My Punchbowl Cake

My punchbowl cake is a highly requested dessert from my family especially on holidays. I put a twist on the traditional punchbowl cake where they use pineapples and cherries. I use fruit that my family prefer; strawberries and bananas. I also use banana cake in my recipe so it's safe to say that this is an original recipe to a classic dessert.

For my punchbowl cake you will need:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 box banana cake mix
4 reg size boxes of instant vanilla pudding
1 package of fresh strawberries
6-8 bananas
2 lg. packages of Cool Whip
1 c. chopped pecans
6 large eggs
1 gal of 2% milk
Large punch bowl

Preparation:

Prepare yellow cake mix according to directions on package, separate the batter in two round 8 in pans, bake and cool.

While the yellow cake is baking,prepare banana cake mix according to directions on package, separate the batter in two round 8 in pans, bake and cool.

While the banana cake is baking, the yellow cake can be cool enough to cut in squares or break apart with your hands and stack them in a bowl that you will put aside for now.

After the banana cake is done and cooled, you can cut the cake in squares or break it apart with your hands then put them in a separate bowl from the yellow cake.

Now it's time to prepare the pudding. Follow the directions (most brands would recommend 2 cups of milk per box) and mix it up with the mixer until all of the powder is dissolved and the pudding gels.

Cut up the bananas and add them into the pudding mixture then stir it up.

Clean and cut your strawberries, adding them into a bowl of its own.

Now it's time to layer it!

Put some banana pudding on the very bottom of the bowl first. Take some pieces of the yellow cake and banana cake then put them on top of the banana pudding layer until you don't see what's underneath. Cover the cake layer with half of the whip cream and top the whip cream with your strawberries. Sprinkle half of your cup of pecans on top of the strawberries. Now repeat the layers in that order. Your layers should look something like what I did here:


Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 18 to 20. It's great for parties. It's messy and good, it's fun to scoop it out with a punch scoop or a big serving spoon and dump it right on your plate. If you try it, let me know. I'd love to know how it turned out! :-)

An added tip: If you have any leftover cake pieces, put them in a ziplock, label them (i.e. yellow cake 7-30-11) then freeze them for a later project...cake pops! Next time I make cake pops, I will post it here!

My daughter did the BC (BIG CHOP) on 7-25-11!

My daughter has always had gusto so I wasn't too surprised when she decided to chop off her hair. She's been wearing extensions with her hair braided underneath until she was happy with a length to cut the relaxed hair off (she still have color in her hair but that's on purpose. She wanted to cut off her permed hair so that's what she did). I will blog her hair journey leading up to her first anniversary at the same time I will share our hair care tips and product reviews. Our goal for July 25, 2012 is for her hair to be bra length.

Here are photos right after we did the big chop (7-25-11):



Here are photos taken the next day (7-26-2011) when we returned from the Egyptian Salon called Mena's. They gave her a deep conditioner, straightened her hair with the round brush blow dryer technique and cut her hair in layers since it needed to be shaped.



It turned out longer than we thought after it was straightened. They cut about an inch off the back too! She now has virgin hair and feel sooooo free. It's going to be fun growing it out. It's so thick, full and has a lot of body after being blow dried. Some days she's going to wear it like the first set of pictures and some days, she's going to wear it straight. Right now, she's feeling the straight look.