Cakebox for Cancerians

This month is full of people born under the star sign Cancer, including yours truly.  It came to the point where in one week, I was thinking of a birthday and yesterday's birthday belonged to my great friend Taco.  So, for those wondering why the Mexican food for a name...he basically worked at Taco Bell for many years.  Taco became more recognizable compared to his birth name Christopher.  It just stuck with friends.  As for the blog title.  I was about to name it Cakebox for Cancer.  But, I didn't want to get mixed up with Cancer NPOs associated with the disease.  Taco and I had known each for more that 20 years. And despite the ups and downs of what this world threw at us, it's been a saving grace knowing there's that person who without knowing or actually doing it picks you up when you've been kicked down.  So, yesterday was his birthday.  The day before, was my birthday and he went ahead and did a mini celebration with me over steak and I just wanted to return the courtesy, even though he may had disagreed to it.  Luckily without me being patronizing, he agreed to hangout in celebration of his day with some stories, drinks and cake.

Now, since the move from Unit#3, back to my old street the means of being creative in the kitchen was very limiting.  Back then, I had a full functioning range with with an oven.  I had counter and shelf space.  I also went wild with the baking tools.  Coming back to my old house, it is completely the opposite.  Shelf and counter space... nope.  Baking tools came down to a six piece muffin tin instead of the twelve. Instead of a range, I had a toaster oven.  The standing mixer morphed into a handheld mixer.  Nevertheless, it got the job done.  So, instead of being creative in the kitchen, creativity was between timing and ingredients. Since there were only three guests, it wasn't much of a daunting task. There was still a great deal of leftovers.  In the end, nothing ever beats great company. The night's spread was just cake.  It was 8:30pm, so it was easy to assume everyone had dinner.  If they didn't have dinner, they didn't say anything or suggested in getting any.  It wasn't payday, so I couldn't just buy a cake.  The cakes they did sell were also meant for a large amount of guests, so I was left with just a cake box and stuff at the grocery store.  I've been looking into my FB wall and there were tons of posts on cake box cookies.  I've always wanted to try making them.  I also wanted to see if I can accomplish baking confidently with a toaster oven. 

 The little toaster oven was on preheat for 350 degrees. I followed the directions on the box, the only difference was the absence of water.  The choco chips were an addition and wasn't included in the yellow cake mix box.  I was rather generous with the choco chips.  Instead of taking an ice scream scoop I picked and balled them out, spread them on the toaster oven baking sheet.  Having them baked for 12 minutes 350 degrees they turned out the way I had expected them.  Now, due to the size of the oven, I didn't commit the entire cake mix.  While I baked the cookies, I decided to add water to make cupcakes.  Silly me.  For some reason I didn't consider the added choco chips and threw in hot water.  Naturally the choco chips melted and instead of yellow cake mix, it had a golden graham look.

As for the birthday cake.  Separate from all that, I did a Sarah Lee and went grocery shopping.  I did however add frosting.  I did want to own up some effort.  I did a basic cream cheese frosting.  Spread it onto the carrot cake.  Interestingly, there were some sprinkles included with the food coloring.  So after I did my initial spread I added the sprinkles before coloring the rest of the frosting blue.

Overall it was great night.  We had just come out of a Tropical Storm, so it was cool for a summer night and the mosquitoes didn't bother us.  Stories were told and added experiences were made.  Cheers and Happy Birthday dear Cancer!