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12/20/16

Step-By-Step Photos of Melted Snowman Christmas Cookies

Reposting for 2016



Originally I was going to make these as cupcakes this year.  However, on the day I was making the snowflake cookie dough, I realized it would be just as easy to make a second batch of dough and just make the snowmen into the traditional cookies.  You can use any cookie dough you wish.  I used my favorite basic sugar cookie dough.   I used a flower shaped cutter that I sometimes cut 'off' the dough, so only half of the cookie cutter was on the dough.  I also over cut into each other and for the cookies that were full sized, I pulled and stretched them a little so each cookie was unique shaped.  I have no idea how others make their cookies or what they use, I've never read any recipe for them.  I've just always used my own favorite recipes to improvise.  For mine, you will need an edible rice or sugar paper for the little scarves, but I suppose you could use frosting as well.  (I use Wilton Sugar Sheet and chose red this year.  Use any color you wish!)

Sugar Cookies

 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1 1/2 c butter, soft
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cream of tartar
1 t salt

Combine sugar and butter, beat until creamy with your electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix until blended. Chill dough until it's easy to work with; 30-60 minutes.  On lightly floured surface roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out cookies. Bake at 350 until the edges just start to turn golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Glaze

2 1/2 c powdered sugar
2 T water
1 T butter, softened
1 T light corn syrup
1/2 t almond extract or vanilla

Combine powdered sugar, water, butter, corn syrup and vanilla in small mixer bowl; mix until powdered sugar is moistened. Beat at medium speed until smooth, adding additional water if necessary to reach desired spreading consistency. Glaze cooled cookies and let stand until hardened (6 hrs. or overnight).

Royal Icing for the outline and nose

4 c confectioners' sugar
3 large egg whites
1/2 t cream of tartar
1/2 t vanilla
1 T water

Beat 4-6 minutes on high.  (Add more or less water depending on stiff it is and how stiff you want it).  Will be very hard when it dries.


Fondant Heads (Halve this recipe or use the leftover in another recipe)

3 c powdered sugar
1 - 7 oz. jar marshmallow creme
1 t vanilla
1/4 t almond

Mix with a paddle attachment in an electric mixer or knead by hand, adding a bit more powdered sugar if you need to to keep it from being too sticky.  It will be like play-doh when it's ready.

Scarves

Wilton Sugar Sheet


After you bake and cool your cookies, use a royal icing and small round icing tip to pipe around the outside of you puddled cookie.  Use the glaze icing to fill in the puddle.  Let harden completely and usually takes overnight.  During this time you can make your homemade fondant (or use store bought - White Rolled Fondant) and use it to form little round balls that will be the snowman heads.  Let them dry completely.  I put them on powdered sugar sprinkled foil.  They can take up to a day or two to dry depending on the humidity in your house.

You can use the royal icing tinted black for little eyes and dotted smiles, or use a toothpick dipped in food color.  Use royal icing tinted orange with the small round tip again to make the little carrot noses.  Cut the edible sugar sheets into strips about 1/4" - 1/2" inches wide (depending on how big you made your snowman heads) - you want the heads and scarves to complement each other.  I cut them randomly about 1 1/2" long.

Attach the scarves to the dry cookies with a dab of extra frosting.  Attach the heads the same way.  Let set to harden.  Do not stack and be careful handling.  Their little carrot noses might break off!




















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12/19/16

Gateau Bon Bons



Reposting another classic from our home to yours... for 2016





Another traditional favorite of our household;  especially my oldest daughter.  A rounded little cookie with a yummy surprise in the center;  almond paste!  Think; marzipan.  I love anything almond so of course these are a favorite of mine as well.  In the past I've dipped them in red, green and left white.  This year I did just dark green, with candy sprinkles and a drizzle of glitter icing. 


Gateau Bon Bons

1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c butter, soft
1/3 c powdered sugar
2 T milk
1 t vanilla
4 oz. almond paste

Almond Glaze:

1 c powdered sugar
1/2 t almond extract
drops of food color to make yellow, green, blue, purple or pink
4 t milk - mix all until blended smooth


Heat oven to 375. Beat flour, butter, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla on medium until mixed well. Slice almond paste into 1/2 inch slices and then cut each slice into fourths. Shape one inch balls of dough around each bit of almond paste. Roll into a nice ball shape. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until they are set and the bottom is just starting to get golden. Remove to a rack and cool completely. Dip the tops of the cooled cookie into the almond glaze. Let set to harden or sprinkle decorator sprinkles or sugar on top if you wish when the icing is still wet.









