- Cover with remaining chopped snickers and a little more caramel and chocolate sauce.
- NOTE: An 8-inch springform pan is best for this recipe so that you can easily remove the cake once it's been assembled. If you do not have a springform pan, line your pan with clear wrap before adding your parchment paper and cake board. You can use the clear warp to lift your cake out of the pan once it's assembled and frozen.
I really hope you like this cake as much as I did!
Enjoy!
Shamene
My cake was featured here!
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