Sugar Cookie Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Vanilla cakes made from scratch usually leave me unimpressed, but this cake is anything but "vanilla"... It tastes very reminiscent of a sugar cookie. This cake is delicious as is, but also takes very well to add-ins (such as chocolate chips, sprinkles, strawberries, you name it!) It's fluffy and moist and has just the right amount of sweetness. It's so good, I even eat it without the frosting, but ooooooh, the frosting! You'll want to eat it by the spoonful. You've been warned.

The only way this cake could get better is if it was quick and easy to make... oh wait, it is! You probably have most (if not all) of the ingredients already!

Sugar Cookie Cake
Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup milk

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Prepare a 9 x13* pan by greasing lightly and dusting with flour
• In a medium bowl, cream together sugar and butter until blended well.
• Beat in eggs, one at a time. Batter should look fluffy
• Beat in vanilla
• In a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder
• Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and beat until blended well
• Beat in milk until batter is smooth Tip: I like to to stir the milk in by hand first and then beat it. Stirring it first helps prevent splatter.
• Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Cake is done when it is a golden brown and springs back to the touch.

*This cake can also be made into cupcakes, baking time may need to be decreased. It can also be made into smaller, deeper cakes (such as an 8 or 9 inch cake), baking time would need to be increased by 10 minutes give or take.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• 8oz cold cream cheese Use it straight out of the fridge!
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups* powdered sugar

*You can use more or less powdered sugar to satisfy your tastes and to create different consistencies.

Directions:

• Cream together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla
• Gradually beat in powdered sugar
• That's it!

Allow cake to cool completely before frosting!

Tip: This cake does get a bit crumbly while frosting. To keep it looking pretty, apply the frosting in a nice thick layer or do a crumb layer. To make a crumb layer, simply spread a thin amount of frosting onto the cake and pop it in the fridge to harden, then add another layer of frosting on top. In the cake pictured, I took a 9 x 13 cake and sliced it in half. I then spread a thin layer of frosting on top of one half, stacked the other on top and frosted it. Yum!

Baked Tilapia with Peppers and Onions

 

Are you drooling yet? I love, love, love tilapia. Fried, baked, grilled, it's wonderful! This recipe is so simple and quick and packs a flavorful punch, you'll be sure to make it again and again!

Baked Tilapia with Peppers and Onion
Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 4 Tilapia fillets Fresh or frozen. If using frozen, it must be thawed first*
• 2-3 Peppers of choice I prefer using small sweet peppers but bell peppers work nicely as well
• 1 medium sized sweet onion
• Garlic to taste You can use fresh, jarred, or even garlic powder, whatever you have on hand!
• Lemon Pepper seasoning
• Dill seasoning
• Cayenne pepper seasoning (optional)
• Olive oil (or butter)
• 4 sheets of aluminum foil large enough to make a foil pouch**
• 1-2 cups of rice White rice is good but brown or wild rice is delicious as well and adds a nutritional boost!

*Recipe also works well with whiting fillets or even salmon.
**Instructions on making a foil pouch

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Slice and cut peppers and onion into bite sized pieces
• Take a sheet of foil and lay it flat, place 1/8 of your peppers and onion on the foil.
• Place 1 tilapia fillet on top of the peppers and onion
• Sprinkle lemon pepper, dill, cayenne pepper, then garlic on top of fillet
• Top the fillet with another 1/8 of peppers and onion
• Drizzle olive oil (or add a pat of butter) over fillet
• Fold foil into pouch and repeat above steps with remaining fish
• Place foil pouches on baking sheet
• Bake for 20 minutes Fish is done when it flakes easily with fork. Take caution when opening pouches, as contents are quite hot and steamy!
• While fish is baking, prepare 1-2 cups of rice according to instructions on its bag/box.
• Lay fish over bed of rice and dig in!! Don't forget to pour all the juice from the pouch over it. Simply delicious!