Here in the Surznick house, we loooove poke cakes. One of my favorite cakes to eat during the Easter holiday is a carrot cake, so this year we decided to make a poke cake version!

Here's what you need! (Recipe adapted from SomethingSwanky.com)
- Boxed carrot cake mix and the ingredients listed on the box (or homemade, if you prefer)
- 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
- 8 oz. whipped topping
- 10.6 oz. Cool Whip brand cream cheese frosting (in the freezer aisle with the whipped topping)
- 6 oz. whipped cream cheese (plain)
- Caramel sauce (as much or as little as you want)
- Chopped nuts (recipe calls for pecans, we opted for the cheaper "ice cream topping nuts")

Here's what you do!

- First, pull your whipped topping, frosting, and cream cheese out of the fridge/freezer to allow it to soften.
- In a 9x13" pan, bake your cake as instructed on the box.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Using the end of a wooden spoon (or whatever else you can find) poke holes all over the top of the cake.


- Pour the sweetened condensed milk on top of the cake and use a knife of spatula to fill the holes as much as possible.


- In a large bowl, combine the whipped topping, frosting, and cream cheese with a mixer until smooth.
- Spread your frosting mixture on top of the cake. You will have a ton of frosting. We only used about 1/2-3/4 of ours.
- Pour the caramel sauce on top of the cake and sprinkle with chopped nuts.


Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. It's tempting to eat right away but this cake definitely gets better overnight!

This cake was seriously delicious, but when we make it again I'm going to go heavier on the frosting and lighter on the caramel. The caramel can be a little overpowering and you definitely don't want to mask the best part of the cake... cream cheese frosting!


And here's an added bonus! If you find that you have a bunch of leftover frosting, you can do what we did and make frosted carrot cake cookies! We made these just like our strawberry and red velvet cake cookies. YUM.

We hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday!

Sarah & Nick

Here's what you need:
- 12 - 16 oz oyster crackers
- 1 package Ranch Dressing Seasoning
- 1/4 tsp lemon pepper
- 1/2 tsp dill weed
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 - 1 cup oil


Here's what you do:
- Mix the seasonings and oil in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, pour mixture over oyster crackers and stir until evenly coated.
- Bake on a cookie sheet 15 - 20 minutes at 350 degrees, stirring occasionally.
- Spread them out on a paper towel to cool and absorb some of the excess oil.


It's that simple. Since Sarah and I typically favor salty snacks over sweet snacks, this is a perfect treat to have while binge watching True Detective, or whatever HBO series we may be obsessed with at the time.
Sarah & Nick