Yummy Rum Cake

What you need:

1 box of Spice Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup Oil
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup Rum
1/4 cup walnuts
1 TBSP Coffee Grounds

Icing:
Half a container of pre-made Cream Cheese Frosting (1/2 cup)
1/2 Tsp Rum
1 TBSP Milk

How to do it:

Heat oven to 375*
In a food processor combine Walnuts, coffee grounds and oil until walnuts are finely chopped.. if you don't have a food pro. you can do this the fun way and place walnuts in a bag, cover with a towel then hammer with the bottom of a pot or pan. (great for a stressful day- and you get rum at the end... win- win)
In a large bowl mix spice cake mix, water, eggs, rum, and the walnut mixture
Pour mixture into bunt pan or 9x9 cake pans.
My bunt cake took about 40 minutes in a silicon mold, but ovens will vary.

While the cake is baking, in a small bowl combine icing ingredients

When the cake passes the tooth pick test (the tooth pick comes out clean or nearly clean)
Flip out of pan and rest for 5 minutes then while still warm drizzle icing over
** I put the icing in a zip-lock bag and snip a corner, it makes it easier!*

Why it's good:

This is a very yummy cake that would be great for brunch or dessert. The coffee and walnut combo give great texture and depth while the rum is enough without being ridiculous. If you want less rum do 1 cup water/ 1/3 cup rum. I really enjoyed creating this yummy treat. Hope you enjoy it too. Mangia Tutto.

Lemon Scented Cupcakes with Blueberry Sour Cream Frosting

What you need:

1 box White Cake Mix
Ingredients listed for mix (eggs, oil, water)
1/4 cup fresh Blueberries
1 Lemon
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup Sour Cream
4 cups Powdered Sugar
1 TBSP milk

How you do it:

Follow directions on cake mix
Zest half the lemon and add to mix
then add 1 TBSP lemon juice

In a mixer whip butter and sour cream
Cut blueberries in half then run down to a fine juicy cop with chef knife or use a food processor
Add blueberries and 1 tsp lemon juice
Slowly add powder sugar
Use milk if needed- The frosting will not be completely smooth when finished it may have a little of the grit from the sugar, it will go away when the frosting sets.

Why it's good:

The cake has just a subtle lemon flavor with small yellow flecks from the zest. The frosting is sweet and cool with a little color and flavor from the berries. These were perfect on the fourth of July. They were refreshing and light, everyone loved them. And I made 50 mini- cupcakes from one mix box and they were the perfect size for everyone to have one or two. To make 50 of these guys, it cost me under $10 and that included the red and blue paper cups they were in. Mangia Tutto!