Pecan Sandies

This recipe also came from the Allrecipes Christmas Cookie Countdown and unlike the ice cream cookie one this one was awesome! They were like Pecan Shortbread Cookies covered in extra sugar! The recipe said it made 8 dozen, so I cut it in half and it came out with about 3 dozen, which I thought was good.

1 cup margarine
1 cup oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup icing sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
2 cups pecans
More white sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together margarine, oil, white sugar and icing sugar. Stir in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Slowly stir into creamed mixture. Stir in pecans. Place extra white sugar in a shallow bowl. Form dough into small balls, roll each ball in the white sugar. Bake 10-12 minutes.

These were pretty awesome and I will definitely make them again! :)

Ice Cream Cookies

Okay, so these were the weirdest cookies I've ever made and they turned out terrible! Which was really weird because they have a really high rating on Allrecipes, so I don't know if I did something wrong or what but they were gross. I was going to take them to work but I was too embarrassed to, so my Dad took them to his office instead and apparently somebody liked them because they got gobbled up. But I personally thought they tasted more like biscuits than cookies and I hate biscuits.

I got the recipe from the Allrecipes Christmas Cookie Countdown (a new cookie recipe every day for 25 days!)

1 pint vanilla ice cream (A US Pint is 473 ml, A UK Pint is 568 ml, I started with the US Pint amount but it didn't look right so I upped the amount of ice cream and it still didn't work)
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
Fruit Jam (I used Raspberry and Strawberry)

Cut butter with flour. Mix in ice cream. (Use your hands, you may want to put on gloves first because it will be cold). Form dough into ball. Refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough. (My dough was no where near a consistancy that could be 'rolled out' so I just shaped little balls with my hands) Cut circles with the rim of a glass, make a thumbprint in the center of each cookie, fill thumbprint with jam. (I just shaped balls with my hands and made a thumbprint in them) Place cookies on cookie tray lined with parchment paper. (Parchment paper is very important here!) Bake for 20 minutes.

Like I said, I thought these were disgusting but other people liked them. Try at your own risk!

Dark Tiger Cookies

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while, but I made these cookies a few weeks ago and I absolutely love them. They are so simple and tasty.

Dark Tiger Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup cocoa
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Icing sugar

Stir together sugar, oil and cocoa. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add in flour, baking powder and salt, mix well. Cover and refrigerate. (The instructions say for at least 6 hours but I've done it for as little as 1/2 an hour) Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Shape into balls. Roll balls in icing sugar. Place on cookie sheet. Bake 11-13 minutes.


I made these three times in the first week that I discovered them, they're so good. :)

I haven't posted a lot lately but I've been doing some Christmas baking that I'll be posting soon and I should start transferring over all of last year's Christmas baking posts from Facebook as well.

Chocolate Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter (or margarine), melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (I used sunflower seeds)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400. Prepare 2 muffin cups. Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Mix well. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie Bars

1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
2/3 cups cocoa
1/4 milk
1 1/4 cup nuts (I used walnuts)
1/2 cup margarine
1 2/3 cups (1 pkg) peanut butter chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 pan. Melt margarine. Beat margarine with sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add flour, cocoa and milk. Beat well. Stir in 1 cup nuts. Pour into pan. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely. Melt 1/2 cup margarine with peanut butter chips over low heat. Add sweetened condensed milk and stir until smooth. Pour over brownies. Melt 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Drizzle over bars. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup nuts. Refrigerate until firm.

Mom (and Dad)'s Birthday Cakes

This Wednesday was my Mom's birthday and since we weren't able to celebrate my Dad's birthday in the summer we decided to celebrate both birthdays at once. So that required two cakes!

Mom asked for the same Turtle Cheesecake I had for my birthday so I was happy to oblige.

And for Dad I made his favourite cake, Black Forest.

Black Forest Cake

Cake
2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour two 9-inch pans. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Add in eggs, milk oil and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks and cool completely.

Filling
2 (20 oz) cans Sour Pitted Cherries in juice(I could only find 14 oz jars but it worked just fine)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp vanilla (I think I forgot this but it didn't really matter)

Drain cherries. Reserve 1/2 cup of juice. Mix cherries, juice, sugar and corn starch in saucepan. Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. COOL COMPLETELY! (I definitely did not do this, results described below)

Topping
3 cups whipping cream (unwhipped)
1/3 cup icing sugar
Combine cream and sugar in a chilled GLASS (Ceramic) or METAL bowl. With an electric mixer beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Construction

How the instructions said to do it:
Cut each of the two layers in half with a serrated knife or specialty cake layer cutter. Crumble one of the layers and set aside. Set first layer on cake tray. Spoon on some whipping cream. Spoon on cooled cherry goo. Top with second layer, repeat. Top with third layer. Cover the whole cake with the remaining whipped cream. Top cake with more cherry goo. Cover sides of cake with crumbled cake.

How I did it:
Make chocolate shavings: Take a bar of chocolate and a carrot peeler, "peel"(or shave) the chocolate as you would a carrot. Set the chocolate shavings aside. Place the bottom layer on the cake tray. Top with whipped cream. Cover with cherry goo. (Which was still warm because I was running out of time) The cherry goo will melt the whipped cream and goo will go everywhere. Top with second layer. Cover the rest of the cake in whipped cream. Cover the sides and top in chocolate shavings.

What I would recommend for next time:
Make chocolate shavings, as described above. Place bottom layer on cake tray. Top with (warm) cherry goo. Place second layer on top of the cherry goo. Cover the entire cake in whipped cream. Cool the rest of the cherry goo. Place more cherry goo on the top. Cover the sides in chocolate shavings. Serve with excess whipped cream or cherry goo.

Life's a Cake Walk

I made these for the cake walk at my church's pre-Halloween carnival a couple weeks ago but I was too busy at the time to post them.



Unfortunately I decorated this one the night before the rest, so it was wrapped and I didn't want to unwrap it to take the picture because we were running out of plastic wrap.


The first two are chocolate cake. The last two are rainbow cake.