Do you love German Chocolate Cake – but don’t have time to make it from scratch? My neighbor gave me this easy recipe for German Chocolate Upside Down Cake – all the flavor – without all the steps.

Start by preparing your pan, then sprinkle coconut and pecans evenly over the the bottom. You can double up on the coconut and nuts, if you like.

Prepare a German Chocolate cake mix according to the directions and then pour the batter over the coconut and pecans. Mix softened cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar together until creamy (you can vary the powdered sugar amount from 3-4 cups, depending on how sweet you want the cake). Drop by spoonful’s over the batter. Do not mix in.

Bake about 45-50 minutes, you may want to put a large baking pan underneath, just in case the mixture spills out a bit. Exploding with flavor! Cool in the pan on a rack.

Gooey and irresistible! You might want to add some extra coconut or pecans on top. Delicious warm from the oven! Although I think it is even better the second day with a cup of coffee. Enjoy!

For the recipe, click on the link below:

https://www.food.com/recipe/upside-down-german-chocolate-cake-48581

For a special treat, here is a delicious Old Fashioned German Chocolate Cake recipe:

It is hard to beat a good chocolate chip cookie – unless you take the same dough and add peanut butter M&Ms – and brown butter! Baking with brown butter is a game changer – it adds such a wonderful depth of flavor. If you haven’t tried it, you are missing out.

Bar cookies are so easy – just mix, put in your pan and bake. No scooping and waiting for each batch to bake. I used the recipe below with a few exceptions – I only made half a batch and I did not sprinkle the flaked salt on top.

I also gently pressed in a few extra M&Ms on top of the dough before I popped the baking dish in the oven. The extras just make your cookies look so pretty. Try this with holiday M&Ms too.

This makes a quick snack to make for your family – they will love these chewy cookie bars.

And it is always fun to share! Have fun baking this weekend!

For the recipe and lots of beautiful photos, click on the link below:

https://www.howsweeteats.com/2021/03/peanut-butter-cookie-bars/

Remember coloring Easter eggs? Always going to be fun and probably a spill or two when the Paas coloring kit came out. The plastic eggs work well to decorate and I have found that the plastic sleeve in the Paas kit adheres to them with no issues. Simply dip the sleeve enclosed egg is lightly boiling water until the sleeve shrinks to the egg. So quick and easy and can be used the next year.

Last year I painted egg cartons and cut them up to use for centerpieces. Eggs, candy, flowers and tea light candles in egg shells look festive.

This year was much better because my sweet sister, Mary Beth, gave me some spring colored egg cartons. She’s very thoughtful that way. Fun to fill with eggs, decorate with and give as gifts.

Oreo truffles are a hit around here so I made Easter egg truffles. Combine 1 package crushed oreos and 8 ounces cream cheese. Roll out between two sheets of parchment paper.

I used these cookie cutters I bought from Amazon.

Chill the truffles in the refrigerator while you melt and color the candy melts or almond bark. Dip and have fun decorating.

Wafer cookies are a nice treat to have also.

Have fun being creative and spending time with your family and friends this Easter!