Red Velvet Cake Bites

So... what's the big deal with red velvet? It's good. Real good. Especially when you make it into cake bite balls.
Most people think that to make red velvet cake, you get a boxed chocolate cake mix, add some red dye, and voila!
WRONG!
That... is just chocolate cake with red dye in it.
THIS is how you make red velvet:

1/2 c. Shortening
1 1/2 c. Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Salt
2 1/2 c. Sifted flour
1 c. Buttermilk
3 tbsp. Red food coloring
2 tbsp. Unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°

Lightly grease and flour two 9" cake pans and set aside

In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs until light and fluffy. Add salt.

Beat in flour alternately with buttermilk.

Make a paste of cocoa and red food coloring. Add to batter and beat well.

Mix vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar in small bowl. (yes, it does bubble like when we were kids trying to make a volcano, no, it won't overflow and make a giant mess) Sprinkle over batter, and stir in.

Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 mins, turn out on to wire rack and allow to cool completely.

And, it should look something like this:

After it's cooled off, you need to crumble it into bits.

To make the cake stick together in ball shapes, you need to mix icing into the cake crumble. You can use a store bought icing if you want, or make your own cream cheese icing:

1/4 c. Cream Cheese
1/4 c. Butter (or margarine)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1-1/2 c. Icing Sugar

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter; beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar in two additions.

The icing is enough to mix together with one cake. If you want to use both... obviously... double the icing recipe.

Roll the cake/icing mixture into 1" balls and put them onto a cookie tray.

Put the tray into the freezer for about 10 minutes to allow the balls to set. That way they won't fall apart when you dip them into the chocolate.

While you are waiting for them to set, melt some chocolate candy melts in the microwave in a small bowl.  You can get the candy melts in any bulk section, or at any Michael's store.

Dip the balls into chocolate, tap off excess, and let set.

or

when you are melting your chocolate, put it in a small ziploc bag instead of a bowl. Trim off a small piece of one of the corners so the chocolate can flow out. Pipe the chocolate into candy cups (about 1/2 full) press ball down into chocolate until it reaches the top of the cup. Allow to set. Dip the top of the cups into chocolate, or drizzle using the piping bag.

It should look something like this:



oreo truffles

I really like looking at Bakerella's Blog. She makes cake pops. And other things, but mostly cake pops.

I'm not sure I could do the cake pops. So, instead, I made oreo truffles. Same sort of idea, but it seems much simpler. To me, anyways.

All you need is:
1 package of cream cheese
1 package of Oreo Cookies
1 package of Candy Melts

You need to get the Oreo's from this:

To this:

By putting them in a food processor and chopping them up.

Once you have your cookie crumbs, add the cream cheese and mix it together. (If you soften the cream cheese a little first, it works better.)

Then roll the mixture into balls.

Put the oreo balls into the fridge, or freezer for about 5 minutes so they don't fall apart in the chocolate.

Melt your candy melts. Dip the oreo balls. Put on wax paper to dry.



Mis-adventures of the cookie press

I was grocery shopping the other day (at a large grocery store that starts with "S" and ends with "store"), when I came across a cookie press thinking, "How hard could it be, you put the dough in, you press it out..." So, I put it in my cart and brought it home.

It came with alot of discs, and some icing tips...

Went online, found a recipe (because apparently the dough consistency has to be different).

Made the dough, put it in the press, and got started.

This cookie press was not good... or maybe I was using it wrong... but I'm going with it was not good.

I pressed out the dough, ALOT came out... I couldn't figure out how it was going to make 8 dozen cookies like the recipe called for. I mananged to get 8 out of the press, and baked them. They didn't look quite right... but they tasted good :)

Took the first 8 out of the oven, went to press a few more, and the press didn't work. I'm not sure what happened... but I wasn't happy. So, I put the kids to bed, came back and played around with the press abit longer. Ok. Definitely something wrong.

Day 2:

I drove to the craft store, aaannnndddd... bought a NEW cookie press. By Wilton. If it's Wilton it has to be decent, right?

Right :)

Made some more dough, put it into the press:

Let me tell you, these are MUCH prettier than the ones I made with the first press. You can actually tell what shape these ones are.

Into the oven... and 8 minutes later...

SUCCESS!!

Want to make some?

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups butter softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°. In bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; mix well. Gradually add  flour mixture to butter  mixture; beat until combined. Do not chill. Fill cookie press with dough and with desired disks, press cookies onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let cool for two minutes before moving to cooling rack.

