Fudge Flop

I think fudge doesn't like me.  I made it once, heated it to fast, and it burned.  I made it again a couple days ago; same result.  I think it still tasted okay, cause I didn't burn it too bad, but my mom thought otherwise.  At least the photo's turned out cute.

Isn't that like the cutest photo ever? (I'm so proud of it)  It could be better, but its still pretty cute.  Anyway, I didn't have time to post last week because I went on our church's girls camp.  And afterwards my voice was super hoarse from screaming/yelling/singing-like-crazy/staying up until 3 am for 4 days.  But it was super fun! However...I have no pictures (yet). Now on to the fudge.  I used this recipe from allrecipes.com:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan. Set aside.
2. Combine sugar, cocoa and milk in a medium saucepan. Stir to blend, then bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer. Do not stir again.
3. Place candy thermometer in pan and cook until temperature reaches 238 degrees F(114 degrees C). If you are not using a thermometer, then cook until a drop of this mixture in a cup of cold water forms a soft ball. Feel the ball with your fingers to make sure it is the right consistency. It should flatten when pressed between your fingers.
4. Remove from heat. Add butter or margarine and vanilla extract. Beat with a wooden spoon until the fudge loses its sheen. Do not under beat.
5. Pour into prepared pan and let cool. Cut into about 60 squares. 

Go really slow, don't turn the heat up higher to get to the right temperature.  Please. Have patience. Because I'm not patient at all.  And it didn't work out so great.  I couldn't figure out how to cut the squares without my fudge cracking, so I ended up using this dough scraper.  It worked a lot better than a knife.

Post-Holiday Goodies

How were your Holidays?  Was is full of delicious (fattening) holiday food? Yup.  But after the Holidays is a great time to make and buy Christmas stuff. Then there is no big rush, and you can pack up your holiday crafts and bargains for next year.  I have however, been slacking on my blog in the process. So here we go.

 I made a double batch of macarons (which makes a whole lot) and they were eaten very, very fast. Plus they're gluten free. Here's the recipe. I also made a crouquemouche (pronounced crow-kem-boosh, I think) which turned out awesome, although it dirties so many dishes. Here's the recipe I used.

 

Sorry I haven't posted in forever, I took kinda took a long break. But I have some good posts coming up, so no harm done! 

-Maddie

Homemade Twix Bars

Yes, they exist. And they are delicious. And they are expensive to make (but not too expensive, about 5 bucks for 40 Twix Bars).  But that's only if you count the cost of the chocolate, butter, and sweetened condensed milk.  And, as a side-note, I haven't really been slacking off on my blog, it's just my brothers hog the computer (and lap-top, and I-phones, and I-pod) all the time. Anyway, this recipe uses microwave caramel, which is way easier to make than regular caramel. And it is just as good. I was really surprised, because I didn't know it existed.

We'll start with Martha's Basic Shortbread Recipe (slightly adjusted):
Important Note: This is the doubled version of the recipe. When I made them, only 40 got covered in caramel because the rest were eaten. So feel free to save 40-60 (my caramel was too thick) and eat the rest.
Ingredients

• 2 cup (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup confectioners sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet. Sift together flour and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, cream butter until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar, and continue to beat until very light in color and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, about 2 minutes more. Add flour mixture, and beat on low, scraping bowl if necessary, until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together when squeezed.
2. Pat dough and softly roll until desired thickness. Use a paring knife to score dough into bars; prick all over in even intervals with a wooden skewer or fork.
3. Bake until firm in the center and just starting to color, about 50 minutes (more or less, depending on your oven). Let cool completely and cut into bars. Cookies will keep, in an airtight container, at room temperature 3 weeks.

Cook's Note The dough (and its variations) can be prepared and refrigerated overnight or frozen up to three months, covered tightly with plastic wrap; thaw frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before using. The baking time for each variety of shortbread will vary depending on the kind of pan and cutters used.

Microwave Caramels From Gourmet Mom on the Go:
Before Making: notice that 1 can of sweetened condensed milk makes 2 batches of caramel. The caramel in my bars was too hard because Twix caramel is softer than regular caramels. You can use the first batch to test how long you need to microwave it (microwaving longer = harder caramels).
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Light Karo Syrup (not dark-doesn't set right)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 t. vanilla
Directions:
Grease the foil barrier on the shortbread. Melt butter in large microwave bowl. Stir in Karo syrup, both sugars and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until dissolved. Microwave on high 3 minutes. Stir down and scrape sides of bowl. Microwave on high 3 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Pour onto shortbread carefully and let cool until set.

