This is a recipe that my mom got from her sister-in-law, my Aunt Cathy.  She’s not officially my aunt anymore, but I will always consider her my Aunt Cathy.  This is another VERY easy cake recipe, only takes a few minutes to make and is delicious!  If you love chocolate, this is for you.  I had actually completely forgotten about this cake, but last week my sister made the request that I make this cake for lunch after church tomorrow.  So I had my mom dig out her recipe card and I made it today.  And because I needed an “after” shot for this blog post, I just had to cut a piece out and test it.  So, so, so good!  The only piece of advise, be care for any cherry pits that might have made their way into the canned cherry pie filing.  I found one in the piece I cut out, hopefully it’s the only one in there.  Make this today and enjoy!

Chocolate Cherry Cake:

1 box German chocolate cake mix

2 eggs

1 – 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

2 t. almond extract

Mix above ingredients with a mixer.  Spread into a greased jelly roll pan, 10×15.  The pan I had was a bit bigger, still worked fine, just a thinner cake.  Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool for one hour.

Frosting:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

4 T butter

2 cups chocolate chips

Heat sugar, milk and butter on stovetop until boiling.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips.  Stir well until melted and mixed well.  Pour over cake.  Let cool completely.  Enjoy!

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  Very easy and oh. my. word. sooooo good.  I just got this out of the oven, let it cool for 20 minutes and just sat down and ate half the loaf myself.  Sadly, I’m not even kidding.  Perfect for a cold, winter day.  The house smells great and I’m hoping some lasts until tomorrow morning so I can eat it with my morning coffee.  Enjoy!

Sugar Cinnamon Quick Bread:

1/3 cup white sugar

2 t. cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup of sugar.  Add egg, milk and oil.  Stir until just blended.  Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1/3 cup of sugar.  Cover with remaining batter.  Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Enjoy!

Ok, so my mom has been making these bars my entire life.  She keeps the original ingredients in the house at all times.  We are somewhat snowed in today, so I’ve been cooking.  I’ve been trying to use up extra stuff laying around and as I was searching through the cupboard, I saw the lone can of sweetened condensed milk.  This made me think of my mom’s seven layer bars.  I pulled out the recipe and started grabbing all the ingredients.  When I got to the third missing ingredient, I decided to just make up my own recipe today.  So here is my version of the classic seven layer bars.  Enjoy!

Seven Layer Bars:

1 sleeve graham crackers, crushed

1 stick butter, melted

1 bag caramel bits

1 bag toffee bits

1 bag chocolate chips

1 bag chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 10×10 pan.  Melt butter.  Crush graham crackers.  Mix butter and graham crackers.  Pat into the bottom of a 10×10 pan.  Sprinkle with caramel bits.  Sprinkle with toffee bits.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Sprinkle with pecans.  Pour can of sweetened condensed milk over entire pan.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool completely.  Enjoy!