Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

   

  Right after the holidays, I picked up a box of this cupcake mix on clearance.  When I eventually made them, I wasn't all that impressed.  They didn't really remind me of hot chocolate at all.  It was basically a chocolate cupcake with a marshmallow glaze.  I know, I know -- I can't expect perfect from a boxed mix.  Of course, I considered this a challenge, though, and decided I had to come up with my own hot chocolate cupcake recipe.  The result was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.  The cupcakes really taste just like a mug of hot chocolate and the marshmallow frosting is light and fluffy and dreamy.

     I usually take all the food that you see on here to work to be eaten, but I don't usually toot my own horn.  I just set it out and let it be eaten.  But let me tell you, when I made these and took them to work, I tooted my horn all over the whole building.  Seriously. I sent out e-mail blasts telling everyone how amazing my cupcakes were.  And they came.  And they ate them.  And they all agreed.  So, try them.  They're delicious.  

What you need for the cupcakes:
1 Chocolate Cake Mix
1 Cup Sour Cream
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Water
1 Box of Chocolate Pudding Mix 
12 ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
6 Individual Hot Chocolate Packets

What to do for the cupcakes:
1.  Preheat the oven according to the directions on the box of the chocolate cake mix. 

2.  Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners. 

3.  Put everything in a bowl and mix well. 

4.  Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake according to the directions on the box of the cake mix. 

What you need for the icing:
1 stick Butter, softened
1 jar Marshmallow Fluff (7 oz)
2 cups Confectioners Sugar
A Pinch of Salt 
1 tsp Vanilla 


Here's what you do to make the icing:
1.  Beat butter on high speed until light and fluffy. 

2.  Add marshmallow fluff and continue to beat until incorporated. 

3.  Add sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat on high for 5-6 minutes, scraping down the bowl.

I piped the marshmallow frosting on top of the cupcakes to make them pretty.  I also found that if you toss these in the microwave for about 15 seconds, they're even more delicious when they're just a little warm.

Enjoy! 

Valentine Day Cupcakes

I tried to make these cupcakes for Valentine's Day, but the hearts that I made were too big, so when I cut into the cupcakes, there was just a big red blob.  I was pretty disappointed, but still had a ton of french vanilla cake batter and about a million little cake hearts, so I had to figure something out.  This is what I came up with.  They're adorable, right?  Right.  And, they're pretty easy to make!

The cupcakes are french vanilla and I added maraschino cherry frosting in honor of Valentine's Day.  The hearts are just tiny little heart cakes, made out of the same batter as the cupcakes.  

You could easily adapt this for any holiday or occasion  so long as you have a cookie cutter that suits what you're making them for.   

First, make the hearts and cupcakes. 

What you need for the cake:
1 French Vanilla Box Cake Mix
1 Box of Powdered Vanilla Pudding
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup Water
3/4 Cup Oil 
4 Eggs

What you do make the cupcakes and hearts:
1.  Mix all the ingredients together for the cake.  Separate about 1/3 of the batter into a separate bowl. 

2.  Using food coloring, tint the smaller portion of the batter to the color you desire. 

3.  Pour the tinted food coloring onto a sheet cake pan and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the cake is done. 

4.  Set the sheet cake aside to cool.  Meanwhile, using the remaining batter, make cupcakes, baking according to the directions on the cake mix box. 

5.  Once the sheet cake has cooled, using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many hearts as you can from the sheet cake.  Remove the hearts from the pan and discard the scrap sheet cake. (I "discarded" the scrap sheet cake by eating it.  Don't judge.)


Second, make the icing. 

I slightly adapted my icing recipe from Glorious Treats.  

What you need for the icing:
2 Sticks of Butter at room temperature
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
6 Tbsp Maraschino Cherry Juice
1/2 Cup finely chopped Maraschino Cherries
A pinch of salt

What you do to make the icing:
1.  Beat the butter until smooth. 

2.  Add 1 cup of powdered sugar.  Beat until fully incorporated.  Repeat with a second cup of powdered sugar. 

3.  Add 1 Tbsp of maraschino cherry juice.  Beat until fully incorporated.  Repeat until you have added all 6 Tbsps of maraschino cherry juice. 

4.  Add 1 cup of powdered sugar.  Beat until fully incorporated.  Repeat with a second cup of powdered sugar. 

5.  Add the chopped cherries and a pinch of salt.  Beat to fully incorporate. 

6. You may add food coloring to tint your frosting if you would like.  I added a little bit of red to make my frosting a bit more pink that it was naturally.

