Sweet Treats
Guess what is my favorite part about Valentine's Day? Freedom to eat candy, chocolate, and baked goods all day with no shame. Thank you Hallmark for this
Conversation Heart Cookies
Ingredients:
Sugar Cookies
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 + 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 + 1/2 cups sifted flour
Royal Icing
- 2 large egg whites
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, sifted
Recipe:
1. Cream the butter. Add powdered sugar. Mix in the egg, almond and vanilla extracts, salt, and flour:
2. Chill the dough until firm (this is important because it's nearly impossible to make clean cuts in dough with a cookie cutter if the dough isn't chilled):
3. Meanwhile, flour the surface you will be rolling the dough on. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness:
As a twentysomething without a proper rolling pin, I made do with a leftover bottle of Veuve Clicquot from last weekend...
4. Cut with cookie cutters. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes. The cookies should not brown:
5. For the icing, mix egg whites, lemon juice, and powdered sugar in an electric mixer until smooth and well mixed (roughly 5 minutes):
6. Add your food coloring (gel food coloring is the best as it doesn't change the taste or consistency of the royal icing):
7. Frost and decorate your cookies!
Warning! Piping the icing out of a Ziploc bag to write words on the cookies is difficult. I made do, but you will get better results using a pastry bag for piping frosting. Click here for a tutorial on how to decorate with royal icing.
Call me, maybe? ...and repping some Gangnam Style with a "Hey Sexy Lady" cookie.
Next up...
Confetti Cake Bites
Ingredients:
The Cake Center
- 1 box white cake mix
- 4 egg whites
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1 cup buttermilk (I used almond milk because I had it on hand)
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- Sprinkles
Chocolate Shell
- 4 ounce Ghirardelli white chocolate bar, chopped
- 4 ounce Ghirardelli dark chocolate bar, chopped (I started out using Smucker's magic shell chocolate sauce, but the real chocolate worked much better)
- Sprinkles
Recipe:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a large pan. Sift cake mix into a bowl and set aside:
2. In another large bowl, whisk egg whites, oil, buttermilk, sour cream, and vanilla extract together. Add cake mix and mix until smooth:
3. Pour batter into greased pan and bake until inserted knife comes out clean (about 20 minutes). Let the cake cool COMPLETELY then crumble the cake into a bowl:
Baking a perfect cake then crumbling it up and ruining it was SO MUCH FUN!
4. In a mixer, beat butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar until smooth. Add the cake crumbles to this frosting and mix at low speed until it is all mixed together:
5. Add some sprinkles into the cake/frosting mix:
6. Use a mini scoop or tablespoon to create your cake bites. Each bite should be about 1 tablespoon in size. Then, place the balls in the freezer for 15 minutes:
7. Roll the cake balls in your hands to smooth out the edges and place in the freezer for 15 more minutes while you prep the chocolate:
8. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate, place on a sheet of aluminum foil, and immediately top with sprinkles:
9. Repeat with dark chocolate and voila!
Enjoy your wonderful, amazing, delicious, adorable Valentine's Day treats!
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