Funfetti Cookies

These are probably the easiest cookies you will ever make. Funfetti cake and cupcakes are always a crowd pleaser, and these cookies just complete the funfetti trio.

With only three simple ingredients.

Just add the oil and eggs to the cake mix till a dough the dough is formed.

Then roll the dough into 1 inch balls. It's important that they are 1 inch, because if they are bigger they will burn, or not get cooked all the way through. Plus nice round dough balls equal nice round cookies!

Voila! Funfetti cookies, and who doesn't live some funfetti. They are good out of the oven, or you can let them cool and frost them.

Minnie wants one too!

Easy Funfetti Cookies

Courtesy of Lovin' From the Oven

Ingredients:
1 Box of Funfetti Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all the ingredients, roll them into 1 inch balls, and bake for 8 minutes. Ta-da!

German Chocolate Cake

Another reason for the family get-together last weekend, was to celebrate my Grandfather's birthday. I was put in charge of the cake. So i decided to jump on this opportunity and make something that I have never tried before. I personally don not like coconut, so you will have to ask these people (my family) how it was!

(No, I'm not 7 ft tall, all the other ladies my family are just petit...)

Bring a 1/2 cup of water to a boil to melt the German chocolate into. To insure even melting ( and keep in from burning) chop the chocolate up into pieces before you put it in the water. If you tend to have trouble melting chocolate without scalding it, using a double broiler when melting your chocolate. (Can someone please tell me why my stove looks like that in a picture!)

While the choclate is melting add the sugar to your mixing bowl.

and the butter and the eggs. About the eggs, when you separate out the yokes, SAVE THE WHITES! You will need then in a second. MIx all these ingredients together, and add the melted chocolate to it, mixing till completely combined.

Now take the egg whites you saved, and whip 'em, whip 'em good. Or till when you life up your whisk it leaves little peaks. I used and electric mixer with the wick attachment, but you can do it by hand, if your super strong, or have some time to kill. Once they are whisked, fold them into the batter.

Divide the batter evenly between three greased round cake pans.

While the cakes are cooking, get started on the icing. In a sauce pan add the sugar, butter, egg yolks, and canned cream, which is also condensed milk.

Let everything melt together. It should start to thicken.

Yes I know that this looks like cheese grits, and yes it did smell like cheese grits. But it tastes like sugary, buttery bliss!

Once the icing reaches a boil for a few minutes, remove it from the heat, and it will really begin to thicken. This is a very runny icing, so don not expect it to get really thick. Add the coconut and pecans, let it cool before putting it on the cakes.

This is Minnie, she likes to bake too.

Once the cakes are cooled, stack the three layers together and add a dollop of the cooled icing on top.

I found it easiest to let the icing drip over the edge and use a spatula to put the icing where it needs to go, rather than trying to put it on the side of the cake.

And there you go! A beautiful cake. Put it on your cake stand and let all our friends ohhhh and ahhhh over it!

If you are feeling adventurous, these are some ideas I had about making this cake even better

- melt the chocolate in coconut water to intensify the coconut flavor

-decorating this cake with chocolate covered cherries would make this cake pop (much more so that then bland white coconut flakes i sprinkled on top of mine)

- If i made this again, I would make a batch and a half of the icing so that there would be enough to put some between the layers of the cake

German Chocolate Cake

From sdods92 at Tasty Kitchen

• 2 cups White Sugar
• 2 sticks Butter
• 4 whole Eggs (separated)
• 1 package (4 Oz. Package) German Sweet Chocolate
• ½ cups Boiling Water
• 2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 cup Buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• _____
• FOR THE ICING:
• 1 cup White Sugar
• 1 cup Canned Cream
• 1 stick Butter
• 3 whole Egg Yolks
• 1 cup Flaked Coconut
• ½ cups Chopped Nuts (I Like Pecans)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Spray three 8 to 9-inch pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream sugar, butter, and egg yolks. Melt German chocolate in boiling water. Add to the creamed mixture. Sift flour and salt. Mix buttermilk and soda together. Add 1/2 flour mixture and 1/2 buttermilk mixture to the creamed mixture. Beat for two minutes. Add the rest of both flour and buttermilk mixtures. Beat for another 2 minutes. Add vanilla. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold these into the cake batter. Pour into the 3 prepared pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

ICING:

Heat sugar, cream, butter, and egg yolks in a saucepan. Heat until thick, stirring constantly. Add coconut, nuts, and vanilla.