You can find different varieties of the recipe here:
Wilton

Redemption - Oatmeal Shortbread Santas

It's been awhile since I've baked something (not including birthday cupcakes)

(which were pretty tasty btw)

and I found a tube of cookie dough in the fridge, so I made it.

It felt like cheating.

I needed to bake for real to redeem myself.

I saw this picture in a magazine, and figured it seemed like a good project...

They are rolled cookies. Usually I have NO luck with rolled cookies. They always stick, the dough is too soft, they misshape... but, I was up for the challenge.

The recipe is simple:

Here's what you need:

2/3 c. Butter or Margarine, softened

1/2 c. Packed brown sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 c.    All Purpose flour

3/4 c. Quick-cooking Oats

1/4 tsp. Baking Powder

I know what you're thinking, I forgot the egg. Nope. No egg. I checked the recipe 3 times. Definitely, no egg.

To decorate you need white frosting (because it's from a Betty Crocker magazine they say to use "Betty Crocker Easy Flow white decorating icing"), red sprinkles, red and blue (or whatever color you want) smarties/m&m's.

I couldn't find the said "easy flow icing", but I did find:

Wilton Decorating Icing, which let me tell you, was super handy. Since it is a Wilton product, you can attach Wilton decorating tips RIGHT TO THE TUBE! I love it.

Anyways...
To make the cookies:

In a large bowl beat butter, brown sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until creamy. Stir in flour, oats, and baking powder. Gather dough into ball. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 mins.

Heat oven to 350°. On a well floured surface, roll dough 1/4" thick. Cut with 3" heart-shaped cookie cutter. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes, or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely before decorating.


The trick to get them not to stick is definitely the flour. LOTS and LOTS of flour. Flour on the surface, flour on the rolling pin, flour on your hands. Flour. Also, I rolled them out on a silicone baking sheet which also seemed to help, and made for a way easier clean up.

And then comes the fun part. Decorating.

When you're done, it should look something like this...

Crayons for little hands

If you have kids, you probably have ALOT of broken crayons around.

Usually, I throw them out and buy new ones, but here's a way you can recycle them...

1. Peel
2. Brake into small pieces (if they aren't already)
3. Melt



After you break the crayons into bits, put the pieces into a lined mini muffin pan:

Put them in the oven at 300° for 10-15 minutes. Allow the "new" crayons to cool completely before you pull the paper liners off. They'll probably look something like this:

No more broken crayons :)

Turn on the oven to warm up your house

I made brownies last week. I was going to tell you how...last week... but, I lost the recipe. So, here's a picture instead.

This is what they looked like. They were really good.
If I find the recipe again, I'll put it up.

Today, I made cookies. Partly to warm up my house by using the oven, mostly because I wanted cookies.

Peanut butter to be exact.

1 c.       Brown Sugar
1/2 c.    Peanut butter
1/2 c.    Margarine
1           Egg
1 1/4 c. Flour
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt

Preheat your oven to 375°
In a large bowl mix together brown sugar, peanut butter, margarine and the egg with an electric mixer until smooth.
In a smaller bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients.
Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture, stir until smooth.
Drop by spoonfuls onto an UNgreased cookie sheet, do not press down.
Bake for ~10mins or until golden.

And here's what you get:

It makes about 3 dozen depending on how big you make the dough balls, and how many you eat during the wait time. I used a melon baller, seems to keep them consistent. Enjoy

Just say "NO!" to T.V. on Tuesday

If you've ever watched TV on a Tuesday, you probably know, there's nothing to watch.

Seems like a good excuse to make cookies to me.

I'm pretty picky about my chocolate chip cookies. I've tried many different times to get them just right. Today, I think I came as close as I can get. Thanks to Bakerella.

2 1/4 c. Flour

1 tsp.    Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 c.       Butter

1 c.       Brown sugar

1/2 c.    Sugar

2           Eggs

2 tsp.     Vanilla

1 1/2 c.  Chocolate Chips

-Preheat oven to 350°
-Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl with a whisk. Set aside.
-Combine both sugars and butter. Beat with a mixer (this makes the dough super fluffy and light. it's great)
-Beat in eggs and vanilla
-Add flour mixture to sugar mixture in two additions. (I mixed them together with a rubber spatula)
-Stir in chocolate chips

-Use a mini ice cream scooper (or a melon baller works too) to drop dough onto parchment covered cookie sheet (also, I didn't have parchment paper, so I used my silicone baking sheet, which I love. Makes for an easy clean up).

-Bake 8-10 mins.

And here's what you get:

Not that I want to pat myself on the back, but I think these give Pillsbury a run for their money.

Only one thing could make them better:

So if you are having a day like this:

Make some cookies.

Look how happy it made them.