Taste of Home Tuesday: Chocolate Carrot Cake & Pumpkin CupCakes #CBias #CoolWhipFrosting

Can I start out my post by saying, “YUM!”? Let’s just call it a heads up.

So, with my Taste of Home Best Loved Recipes I’ve been wanting to do a dessert. Well, combine two of my loves: baking and Social Fabric and “ding, ding, ding we have a winner!”

Today I’m bringing you TWO recipes for the price of one blog post. All of this baking has me adding to my pans and tools in the kitchen. I’ve never made a cake from scratch so I had ZERO cake pans, especially round ones. The Chocolate Carrot Cake asks for two. Yes, I could’ve done one at a time, but time was of the essence today.


I headed to Walmart after work and grabbed all of the ingredients I didn’t have at home already. I got some shredded carrots, but they didn’t say “fine’ on them so I hope when I bite into the cake I don’t get huge chunks of carrot in each bite. Not sure how I’ll feel about that.



With the recipes I’m sharing today, there are actual frosting recipes IN the cookbook. I just had the opportunity to try out the new Cool Whip Frostings and couldn’t pass that up.



I was curious to see if it was a light frosting once it was defrosted (you get them with the other Cool Whip in the freezer section of my Walmart) or thick. So, as soon as I got home, I made ham sandwiches, cleared the counters and started baking my little heart away!



I started with the Chocolate Carrot Cake figuring that might take the longest. As I was mixing in the dry ingredients into the other mixture, I had my son come take pictures. He said, “ooooo is that chocolate? I can’t stay here, that smells gross!” Now, let me just say I think my son was switched at birth. He’s not fond of ice cream either. He promptly left me!




I popped the cakes into the oven and got started on my Pumpkin Cupcakes. I’ve never done anything with canned…oh wait a minute, I certainly have used canned pumpkin! Last year when I made Liz’s Pumpkin Cheesecake! YUM!

These were super easy to make. I got the chocolate cakes done and in went my cupcakes with the cute fall liners I got at the store.



One little note, I didn’t have waxed paper (I know, there’s always a hiccup in my recipes) so I figured I’d just spray them. HA! The cakes stuck to the bottom of the pans. Not badly, but enough. Harumph! Guess I know what else I’ll be buying with my next grocery trip!

Both the cakes and the cupcakes were cooled by the time the Cool Whip Frostings were done defrosting (about an hour on the counter)! Good timing all around.



I plated the first layer of cake and opened the frosting. I was SO surprised at how nicely this slipped out of the container. Extremely easy to work with and very forgiving. I also liked that it didn’t pull up the cake as I was spreading it, which happens with traditional frosting.




I could tell as I scooped and spread the frosting that is was very light, like you’d expect Cool Whip to be. Of course, I had to do the right thing and taste test it by itself. Now, you have to understand, I like Cool Whip on pumpkin pie and that’s about it. I was kind of “meh” about trying it. I also like traditional frosting, but don’t care to eat it alone as I’m baking…c’mon, you know what I mean.

Good heavens, I tried this chocolate flavored Cool Whip Frosting and I have to tell you, I’m lucky to have gotten the 2nd layer frosted. Holy schnikeys, that was some good stuff. I will need to show restraint with it!



It was fun seeing both layers put together and an official double layer cake! I’m taking these to my step-daughter’s tomorrow to thank her for watching her brothers for me while I’m out of town.



Then I moved to the fun fall cupcakes. These I’m taking over to my oldest daughter to share with her roommates. The four girls are sharing their first apartment together! My little girl is growing up. Ok, she grew up a while ago, but she’s still my little girl. I also wanted to thank her for taking me to the airport on Wednesday!

The vanilla flavored frosting was very subtle. Still had the Cool Whip taste, but a hint of vanilla. I was bummed they didn’t have the cream cheese flavor, but thankful there was a “white topping” one.



My oldest son and I tried the cupcakes before they had the frosting and, heh heh heh, he said it tasted like a pancake. Then he said, it had a sausage flavor. My only guess is, the maple syrup. I didn’t use ACTUAL maple syrup, but a shelf brand. I tried it with the frosting and yah, it did taste a bit like a pancake. I certainly had no flavors of sausage when I tried it.

We haven’t tried the entire cake yet since I want it to be intact when I take it to my step-daughter’s I’ll definitely update you on what we all think Tuesday night!

Be sure to check out my entire shopping trip and all of my baking on Google +! You can also find other great Kraft recipes on the Walmart website! I even saw some delicious ideas on the Cool Whip Facebook page! And if you’re anything like me, you’re going to want to keep up on our collective Kraft Cool Whip Frosting Pinterest board with some great recipes!

I’m joining up with Delicious Dish Tuesday with my recipe.

 
*I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This
content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for
Collective Bias™ and Kraft Cool Whip.  #CoolWhipFrosting #CBias
#SocialFabric