Supermarket Sugar Cookies

I haven't had time to bake lately, so here are some cookies I made over a year ago. Which, by the way, were EXCELLENT, and the only reason I haven't made them since is because they are so delicious and packed with way too many calories. BUT they were really great, and not only great, but they taste SO. CLOSE. To those frosted sugar cookies you can find in supermarkets.

Supermarket Sugar Cookies
Recipe by Carrie

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 1/2 - 5 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Mix the shortening, sugar, sour cream, vanilla, and eggs together. Stir 4 1/2 cups flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Now, the dough works best if cooled, so refrigerate the dough (in the bowl no need to cover the bowl) for 45 minutes. Generously flour your counter top and roll out the cookies. I had to flour the dough as well to keep it from sticking to my rolling pin. Cut the cookies, I used the rim of a drinking glass to cut my cookies. I was able to roll and cut 48 cookies total. Make sure you use non-stick foil or butter/flour your pan and bake them at 400 degrees until just barely light golden brown on the bottom, for me this was 9-10 minutes. After cookies have cooled you can frost and decorate.

Buttercream Frosting
2 pound bag powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
Food coloring, if desired

Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Generously frost the sugar cookies! Top with sprinkles for extra fun.

Chocolate Cupcakes with AWESOME FROSTING

A few weeks ago was my friend David's birthday, but I was so busy with schoolwork that I didn't have time to bake him anything. So finally, a week belated, I had time to not only make him his favorite chocolate-something, but I got to make CUPCAKES which I've been dying to make in forever, and got to FINALLY TRY FLOUR FROSTING oh my god it was so good. You have to try it, and it's super easy. For the cupcakes I used the same recipe that I used for my chocolate cake with coconut frosting, found here. I think from now on, that's my go-to for chocolate cakes: it's always the perfect taste. However, the cupcakes tended to overflow and didn't poof very well, so make sure you're filling them only barely over halfway.

Amazing Flour Frosting
Recipe from The Pioneer Woman
Recipe found on The Girl who Ate Everything

5 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup granulated white sugar (not powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It took me around 5 minutes. Be careful not to burn it. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. You can place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools if you are in a hurry. Stir in vanilla. This mixture must be completely cooled in order for the frosting to work.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add the cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat until it all combines and resembles whipped cream. Make sure you scrape down the sides every so often so that it all gets incorporated and whipped. If it's not looking like whipped cream, keep on whipping. This frosting is great for piping. Best served the same day.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

So I've been back at school for 2 weeks. That means, 2 weeks ago when I came back from spring break, I made these cookies for my friend Peijie's birthday (technically belated since his birthday was during spring break). They were SO GOOD. They made a lot more than I expected, too, so not only did I give Peijie a huge plateful, but I gave some to my friend Sophie too. And I had one...and it was so good...if I ever make white chocolate macadamia nut cookies again (which may happen maybe once more in my life, since the nuts are expensive) then I'm definitely using this trustworthy recipe. I used unsalted macadamia nuts. Peijie said the white chocolate was a little sweet, so maybe I'd use a higher quality than just the chips that I used.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Adapted from Field Guide to Cookies by Tessa

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Adjust an oven rack to lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined.

Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined. Mix in the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts until incorporated.

Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into even balls and lay them on the baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies until the edges are set and beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, about 16 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Fresh Fruit Asian Sponge Cake

The week before spring break was one of my good friend's, Philip's, birthdays. He told me he liked ice cream cakes and I shot that idea down (because I couldn't make homemade ice cream so it wouldn't be challenging enough? I have noo idea why...) and then he said he also liked those Chinese Fruit Cakes that I also have experience with (I loved having them for my birthdays in high school). So I searched for a recipe. This recipe was reallllly good. I think I could have put more frosting in there because I was stingy but it made a LOT, and it would have been nicer if I could have gotten the layers a little thinner, but I didn't want to risk it. Also, if I could have gotten melon, it would have been better too. BUT it was really really delicious and turned out beautifully!





Fresh Fruit Cake
Recipe adapted from here

8 eggs
1 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup flour + 1/8 cup cornstarch
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vinegar/lemon juice
1/2 cup milk
fresh fruits – strawberries, cantaloupe, kiwi fruit
1 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sift the cake flour together with the baking powder twice to airate the flour.

Separate the egg yolk from the white and put in two different bowls.

In the bowl with the egg white, add the cream of tartar and vinegar and beat until thicken. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and beat further until the mixture shines.

In another bowl, beat the egg yolk with the remainder 1/4 cup of sugar until the sugar dissolve.

Add milk and vegetable oil into the egg yolk mixture and stir to mix well.

Gently fold in the cake flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg yolk flour mixture into the egg white until blend. Repeat with the remainder of the egg yolk in 1/3 portions.

Pour the mixture into two greased 8″ circular cake pans. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove the oven and invert the cake to cool. It is very important to let the cake to cool completely before frosting.

Cut the kiwi into thin slices.
Cut the strawberries into thin slices, reserving a few whole strawberries to decorate the center part.

Beat the whipping cream and the icing sugar together until thicken.

Spread the whipping cream on the surface of the bottom layer and top with strawberries slices (or your desired fruit).

Spread whipping cream on a second layer and place it on top of the first layer.

Decorate the top of the cake with more nicely cut slices of fruit. Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least half an hour before serving.