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12/18/16

A Classic Christmas Cookie - A Simple Glazed Cut Out Sugar Cookie


Reposting for 2016 -




Day 18!  Are you following along?  A cookie-a-day until Christmas!?   Today is a basic, traditional cookie you can find on most cookie platters.  A sugar cookie.  I like to use a glaze on them instead of frosting, only for the reason they are easier to stack and store.  If you prefer to frost them with a thick buttercream frosting and sprinkle with sugar or jimmies, absolutely do it!  They are so good that way!  But because I do so much baking and because I do trays that have to travel, I tend to like the glaze. 

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1 1/2 c butter, soft
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cream of tartar
1 t salt

Combine sugar and butter, beat until creamy with your electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix until blended. Chill dough until it's easy to work with; 30-60 minutes.

On lightly floured surface roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out cookies. Bake on lined baking sheets at 350 until the edges just start to turn golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Icing Glaze 
Makes about 1 & 1/3 cups

2 1/2 c powdered sugar
2 T water
1 T butter, softened
1 T light corn syrup
1/2 t almond extract or vanilla
Food color, if desired

Combine powdered sugar, water, butter, corn syrup and vanilla in small mixer bowl; mix until powdered sugar is moistened. Beat at medium speed until smooth, adding additional water if necessary to reach desired spreading consistency. Tint with food color, if desired.  Glaze cooled cookies and let stand until hardened (6 hrs. or overnight).





















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12/17/16

A Christmas Cookie Classic - Peppermint Meltaways!





The first batch are white on white with crushed peppermint candies

I made two batches of these this year, as it is one of my favorites and they look so festive on the cookie platters in addition to being so good.  Over the years I've made these with the peppermint extract I had on hand at the time and I need to tell you that using real peppermint extract in these is the key.  If you can help it, do not use imitation peppermint extract.  
The second batch were tinted red with white glaze and peppermint candies
  
Peppermint Meltaways
1 c butter
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c cornstarch
1/2 t peppermint extract
1 1/2 c flour

 Glaze:
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
2 T butter
1/4 t peppermint extract
1 - 2 T milk
peppermint candies or candy canes, crushed

Combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl and beat smooth.  Add the rest of the ingredients, beat well.  You can either divide the dough into fourths and roll each into a log about 1 inch in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and chill, or place all the dough to chill for about 30 - 60 minutes.  If you chose to roll the dough into logs, slice each log into rounds, about 1/8" thick.  If you chose to chill the dough whole, shape rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into 1 inch balls.  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 approximately 12-14 minutes.  Remove to cool completely.  Make glaze by combining the ingredients except the candy.  Use only enough milk to make it spreading consistency.  While wet, sprinkle with crushed candies.  Let harden.













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12/16/16

Reposting for the 2016 Christmas Cookie Trays....




Today's cookie-a-day-til Christmas is one I made up years ago based loosely on the traditional Mexican Wedding Cakes or Russian Teacakes recipe.  Instead I left out nuts, added peppermint and rolled them in crushed peppermint with powdered sugar.  The result was a cookie I loved and I've been making ever since!


Peppermint Tea Cakes

1 c real butter
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
1/2 t peppermint extract
2 1/4 c flour
1/4 salt
3/4 c crushed peppermint candies (crush them in your food processor until fine)
powdered sugar for rolling... about a cup


Beat the butter, powdered sugar and extracts. Stir in flour and salt. Stir in 1/4 cup of the crushed candy. Shape into 1 inch balls and bake on an ungreased baking sheet at 400 for about 8 minutes. Let set on the cookie sheet for a minute or two to cool a bit and 'set up' and then roll them in the powdered sugar. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack and then roll in the remaining 1/2 c crushed peppermint candy.