Third, assemble the cupcakes. 

To assemble the cupcakes, pipe a bit of frosting on top of each cupcake.  Then, insert a toothpick into the bottom (pointed) end of one heart.  Feed the toothpick into the heart until it is about half-way in.  Push the exposed part of the toothpick into the top of the cupcake.  Your heart should now be "sitting" on top of each cupcake (no toothpick should be exposed).  Repeat until all cupcakes are assembled. 

Enjoy!

Easter S'Mores Jars

I found this absolutely adorable idea on Pinterest and I COULD. NOT. RESIST. These jars are cute as a button!  And, the person you give them to gets to add a few ingredients and make them into S'mores Bars.  Perfect!  The jars are simple to assemble and the bars are easy for the recipient to make.  This is a perfect Easter Gift for the little people in your lives, but some adult supervision will be required to make the S'mores Bars.  My mom and I made a  whole batch of these jars to give to the kids in our family. 


Adapted from: Creative Holiday Gift Ideas


Here's what you need to make 1 jar:
1 One Quart Mason Jar
23 Hersey Kisses
8 Peeps
1/2 of a sleeve of Graham Crackers, crushed
1/4 cup of Brown Sugar


Here's what you do to assemble the jar:
1.  Clean the jar. 
2.  Put the crushed Graham Crackers in a baggie.  Add the Brown Sugar.  Set aside.
3.  Put the Hersey Kisses in the bottom of the jar. 
4.  Put the Peeps in the jar, with their faces facing out (so you can see their faces from the outside).  We could only fit 7 around the perimeter of the jar, so we stuck the 8th one inside the "circle" of Peeps.  
5.  Put the baggie of Graham Crackers and Brown sugar inside the jar above peeps. 
6.  Put the lid on the mason jar. 
7.  Create a recipe card with the instructions listed below.  Attach the recipe card to the jar with a piece of festive ribbon.  Ta Da!  You're done!


For the recipe card:
1.  Remove the contents of the jar and put on the kitchen counter. 
2.  Unwrap and cut Hersey Kisses into halves or quarters.  Put in a medium sized mixing bowl. 
3.  Cut (or tear) the Peeps into pieces.  Add to the mixing bowl. 
4.  Add the contents of the baggie to the mixing bowl. 
5.  Add 1 tsp of Vanilla to the mixing bowl. 
6.  Add 1/4 cup of melted Butter to the mixing bowl. 
7.  Stir the contents of the mixing bowl well. 
8.  Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into a small, well-greased baking dish. 
9.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. 


Enjoy!  Happy Easter!!

Lucky Charm Cupcakes

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.  I wanted to make a little treat in celebration, but I don't like corned beef.  I don't like cabbage. And I don't like beer.  I came across these little cuties and decided they would do.  So I made them, and they were delicious!  The cake is very neutral and spongy.  The frosting is quite sweet.  The two contrast each other nicely.  I tinted the cupcakes green to make them a little more festive.  


Slightly adapted from: Bella Baker


Here's what you need for the cupcakes:
3 cups Cake Flour, sifted
2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 3/4 cups Sugar
2/3 cup Butter
2 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk 
Food coloring as desired.


Here's what you do to make the cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 


2.  Line cupcake tins with liners.


3.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. 


4,  Cream sugar and butter together. 


5.  Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. 


6.  Add flour mixture and milk to creamed mixture.  Alternate the flour mixture and the milk, beating well after each addition. 


7.  Add food coloring.  Continue beating one minute. 


8.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 


9.  Remove to wire cooling rack.  Cool completely before icing.



Here's what you need for the icing:
1 stick Butter, softened
1 jar Marshmallow Fluff
2 cups Confectioners Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla 



Here's what you do to make the icing:
1.  Beat butter on high speed until light and fluffy. 


2.  Add marshmallow fluff and continue to beat until incorporated. 


3.  Add sugar and vanilla and beat on high for 5-6 minutes, scraping down the bowl. 



To assemble the cupcakes, I piped the icing on top of the cupcakes and sprinkled the marshmallows from Lucky Charm's cereal on top.  The marshmallows will get soft after sitting on the icing for some time, so don't top with marshmallows until shortly before serving. 


Enjoy!

Conversation Heart Cookies

I made these cute little cookies for Valentine's Day!


I have good news and I have bad news.  The good news is they turned out pretty cute, so I can tell you how to make cute little cookies of your own.  The bad news is, the recipes that I tried for the cookies and the icing were less than stellar, so I won't be sharing any recipes with you today.  It will be more of a how to tutorial.  