If the foil is not wide enough to guard both sides, use the side of a cookie sheet.

Chocolate Time!
I'm not sure how much chocolate we used, we bought it in bulk and I didn't measure, so buy extra and use the rest for chocolate chip cookies or something.

1. Melt your chocolate, or temper it if you know how.  I tried tempering but I don't think it worked (I didn't use a thermometer or anything)
2. Set up your dipping station left to right: Twix Bars, then chocolate, then cookie sheet with parchment.
3. Dip the bar on the edge of a fork scraping the bar on the edge of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. I learned how to dip chocolates here and it is very useful (there are also interesting taste tests on that site)
4. Make designs with a fork or toothpick, or drizzle chocolate on.

And now you have your very own Homemade Candy Bars!

  And now some history on the Twix Bar (found here on Wikipedia). There is a possibility that none of this is true, as it is from the internet.  Twix stands for Twin Sticks and was called Raider in parts of Europe.  Apparently there were limited editions of flavors that I had no idea existed, including mint, orange, triple chocolate, coconut, dark and white chocolate,  cookies and cream, and a whole bunch of other products. Wow. And I was sitting here thinking "I wish they had different flavors like white chocolate."

Enjoy your homemade Twix Bars!

Maddie

Fried Peach Pies

I am way behind on my blog because of school, and I was planning on posting these a month ago during general conference because thats the only time we make these. And also, as a side note, yesterday was 11-11-11! These would be really good with some cinnamon added for flavor. These are basically huge fruit potstickers. The inspiration came from these fried pies which use dried fruit. The crust is from the original recipe.

To make the dough:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk

1.  In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture is crumbly. Mix in milk and stir until dough forms a ball. Roll out dough and cut into 13 6-inch circles. Set aside. 

To make the filling:

• 1 jar of peaches and juice
• 2 TBSP cornstarch
• sugar to taste
• cinnamon (I've never actually used cinnamon in this recipe, but it sounds like it would be good)

Mix everything together over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Cook until the mixture thickens

1. Place 2 cups oil in a small high-sided skillet. Place over medium heat. Spoon equal amounts of filling into each pastry circle and fold in half. Seal pastry with a fork dipped in cold water.
2. Fry a few pies at a time in hot oil, browning on both sides. Drain pies on paper towels. 

Our counter-top is not really blue. That would be weird. Its just the photo.

 

You can use any filling for these.  We even made pizza ones, and they tasted great! We didn't have any pepperoni, so it was just sauce and cheese (they really needed salt). I just about choked on stingy cheese.

They Taste Great! Just make sure to add salt to the pizza ones.

Maddie

Temple Cookies

My sister got recently baptized and in celebration I made Salt Lake Temple Cookies.  We don't actually live near that particular temple, but it is the most recognizable.

Anyway, I used Bake at 350's yummy almond roll out sugar cookies.  It's a great recipe, and they don't use five cups of flour like most sugar cookie recipes.  Plus they taste delicious.  Here is how I frosted them:

You will need:

• very light gray icing
• white icing
• sky blue icing
• several small piping tips (I used #2 wilton)
• piping pags

1. print out a tiny picture of the temple and cut the outline  
2. lay it on the cookie and pipe the temple edges and turrets (in gray icing)
3. let it dry a bit and
4. fill the temple (in white icing)
5. let it dry a bit and fill in the sky
6. add Moroni while the blue us still wet
7. pipe the Temple's details
8. eat the cookies

Here are more specific piping directions and a closeup on the details:

Most of the temples each had their own design, until I found one that I liked.  I made the rest like that. WARNING: These take forever to pipe! The details take 5 minutes per cookie!

 

It was worth it. We had a great time eating these at the barbecue that followed the baptism.