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12/15/16

Edible Glitter Sugar Snowflake Sugar Cookies


Reposting for 2016 - a beautiful cookie - and a classic tradition in our home


Cut-out sugar cookies are interesting to me because basically you have but maybe four recipes that a thousand different versions come from. One uses granulated sugar, one uses powdered sugar, some may use cream of tartar and others use baker's ammonia. Other than that you have some butter, flour, eggs, baking soda, salt, vanilla.... the amounts change but using the same basic ingredients you get sugar cookies with tastes and textures that are so very different from each other. Of course other factors figure in there too like the temperature of your butter or your eggs, how old your baking supplies are, the temperature of the oven, etc. but I'm still just in awe that cookies (and cakes) start with the same basic ingredients and come out so very different.

This cookie recipe is probably one that a million women have already, and well, let's make it one million and one. Today we are going to cut them into snowflakes. You can find the snowflake cookie cutters almost anywhere these days, although when I bought mine they were difficult to find and the internet wasn't in as heavy use as it is now. I had to order mine from a real, honest to goodness old fashioned catalog. LOL. You can find them in stores, in catalogs and online easily now so - go get yourself some snowflake cookie cutters and then come back. (I have links at the bottom of this post to 3 of them on Amazon to get you started if you are interested.)  


Sugar Cookies


1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1 1/2 c butter, soft
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cream of tartar
1 t salt

Combine sugar and butter, beat until creamy with your electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix until blended. Chill dough until it's easy to work with; 30-60 minutes.

On lightly floured surface roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out cookies. Bake at 350 until the edges just start to turn golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.


Decorating Idea:

Use your favorite frosting recipe, but store bought frosting won't work well for piping. You can use one of my frosting recipes if you would like, here is the one I posted for Valentine Cookies.

For my snowflake cookies I didn't actually use a frosting recipe, I just put powdered sugar, some butter, a little cream, an egg white and vanilla in the mixer and whipped it.

I also did not feel like getting out my decorator tips and couplers so to decorate the cookies I used a disposable decorating bag and simply snipped the tip off with a pair of scissors. Using this, pipe frosting onto your cookies in a design that you prefer.

For sparkle you can purchase food-grade Platinum Dust Edible Glitter online or in the cake/cookie decorating aisle of your local store. Most Walmarts, grocery stores and fabric and craft stores will have this. The one I used was by Wilton. Sprinkle glitter on while the frosting is still wet so it will stick. The frosting will start to set up within minutes so sprinkle as you decorate each cookie, don't go back and try to do 15 at a time as the frosting will have already hardened on the top (although it will remain squishy for hours so don't stack them!).

Let your cookies sit about 10 hours (I let them set overnight) before stacking or freezing.









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12/14/16

Peanut Butter Fudge I've been making for about 15 years and my sugar free version too!


Reposting for 2016 - My original Peanut Butter Fudge I've been making for about 15 years and my sugar free version too!


Peanut Butter Fudge

2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1/3 c peanut butter
1 7 oz. jar marshmallow creme

In a saucepan, bring the sugar and milk to a boil.  Boil at a full boil for 3 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Add peanut butter and marshmallow creme.  Stir with a wooden spoon until the marshmallow is incorporated.  Pour into a buttered 8X8 inch pan.  Let set to harden or refrigerate.


Sugar Free, Low Carb Peanut Butter Fudge

1 c natural, sugar free peanut butter
1/2 c butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1 t vanilla
1/2 c sugar free Confectioners Sweetener
10 - 12 drops liquid sweetener (this really helps the flavor!)
1/2 vanilla protein powder only if you need it (peanut butter is too oily or et cetera) 

Microwave the peanut butter, butter and cream cheese until soft.  Mix well.  Add the rest of the ingredients and beat with a wooden spoon until incorporated.  Pour into a lined 8X8" pan.  Refrigerate until hard (about an hour or two).  Cut and serve.



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12/13/16

Christmas Peanut Butter Balls - Made into Peanut Butter Patties Instead!

Reposting for 2016 - a delicious addition to the Christmas Cookie Tray!


Made into patties I didn't have to dip

Christmas Peanut Butter Balls - with a twist.   I decided to make them into patties instead.  This one is a very thin patty and I actually don't make the balls because I don't have the patience to dip them.  I started to dip these patties, thinking they were larger than a ball and wouldn't be as boring or take so long, but I quickly grew bored dipping them too so I poured a layer of chocolate on a baking sheet and chilled it.  Flattened the peanut butter filling over and topped with another layer of the chocolate - instead of dipping. You can do either!  Perhaps you don't mind dipping candies as much as I do.  Ha!



