Snickerdoodles

I admit it, I have never had a Snickerdoodle, until today, that is. Emma and I made 4 dozen after school today. I LOVE cinnamon, so these cookies are fabulous. I used the recipe from Food.com. This recipe would also make a killer sugar cookie, omitting the cinnamon, of course. ☺  I added an extra 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon. These cookies were unbelievably good. I have braces and can't eat crunchy cookies without dunking them in milk first. I don't always like to do that. These cookies stayed soft until the last one was gone. I will definitely make these again. Em and I even came up with our own cake recipe. Be on the look out for that in a couple of weeks.

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies
from Food.com

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl.
3. Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl.
4. Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture.
5. Chill dough, and chill an un-greased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge.
6. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Scoop 1 inch globs of dough into the sugar/ cinnamon mixture.
8. Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture.
9. Place on chilled un-greased cookie sheet, and bake 10 minutes.
10. Remove from pan immediately.
    
    
    

Scratch Baking

I made a cake from scratch on Tuesday. By from scratch I mean I did not use a cake mix. I actually used flour and other ingredients. I even made the icing from scratch. I have to say this cake was pretty good. It needed more chocolate for my taste though. I'm a self proclaimed chocoholic. I always have chocolate around in some form. ☺

Here is a picture of the cake. I admit, it's not my best decorating job, but it was mostly made for us to eat here at home and so I could practice the scratch recipes. From posting this cake on Facebook, I now have a friend that would like me to make her a cake for her graduation.

I didn't have cake flour, so I searched for a recipe that used all-purpose instead and found this one Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake   . There is also a "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Icing to go with  it, but I didn't use that part.

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• cooking spray

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Spray two 9-inch round baking pans or one 9x13-1/4 sheet pan with cooking spray. ( The original recipe says to grease and flour the pans, I never flour a cake pan. I just spray it with cooking spray. I have found that flouring the pans makes the cake gritty and makes decorating difficult.)
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. (I sifted these ingredients together over the mixing bowl.) Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (the batter is really thin, watery thin, not like the box mix at all). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost or ice with your favorite icing or use the "Perfectly Chocolate"Chocolate Frosting from the Hershey's page and decorate however you want. :D