"Bust Your Buttons" Butter Cake

This is such an addicting cake! Made in a bundt cake pan and drizzled with a buttery glaze, it is sure to disappear quickly (at least in my family!) The "bust your buttons" comes from the fact that you just can't stop eating it! Just a little warning before you try this recipe.


Ingredients
~3 cups cake flour (regular flour works as well if you don't have cake flour)
~2 cups sugar
~1 tsp salt
~1 tsp baking powder
~1/2 tsp baking soda
~1 cup buttermilk (regular milk will also work)
~1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
~2 tsp vanilla extract
~1 tsp almond extract
~4 eggs, room temperature

BUTTERY GLAZE
~1/3 cup butter
~3/4 cup sugar
~3 Tbsp water
~1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Directions
CAKE
 ~Preheat oven to 325*F and place a rack in the middle of the oven with nothing too close above it.
~In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and mix well with a whisk.
~Add the buttermilk, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and eggs. Mix well. Do not over-beat, mix just until ingredients are combined. *** Over-beating may cause the cake to be tough.
~Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.
~Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Do not over-bake!
~In the pan, pierce the hot cake with fork tines or a bamboo skewer. Pour half the glaze (recipe at the end) slowly over the cake.
~Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then flip out onto a cake plate. Pour the remaining glaze over the cake.
~Serve with fruit or ice cream or by itself, and refrigerate any leftovers.

GLAZE INSTRUCTIONS
~Combine all the ingredients, except vanilla in a sauce pan. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat. Stir in vanilla, set aside to slightly cool.

Mini Cheesecakes

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com. It is super easy, and can be taken to almost anything, no matter what the occasion. I used cherry pie filling in this recipe, but it will also work with other fruit pie fillings, depending on what you want.

Ingredients:
~1 (12 oz) package vanilla wafers (don't worry, you won't be using the entire thing!)
~2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese
~3/4 cup white granulated sugar
~2 eggs
~1 tsp vanilla extract
~1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling

Directions:
~Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C). Line mini muffin tins with mini cupcake liners.
~Crush the vanilla wafers (or grind them up in a food processor), and place 1/2 tsp of the crumbs into each paper cup.
~In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Fill each liner with this mixture, about 3/4 full; almost to the top.
~Bake for 15 minutes. Once they are completely cool, top with a teaspoonful of the pie filling.
Yield: About 48