I found the idea on Pinterest.  I'm not sure how I used to entertain myself before I discovered Pinterest.  Anywho, recipes for sugar cookies and icing are all over Pinterest.  So, just head on over there and find yourself a sugar cookie and royal icing recipe that you like.  Then come back here and I'll tell you how to make your cookies super cute. 


1.  Make your heart-shaped sugar cookies.  


2.  Make your royal icing. 


3.  Divide the icing into as many colors as you would like your conversation hearts to be.  I did white, yellow, green, pink and purple.  You can google conversation heart images to get an idea of what colors you want to use.  


4.  Outline the cookies.  Using a #3 Wilton icing tip, fill your icing bag with the first icing color.  Outline the perimeter of each cookie that you would like to be that color.  Repeat with each color until all of your cookies have been outlined. 


     Hint:  Although I have reusable icing bags, I bought disposables for this job because I 
      knew I'd be changing colors frequently.  Click here to see what a #3 Wilton icing tip 
      looks like. 


5.  Going back to the first color your outlined with, put the icing back into the original bowl and add water to it slowly.  Add a few drops at a time and stir.  Continue doing this until you have a consistency that results in icing that is dribbled off the spoon into the bowl disappears into all the icing within a second or two.  Put approximately a tablespoon of icing on one cookie that has been outlined in this color.  Spread the icing around on the cookie until the entire surface of the outlined portion of the cookie is iced.  You can use a toothpick to do the spreading if you'd like.  I used my finger.  Because I'm not fancy pants.  And, that was waaaaaay faster.  Just keep a wet paper towel nearby to clean off your finger as needed.  Continue icing in this manner until all the cookies outlined in this color have been filled in. 


6.  Repeat step 5 until all cookies have been filled in. 


7.  Put red icing in an icing bag with a #3 Wilton tip.  Pipe cute phrases on the top of each cookie, beginning with the first cookie you piped and filled and going through the rest in the same order they were piped and filled (being methodical about the order in which you decorate ensures that the icing on the cookie has time to dry before you start piping on top).  Again, you can google image conversation hearts if you need ideas for what to pipe on top. 


     Hint:  It takes a lot of red icing coloring to make a vibrant red color that you will need for 
      these cookies.  I just bought a tube of red icing and squeezed that into my icing bag.


8.  Make sure cookies are completely dried before storing.  Do not store stacked on one another.  Your icings will bleed.  Not that I know from experience or anything . . . 


Enjoy!

Cookie Pie

I ended up with one million left over Christmas Cookies.

One Million.  I counted.

Most of them were chocolate chip or M&M Cookies.  For some reason, when cookies sit on my counter in plastic baggies, they get crushed into tiny little pieces.  I think there is a little cookie smashing elf that comes around at night.  See:

Anyway, I didn't want all these cookies to go to waste, so I decided to try making a pie out of them.  This was super easy and it turned out delicious!  You could do this with any left over cookie you have, not just Christmas Cookies.

Here's what you need:
3 Cups of Cookie Crumbs
3 Tbsp Butter, melted
Dash of Salt *optional*
1 1/2 Cups of Cookie Chunks (or more to taste)
8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
2 Tsp Vanilla
1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
8 ounces Cool Whip

Here's what you do:


1.  Use your blender or food processor to grind your cookies into cookie crumbs.  Grind enough cookies to make 3 cups of crumbs.

2.  Melt butter.

3.  Add butter to cookie crumbs.  Mix until well moistened.  I added a dash of salt because I buy unsalted butter and the crumbs and butter alone were a little too sweet for my taste.

4.  Press the cookie crumbs into the bottom and sides of a pie plate to form the crust.

5.  Beat the cream cheese until it is light and smooth.

6.  Add vanilla to cream cheese and mix well.

7.  Add powdered sugar to cream cheese mixture and mix well.

8.  Fold the cool whip into the cream cheese mixture.

9.  Gently fold 1 cup of cookie chunks into the cream cheese mixture.

10.  Put the cream cheese mixture on top of the cookie pie crust.  Garnish with remaining cookie chunks.

11.  Refrigerate until firm.

That looks like a lot of steps, but, really, it's not that bad.  It's mostly that I added one ingredient at a time.  It took me about 10 minutes to make this pie.

I'm not a very good pie cutter, but here is what one of my "slices" looked like:

Enjoy!