How they turn out if you have the patience to dip them!



Peanut Butter Patties

1/2 c creamy peanut butter
1/4 c real butter, room temperature
3/4 - 1 t vanilla extract
2 c powdered sugar
1 c semisweet chocolate chips mixed with 1 c milk chocolate chips
1 T shortening

Line a square baking pan with foil (I used a 10 inch square for thin patties, use 8 or 9 inch for a little thicker). Lightly spray with a Pam style cooking spray. Mix the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment if you have one. Pat the mixture flat in the pan. Chill or freeze until firm. Remove from pan by lifting the foil out of the pan and laying the bars on the counter.

Melt the chocolate chips and shortening in the microwave or over low heat on the stove until smooth, stirring regularly. Dip the squares, one at a time into the chocolate. Place on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Refrigerate until firm.


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12/11/16

Step-by-step photos of the Christmas Cookie Classic - Peanut Blossoms!




Reposting for 2016 - such a classic cookie for the Christmas season!




I think this year so far (December 19th) I'm up to about 16 different recipes made so far.  I save some of the items for the last minute as they don't freeze well.  The problem with my large amount of baking is that by the time Christmas comes and I'm ready to make up goodie trays for my husbands employees, gifts for friends, neighbors and our own celebrations...  sometimes a 'favorite' cookie has been raided by my family and I'm scrambling to make up another batch or two!

Peanut Blossoms are one of those items I know I'll be making at least 3 batches of.  They are a huge favorite of most people.  I normally do a triple batch and hope at least 20 of them make it to Christmas.  Ha.


Peanut Blossoms

1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c peanut butter
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt
1 3/4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/4 c sugar to roll
1 pkg. Hershey's Kisses or Chocolate Stars if you can find them


Beat sugar, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter in bowl til light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and salt; continue beating until well mixed. Add flour and baking soda. Shape into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in the 1/4 cup sugar. Place on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes at 375 until lightly golden brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate kiss or star in center of each cookie. Remove to cooling racks.





*Traditionally these were made with chocolate stars.  Personally, I haven't been able to find Chocolate Stars locally since we relocated to the deep South about 4 years ago.  Perhaps they are easier to find in some regions or states than others?  You can order them online - or just use Hershey's Kisses - which are pretty much available anywhere.



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12/10/16

Step By Step Photos of my Scandinavian Rosettes for Christmas

Reposting this popular Christmas Cookie post for 2016







Here is one of our family tradition's that goes back to my own childhood of visiting my Grandmother's house on Christmas Eve.  Even as a child I didn't like things that were 'too sweet' and this one is not, save for the sugar sprinkled on top.  The Scandinavian pastry is crisp and light and not sweet.  They are a Swedish tradition in our home and I hope one day to share the tradition with my own grandchildren as well.  You do need a Rosette/Timbale Set to make these.

Rosettes

2 eggs
1 t sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 t vanilla
1 c milk
1 c flour

Break eggs into a bowl, add sugar, salt, vanilla, milk and flour. Beat briefly just until smooth. Do not overbeat! Too much beating makes your rosettes blistered and tough.

Have hot oil, lard or shortening in a pan on the stove heating. Leave the rosette iron in the hot oil for several minutes while you make the batter. Dip the hot iron into the batter being careful not to let the batter come up over the edge of the iron. Dip just about 4/5th of the way up the iron. Immediately place the iron/batter into the hot oil. Hold the iron in place and cook the rosette until it's golden brown and crisp. The temperature of the oil is perfect when it takes about 25-30 seconds for the rosette to cook. Too fast and it burns, too cool and it will be soggy and greasy. Use a fork to shake the rosette off the iron and onto a paper towel lined rack. When they are cool sprinkle with powdered sugar. These can be frozen. This recipe will make about 40.

If they do not come off the iron they were not fried long enough or you let the batter come up over the edge of the iron.
If they are blistered and thick, you have beaten the eggs too much.
If the rosettes drop off in the hot oil the iron is not deep enough in the oil.
If they are not crisp they have been fried too fast or the oil was not hot enough.




Heat the iron in the oil while you mix the batter
You must have a rosette set to make these.
Don't dip the batter up over the edge of the iron so they will slide off after frying.


