Tag: frosting

Cookies and Bars · Holidays

Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting

cathysmahaLeave a comment

Everyone loves a frosted sugar cookie for the holidays. Daughter, Megan, made several batches for her daughter’s December birthday party and to give to neighbors. They rolled out and cut beautifully. They are perfect for Santa’s visit on Christmas Eve. Yummo!

Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting

INGREDIENTS:
  • Sugar Cookies
    • 1 cup unsalted butter softened (226g)
    • 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
    • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract (see note)
    • 1 large egg
    • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (Plain flour) (315g)
    • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
    • ¾ teaspoon table salt
  • Sugar Cookie Frosting
    • 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (375g) (weigh before sifting)
    • 3-4 Tablespoons milk (I use whole milk, but any kind will work)
    • 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup (see note)
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    • Gel food coloring optional
    • Additional candies and sprinkles for decorating optional
DIRECTIONS:

Sugar Cookies

  1. Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric hand mixer) and beat until creamy and well-combined.
  2. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely combined.
  3. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
  4. Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until dough is smooth and completely combined.
  5. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer approximately half of the dough onto the wrap (dough will be quite sticky at this point, that’s OK!).
  6. Cover dough with clear wrap or wax paper and mold into a flat disk. Wrap tightly. Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of clear wrap. Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 2-3 hours and up to 5 days.
  7. Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (alternatively bake cookies directly on an ungreased baking sheet). Set aside.
  8. Generously dust a clean surface with flour and place one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll out to ⅛” (for thinner, crispier cookies) or ¼” (for thicker, softer cookies). Add additional flour as needed both on top of and beneath the dough so that it doesn’t stick. Note: if dough is cracking as you roll it, let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to soften before attempting again.
  9. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet, spacing at least 1″ apart. If you are not intending to decorate your cookies with icing, you can decorate them with sanding sugar at this point before you bake them. 
  10. Bake on 350F (175C) for 8-10 minutes (this is for cookies that are approximately 3″ [7.6cm]; note that smaller cookies will need less time and larger cookies will need more), or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.
  11. Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before decorating.
  12. Easy Sugar Cookie Icing; Combine powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.  
    • If coloring the frosting, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
    • Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton 5), or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece of the corner off (not as neat, but this will still work, just take care that the frosting isn’t so thick that it breaks open the seam of the bag when you are squeezing).  
    • Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.
    • Allow frosting to harden before enjoying, stacking, or storing (this took several hours for me and may vary for you depending on the consistency of your frosting).

Recipe from SugarSpunRun

Cakes

Chantilly Cake

cathysmaha3 Comments

Chantilly Cake is stunning and this cake was baked by daughter, Megan. Megan is the official family baker, and no one complains!

Chantilly Cake

INGREDIENTS:

Moist Yellow Cake

  • 3 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cup sugar
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ stick unsalted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla (or sub 1 tsp almond extract)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar

Chantilly Frosting

  • (recipe can be halved)
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
  • 16 oz mascarpone cheese, room temp
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
  • 2½ – 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • ⅛ tsp. salt
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream (1 half pint)
  • 1 tsp. almond extract, optional

Berry Syrup optional

  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 heaping tablespoons of berry jam (I used strawberry)

Apricot Glaze

  • 3 Tablespoons apricot jam
  • splash of water

Garnish

  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Raspberries
DIRECTIONS:

For the Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix well.
  3. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, melt the butter and let cool slightly (it should still be melted). Then add the oil, buttermilk, water, vinegar and then the eggs. (It is best to combine the ingredients in that order so the butter is guaranteed room temperature so as not to cook the eggs).
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  5. Distribute between 2, 8 inch cake rounds that have been greased with butter and dusted with flour.
  6. Lower the temperature of the oven to 325 F. (Do not wait for the oven temperature to reach 325. Put the cakes in immediately)
  7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife or cake tester comes out clean. (If baking cupcakes, bake for about 20)

Chantilly Frosting

  1. Cream the butter, cream cheese, and mascarpone until light and fluffy. Then add the salt and confectioners sugar and mix to combine.
  2. In a separate bowl, whip together the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Make sure not to over mix because it will become grainy and change the texture and appearance of your frosting.
  3. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone cream cheese mixture until fully incorporated.
  4. If not using immediately, cover and refrigerate and take out 10 minutes to bring to room temperature before applying to the cake.

Berry Syrup

  1. In a small sauce pot, mix together the water, sugar and jam. Cook over medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Let cool. (this can also be done in the microwave)

Assembly

  1. If making a 4 layer cake: Using a large bread knife, trace the outside of the cake and then slowly saw back and forth through the cake, making sure the knife is as parallel as possible.
  2. Spread a layer of the berry syrup on top of the first layer of cake (this should be the rough, cut side if making a 4 layer cake)
  3. Pipe or spread a thin layer of icing on top of the berry syrup.
  4. Evenly distribute sliced berries on top of the icing layer.
  5. Place the second layer of cake on top, and so on. Do not put any berry syrup on the very top layer of the cake, because the frosting is too difficult to spread and your cake will look too crumby.
  6. Roughly spread the frosting all over the cake to create a crumb coating. I like to refrigerate or freeze my cake for 10 minutes before proceeding. Ice the rest of the cake and garnish with fresh berries.
  7. Glaze the berries with simple syrup or apricot glaze (microwave for about 15 seconds, or until thin and pourable) and refrigerate until serving.

Recipe Notes: 

This incredibly moist cake paired with the sinful, yet not too sweet, mascarpone frosting will send you straight to cake heaven. (If you would like a lighter and fluffier frosting, use 2 cups of heavy whipping cream instead of 1, and only 8 oz of mascarpone cheese) This frosting recipe makes enough for two cakes, so if not doubling the cake recipe, cut the frosting ingredients by half.

Recipe from Suzanne Bruno

New Favorite

Mini Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

cathysmaha2 Comments

Our baby shower treats of last Saturday focused on baby-sized treats, including Mini Snickerdoodle Cupcakes.  Who doesn’t love a Snickerdoodle cookie…so why not a cupcake?  They could easily be adapted to a full-size cupcake without a problem.  They are yummy, yummy in the tummy as I will soon say to my first Grandbaby.

IMG_2822

MINI SNICKERDOODLE CUPCAKES

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Cinnamon Frosting

6 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 to 4 tablespoons milk (or more to achieve desired consistency)

Garnish

2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Makes 98+ mini muffins.

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
  • With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Beat in vanilla.  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.
  • Divide butter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.
  • Bake rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about (10-15 minutes). (Cathy’s Note: Each oven varies greatly with mini cupcakes, so do a test run.)
  • Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months in airtight containers.
  • Frost mini cupcakes and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
  • Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted.  Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Cupcake recipe adapted from:  Martha Stewart
Icing recipe from:  Betty Crocker