Turn a Box Cake Into a Costco Cake? Please Tell Me It's True.

This blog is a bit late, as I actually tested this pin over three weeks ago.  I’m a slacker.  What can I say?

We have all seen this pin, read its instructions, and felt our pants get instantly tighter.  I know I did, but the possibility of being able to make a cake that tastes like a Costco cake, made it all okay…even though it would be bad.  Very, very bad.

So, here’s what you do.  You add an extra egg, use butter instead of oil and double it, and use milk instead of water.  (Normally I use sugar free applesauce instead of oil, so this was the opposite of what I usually do.)  I tried it on two cakes.  One was devil’s food and the other was strawberry.  I honestly couldn’t tell the difference with the chocolate cake.  It was definitely NOT worth the extra fat and calories.  The strawberry cake, however, was AMAZING.  If Costco made strawberry cake, this could have passed for it.

The one thing I noticed was that the cakes cooked way faster than they normally do.  Keep your eye on it.  This could be why the chocolate one wasn't as amazing.  In a way, I’m kind of glad it didn't blow my socks off…and so are you if you work with me.  If it turned out like a Costco cake, I’d have to make one every weekend, which means I would have to bring the leftovers every Monday.

I used the Martha Stewart cream cheese frosting recipe again.  Love, love, love it.

Toddler Travel Tip-Print the Maps!!!

Before we took our week-long road trip, I looked up pins to get ideas to made the trip easier.  The best tip I came across that I actually tried, was printing the maps for the trip.

We broke the trip into two days each day, so I printed out each day separately.  Each day, I showed the 4 year-old where we were starting, and where we would end.  She randomly throughout the trip would ask me to show her where we were.  I pulled out the Star Wars folder and pen, and circled about where we were.  She absolutely got it.  Giving her a visual to associate time with was brilliant.

Do it.

I Hear It's Called Pink Cloud...I Can Support That

Who doesn't like a dish that is EASY, TASTY, and good for you?  This fits the bill.  Coming in at just 1,472 calories for the entire batch, you really don't even need to share.

I made it as a dessert, but I can see myself making it for breakfast, a side dish, or a snack.  The baby FREAKED out over it.  He wasn't patient enough to let me feed him with an actual utensil, he insisted on using his hands, and was quite vocal about how angry he was when it was gone.  Fortunately, I was nice enough to share mine with him.

I used...

1 tub of light Cool Whip
1 big container of vanilla yogurt
1 box of sugar free cheesecake pudding mix
1 bag of frozen mixed berries

I mixed them all up, and threw it in the fridge last night.  Today, it was amazing.  See:

Oh, my holy crap.  I bet if you threw some granola on top, it would be amazing!

Throw it in a pie crust?!?

Also, next time, I'm trying Greek yogurt.  I'll keep you posted.