Drain on paper towels
Sprinkle with powdered sugar for a delicious treat!



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12/9/16

Step-By-Step Photos of my Stenciled Christmas Cookies!

Re-posting for 2016 - as it's just such a pretty cookie to make for Christmas trays!


Re-posting for 2016 - as it's just such a pretty cookie to make for Christmas trays!


This year seems to be the year everyone is taking notice and trying their hands at 'stencil' cookies - whether it's with food color air pumps and sprays or with frosting.  And, I am no different - I thought about it last year but 'eh' life was too busy.  This year, life is just as busy, but I thought "Why not?" "I've got to ice the cookies anyway and this won't take any longer... just do it."

Since I didn't know if I would like doing cookies this way I did not want to invest in an 'air pump' sprayer but figured I'd give the Wilton Spray Mist Colors a try, as well as frosting.   You can find intricate directions and instructions alllll over the internet but basically you just put a layer of royal icing on a cookie, let it dry complete and then place a stencil over the cookie and either spray or mist a food color "ink" over or use a flat spatula and scrape a thin layer of a thick icing over.

In the end, I found I absolutely was NOT happy with the spray cans of color.  The color was not bright - and took numerous light coats to get a nice 'bright' red but by then the moisture content of a few layers was too much for the icing and I noticed small bubbles appear.

The spray mist also tended to mist "under" the stencil no matter taunt against the top of the cookie I felt I had it.  Only about 1 in 5 was good enough that I was 'happy' with it.  Not good odds.  Plus, the spray cans made a lot of "over" spray and wasted so much color!  I just wasn't impressed.

The frosting cookies however... not bad.  Some stencils worked better than others.  If it had too much open space, or tiny little intricate cuts, it could be persnickety, but the average image or word stencil worked fairly well.

If I choose to do these against next year, I will be doing the frosting/icing stencil - but not the Wilton spray mists.





FIRST:  flood fill your cookies with icing that hardens (like a basic royal icing) and let dry 24 hours to completely harden.



Any size shape or cookie will do.


The food color mist sprays... not impressed.
The silver wasn't too bad but the red was a light pink unless I did 4-5 light layers.  By that time the moisture of the spray sometimes caused tiny bubbles in the icing or more often than not, the fine mist drifted under the stencils.  I broke 2 cookies trying to press the stencil firmly in place to avoid the drifting color mist.


Fed up with the sprays, I grabbed some excess frosting from another cookie and tried my hand at using a small spatula to spread across a stencil and lift up.  MUCH BETTER.


I had some leftover red icing from other cookies so I added some powdered sugar to make it stiff and used it to finish the cookies.


Stenciled the word "hope" onto this one.


Believe was my favorite word - but the "B" on the stencil was too hard to work with as it was skinnier than the other letters.


Wish worked pretty well.


One of my stencils had a random snowflake design.  It worked out fairly well!



I found cheap stencils at Walmart and found a couple more (not cheap) at Michaels.  Print Friendly and PDF

12/8/16

Delicious - Sugar Free, Wheat Free, Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Reposting - a great Christmas Cookie idea for those who can't have (or don't want to have) wheat or sugar in their cookie!



This is a regular peanut butter cookie recipe without flour or grains... but I went a step further and used natural sweeteners that make it sugar free as well.  The only sugar in this cookie is whatever sugar grams are in your favorite natural peanut butter. 

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c natural peanut butter
1/2 c brown sugar substitute sweetener
1/2 c granulated sugar substitute
5-10 drops liquid sweetener
1 egg
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla

Mix in a bowl until smooth.  Chill dough for easier handling and less spreading.  Form balls of your favorite size cookie and bake on parchment at 350 for about 10-12 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheets at least 3 minutes before moving to racks to cool complete. These can be more crumbly in texture than the sort with flour (especially in the summer when the humidity is high), but after they are cool I put 3 cookies each in individual baggies and keep them in the refrigerator or freezing for easy "grab and go".   







 

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12/7/16

Homemade Cream Horns... SO EASY when you opt for store bought puff pastry!

Reposting for 2016:  Homemade Cream Horns and SO EASY when you opt for store bought puff pastry!


I was going for QUICK and easy - not 'pretty' this time. But had I used a pretty star tip these could be guest-worthy!