Christmas Goodies

So, I have the plague. No, I haven't been to the doctor or anything. But trust me, I know. It's the plague. You know whats not cool? Having the plague. I highly recommend against it. Today at work I challenged nearly every male I saw to a contest to see who had a lower voice. Nobody accepted the challenge. Clearly, it was because they knew I'd win. 


 I'm supposed to be teaching my Adult English as a Second Language class tonight. Instead I'm at home. Not spreading the plague. I don't have any TVs set up at my new house yet. None of my friends want to come entertain me, seeing as how I have the plague and all. L-train is out manning the cookie train, delivering some of the super cute cookie trays my mom and I made this weekend since I can't. Because I have the plague. So, here I am alone. With the plague. And my newly discovered Adult ADD. 


Anyway, back to the cookie trays. Check em out: 

 Super cute, right? I told you.  My mom was all sorts of concerned that you'd judge her because she still has her Thanksgiving tablecloth on the table.  So, no judging, okay?


I used mostly recipes from my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies posts. Plus I tried some pretty awesome fudge and truffle recipes and all of them came out delicious! I'll share them with y'all sometime. Maybe after the plague passes. Or maybe I'll save them for next Christmas season. Who knows. 


 So, I'm off to my very own 48 Hours Mystery marathon.  Because nothing says 'tis the season like a real life murder mystery marathon.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

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I saw a recipe for a Snickedoodle Sheet Cake at Sweet Treats and More a while ago.  I mentally book marked it, wanting to try it, but having no reason for making a sheet cake.  Then, Thanksgiving rolled around and I needed a dessert recipe.  I was tired of the same ole recipes I always make, but also feeling uninspired.  I remembered the Snickerdoodle Sheet Cake and decided to try making the recipe into cupcakes.  Because: 1. They sounded good and 2.  Seriously, who wants to tote a sheet cake around on Thanksgiving?  Not me.  That's who.

So, I did it.  And these were waaaay better than I expected!  Many people ask for the recipe.  They're not over the top sweet.  They're nice and cinnamony like a real snickerdoodle cookie.  And, the icing is absolutely to.die.for!  It's buttery and smooth and just melts in your mouth. 

These do make a lot of cupcakes.  I think I got around 36 out of my batch.  And, the cupcakes do dry out in a few days.  Mine were no good 4 or 5 days later.  So, make sure you've got lots of friends to give these to if you're gonna make them.  Or be prepared for the new Snickerdoodle Cupcake Diet.  It's all the rage.

Source: Sweet Treats and More

Here's what you need for the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 cups Cake Flour
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Cinnamon
2 sticks Butter, softened
1 3/4 cups Sugar
4 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/4 cups Milk

Here's what you do to make the cupcakes:
1.  Heat oven to 325.
2.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
3.  Stir together both flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and set aside.
4.  Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
5.  Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla.
6.  Alternating, add dry mixture, then milk in three batches.
7.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cupcakes are golden colored and spring back when touched.  Do not over bake them.  Cause nobody likes a dry cupcake.
8.  Upon removing the cupcakes from the oven, immediately transfer them to a cooling rack to begin cooling.  Your cupcakes need to be completely cooled before you ice them.
9.  While your cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting as directed below.

Here's what you need for the icing:
1 1/2 sticks Butter, softened
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
3 cups Powdered Sugar
3 tbsp Milk

Here's what you do to make the icing:
1.  Mix butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. 
2. Alternating, add powdered sugar and milk.
3.  Frost cupcakes.  I used an icing bag with a large tip to swirl icing on top of each cupcake.  You could easily frost with a butter knife or icing spatula.

Enjoy!

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12 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 12 -- Sweedish Cream Cookies

I generally stray away from recipes that require rolling pins or cutting butter into flour.  Why?  I don't know.  I guess I'm kinda lazy.  So, these cookies crossed my radar several times while I was working through the 12 days of Christmas Cookies and I kept pushing them aside.  Finally, I gave in and decided to give them a try.  And, OH. MY. GAWD. am I glad I did.  These things are ahmazing!  From now on, I'm pushing my lazy ways aside and trying new stuff.  Because this is what happens when I try new stuff.  And, really, it wasn't that hard. 


The cookies in this recipe are like a little tiny pie crust.  Soft and buttery.  They just melt in your mouth.  The icing in the middle is the perfect amount of sweetness.  And the texture is silky smooth.  Ahhhh.  And, the fun part is you can color the icing however you'd like and stamp any pattern on top that you'd like.  The possibilities are endless!  Pink and blue with a baby stamp on top for baby showers.  Wedding colors with initials stamped on top for bridal showers.  Pastels for Easter.  Orange and black for Halloween.  Red, white and blue for the 4th of July.  I hope the people who know me in real life like these cookies, cause they're about to have them a lot.  At every possible occasion.  Until I find another recipe to fall in love with . . . 


