Mother's Day Garden Party Recipe Day!

Happy Thursday! Today the ladies at MakeMinePink.com are kicking off our Mother's Day Garden Party Shop Hop and Blog Hop festivities! Today is Recipe Sharing Day!

I have two yummy cake recipes to share with you today that you may want to try for your Mother's Day celebration or to give as gifts to your family and friends.

This is a recipe that you may see around on different recipe sites, but ours is one my husband has perfected and that is now a family favorite recipe. Most people refer to this cake as Coca-Cola cake, but you can use any favorite caramel colored cola soft drink to make it, you can even use Diet Coke, not that it makes this a diet cake, but if you are like me, that what I drink, so I always have it on hand!

COCA-COLA CAKE

Ingredients:

* 1 cup caremel colored cola soft drink -(Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Big K Cola)
* 1/2 cup buttermilk
* 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
* 1 3/4 cups sugar 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup cocoa

* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
* Coca-Cola Frosting (recipe is listed below this one)
* Garnish: 3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted, if desired

Preparation:

* Stir cola and buttermilk together; set aside
* Beat butter at low speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar; beat until blended. Add egg and vanilla; beat at low speed until blended.
* Combine flour, cocoa, and soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with cola mixture; begin and end with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended.
* Stir in marshmallows. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13- x 9-inch pan.
* Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes.
Prepare Coca-Cola Frosting (below) while cake is baking
* Pour Coca-Cola Frosting over warm cake; garnish with pecans, if desired.

COCA-COLA FROSTING

Ingredients:

* 1/2 cup butter or margarine
* 1/3 cup Coca-Cola
* 3 tablespoons cocoa
* 1 (16-ounce) package powdered sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

PREPARATION:

* Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring until butter melts
* Remove from heat, whisk in sugar and vanilla
* Frost cooled cake in pan. When cooled score into bar shapes, cut and serve!

I have no idea what the nutritional values are for this cake. Just have some, life's to short not to enjoy good cake!

So, ok, if you really really can't have the full sweet goodness of the cake, then maybe you'll enjoy this very yummy Low Fat Banana Pudding Recipe! You will not be able to tell it is Low Fat!

You can make this good old fashioned Banana Pudding dessert with all the creamy texture and flavor, but in a lite version with less than 3 grams of fat per serving! Please your family, especially kids! This is not a hard receipe at all ... If I can make it, anyone can make it! It is delicious for dessert - a great alternative to chocolate and other heavy desserts. I was so proud of my first time making it that I really did take a picture of it... here it is:

Lowfat Banana Pudding

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour


• dash of salt


• 2 1/2 cups 1% low fat milk


• 1 (14 oz.) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk


• 2 egg yolks


• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 3 cups sliced ripe bananas


• Approx. 45-60 reduced-fat vanilla wafers


• 4 egg whites


• 1/4 cup sugar

PREPARATION:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees farenheit


• Separate egg yolks from the whites of 4 eggs, discard or save 2 of the yolks for another use/recipe), leaving you with 2 egg yolks and 4 egg whites for this recipe
• Slice bananas into approximately 1/4 inch slices until you have 3 cups of banana slices


• Combine flour and salt and put in a medium sized saucepan


• Stir in low-fat milk and sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks, mixing all together gradually


• Cook over medium heat for 8 minutes or until thickened, stir constantly


• Remove from heat and add vanilla, stir to blend and set aside


• Arrange 1 cup of the banana slices to cover bottom of a 2 quart baking dish
  line edges of dish with vanilla wafers


• Spread one-third of the pudding mixture over bananas


• Top pudding mixture with vanilla wafers (approx. 15 to 20 wafers)


• Repeat layers twice, ending with pudding on top


• Arrange vanilla wafers around inside edge of dish, puching wafers gently into the pudding


• Make meringue by beating egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy, add 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time while continuing to beat, until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves. This takes about 2 to 4 minutes.


• Spread meringue over the top of the pudding, sealing to the edge of the baking dish


• Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes or until meringue is a golden color


• Cool for 30 minutes Store leftovers (ha!) in a covered container in refrigerater. Yields 10 servings.
  

I am really looking forward to gathering some great new recipes from all my MMP friends. Be sure and check out the list of participants in Shop Hop and Blog Hop and visit all around. Enjoy the parties and the shopping!!