Cakes and Cookies

Good Morning everyone :)

It was a crazy couple of days. I've been trying new recipes as well as re-baking cakes because flavors didn't come out well. So there were a lot of "oh crap!" moments but everything worked out.

The first cake I made was for a friend's dinner. I took the recipe from Pioneer Woman's cookbook called The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. Let me tell you it IS the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted. I changed sheet cake to 8" cake with buttercream frosting. I felt insanely guilty for changing the recipe but I had to work with what I had and that was not a sheet cake pan.

I'm sorry Pioneer Woman, don't hate me.






The filling/frosting is to dieeeeeeeeee for. I wanted to eat it right out of the pot... but remembered there's almost 2 sticks of butter so I only had 1 T. haha

Next I made nutella cookies which I renamed to The Jeny Cookies. My cousin, whom the recipe is named after, is obsessed with these cookies. Try my recipe and you'll see why :) Anyways I took the original recipe from My Italian Grandmother and tweeked it a bit. With a lot of cookie recipes I try to give Zoe a break. Zoe if you didn't know already is my little handy dandy stand mixer. She's been working hard this year so with most cookie recipes I usually do the mixing old school with a trusty wooden spoon, I call him Alex, it's a strong name hehe he makes an appearance in the pictures! But I make sure the butter is room temperature because my biceps aren't as strong as Zoe's ;)

Nutella Chip Cookies

by Giada De Laurentiis
see original recipe here

Yields: 36 cookies (I only got 24)

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 1.5 cups Nutella
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup hazelnuts (or semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another medium bowl combine the butter, Nutella, sugar and brown sugar. Using an electric mixerUsing your strong muscles, cream the ingredients together, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, Stir in the flour mixture until just combine. Add Hazelnuts (or chocolate chips) and stir until combine.

Using a tablespoon measure, spoon out the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet, spacting the mounds about 4 inches apart. Use the tines of a fork to flatten the cookie dough. <== I didn't need to do this because they came out flat anyway. Bake until lightly golden around the edges, about 10-12 minutes. Use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. I promise this recipe will rock your world like it did mine ;)





Lastly, I've been experimenting with fondant, as you've seen in the last post. I also made a chocolate cake for my dear cousin. There aren't step by step pictures because frankly it was 2am and I was about to pull my hair out. haha But the cake was made with love. That's what matters.




There a ton of things I would have done differently but I was pretty pleased with the end result.

And that was my baking weekend, sorta in a nutshell :) This next week's challenge, the wedding cupcakes/cakes for birthdays on christmas and lotsa christmas cookie requests. Can't wait to start!

Until next time...
Noey