Also, I accidentally bought Half & Half instead of Cream.  In case my rant above wasn't clear, the cookies still came out tasting great.  But, maybe I should name them Sweedish Half & Half Cookies?


Adapted from: The Food Pusher


Here's what you need for the cookies:
1 cup Unsalted Butter, cold
2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 cup Half & Half


Here's what you do for the cookies:
1.  Cut the butter into the flour until you have coarse crumbs. 


2.  Stir in half and half until a dough forms.  Form dough into ball and refrigerate for at least one hour. 


3.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 


4.  Dust a flat surface with flour.  Roll the dough out until it's about 1/8 inch thick.  Cut with a small circle cutter (I used a juice glass). 


5.  Either prick the cookies with a fork or use a cookie cutter to stamp a design on the top of each cookie.  Do NOT cut all the way through the cookie. 


6.  Bake for about 9 minutes.  Remove from the oven when the edges begin turning golden brown.  


7.  Let cookies cool before frosting. 

Here's what you need for the frosting:

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp Half & Half

1/2 tsp Vanilla

Food Coloring 

Here's what you do for the frosting: 

1.  Beat butter until fluffy. 

2.  Add powdered sugar to butter and beat until creamy. 

3.  Beat in vanilla and half and half. 

4.  Add more powdered sugar or cream until your frosting is the desired consistency. 

5.  Color frosting as desired. 

Here's what you do to assemble:

1.  Invert one cookie and frost the bottom of it.  You can spread frosting on, but it's probably easier to pipe it on.  If you don't have icing bags, put your frosting in a baggie and cut the corner of the baggie off. 

2.  Place another cookie on top. 

Enjoy!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies -- Day 11: M&M Cookies

Remember when I said these Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies were too sophisticated for me?  Well, they were.  But, these cookies aren't.  These cookies are right up my alley.


When I was little I was fat.  F.A.T.  I have a hard time convincing people that it's true because I'm little now.  But, trust me I was fat.  And not cute little kid pudgy.  I was F.A.T.  I was like a miniature ginger sumo wrestler.  The miniature part related only to height.  If you don't believe me, you can ask my Aunt Jean.  Aunt Jean only says nice things about everyone.  She doesn't have a mean bone in her body.  And, she says I was fat. 


Anyhow, I'm pretty sure that fat kid lives on in this adult body. Which is why I get overly excited about things like sprinkles and frosting and M&Ms.  And, that, folks, is why M&M cookies HAD to make the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies.  I have an M&M Cookie recipe, but I wanted to try a new one, just to see what else was out there.  So, I found this one and decided to give it a whirl. 


You all should know that I have finally moved into my new house. FIN-A-LLY.  Seriously, I was starting to think it would never happen.  Now, don't get me wrong.  It's not done.  At all.  But, one day I decided I was tired of paying a mortgage for a house I didn't live in.  So, I spent the next week pulling nearly all-nighters in order to get my bedroom done.  And in I moved.  


I'm currently surrounded by tons of boxes, some left over construction tools and materials, and one super stocked, super cute kitchen!  And, these cookies are the first product of my brand new refrigerator and brand new stove in my brand new kitchen.  Now, everybody "ooooh" and "aaah" and then go try these cookies.  Because they're good. 


Slightly Adapted from: Kokocooks


Here's what you need:
1 cup Butter, softened
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 Egg
2 tsp Vanilla
2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/8 tsp Salt
2 cups M&Ms

Here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. 

3.  Beat in the egg and the vanilla.

4.  In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. 

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. 

6.  Stir in the M&Ms.

7.  Drop cookies by about one tablespoon full onto cookie sheets. 

8.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven when they are golden brown. 

Enjoy!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies -- Day 10: Red Hot Pinwheel Cookies

These are fun to eat and to look at.  Those are my favorite kind of cookie.  I was surprised by the flavor of the cookies when they came out of the oven.  Red Hots have a pretty powerful flavor, so I expected the cookies to  taste predominantly like a Red Hot.  The cookie dough tasted predominantly like a Red Hot before it went into the oven, but by the time it came out of the oven, the flavor was much more well balanced.  They ended up just having a pleasant cinnamon flavor.  


