Quick Cakes - Spontaneous Sugar Satisfaction

The cold weather has really been a pleasant and inspiring experience, that is if you live in SW Florida! Cold to me is below 60 degrees, perfect baking weather. (Side note: I have to admit, when the temperature got down in the thirties, I was complaining.)

It's always the same with me, after dinner I want something sweet. "Hhhhmmm what quick and easy dessert can I make tonight"? Why I don't ever plan for dessert is beyond me. I guess I just like spontaneous sugar satisfaction!

First, I made a chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake. It was very good, quick and easy. I based it on this recipe at Deep South Dish. I traded pecans for chocolate chips and that work well. I didn't have a bundt pan, which made a huge difference. The cake was more like a snack cake rather than a coffee cake.

Then I tried this delicious Chocolate Pumpkin Cake. It was really moist and light. I choose powdered sugar as the topping; by the time the cake was ready to eat it was well past nine. The original recipe suggested cream cheese frosting, which would have been perfect with the pumpkin. Too bad my sugar craving couldn't wait that long!




Then I tried converting this Buckeye Bar recipe by using what I had on hand. It turned out really good. I used Planters seed, nut, and raisin mix instead of peanuts. The combination of condensed milk and peanut butter make these bars nice and rich. If you like crunchy, you will definitely enjoy these!


My favorite quick bake dessert were these Raspberry Strawberry Butterscotch Oatmeal Bars.

I used sugar free strawberry preserves instead of raspberry jam, lemon juice instead of water, and butterscotch chips. The lemon gave the bars a hint of citrus while the butterscotch chips increased the sugar fix a bit. Let me tel you, they were sooo good, my son Red and I went to work on these bars. Hubby is holding his own, not giving in to these sweet treats, poor guy. The entire 13 x 9 pan was gone in 24 hours, thus the photo of just three bars on a disposable plate.

Strawberry Butterscotch Oatmeal Bars
adapted from - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Raspberry-Oatmeal-Bars/Detail.aspx
Ingredients

 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
 2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
 3/4 cup margarine, melted
 1 cup raspberry jam sugar free strawberry preserves
 1 cup butterscotch chips - I added this ingredient
 1 tablespoon water lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, cake mix, and melted margarine so that it makes nice clumps and there is no dry mix left. Press 1/2 of the oats mixture evenly into the bottom the prepared pan. In a separate bowl, mix jam with juice, and spread over the crust. Sprinkle with butterscotch chips, then the remaining oat mixture evenly over the top.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 18 to 23 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. I baked for 20 minutes. Cool before cutting into bars.


Enough sugar?

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