Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

By: Cathy Lowe, Food Network 

One day I had wanted to make double chocolate chip cookies and I searched everywhere for a recipe. I finally found this recipe off of food network and they were a hit. They are chewy, soft and they never go hard. 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 Cups Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 2 Sticks Butter, Softened
• 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs, Beaten
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
• 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa
• 2 Cups Chocolate Chips, 2 Hershey's Chocolate Bars, Chopped Or M&M'S
• 1 Cup Chopped Walnuts (Optional)

Directions:  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. In a bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to distribute evenly. 
3. For cookies: Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.
4. For bars: Pat dough into a greased 9 inch square baking pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into squares when cooled. 

*I made my cookies with chocolate chips and walnuts and they were delicious!

Chocolate Crinkles

By: Better Homes And Gardens Cookbook

These cookies are a hit to all friends and family. I got all my friends hooked on them when I make it for them every Christmas. They are crunchy on the outside and nice and chewy in the inside.

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs
• 1 3/4 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 4 Ounces Unsweetened Chocolate, Melted And Cooled Slightly*
• 1/2 Cup Cooking Oil
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla
• 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2/3 Cup Powdered Sugar

*I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate so I just used dutch cocoa powder and a little vegetable oil. For 4 ounces of chocolate, you use 12 Tablespoons of dutch cocoa powder or 3/4 cup. Plus 4 Tablespoons of vegetable oil, unsalted butter or shortening. Just place both ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined.

Website:http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html

Directions: 

1.  In a large bowl, combine eggs, granulated sugar, melted chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Gradually beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours or until dough is easy to handle.
2.  Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet; set aside. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl. Shape one portion of dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar to coat generously. Place balls 1-inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.  
3.  Bake cookies in the preheated oven about 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry. Do not over bake cookies. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool. (Cookies will deflate slightly upon cooling.) Makes about 36 cookies.
   

Three Tier Wedding Cake

My cousin was getting married and she asked her sister and I to make her wedding cake. We said yes instantly but it wasn't so easy. We had a couple of trials with dying fondant, no fondant, flowers, colors, frosting and decoration. When it was all over, the cake turned out great. Here's how we did it.

Ingredients:

• 2 Ready-To-Use White Rolled Fondant 24 oz. Pkg.
• Performance Pans Round Pan Set Of 3 (6in x 3in, 10in x 3in, 14in x 3in)
• Cake Leveler
• 6in, 10in, 14in Cardboard Circles
• Easy-Glide Fondant Smoother
• Any Kind Of Ribbon And Color
• Etc (Rolling Pin, Paring Knife, Powdered Sugar)

Directions: 

1. Choose any kind of cake mix and pour it into the three cake pans, bake and cool completely. Take the cake leveler and level off the tops of all the cakes for a crisp, flat top. Frost with butter cream frosting until thin and smooth. Butter cream keeps the fondant soft, it helps the fondant stay on and it goes with any kind of cake flavor.
2. While the cake is cooling, sprinkle some powdered sugar onto a board and roll out the fondant until it reaches a 1/4 thickness. Make sure that the fondant is bigger than the size of the cake pan so it can cover the sides and the top. Do this for all of the tiers.
3. Take one piece of fondant at a time and carefully place it over the cake. Using the Easy-Glide Fondant Smoother to smooth out any lumps or air bubbles that are under the fondant. One section at a time, pull down the fondant along the sides and smooth it out, leaving any access fondant on the bottom. Take a paring knife and cut along the bottom of the cake, removing the fondant. Leaving a nice and clean edge on the cake. Repeat for all tiers.
4. Now, place the 14in cardboard circle onto a plate or a board (whatever you choose to serve it on). Carefully pick up the 14in x 3in cake with a flat edged spatula, or just a regular spatula and place it evenly onto the cardboard. Take the 10in circle and place that right in the middle of the 14in cake. Again, slowly place the 10in cake on top and repeat with the 6in cake.
5. All you have to do to finish it up is measure out some ribbon along the bottom of each cake layer and cut where it meets. Take some frosting or pins and attach the ribbon together. We found a long piece of black ribbon that was wrapped around a box on a gift. It had a bow right in the middle and it was long on the sides, perfect for the cake. Again, we placed the bow in the middle on the top tier and brought it down the sides, attaching it with frosting or pins. Now you have an elegant and clean wedding cake.