Lemon Cake

For me, Fall is dessert time. I think up 100 crazy dessert ideas, then make only a portion of them (which is still a large number).  This cake is actually vanilla, with lemon curd filling and lemon frosting. This recipe is the original, with no changes (other that the time the lemon curd is supposed to chill). I got the recipe from allrecipes.com (as usual) by Anela. Anyway, this cake is super moist and the filling is an amazing lemon curd (I like slowly licking it off a spoon while reading a good book) but, I would use a different frosting unless you like it really sweet.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
•  
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 4 egg yolks, beaten
•  
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8 inch round pans. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated.
3. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.
4. To make filling: In medium saucepan, mix together 1 tablespoon lemon zest, 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1 tablespoon cornstarch until smooth. Mix in 6 tablespoons butter and 3/4 cup sugar, and bring mixture to boil over medium heat. Boil for one minute, stirring constantly. In small bowl, with a wire whisk, beat egg yolks until smooth. Whisk in a small amount of the hot lemon mixture. Pour the egg mixture into the sauce pan, beating the hot lemon mixture rapidly. Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes, or until thick (not to boil).
5. Pour mixture into medium bowl. Press plastic wrap onto surface to keep skin from forming as it cools. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate 3 hours.
6. To make frosting: In large bowl, beat confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest until smooth. Beat in milk, and increase speed and continue to beat until light and fluffy.
7. To assemble: With long serrated knife, split each cake layer in half horizontally, making 4 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on a serving plate. Spread with half of the lemon filling. Top with another layer, and spread with 1/2 cup frosting. Add third layer, and spread with remaining half of the lemon filling. Press on final cake layer, and frost top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. Refrigerate cake until serving time. 

Your cakes will bake flat if you use this method (which is way cheaper that buying Wiltons  fancy cake wrap things) so that no trimming the top is necessary. Just use an regular (old) towel.

 This recipe got me addicted to lemon curd. I don't even know if its real lemon curd, because its called lemon filling, but it's delicious whatever the name. I've adapted the original quote to: When life gives you lemons make lemon curd (or frosting, or cake). But what my brother says is clever: "When life gives you lemons make orange juice and have everybody wonder how you did it."

 

I suggest that you use as different lemon frosting, unless you have a hankering for really sweet frosting. And it's not quite lemony enough. I added extra lemon juice to fix that problem, and my frosting completely fell of the sides of the cake.  It was really weird (so please excuse the bad frosting job).  We have a family cake platter (it is shared between my aunt, and grandma's family's,) so right now it's at my grandma's house.  My parents were not willing to drive all the way there just to borrow it when I randomly decide to make a cake.  I ended up using an overturned crystal bowl as my cake stand, which as you can see, was barely big enough. 

Have your cake and eat it too! 

Maddie

Pumpkin Meringues

I love meringues. They are one of my very favorite desserts. They are so light and airy, and are easy to make.  If you like the centers less chewy, you turn off the oven and leave them in overnight. I have made these pumkin meringues twice now. You could set some meringue aside, die it green, and pipe in the vines (the fondant vines don't stay on very well) but I thought, why waste my time when I have fondant?

Now, I set up an awesome Halloween style "set" to take pictures of these in, but the lighting was horrible, and I was to lazy to set it up again the next day.  Here is the recipe (adapted from Holly Wilkins on Allrecipes.com):

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup white sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
2. In a large glass or metal bowl, use an electric mixer to whip egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla. Continue whipping until the whites hold soft peaks. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar so that it does not sink to the bottom, and continue whipping until the mixture holds stiff shiny peaks.
3. Place a large star tip (the size you use to make swirls in cupcakes) into a pastry bag, and fill the bag half way with the meringue. To pipe the pumpkins, squeeze out large meringue stars onto one of the prepared cookie sheets.

     4.  Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the caps are dry enough to easily remove from the    cookie sheets.   Form a twisty vine and leaf for each pumpkin from green fondant.

Look! They're moldy now! (me and my brother had some fun with the halloween effects on Picnik.)

 

Have fun! Maddie

Macarons, and the Best Filling Ever!

I just want to say how delicious Macarons are.  I love anything made of meringue.  Meringues are my favorite cookies (are they even cookies?).  But they make a great base to add things to, like in Macarons and Pavlova. To tell the truth, I don't even know what macarons are. What is the difference between Macarons and Macaroons? I heard that they are the same, except Macaroons are French and Macarons are American, but I don't know whether that's true or not. I'll just call them macarons.

I got the recipe from Martha Stewart, but I think mine are cuter.  Here is her recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups plus 1 teaspoon confectioners sugar
• 1 cup (4 ounces) finely ground, blanched almonds
• 6 tablespoons fresh egg whites (from about 3 extra-large eggs)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• Martha's Filling
• OR you can use our filling (which is AMAZING)

Directions

1. To make the macarons: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar and ground almonds. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip until stiff glossy peaks form. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the confectioners' sugar mixture until completely incorporated.
   
2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Fit a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch #4 round tip, and fill with batter. Pipe 1-inch disks onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. The batter will spread a little. Let stand at room temperature until dry, and a soft skin forms on the tops of the macarons and the shiny surface turns dull, about 15 minutes.
   