I've always strayed away from pinwheel cookies because they intimidated me.  I thought they'd require to much effort to get a pretty pinwheel.  I was surprised at how simple this was.  If you're feeling really festive, you could color the white part of the dough green for a very Christmasy cookie.  Clearly, I wasn't feeling so festive the day I made these.  Or, I was still out of green food coloring . . .  Anyway, these cookies take a lot more work than a lot of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies I've already posted, but they're worth it. 


Source:  Good Housekeeping


Here's what you need:
2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Cinnamon Red Hot Candies
3/4 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Red Food Coloring


Here's what you do:
1.  Combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

2.  In a food processor, grand candies until finely ground.  Set aside. 


3.  Beat butter and sugar until creamy. 


4.  Add egg and vanilla to butter/sugar mixture. 


5.  Gradually add flour mixture until blended. 


6.  Divide the dough in half, keeping half in this bowl and putting the other half in another bowl. 


7.  In one bowl, added red hots and food coloring to color to desired shade of red.  Mix well. 


8.  Cut 4 pieces of waxed paper to the sme size (ideally about 17 inches by 12 inches). 


9.  Place one sheet of waxed paper on the counter.  Place the cinnamon cookie dough on that piece of paper.  Place another sheet of waxed paper on top of the dough.  Using your hands, roll the dough out to approximately 15 inch by 10 inch rectangle.  Repeat with the white dough and remaining waxed paper. 


10.  Refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

11. Remove dough from refrigerator and remove the top sheet of waxed paper from each dough.  Place white dough on counter with the long edge facing you.  Invert the red dough and place it on top of the white dough.  Starting on the long side facing you, roll the dough tightly together in a jelly-roll style. 


12.  When dough is fully rolled, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least one hour (I kept mine in the freezer overnight). 


13.  Preheat oven to 325. 


14.  Remove log from freezer and slice into cookies. 


15.  Place cookies onto cookie sheet and bake for about 13 minutes. 


Enjoy!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies -- Day 9: Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

Today I got to see President Obama speak.  It was an incredible experience!  I'm not necessarily an Obama fan.  I'm currently quite indifferent regarding the President's actions while in office.  I'm not a democrat.  Or a republican.  I'm independent.  But, how many opportunities do you have to see the President of the United States of America speak?  Me, not so many.  So I jumped on this one.


He spoke in a high school gym about an hour or so away.  We drove down on Sunday and stood in line for about an hour to get tickets.  It was cold.  We were one of the last ones to get tickets.  Then today, we got there about 3 and half hours before he spoke.  We stood in line waiting to get in for about 3 hours.  Cold doesn't even begin to describe the weather today.  It was frigid.  I think the high today was 29 degrees and we were standing outside in the morning, so surely it was colder than that.  I have never shivered so much in my entire life!  But, in the end, it was soooooo worth it.  We got floor seats about 10 rows back from the President.  I imagine I'll never have another opportunity to have a similar experience in my life.  I'm grateful that I have had this experience.  We took a bunch of pictures . . . maybe I'll get them posted on here one day. 


So, what does this have to do with Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies you ask?  Nothing.  It also has nothing to do with 12 Days of Christmas Cookies.  It was just too awesome to not share. :-)


On to the cookies.  These cookies strike me as very adult, sophisticated cookies.  I eat like a child, so these didn't really strike my fancy.  It's not that they were bad. . . they were very good.  Just not my favorite.  If I had to choose between one of these and a Grinch Cookie, I'd pick the Grinch Cookie every last time.  I bet President Obama likes very adult, sophisticated cookies.  He'd probably like these. 


I will say, however, that these were the most moist cookies I think I've ever made.  They're probably the most moist cookies I've ever eaten as well.


Adapted from: The Kitchn


Here's what you need:

• 1 cup Flour
  1/2 teaspoon Salt
  1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
  1 cup (one 8-ounce package) Cream Cheese, softened
  1/2 cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, softened
  1 cup Sugar
  2 teaspoons finely grated Lemon Zest
  1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
  1 large Egg

  
Here's what you do:

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.  In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

3.  In another bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. 

4.  Gradually add sugar to the cream cheese mixture and mix until light and fluffy. 

5. Add zest, vanilla, and egg. Beat to combine. 

6. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. 

7.  If batter seems loose or warm, chill in the refrigerator until firm.

8.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet. 

9.  Bake for about 12 minutes. 

10.  Remove to wire cooling rack upon removing cookies from oven. 

Enjoy!