Cheater Cake

A few weeks ago at our little weekly Girls Night my we celebrated my lovely friend Mel's Birthday. I whipped up my now perfected (I think!) cheater cake (in my family we call this kinda thing/half cheating at something "The Johnny Way" after my cousin who taught us it was okay to pick the next card in war, you know if you are loosing). So anyway here is my "Johnny Way" surprise it's your birthday cake.
I start with a boxed cake from Trader Joe's - you can use any cake that you want, but if I am looking for the right time + quality mix I go with their cakes, real butter and milk make a big difference.
After baking the cake and letting it cool I put a layer of Raspberry Jam (again I think mine was from Trader Joe's, but any fancy or not so fancy jam will do).
Last I made up some easy frosting: powdered sugar, milk, butter and vanilla to taste and texture. You could frost the whole cake, but I don't really like frosting that much so I normally only frost the top of my cakes.
The whole thing takes less than an hour to make, bake and clean up from so this is a great way to have a little something to celebrate someone for whatever reason!
As a variation I have also used; lemon curd or a thin layer of Strawberry in place of the jam.

So do you have any quick "Johnny Way" tricks you could share with me?

Lazy Sunday

Today I had what can only be described as a Lazy Sunday. I went to church with my family last night and ended up staying the night at my mom and dad's that meant snuggling with me sister in the morning and eggs for breakfast.

I watched far to much junk on Hulu (Modern Family, Bones, The Middle and maybe something else I can't even remember) and drank way more coffee than I normally do.

There was a lot of laughing and talk of Nutcracker dances, old and new while Phoebe, Prisca and I made some "cup-pies".

I hope your weekend was relaxing and peaceful and you are ready to face the new week!

Birthday Cake

Yesterday was my mothers birthday. She didn't want to make anything of it - she is getting ready to head out on a five day hiking trip with a few friends and has put all her focus on that and getting my two youngest siblings ready for school.

I however don't think you should let someones birthday go by without a little cake and a lot of good cheer. I admit that I was planning on buying a store made cake and calling it a night when I remembered that I had a Trader Joe's box cake. I think TJ's has just about the best box mixes and with a little help from some frozen berries it turned tasting great (even if it was kinda ugly)!