3. Bake, with the door of the oven slightly ajar, until the surface of the macarons is completely dry, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet to a wire rack and let the macarons cool completely on the baking sheet. Gently peel off the parchment. Their tops are easily crushed, so take care when removing the macarons from the parchment. Use immediately or store in an airtight container, refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
   
4. To fill the macarons: Fill a pastry bag with the filling. Turn macarons so their flat bottoms face up. On half of them, pipe about 1 teaspoon filling. Sandwich these with the remaining macarons, flat-side down, pressing slightly to spread the filling to the edges. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
   
   
   I know the recipe seems long, but they are actually really easy to make.  And there is no need to space them 2 inches apart.  They only need one inch spacing (don't space them too close together, they do spread out a little bit).  And now for the best filling ever.  We got this recipe from our old cake decorating teacher at Joanns,  (thank you SO much) and we have used it ever since.  It is SO GOOD! We use it to fill cakes, cupcakes, and macarons.  Here is that super easy recipe.

 1 pint whipping cream
 1 small package of cheesecake flavored instant pudding (or oreo, or coconut cream with coconut added)

Dump into mixer and whip until very thick, dense and buttery tasting (it almost tastes like butter!)

YUUUMMM!! (I'm sad because they've all been eaten)

Maddie

Homemade Ice Cream Cones!!!

A while ago I was searching Family Fun for a recipe when I stumbled upon Homemade Ice Cream cones!!! But I didn't bother to write a tutorial because I am to lazy Family Fun already has a perfectly good one here.

This is VERY IMPORTANT, I have some major tips:

1. WEAR GLOVES (heat resistant, like cheese making gloves) or be in danger of burned fingers and extra difficulty (I didn't wear them unfortunately)
2. This is not for kids under the age of 10
3. Beforehand, make paper cones out of cardstock to wrap the "cookie" around to make forming them easier
4. only make them 2 at a time
5. go as fast as you can
6. stuff a marshmallow in the hole in the bottom
7. If you don't have a marshmallow, use a chunk of bread (it is kind of nasty, but that's what we did. You could also stick a chunk of yummier bread in, like banana bread)

 Maddie

PS. Sorry I havn't been able to post for a while,school has been keeping me busy.

The Zoku

My mom recently got an awesome new toy (even though it says "THIS IS NOT A TOY" on the back) called The Zoku Quick Pop Maker from Williams Sonoma.  It is this really cool thing that makes popsicles in 10 minutes.  How cool is that!  And so far only one popsicle stick has been broken. What a record! Usually stuff breaks really fast in our family. Here it is:

We also have some extremely yummy  recipe's for it from the Zoku Blog.  Here are my favorites:

Pineapple Coconut pops
8 ounces fresh pineapple
½ cup pineapple juice
¼ cup unsweetened coconut milk
¼ cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup sweetened shredded coconut (optional if you don't like shredded coconut)

MAKE THE PINEAPPLE-COCONUT BASE

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

ASSEMBLE THE POPS

1. Remove Zoku Quick Pop Maker from the freezer. Insert sticks and pour the Pineapple-Coconut base into each cavity until you reach the fill line. Let freeze completely and remove the pops with the Super Tool. Repeat with remaining pops.

And here is another favorite (but its not from the Zoku blog)

Strawberry Coconut Pops

2 ounces cream
4 ounces milk
7-8 small strawberrys
a golf ball sized clump of sweetened shredded coconut
Sugar to taste

 Blend in a blender and taste. Add more sugar to your taste.  Pour into Quick pop maker and freeze, 7 to 10 minutes. 

We also made Watermelon pops out of strawberry coconut (the green and white was a coconut base with a bit of food coloring).  If you wanted you could add mini chocolate chips to look like seeds but I didn't want chocolate ruining my Popsicle's tropical flavor (no offense to the chocolate).

And the Pictures at William-Sonoma show you just how adorable a popsicle can be:

None of these photos are mine except for the watermelon pops picture. I can't take photo's this good.

Now I want one... But the rule is we can't have Popsicles until after lunch. Darn it.

