Great Summer Cake Recipe

Last weekend I tested this recipe so I could feed it to my company this weekend. It is a great cake. I hope you enjoy it. Leave me a comment about your baking experiences.

14-Karat Cake
This recipe was adapted from the May 2009 relish
newspaper article.
4 eggs
1 stick butter
1 1/3 cups extra virgin olive oil
21/4 cups sugar
21/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons allspice
21/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
2 packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 package of white chocolate chips, melted
½ cup powdered sugar
11/2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
Chopped walnuts to sprinkle over the icing

1.) To prepare this cake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. You will need two 9 inch baking pans. Spray pans with cooking spray.
2.) Combine eggs , butter and oil in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed for two minutes. Add one cup of sugar and mix for 2 additional minutes. Add the remaining sugar and mix for 4 minutes.
3.) Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and allspice; add to egg mixture, beating on low until blended. Add carrots, walnuts and pineapple mix until moistened.
4.) Divide mixture evenly in each pan.
5.) Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6.) Cool, refrigerate overnight.
7.) To prepare icing, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add melted white chocolate. To cream cheese mixture. Add butter and powdered sugar cream mixture until smooth.
8.) Remove cakes from refrigerator and ice with white chocolate cream cheese icing. Press walnuts into the side of the icing and sprinkle on top of cake. Serves 20.

Walgreens Deals

Hurry and check out the clearance items at your local Walgreens!

Listed below are some of the deals I found at the Mall Avenue and in Springdale near Harps on 412 and Stagecoach.

Target Deals-Happy Mother's Day

Target has a few $5 gift cards with purchase check out the deals
Buy any two of the following and get a $5 gift card
Charmin basic for $10 for 24 big rolls- coupon $1.00=$9.00
Bounty Extra Soft for $14.00 for 16 rolls
Venus Breeze or Gilette Fusion $7.99-$4.00 coupon from last Sunday's paper-$3.99
Gilette Fusion -last Sunday's paper coupon $4.00=$3.99 total for 2 razors $7.98-$5.00 gift card $2.98 for 2 razors!
Pampers cruisers or Pampers baby dry $17.99
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Check out my cousins blog for great additional savings at http://nwadeals.net

If you use Pantine shampoo and conditioner they have the large bottles for just over $3.00 so - Sunday newspaper coupon$1.00 is around $2.00 each
They also have Burts Bees soap for $5.00 for 2 bars. (I'm waitng on the next markdown for this item.)
Always look at the end cap oposite the main isle for Clearance bargains!
I'm not sure if I have mentioned this but the Orange last chances at Walgreens are the best bargains.

I have not had the chance to go through the Sunday paper coupons but stay tuned for later posts.

Walgreens Clearance

Be sure and check out the good deals at Walgreens. I spent under $10 and bought the following items.
Iams cat food-$.20 each(11)
Cesar dog food-$.32 (1)
Peter Pan Creamy Peanut Butter $.87 (2)
Arwick vanilla flameless candle $4.99-coupon on it ($1.99)(1)
Dog biscuits $1.39(1)
Sleepy time tea $.95(1)
Tylenol Arthritis $1.24 (1)
Walgreens Ato Z vitamins$1.59(1)
Walgreens RR-$3.00
Total-$9.68
Savings $33.15

Yard Sale Ideas

I have been thinking about having a yard sale to clear out room in my closet. I have weighed the pro's and con's of doing this. The benefits of donation outweigh the pro's of actually having a yard sale. If you opt to have a yard sale keep the following things in mind.
1.) Most people are paid on the 1st or 15th of the month or every two weeks.
2.) Packaged deals catch someones eye. Package items neatly to make a deal of several items.
3.) Use bright colored signs like hot pink with black writing.
4.) When someone asks how much? Notice the closeness of the item to the person. If it is close they really already want to purchase it so start with a higher price and lower to make the person think they have a real deal.
5.) Offer a few items for men. This draws both men and women.
6.) Plan ahead and use the color dot system of pricing. If your like me you do not have hours and hours to plan for a yard sale. Place colored dots with prices listed on a large piece of poster board. Then you just have to put a dot on the items or have a price for each table. A $1 table, $3 table and so on.
7.) Plan ahead and advertise in the newspaper.
8.) Place your signs at major intersections in town directing yard sale junkies to your home.
9.) The going time for yardsales is no longer 7am opt for 8am instead.
10.) Put out a box of freebies to lure people to your sale.

Donating items
If you opt to donate items to a charity a tax incentive is in store for you. New tax laws state the items need to be in good condition. I advise people to take a few pictures just to be on the safe side.

Walgreens

Today I made the following purchases at Walgreens

Colgate Whitening Sensitive $4.49= tax- Register Rewards($4.49)=FREE

I went back and used my $4.49(Register Rewards) to purchase

2 Magic Erasers($2.50 each)-coupon from Sunday paper-$2.50

Nice and Easy hair color $2.59(clearance)-$2.00 coupon from Sunday paper $.59. Lysol Netura Air 2 pack($1.50)Walgreens coupon=$2.29 or$1.15 each I tried to use the $1 coupon from the paper but the guy at Walgreens argued with me and said it was a two pack. It says buy one get one FREE. Maybe you will have better luck than I did. Anyway, I spent $2.43 total and saved $18.28!

P & G Black and Decker Offer

Proctor and Gamble are giving away a wet/dry black and decker dustbuster
In order to qualify for the offer you must purchase two of the following items:
12 count or larger Bounty
Charmin 30 count double rolls

Mail original receipt to : Black and Decker P&G Offer, P.O. Box 6181F, Douglas, AZ 85655