Cookie Cutters are the best!

I am a kitchen gadget junkie. Foods on a stick maker? Have it. Martha Stewart Banana slicer? Got it. Split decision pie pan? Check yes! I love it all. Even though I have no kitchen space my collection is ever growing. Last week my BFFJenna came to visit me in Chicago and I made her go to a Kitchen Gadget store I'd been dying to go to (this was after putting her into a food coma from Little Goat and Glazed&Infused).

Leave it to Jenna to find that one thing in the store I HAD to have, a unicorn cookie cutter!

I had a bag of gingerbread cookie mix, so I whipped up a bunch of fun shapes for the day =)

Before being baked

After baking! I adding some sprinkles =)

Since I had extra dough I used my Ginger-Dead Men Cookie Cutter too!

Date Nut Pinwheels

I collect a lot of cookbooks, and hands down one of the best, is the Betty Crocker Cooky Book. It was a blow to learn at a young age, that Betty Crocker did not exist. Apparently, General Mills (before it was General Mills) used to receive a lot of baking questions. To answer them they decided to have a "Dear Abby" type of response with a face to relate to: Betty. Either way, the Cooky Book was published in 1963 and the recipes have the old mother made feel to them, which I love. The cookies in this book take some love and care, unlike todays 5 minute mix and bakes.

My family used this book for every Christmas up until last year when my dad accidentally lost it at the grocery store while picking up supplies (not bitter). Luckily at the CIA we had a copy in the library and I copied down my favorites. 

The Cooky we make every year without fail are Caramel Refrigerator Cookies (Date Nut Pinwheels)- which was the best Cooky of 1940-1945.

For the dough :

1 cup shortening (or butter)2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla (not part of original recipe, I added, because I like the vanilla flavor)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 cup flour
3 eggs ( well beaten)

Cream together shortening, brown sugar, vanilla, then add salt, baking soda and flour, add well beaten eggs, and mix well. You may need to add more flour.

For the filling:

2 1/4 cup chopped dates1 cup water1 cup sugar1 cup pecans chopped

Add all ingredients to pan and cook the dates have softened. You'll smell the delicious caramel smell when it's about right. If you over cook the sugar will burn, so be sure to stir often. Cool before using.

Chill dough well. Overnight or so at least. divide dough, And on a lightly floured surface or if you prefer , which I do , roll between 2 layers of wax paper or plastic wrap, maybe 1/4" thick. Roll out one part at a time keep the other part chilling . Spread a thin to moderate layer of filling on dough then roll up in a log. Put the log in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate. Repeat this process until all used up.

Slice thin and bake at 350 until done about 15 minutes, when the cookie is a light golden brown. Depending on your oven you may have to adjust your temperature up or down.

makes around 10 dozen

The rolls can be stored in the refrigerate for up to a week. You can also wrap them up and store in freezer. 

YUM!

Cake Pops!

I am really late on this trend, but I finally made some cake pops! My favorite lil' baby Harper was turning one and was having a Very Hungry Caterpillar  party so I needed to make a caterpillar for the cake. Thanks always to Pinterest, I saw someone had make one of cake pops and it looked so cute I had to try. 

Making cake pops is a lot easier than I thought it was, I just kind of winged it but figured out a lot about making them in the process.

So all you need is 

1 Box cake mix - any flavor

1 Box icing

Sticks

Candy Coating or melted Chocolate

 First and easily enough, bake your cake. It doesn't have to be pretty. I chose vanilla for both flavors since Harper had never had cake before. Once it's baked take the cake and crumble it up. If you have any hard edges cut them off, I found the don't crumble and will be weird in the cake ball later.

Once it looks like this

Start adding icing! Add enough until you can clump it together with your fist.

this is what mine looked like at that point. Once you have it to hat point you can start to mold them! If you have a nice cookie/melon-baller that works best. they also sell cake pop molds you can use like cookie cutters. Once you've rounded them, put them in the fridge or freezer to set their shape.  During this time you can start to melt your chocolates. I used red and green for the body. I saw a "Babycakes" chocolate melter later that would work really well for the dipping, but I just melted as directed on the back in a small bowl. I found that swirling them works better than trying to submerge the whole pop. 

Once they were dipped I added eyes with a small piping bag filled with extra melted chocolate.

Once my cake was finished I added these guys to the top =) the antennae are Mike and Ikes!

The smash cake! The caterpillar was made with marshmallow fondant