Classic Spritz Cookies With Royal Icing

By: Wilton Cookie Max Cookie Press

These cookies are as cute as can be! I made these for my friends as a Christmas gift and they all loved it. I served them in these little metal cans with snap on lids that had all different Christmas pictures on it. I had actually gotten them for under a dollar at the Christmas tree shop and they worked great!

 Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups Butter
• 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 2 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/2 Teaspoon Almond Extract
• 3 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

Royal Icing:

• 3 Cups Confectioners' Sugar
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cream Of Tartar
• 2 Egg Whites, Beaten

I got the royal icing recipe from http://allrecipes.com/. It is a great website that my whole family uses all the time. We get most of our recipes from there and we change them to make them our own.  

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=2104-4003 
*Here is the cookie press that I used to make these cookies. It works great and its easy to use.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. 
2. Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extract; beat well. Stir together flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough. Do not chill.
3. Place dough into Cookie Max and press cookies onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Remove cookies from sheet; cool on rack. Makes 7-8 dozen cookies.

Royal Icing Directions:

1. In a bowl, sift together confectioners' sugar and cream of tartar. Using electric mixer, beat in 2 beaten egg whites for about 5 minutes or until mixture is thick enough to hold its shape. 
2. I separated the frosting into 8 plastic cups with spoons. Once each cup had an equal amount of frosting, you can then choose your 8 colors. As you can see I used 8 colors, green, blue, pink, brown, purple, red, yellow and orange. http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30C97E-475A-BAC0-5A609FE5C5506685&fid=77280EB2-475A-BAC0-5E9420B5D0EEE74A
3. I cut a small little corner off in each of the bags so not a lot of frosting comes out too quickly. Then sit down with a nice cup of coffee, tea or an energy drink because you will be sitting there for a while. For all of mine, I detailed it a lot so it took me longer. Just make sure that you have the patience to frost, if not you can ask your friends or kids to help you decorate. 

*If you have any frosting left over, like I did, I just wrapped them up and placed them into a bowl and stuck them into the fridge. Just be aware that the frosting does harden after a while, I found that out when I made another batch and there were little chunks or hardened frosting coming out of the bag. Just keep frosting and designing, they will still come out great.

Oreo Shaped Chocolate Cake With Vanilla Butter Cream Filling


Once people see this giant Oreo cake, their eyes widen. They think that you spent a lot of time working on it but actually it is just a mold. As simple as that.

Ingredients:

• 1 Box Devils Food Cake (With Box Ingredients)
• 1 Container Of Prepared Vanilla Frosting Or Vanilla Butter Cream

http://www.delish.com/recipes/cooking-recipes/martha-stewart-basic-buttercream-recipe
*Here is the recipe that I used for the inside of the cake and to pipe on the designs on the top. I actually cut the recipe in half because there was double of what I needed.


Directions:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-lot-SILICONE-BIG-Oreo-Sandwich-layer-cookie-Round-Cake-mold-Pan-Baking-set-/110831088706 
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/goldtouch-nonstick-sandwich-cookie-cake-pan-and-mix-set/  
*These are some sites that sell the Oreo cake mold pans if you don't have any.

1. Place the cake molds onto two cookie trays. I moved the oven racks so they were in the middle. I used Pam spray butter to grease my pans. You can use anything, just make sure that it fills in all the nooks and crannies.
2. Mix the cake mix, eggs, oil and milk (My mom uses milk instead of water in all of her recipes. It makes the cake moist and creamy.) Pour the cake mix into the two molds and bake them. Wait until they are cool enough to handle and carefully pop them out from the mold.
3. Once the cake is out, place it onto a plate or stand and fill the center of the cake with the frosting. Save about 1/3 of the frosting for decorating. Take about a 1/4 cup of the frosting and put it into a freezer bag and snip the corner of the bag. Set aside.
4. I used a brown dye for the "chocolate" color. Put a couple of drops to start off with and continue until you get the brown color of your liking. Again, fill it up into a bag but use a big star tip to decorate the outside with. Now follow the design and pipe from top to down on both pieces of cake.
5. For the last step, grab the white frosting and pipe over the design so it really shows on the cake. Now, you have made a giant Oreo cake!

