Spooooky Bloody Ghost Cookies

BOO!

Oh man...scary, right? You know what's not scary about these cookies? The taste. Just the perfect little recipe for cookie cutter sugar cookies. I hate sugar cookie recipes that have so much butter in them that they never keep their shapes. You basically end up with big flat no-shape cookies. Not fun. These taste rich and buttery and are easy to make! The strawberry blood filling makes it fun for Halloween, but they would be great on their own.

Bloody Ghost Cookies Recipe:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 5-6 very ripe strawberries, sliced (if not ripe, you might need to add a bit of sugar)
• 2 tbsp water

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and combine. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to wet mixture until combined - don't overwork too much or the dough will get tough. Wrap in plastic and keep in fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, heat sliced strawberries and water in a small saucepan over medium low heat until the strawberries have broken down and the mixture is thick and bubbly - like jam or jelly. Remove and keep in fridge. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly flour a surface and your rolling pin, roll out dough and cut out desired shapes (spooky ghosts!) Place on greased baking sheet. Add a small dollop of strawberry filling onto a ghost and top with another cookie. Using a fork or knife, prick all around the edges to seal the ghosts shut. Bake in oven for about 8 minutes or until the sides begin to get golden. Enjoy!

Cookies & Cream Cake

Do you like cake? Do you like Oreo cookies?

Of course you do. And even if you don't, you will love them combined in this easy cake. Especially if you bake it in a cute giant cupcake pan like I did. 

I made this cake for a friend's birthday and will definitely keep the recipe in the back of my mind (or on my blog!) I was originally going to try and make an "Oreo" cake and use Devil's food cake + cream cheese frosting and Oreo bits. I then realized that I, like many others, don't reeeeally love chocolate cake that much. I don't know why; I LOVE chocolate, but sometimes I think it is better accentuated when paired with a different flavor. So anyway, I decided to go with a "Cookies & Cream" cake and use white cake + cream cheese frosting and Oreo bits. I definitely think it highlights the cookie flavor and makes it more creamy. 

I will probably still try the other version some day, when I'm really craving chocolate cake. 

Cookies & Cream Cake Recipe:

• 1 pkg white cake mix (or your own recipe)
• 3 large egg whites (this gives the cake a fluffier texture)
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/2 cup crushed Oreo cookies

• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tub whipped dessert topping
• 1 cup crushed Oreo cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Grease a giant cupcake pan (or whatever baking apparatus). Combine the first set of ingredients minus the cookies in a large bowl. Blend until smooth. Then carefully fold in the cookies. Pour evenly into the pan and bake for 30 minutes (adjust baking time depending on pan). When finished, let cake cool for about 10 minutes in pan, then carefully run a knife around the edges and remove. Let cool completely on a clean, dry surface.

To create the frosting, first bring the cream cheese and whipped topping to room temp. When ready, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until light and smooth. Gently fold in the whipped topping.

I won't go into frosting detail for the giant cupcake cake, but it required some intense trimming and assembling. Basically, once your cake is cool, frost and add the crushed cookies on top. 

Congratulations, you've just made the best.cake.ever.

I love the cat present in the background :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Peanut M&Ms

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

Are you hung over from rich food, chocolate and wine like me? Good. It's nice to indulge once in awhile.

Instead of getting my significant other a heart-shaped box of chocolates and a teddy bear, I decided to go with things I know he'd like much better: cookies and beer. There's no better way to a guy's heart than with a 6-pack and homemade chocolate chip cookies. Well maybe a 6-pack and ribs or bacon. But you gotta have something a little sweet on this Hallmark holiday. I, on the other hand, love all the traditional flowers, candy and crap.

Now onto these cookies...

Oh, these glorious cookies...

I much prefer a soft, thick chocolate chip cookie than the flat, crisp ones. If you're like me, then this recipe is perfect. The ratio of baking powder to soda is what gives the cookies a fluffier, chunkier texture. I added the peanut M&Ms to make it more Valentines-y, but this is definitely my go-to choco chip cookie recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookie w/ Peanut M&Ms Recipe:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flower
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter, room temp
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large, cold egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips in these cookies and definitely didn't measure)
• 1 cup peanut M&Ms
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease two baking sheets.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In another large bowl, beat the sugar, butter and vanilla until nice and light, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, add the egg and beat until well incorporated. Add half of the dry ingredients, beat/stir and then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Finally, dump in your chocolate chips (and peanut M&Ms!) and combine.

Size is up to you, but I made about tablespoon (tbsp and 1/2) sized dough balls. The peanut M&Ms do not incorporate well because they're so big, so you'll probably just have to stick about two randomly in each cookie dough ball. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly golden on the top.

Now that's true love ;)

Red Velvet Cookies

Would you believe me if I said I did NOT make these because it's almost Valentine's Day?

You should, even though I thought it was a neat coincidence.

I made these for the soft launch of a new food truck, Yume Burger, that my co-worker hosted. Since the event was that evening, I needed a recipe in which I already had most of the ingredients on hand. I first settled on a chocolate thumbprint with cream cheese center, but since I had whipped cream cheese instead of the solid block, I consulted the Interwebs to see if I could still use my standard cream cheese icing recipe. Upon typing "cream cheese" in the Google search bar, red velvet recipes popped up everywhere. Thus I got the idea to make my chocolate cookies red! I skipped the thumbprint idea after seeing how beautiful and cracked they came out and decided just to add a dollop of icing and some red sprinkles.















And whatever, they are cute and perfect for Valentine's Day.
















Red Velvet Cookies w/ Cream Cheese Icing Recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 extra large egg (if you only have a large egg, the dough might be too crumbly so add 1 tbsp of milk)
• 1 tbsp red food coloring
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp distilled white vinegar

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 8 oz whipped cream cheese
• 4 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk
• Mix all together until smooth. Add more or less of any ingredient depending on your taste/consistency preference (I wanted something a little more like icing than frosting, so I added milk).
  

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. In large bowl, combine oil and sugars. Beat until well combined. Add egg and mix until incorporated. Add in food coloring, vanilla and vinegar and combine. Finally, gently beat in the dry ingredients until all incorporated well. Roll tsp size balls in the palm of your hand and place on a greased baking sheet. These spread a little, so make sure they have room on the pan. I baked mine for about 12 minutes and I think they came out a little too hard. I would shoot for 8-10 minutes. Let cool completely and then top with icing and sprinkles!

Recipe makes about 2 1/2 dozen.