When cakes cool, stack them on one another and ice all over. It is also nice to spread icing in between the cakes.

I love to eat this cake, but I also love to display this cake. I set it on a cake stand and let friends admire my work. But, it is not just pretty, it is delicious.

Cranberry Orange Yum

This past weekend I had a family get-together with my extended family. We were all extremely busy over the holiday season, and this was the first time we could all, well most of us, get together. And as many southern families when we get together we eat. Usually. whoever house the gathering is at prepares the main dish a few sides, and everyone else brings something to go with it. This year we went to my mother's cousin's, Mica, house. He husband, Perry, recently got a green egg ( i still don't think i really get it) so they had so very yummy brisket, pork tenderloin and chicken. My mom made her delicious Brunswick stew, and a texas sheet cake. I got assigned the task of making my Grandpa's birthday cake, as it was the prior weekend. Ao not wanting to pass up an opportunity be make something new I decided to make him a German Chocolate cake. But more to come on that later.

While looking for the recipe for that, I stumbled upon this recipes for biscotti. I'm kinda a sucker for anything cranberry, and I though that these would make a lovely hostess gift. So here goes!

Add the sugar, salt, UNSALTED butter, and some orange zest into your mixer's bowl. If you dont have an orange on hand or a zester, you can use orange juice instead.

Add the eggs one at a time and mix well

Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to the wet mixture and gently mix by hand until almost completely combined

Add in the pecans and dried cranberries. Make sure that your pecans, or nut of choice, are chopped well. This will be helpful when you are slicing the loaf into cookies. And for the cranberries i used craisnins, but you can really use any brand.

For the dough into a "log" about a foot long. Defiantly put it on a silicone baking mat, parchment, or at the very least use a lil

Pam!

This is basically what it should look like after its first baking. The directions say to let if cool for 15 min., however, I waited longer. I tried to slice it into cookies after just 15 min. and it just crumbled, so waiting more like 30 for it to fully cool will only make the end result better.



Once it is finally cool, move it to a cutting board (remember don't cut on your baking mat) and slice it into cookies. Then transfer them back to the baking sheet. I used a spatula to make this move easier.

To give these biscotti's a little extra umph... drizzle some white chocolate on them! Melt some white chocolate in a double broiler. A double broiler is just a top of boiling water with a pot sitting in with what you are melting. Very easy and extremely useful! And if you need to thin out the chocolate to make it easier to drizzle add vegetable oil 1/2 tsp. at a time till it reaches the desired constancy.

To make the drizzling of the chocolate easier, cleaner and neater, I like to use a funnel and pour the chocolate, or whatever you are pouring, into one of these bottles. I got this one at a baking supply store, but they sell bigger ones at Wal-Mart.


Drizzle as much of as little white chocolate as you want. Stick them in the fridge to set the chocolate, and there you have it, coffee shop quality biscotti, made by you!

Cranberry Orange Biscotti

from Noshings at Tasty Kitchen

1 stick Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
¾ cups Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Orange Zest
2 whole Eggs
2 cups Flour
1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ cups Pecans, Chopped
½ cups Dried Cranberries


In a KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment or any electric mixer, beat well:
1 stick unsalted butter (room temp.)
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
(a touch of lemon or orange zest is nice in here too)
Add 2 eggs, one at a time.
Mix in slowly by hand with a wooden spoon:
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
When mostly mixed add in:
1/2 c. pecans, chopped
1/2 c. dried cranberries (I like the Ocean Spray orange flavored ones)
I like to use a Silpat to bake on, but you can also spray a little Pam on a baking sheet and form the dough into a log about a foot long and 3 inches wide, flattening the top a little as you go. The log should be about 1 inch tall at most.
Bake at 350F for about 30-35 minutes until barely golden and firm.
Remove from the oven and let the log cool about 15 minutes. Cut into 1/2 inch slices with a serrated knife. Be careful, these can crumble easily.
Lay the slices back on the baking sheet and return to oven for 10 minutes, then turn the cookies over and bake for another 8 minutes.
Cool before packaging up or storing to retain the crunch. Great with tea or coffee!
Optional: Let the slices cool uncovered and drizzle a fine-quality white chocolate over one side and lay them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. (Melted chocolate can be poured into a Ziploc bag with one tiny corner snipped off as a make-shift pastry bag.)