 
Note;  You WILL need a 'form' to make these.  Our Great Grandmothers used round clothespins, but I prefer a cream horn mold as it makes them tapered from  larger to smaller which not only makes them pretty but makes them simple to fill.

Quick and Easy Cream Horns

1 package Puff Pastry (2 to a package, makes about 32 total if you use both sheets)
1 recipe cream filling*
Sugar (or Xylitol sugar substitute) for sprinkling

Thaw the puff pastry according to directions.  I used just 1 of the two sheets and it makes about 15-16 cream horns so the whole package would make about 32.  

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Lay the puff pastry out on parchment paper (or lightly flour your counter).  Slice the pastry about every half-inch to make about 15 strips or if you want to make them larger, about 8 1-inch slices.  

Wrap one long strip of pastry around your mold.  Leave the large round end open without it overlapping to make removal easier later. I spray the tops with butter flavored Pam and then sprinkle with large crystals of sugar or natural sweetener.

Bake on a lightly greased or non-stick baking sheet for about 10-12 minutes until golden brown and crisp.  While they are baking, mix up your favorite butter cream or other filling.  Removal from oven, remove from pan to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Use a pastry bag with a large tip to squeeze filling into each horn.  These are wonderful if you can let them set up or even refrigerate them to chill the filling but they are delicious eaten immediately too!  

Use whatever filling YOU like.  A simple whipped cream, sweetened a bit and a dash of vanilla is good but I like this filling as it's not picky about the temperature so 'room temp' or serving a hot summer evening is no problem.

Filling (half this recipe for the recipe above)

1 c Crisco
1 c butter
4 c powdered sugar
4 t vanilla
3/4 c marshmallow creme

Cream the Crisco and butter. Add the sugar gradually and then the creme and vanilla. Beat well until it's smooth like whipped cream. Fill cooled or chilled cream horn forms. Does not need to be refrigerated for storage.

Makes homemade cream puffs effortless

Wrapping around a form

Sprinkled with Xylitol or Sugar and ready to bake



Mix up your filling


Baked golden brown


Leave the end open so you can slide it right off the form





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12/6/16

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Reposting from 2012 -



2012 Red Velvet Cake Balls


Need:     Red Velvet Cake
              Frosting
              Almond Bark or White Chocolate
              Optional:  lollypop sticks, sprinkles

Red Velvet Cake

1/2 c butter
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 oz. red food coloring (1 oz is fine, but 2 will give you a deeper red)
3 T cocoa
2 1/4 c flour
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 c buttermilk
1 T vinegar

Grease and flour a 9 X 13″ cake pan. Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Make a paste with the food coloring and cocoa and add to mixture. Add salt and flour alternately with buttermilk and vanilla. Mix soda and vinegar and add to the mix.  Beat just until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake approximately 30-35 minutes or until done. Remove from oven. Cool completely. (Since you are not making this into a layer cake, you can let it cool in the pan if you wish.

Basic Cream Cheese Frosting

You can use your favorite frosting (that link goes to the frosting I use for Red Velvet)  or here is a basic cream cheese frosting recipe to use, as many like cream cheese frosting with this particular cake.  You could even use store bought if you like.

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese
16 oz. box powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat softened butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy.  Set aside.

Crumble the cooled cake completely with your hands or use a food processor and process in 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of your appliance.


Red Velvet cake crumbs
Mix your frosting recipe into the cake crumbs. Start with about 1-2 cups of frosting and mix well with a wooden spoon and then, your hands. If it’s a dry mix, add more frosting by quarter cup increments. You just want the cake to be the consistency of play dough so it holds together well and forms balls.

Scoop dough out to the size cake ball you want. 30 large or up to 50 or 60 if you are making 1 inch rounds. Roll in your hands until smooth and place each ball on a parchment lined baking sheet. Depending on the size of the cake ball use either a lolly pop stick or toothpick in the top. Place in the freezer and freeze for 2 hours until firm.

Melt the vanilla candy coating (almond bark) according to package directions over low heat or in the microwave. Dip each cake ball into the vanilla and place on parchment paper to set. If you wish you can sprinkle them with desired colored sugar or sprinkles at this point.




Leave on the counter while the candy coating sets. After hard these can be kept in a container as they are as the coating keeps the cake moist. I’ve also froze them for up to a month, and left to thaw on the counter until needed.








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