Black And White Heart Cookies

By: Old-Fashioned Bake Sale Book

These heart shaped cookies are basically sugar cookies with a little cream cheese in the dough. They are soft and a little chewy. In the book you are supposed to dip them half way in chocolate but it didn't look like enough to me so I decided to drizzle the melted chocolate over it. Get creative with your baking and cooking design. You can never mess anything up, you just come up with something else. And heck, it might even been better than you imagined.

Ingredients:

•  3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Butter, Softened
• 1 Package (3 Ounces) Cream Cheese, Softened
• 1 Egg
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla
• 3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
• 2 Tablespoons Shortening (I Just Used Butter)

Directions: 

1. Combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. Bea at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl often, until light and fluffy. Add flour; beat until well mixed. Divide dough in half;wrap each half in waxed paper. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.
2. Preheat oven to 375F. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut out with lightly floured 2 inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Remove immediately to wire racks to cool completely.
3. Melt chocolate chips and shortening in small saucepan over low hat 4 to 6 minutes or until melted. Dip half of each heart into melted chocolate. Refrigerate on cookie sheets or trays lined with waxed paper until chocolate is firm. Store, covered, in refrigerator.

*When the chocolate is melted, let it cool down for a minute or two and then take a freezer bag or a piping bag, I used a sandwich zip lock bag, put your finger into one of the corners of the bag and stick it into a bowl or a big cup. If you cuff the top of the bag around the bowl or cup, when you pour the chocolate into the bag, it will not fold over or get in the way. Once the bag is ready, let it cool down a little more so you can hold it with out it burning your hands. Cut a small tip off of the bag and drizzle any pattern onto the cookie. Simple.
 
Makes about 3 1/2 dozen

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

By: Butter Sugar Flour Eggs Cookbook, Written By Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto, Julia Moskin

The Brooklyn Blackout Cake is heavenly. It is a three tier, full of chocolate cake. The cake is thick and chocolaty and it is paired with a rich chocolate custard. Covered with the cake crumbs its self. If you are a chocolate lover, this cake is for you! I actually posted this cake on Facebook, like all of my other baked goods, and my friends from my old work had wanted a piece. I brought a big chunk of this cake to them and one of my friends gave me that look like they thought I was crazy. I thought that it was so funny, but by the time that I left, everyone had eaten that cake until there was one bite left, haha!

Ingredients:

• 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) Butter, Softened At Room Temperature
• 1/4 Cup Vegetable Shortening (I Didn't Have Any Shortening, So I Used Butter)
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 1/4 Cups Cake Flour*
• 1 cup Whole, 2 Percent Fat, Or 1 Percent Fat Milk

Custard:

• 3 Cups Water
• 2 1/2 Cups Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Corn Syrup
  
• 1 1/2 Cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• Scant 2/3 Cup Cornstarch
• 6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) Unsalted Butter, Cut Into Pieces
• 1/2 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

* If you don't have cake flour, like me. I use this really handy website for substitutions: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html. For every 1 cup of cake flour it is equivalent to 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. For this recipe, you use 1 1/2 cups plus 2 1/2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour mixed with a little over 4 tablespoons of cornstarch.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans. Cut 2 circles of parchment paper or waxed paper to fit the bottoms of the pans, then press them in. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream the butter and shortening together. Add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy. One by one, add the eggs, mixing after each addition. With the mixer running at low speed, add the vanilla, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix. With the mixer still running at low speed, add about 1/3 of the cake flour, then about 1/3 of the milk, and mix. Repeat with the remaining cake flour and milk and mix. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until dry and springy to the touch and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay), 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks and let cool completely, to room temperature. Using a long serrated knife, cut the cake layers in half horizontally. Reserving 3 halves for the cake, put the remaining half in a food processor, breaking it up with your hands. Pulse into fine crumbs.

Custard Directions:

1. Pour 2 1/2 cups of the water, the sugar, corn syrup and cocoa powder into a large non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of water and the cornstarch. Whisk into the cocoa mixture in the saucepan and return the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking constantly, until very thick, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Pour into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until firm, about 45 minutes.
2. To finish the cake, place a cake layer on a cake plate or serving platter (reserving the most even layer for the top) and spread with cooled custard. Top with another layer of cake, then custard, then the final layer of cake. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining custard. Coat the cake with the cake crumbs. Chill until ready to serve, at least 2 hours. Serve the same day.