Keep Licking,

Maddie

Chocolate Lava Cakes

The other night I had a sudden urge to make something very yummy (preferable made of chocolate) and my mom completely agreed. So I found myself searching for a recipe on allrecipes.com  for chocolate lava cakes.  I had wanted to make these for quite a while and soon I found a recipe where we had all the ingredients on hand.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Butter and flour four 4 ounce ramekins or custard cups (or skip all that and use 9-10 cupcake liners like I did).
2. Finely chop the chocolate. In the top half of a double boiler set over simmering water, heat the butter until almost melted then add chocolate.  Stir until almost completely melted.
3. Beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together until light colored and thick.
4. Beat together the melted chocolate and butter. While beating, slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then quickly beat in the flour and mix until just combined.
5. Divide the batter between the four molds or 9-10 cupcake liners and bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 6 to 7 minutes. The centers of the cakes will still be quite soft. Invert cakes on serving plates and let sit for about 15 seconds, then unmold, or peel off wrapper. Serve immediately with fresh whipped cream and raspberry, if desired.   

These are actually very easy and pretty quick to make but kind of tricky to peel off the cupcake wrappers without chocolate coming out.

Keep Eating... Maddie

Lemon Bars

We recently got new neighbors and to welcome them we decided to make them lemon bars (also I wanted to eat them myself, and blog about them).  So I made a double batch and realized I only put enough lemon juice for one recipe. My mom liked them a lot more though because she always thinks they are too lemony. The truth is that the recipe I use calls for fresh lemon juice, but we never have fresh lemons, and the bottled juice brings in too much flavor.  The recipe we use is by Cooks Illustrated (I love their recipes, but they are so complicated sometimes).

 Ingredients:

Crust:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups confectioners sugar -plus extra for dusting
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter

Filling:
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons lemon zest from 2 lemons (optional)
2/3 cup juice from 3 to 4 large lemons (if not using fresh lemon juice, reduce the amount of juice used)
1/3 cup whole milk
1/8 teaspoon salt

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9 x13 pan with butter.  Pulse flour, confectioners sugar, cornstarch and salt in the bowl of a food processor.  Add butter and process for 8 to 10 second in short bursts, till it resembles coarse meal.  Press the dough firmly into the pan.  Refidgerate for 15 to 30 minutes and bake until golden brown about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, sugar, and flour in a medium bowl then stir in zest, juice, milk and salt.  Blend well.

Reduce the oven temp to 325. Stir filling to reblend; pour into warm crust.  Bake until filling feels firm when touched lightly, about 20 minutes. Let cool or put in freezer or refridgerator.

Unfortunately for the neighbors (and fortunately for us) I found a piece of plastic in mine and my mom wouldn't let me give lemon bars with plastic in them away.

Soft Oreos (A.K.A. Oreo Cakesters)

Oreos are about the easiest cookie you can make. I think these are more like chocolate whoopie pies since they are soft but considering the fact that I've never eaten a whoopie pie, I don't know. My brother said they taste exactly like Oreo Cakesters, but I haven't eaten those either. But they look like it.  They only have 3 ingredients (if you don't count the filling).  But they taste amazing.  They were gone in like 8 minutes.  I think they are even better if you freeze them . Then they're crunchy, and delicious, just like regular oreo's! Only they are probably not as bad for you. I use cream cheese frosting because it tastes good, but if you don't like cream cheese you might try this or this or this.  I haven't actually tried those fillings though. I heard that you can make the cookies with spice cake mix, or chocolate mix. We tried chocolate mix, but added more cocoa powder, and for some mysterious reason they turned crunchy, so I don't know what to tell you about that.

 Total time: 18 min,  Cooking time: 10 minutes, Makes 16 cookies, Serving Size: 8 cookies (for me anyway)

Ingredients

1 package Devils Food cake mix
2 eggs
1stick of butter (softened)

Frosting

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened delicious
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup buter (half a stick) softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or peppermint extract (they are so good with peppermint!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Mix all the cookie ingredients together till it forms a dough.
3. Roll tablespoon sized balls and then squish them till they are a little smaller than a real oreo.  Place on ungreased baking sheets (or on parchment, but its not necessary) an inch and a half apart. .
4. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cookies cool (or put them on a cooling rack, then put them in the freezer for 30 seconds to a minute) You want them cool enough to not fall apart when you sandwich them together (cause everybody knows fresh warm cookies are the best). 
5.  While the cookies are baking, clean out your mixing bowl and cream together butter and cream cheese till creamy.  Mix in the vanilla, and add confectioners sugar.  Spoon into a sandwich baggie and cut a hole in the corner.
6. Pipe frosting on one cookie and sandwich it with another cookie.
7. Eat. Lots.

It's totally worth it to go and buy five packages of both cream cheese and cake mix.  You don't need 5, but its nice to have some around. Now, get back to baking.

Maddie