St. Patrick's Day Cookies

The recipe I finally found success with was by Wilton.  The original recipe calls for almond extract.  While this is a gorgeous nutty flavor, some may not care for it and when making it for nut-sensitive friends I modify the recipe.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

I also don't put salt in my cookies.  Some will say that this effects the rise on the cookies, but I have found that it isn't necessary.  Preheat your oven to 400F.  Gather un-greased cookie sheets.

Begin with room temperature butter.  Cream the butter and sugar together until they are just barely mixed.   I have found that if you over stir this step you add too much air to your batter and the cookies spread.  Mix in the egg and vanilla, again just stirring enough to incorporate.  Then add in the flour in small amounts.  Just before the mix comes together put your spoon aside and press the dough together with your hands.  This will help give the cookie a flaky consistency (like shortbread cookies).  Separate into two balls, this makes it more manageable once rolled out, you will need to use all the dough - it does not refrigerate well.  On a well floured surface and with a well floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until 1/4" thick.  Flour your shaped cutter of choice and cut dough.  Press together scraps and re-roll.  Bake cookies for 5 minutes.  Cool cookies.

Be sure to cool your cookies completely.  If they are even the least bit warm your icing will run off and make a huge mess.

Blissfully Domestic provided me with the most successful recipe for icing the cookies.  When making the "flooding" icing (the icing that covers the entire cookie) be sure to add VERY small amounts of water.   The icing should barely run off your spoon to flood.  I found that to coat the cookie but be thick and opaque you'll need to place some icing on the cookie and gently encourage the icing around the cookie with your spoon to fill it.  When I made the icing runny enough to "flow" on the cookie it was much too thin, and soaked into the cookie.  If you find that your icing is too runny using your sifter, sift in small spoonfuls of powdered sugar until it is back to the right consistency.  

For the white cookies with green clovers you will need to work with the icing while wet.  After lining the cookie with thick royal icing, flood the cookie with thinner icing.  Then pipe in the thick green trim color into four small dots.  Then while still wet use a toothpick to drag the green icing into center to form the cover shape.  The first few might be a bit abstract but you will soon get the hang of it and have gorgeous cookies.

Happy Baking!

Spaghetti Cupcakes

I've seen these "joke" cupcakes all over Pinterest and decided to give it a try.

My church was having an all church birthday party.  A special Sunday where we set up 12 tables (one per month) and each table has a cake.  The members of the church sit at the table with their birth month and share a birthday cake together.

I decided to volunteer for April and have a little "April Fools" fun.

I made spaghetti and meatballs and it really did look like I made dinner instead of dessert!





Materials:
   Box Cake Mix & ingredients to make
   Cupcake Papers
   Cupcake Pans
   Foil baking pan with domed lid
   Cream Cheese Frosting
   Piping bag & #3 tip
   Strawberry jelly (no junks)
   Ferrero Rocher chocolates
   White Chocolate Bar & grater

I started out with a standard box cake mix and cooked according to the directions.

Once they were fully cooled I whipped up a batch of my new favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting.  I decided not to add food coloring to the mix since the butter in this recipe makes it slightly off-white to begin with.  I refrigerated the icing until it was firm again before trying to make these.

I lightly frosted each cupcake with a knife and then place it into a foil baking dish that had a domed plastic cover.  I was only able to fit 20 in the pan I bought - the kids were thrilled to have samples!  I then filled a piping bag and used a #3 tip to make the "spaghetti". Working quickly I randomly swirled the icing all over the cupcakes.  I held the piping tip about 6-8" off the cupcakes to allow the continuous flow to twirl and bend in a more random way.  I took a break after a light layer and refrigerated the frosting in the bag and the cupcakes to be sure to keep the form of the frosting.  If this gets too warm - the noodles will lose their shape - so keep it cool as long as possible!

Once I had used all the frosting on the cupcakes - even making noodle to bridge the gaps between cupcakes so it looks like a full pan of spaghetti - I got the "sauce" out.  Strawberry jam without fruit pieces worked for me.  To make the jelly "runny" like sauce I spoon whipped the jelly in the jar before gently spooning it on the noodles.  Try not to move the jelly around too much or you'll lose the shape on your noodles.  Cover the center and dribble it around so it looks like you have ladled sauce on the noodles.  Then take each Ferrero Rocher chocolate and roll in the jelly.  Place on the noodles randomly.  Finish it off by shredding white chocolate on the whole thing to look like Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy.  Everyone love my "April Fools" cake....it was super tasty too!