Something Classic, Easy, Yummy, and Cute

In fifth grade, my class baked cookies to give to people at a nearby nursing home. It was a great day; a bunch of moms volunteered to come in and help us bake cookies during a school day, and of course my mom was one of those wonderful ladies. There were a lot of chocolate chip cookies being clumsily churned out by children that day, but not my group. My mom decided to bring in the big guns, literally. She had us make her mom’s butter cookie recipe and we used what I have affectionately named the “cookie gun.”

Okay, so it’s actually a cookie press, but the point is that it shoots out perfect cookies with the pull of a trigger. A cookie gun! It’s brilliant. But not only is the cookie gun brilliant, but the recipe. Butter cookies are pretty standard fare, and usually not that extraordinary. But when you crank out several dozen of the bite-sized-melt-in-your-mouth-cookies, you’ll feel the magic. This recipe references my first rule of thumb: few and simple ingredients. It’s actually my Nana’s recipe, and has thankfully been passed down to me (and the paper may or may not smell like vanilla). But I wanted to officially immortalize it and share it so that you guys can enjoy these cookies that are beyond delicious and easy to make.

I will warn you though, they are deadly. I mean, you can snack on them like they’re popcorn; and let’s just say that they’re not quite as healthy a snack. Because this handwriting is a little rough and the directions aren’t really user-friendly, I have translated them for you:

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of butter (softened)
• 1 cup of white/granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Steps:

1. Cream the butter until it’s nice and fluffy.
2. Add in the sugar and beat until combined.
3. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs.
4. Slowly add the flour. You may have to stop your mixer and scoop the sides with a spatula.

This dough should be thick, and it actually isn’t very good tasting cookie dough. Lightly grease your cookie sheets and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then load your cookie press according to its instructions and shoot them out onto the pan! It may take a little practice to get the motions just right, but no sweat, any cookie dough shapes that don’t come out right can just go back in the press. When you filled up the pan (you can these things won’t grow much), bake them for 8 to 10 minutes. Then you can eat as is, package them as gifts, or dip them in chocolate (I usually like to add chocolate, yum).

 

The 3 Coolest Cakes I’ve Made

Since I’ve taken an interest in baking and cake decorating, all of my family and friends have received a decorated cake for their birthday. They act so thankful and think I’m being nice; when really, I just enjoy doing the baking and decorating process. I was feeling nostalgic today so I was looking through the pictures of the cakes I’ve decorated, and I tried to pick a favorite. I was unsuccessful; I have a special love for all of my projects, and there are three that I got stuck on.

Formula 1 Racecar

Avengers Birthday Cake

Cat in the Hat

These are all pretty different, and took varying levels of life out of me. The Formula 1 Car cake took me about two days between pre-baking the cake (chocolate with coffee-mousse filling) to decorating it. It was for my uncle’s 55th birthday and this cake was really fun because the more I added to it the better it looked.

The Cat in the Hat cake was for my mom, it was actually a carrot cake. My brother helped me with this one; we made the hat stand up by stacking circles of cake layered with frosting and a smoothie straw stuck in them. Please pretend that you don’t see the number on the hat, my mom would not be happy with me posting this.

The avengers cake was so much fun to make and I think I am the most proud of it. I spent forever planning it and had to really use my limited art skills to make the Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Thor icons for the side. The best part about making cakes like this is planning them out. When I make them with my brother this takes way longer because we argue about how the cake should look, but surprisingly we haven’t killed each other yet. Never have I had a cake turn out exactly as I envisioned it, but I have always been pleasantly surprised to see the outcome.

Making a Shaped Cake

One of the most easily impressive cake designs are shaped cakes. They can be full of imperfections, but the shock value of a shaped cake can brush them under the rug. I have made a fair amount of shaped cakes, and from a professional standpoint, they are very poor quality, yet they are still impressive.

I will relay my top tips to making a successful shaped cake, hopefully you will be able to impress your friends with these tips!

1. Google

This may sound like a cop out, but whenever I decide what kind of cake I want to make, I always Google images it. This is always my first step because it helps me figure out the design and finding the best way to make what I want. I usually end up combining a bunch of different designs that I like to make my own design.

2. Diagrams

The Formula 1, and M1 Tank cakes are great examples of when I had to make diagrams. These cakes were custom made for people in my life, and naturally I didn’t know too much about these things before I made the cakes. For the Formula 1 cake, I actually found a diagram of an F1 car complete with real measurements, and I simplified it and converted it to a possible cake shape. But for some cakes, like the Gumby or Minion, this isn’t necessary. For Gumby I have a poster sized printer, and I just printed out an outline of him and then cut the cake around him. Every cake is unique, and you have to be resourceful.

3. Planning

This is the most important step, none of these cakes happen spontaneously. Once you have your diagram or your design, you can start figuring out the size and how you will construct your cake. The size depends on two factors: how many people you’re feeding, how difficult the design is. It’s easier to make a complicated cake bigger, because small details can be very difficult to fine-tune. Once you figure out the best size for your cake, you have to figure out what type of pan/pans to bake it in. This is the most difficult part, I measure all my cake pans and scale up my diagrams to make sure that I will have enough cake in the right size for me to construct my shape.

4. Assembly

After you’ve planned out and baked your cake, all that’s left is to assemble and then decorate. If you made a good plan, you can basically just cut the baked cake(s) and stack them to make your shape (with buttercream between the layers of course, because it’s the glue in baking). Remember that this doesn’t have to be perfect, and that your actual cake will not measure perfectly like you planned, because it is still cake. Improvise when you need to, and when you’re finished constructing, cover with buttercream and  chill for a while so that it will be more sturdy for when you decorate.

5. Decorating

Decorating is highly dependent on what kind of cake you’re making. For the F1 cake, the more decorations I added, the better it looked. For the Gumby cake, there’s almost no decoration. You should have most of it planned out already, but don’t be afraid to play around, you can always take something off if it doesn’t look good. The key to decorating is knowing when to stop, nobody wants a cake covered with crap.

6. Be Accepting

I’m not a perfectionist, but I can get upset if my cake doesn’t turn out the way I envisioned. Because I’m not a professional, I very rarely end up with the cake I thought I would. When finished, instead of beating yourself up about the things that are different between your vision and the end result, just say “Good enough” and move on, your family and friends will love it anyway!