Edited: Because I did these posts so far apart, I forgot to go back and see what I put in part 1. I duplicated the rolling/cutting of the cookies so I have now deleted that
Frosting:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Crisco (Shortening)
1 tsp Vanilla
1/8 tsp Salt
2 cups Powdered Sugar
3-4 Tbsp Milk
Cocoa Powder (if making chocolate frosting)
1.) Mix shortening, vanilla and salt in mixer
2.) Alternately add in sugar and milk (I generally use more milk than called for, depends on the consistency you want)
3.) Once all ingredients added, mix on medium speed for 30 seconds to fluff the frosting a bit
4.) Divide out frosting into smaller container if you will be making colors. If making chocolate frosting, add in cocoa powder until desired color/taste.
5.) If making colors, add in food coloring to white frosting and mix well until desired color is reached (NOTE: it will take A LOT of 'red' color to get red. It will still look kind of pink though)
6.) Use a knife and start frosting your cookies! There is no right or wrong way to decorate! Use sprinkles too!
***I did make Christmas cookies, but this post was originally meant for Thanksgiving time***
This post is a 2-parter because cut-out cookies require more time and effort. I will post the recipe and baking of the cookies in one post, then the frosting recipe and decorating in another post. So get comfy, this is going to take awhile!
Making the Dough
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 cup Crisco/Vegetable Shortening
1 cup Milk
1 tbsp Vanilla
5 cups Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1.) Mix dry ingredients together; set aside
2.) Mix on low-medium speed Sugar, Egg, Crisco/Shortening, Vanilla and Milk
3.) Slowly add in dry ingredients
4.) Once thoroughly mixed/blended together, cover mixing bowl (or transfer to another container) with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (3-4 hours would be good too, but I always do overnight due to time constraints)
Making the Cookies
When you are ready to start rolling out the dough, be prepared before you take the dough out of the fridge.
1.) Clear off a decent section of your counter and wipe it down. Also prep your cooling/decorating area. I use my kitchen table, I put down old towels to prevent heat transfer and cover them with wax paper
2.) Get out a nice pile of flour, rolling pin and selected cookie cutters
3.) Line your baking pans with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 375*
4.) Get out your bowl of dough and lightly sprinkle it with flour (the dough will be a little sticky, the flour makes it less sticky and easier to roll)
5.) Pull out a decent sized ball of dough (softball size is good) coat your hands with flour and just work the dough a little bit
6.) Spread some flour into the rolling area from the pile, and rub some flour onto your rolling pin
7.) Start rolling out your dough ball, sprinkle more flour as needed (it shouldn't be sticky/sticking to your rolling pin)
8.) Once half rolled, sprinkle with flour and flip over, continue rolling until desired thickness
9.) Take cookie cutter and dip into flour pile, then cut cookie into dough, re-dip cutter into flour, repeat until no more room on dough for another one
10.) Peel away the out-side dough and carefully pick up/used spatula to place cookies onto baking pan
11.) Scoop up dough scraps, get more from bowl and repeat until all dough is used up
12.) Bake 6-8 minutes on 375*, changing racks halfway through
13.) Let sit for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to cooling/decorating area that was set up in step #1
14.) Once all cookies are done and cooling, clean up your mess and get ready to make frosting to decorate these yummy sugar cookies!
Sorry for the long hiatus. It has been ridiculously busy at work (tis the season to work in retail) and I just finished up my 2nd to last semester at school. I have a couple posts I will be working on in regards to my holiday baking so stay tuned!
In the meantime, here is some holiday cheer for you!
So my H wanted a PayDay candy bar cake for his birthday recently, so I searched the internet high and low to find a CAKE recipe and not just like a bar-like recipe. I found this recipe and decided to try it, but with a minor modification.
See, when I say homemade, I truly mean homemade. I prefer not to use box mixes where you just add egg and oil, I bake from scratch. Flour, Sugar, Baking Soda or Powder, Salt, Vanilla etc.
So the recipe called for a yellow box cake mix. You can follow the recipe as is on the website if you'd like, but I will post how I did it below.
First: The Cake (This recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book)
Preheat oven to 375*
Grease and flour your baking pan(s) ( (2) 9 1/2" or 8 1/2 " round pans or (1) 9x13 rectangular baking dish)
(I most always use a 9x13 pan if I will be transporting the cake to another location)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter (softened, room temp for 30 mins)
3 eggs (
room temp for 30 mins)
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 milk (as with previous recipes, I use Silk milk due to my Husband's allergy to regular milk)
Directions:
1.) Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes
2.) In a bowl (or measuring cup) stir together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside
3.) In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar until well combined
4.) Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5.) Add in vanilla
6.) Alternately add flour mixture an dmilk, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.
7.) Spread batter into pan(s)
8.) Bake for 20-25 minutes for (2) round pans or 25-30 minutes for (1) 9x13 rectangular pan (it took mine about 30 minutes, maybe a few more for it to be done)
While the cake is in the oven, get your area cleaned up and reset for the rest of the cake making. Below is the list of ingredients you need to make the PayDay part of the cake
Ingredients for Topping:
3 cups mini-marshmallows
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup butter (softened)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups peanut butter chips
2 cups salted peanuts (I could only find "seasoned" peanuts, so I went with that)
1 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal
1.) While the cake is in the oven, get your marshmallows measured out and set aside
2.) Put the corn syrup, butter, vanilla and peanut butter chips into a medium sized saucepan but do not start heating up yet
3.) Mix crispy rice cereal and peanuts into a separate bowl, set aside
4.) As the cake is nearing the end of baking, turn your saucepan burner on medium heat
5.) As soon as the cake is done, sprinkle the top with the marshmallows and put back in the oven for 1-2 minutes or until they start to puff (Note: make sure marshmallows are in a single layer on the cake, you might have some bare areas and i suggest trying to keep them away from the very edges of the pan (see final picture below for why))
6.) Your peanut sauce should be starting to melt, have a spatula handy to stir it as its melting down.
7.) Once your sauce is done, immediately mix in peanut/cereal mixture. It is going to be a little difficult, and I can't say that some cereal didn't jump out of the saucepan and get crunched on my stove.
8.) Don't play with the mixture too much, and get it on top of the marshmallows as soon as possible.
9.) The original recipe says to spoon the mixture over the marshmallows. How the hell are you supposed to spoon a think mixture over gooey marshmallows? Anyways, scoop decent sized blobs of mixture on the marshmallows and try your best to flatten/spread it.
10.) Let the whole pan/cake cool completely before covering it. You may want to try to flatten any excess marshmallow goo off the edges if you are putting on a lid.
ENJOY!
