This weekend, I have family coming to visit.  My brother and his twins, my niece and nephew, are visiting from California.  I always like to make one dessert that is easy and delicious. I can serve this throughout the weekend.  Even if we plan day trips and eating out at restaurants, it’s always nice to have a little something on hand. When we are just visiting at my home, we can have a snack.  And what’s better than something sweet?  This is one of my favorite go-to recipes.  It’s an easy-to-make box cake, but with big flavor so it seems you spent a lot of time whipping up some decadent creation. (Which of course, you don’t have time to do!)  I first saw the recipe here when I was googling “carrot cakes.” I had a carrot cake box mix, but wanted to find a way to spice it up. Luckily, I also had some caramel and vanilla frosting in my cabinets as well.  I follow the recipe as-is except I add ground cinnamon to the batter and sprinkle in the frosting with the reserved caramel sauce. Once I tried a spice cake mix and cream cheese frosting – and it was just as good. (In fact, that’s what I am using for this weekend, because that’s what I have in the cabinet!)

Here I have prepped the ingredients, just double checking I had everything last night.  I will bake today after work so we will be prepared for their arrival on Friday.

Warning: Don’t be turned off by the 3 hour total time listed on the recipe!  That INCLUDES the two hours they suggest you refrigerate the cake before serving!  So really, those 2 hours don’t count.  During that time you can do all of your Helpful Hump-day Hints, some laundry, take a relaxing bath, read, watch TV – or do what I do and just go to bed!  So not really “cake baking” time if you get what I mean!

Tonight, I’ll take a picture when the cake is done.

What are your favorite, easy, go-to dessert recipes?  I would love to hear them and add them to my repertoire. Plus, don’t forget the person who makes the 100th comment gets a prize!