Halloween Candy Cookies

We were having a Halloween costume party at work with prizes for the best costume in a few categories.  We had some prizes, but we needed a few more, so I decided to make cookies and package them up.  I wanted them to be Halloween themed, but without the hassle of piping bats or pumpkins.  So, I decided to use Halloween candy – Smarties and Crunchie chocolate bars.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Smartie and Crunchie Cookies

Adapted from here.

Makes 18 cookies.

Ingredients

1 1/8 cup flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup salted butter

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 teaspoons corn syrup

½ cup chopped Crunchie bars

½ cup Smarties

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lay parchment paper on cookie sheet.

2.       In a small bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda.

3.       In a larger bowl, beat butter and both sugars until fluffy.

4.       Add salt, vanilla, egg, and corn syrup ad beat until mixed.

5.       Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

6.       Divide dough in half and put into 2 bowls.  Mix in Crunchie chunks in one half, and Smarties in the other half.

7.       Drop by heaping tablespoons onto cookie sheet 2 inches apart. 

8.       Bake for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool 1 minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Chopped Crunchie bars

Before baking.

Verdict: These cookies were so good! I especially liked the Crunchie cookies!  They had a great caramel flavor!  My co-workers seemed pretty happy about winning them!  By the way, I won “Most original costume” – I was a lamb (and No, I did not win my own cookies!).

Lemon Vanilla Pound Cake

I had sour cream left over from a previous baking project that I wanted to use up.  How about a pound cake?  I found a potentially good recipe for a lemon pound cake that I wanted to tweak in healthy way.  So I replaced some of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour and halved the sugar and replaced it with sucanat (pure dried cane juice – unrefined sugar).  I wondered how it would turn out...

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Lemon Vanilla Pound Cake

Inspired from here.

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup salted butter, room temperature

¾ cup sucanat

3 eggs, room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla

1/8 cup fresh lemon juice

½ tablespoon lemon zest

½ cup sour cream

Directions

1.       Line a (smaller) tube pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.       Sift flours, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

3.       In a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy.

4.       Add sugar and beat for 5 minutes.

5.       Add eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

6.       Beat in vanilla, lemon juice, and zest.

7.       Using a spatula, mix in dry ingredients.

8.       Mix in sour cream.

9.       Pour into pan and bake for 1 hour (or until a cake tester comes out clean).

10.   Lift the cake out of pan by the parchment paper, and cool on rack.

Before baking.

After baking.

Cooling.

Verdict: This pound cake was delicious, if I do say so myself! It was flavourful and moist!  The sucanat gave a nice flavour, as did the lemon and vanilla.  And the great thing about the whole wheat pastry flour is that it didn’t give it a gritty texture! A nice afternoon snack that I’ll be making again.

Thomas the Tank Engine Cupcakes

It was my friend’s son’s 3^rd birthday, and he was having a Thomas the Tank Engine themed party at a school gym with lots of kids.  Last year, I made him a devil’s food Yo-Gabba Gabba Brobee cake.

This year, we went with cupcakes as it’s easier to serve to kids. I thought that vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles would be a crowd pleaser.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Sprinkle Cupcakes

Adapted from here.

Makes 23 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups cake flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup salted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon vanilla paste

2/3 cup whole milk

Sprinkles

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Line cupcake pans with liners.

2.       In a bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3.       Add butter and mix on until you get fine crumbs.

4.       In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla paste, and vanilla extract, until smooth.

5.       Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

6.       Add milk and mix until just combined.  The batter will be liquid. 

7.       Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.

8.       Add sprinkles to each cupcake and give a gentle swirl.

9.       Bake for 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Before baking.

After baking.

Frostings

I used 2 types of frostings:

Buttercream Frosting – with orange gel colouring

Mix 1 cup of softened salted butter, 4 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and 2 Tbsp milk until whipped.

Marshmallow Frosting – with blue gel colouring

Stir 1 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of water, and ¼ tsp of cream of tartar in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until the soft-ball stage.

In a big bowl, whip 2 egg whites and 1 tsp vanilla to a soft peak.  Gradually add the sugar syrup while whipping to stiff peaks (may take 7-10 minutes).

With sprinkles.

Decorations

Thomas flags

Cut out construction paper circles and place Thomas the Tank Engine stickers in the center.

Glue 2 of the circles together with a candy stick in the middle.

Insert flags in the cupcakes after piping frosting.

Verdict:  These cupcake were interesting.  They were not overly sweet, which was nice because it balanced out the sweet frosting.  The kids and parents seemed to enjoy them!

The birthday boy!

Whoopie Pies

My friend had a (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.  I wanted to bring something small that the guests could eat even after a large turkey dinner - and it was a HUGE dinner (2 turkeys, ham, salmon, ribs, 2 brussels spout dishes, beans, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, dressing, bread, vegetarian pie, 2 gravies, and 2 tables to lay it out on!). A cake seemed too much, and I figured that there would already be a pie (and yes, there were 2 huge pumpkin pies).  So I thought about whoopie pies!  I had never made them before, but I love saying “whoopie pie”! Plus, they are fairly bite size and cute!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Whoopie Pies

Adapted from here.

Makes 19 whoopie pies.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

½ cup cocoa

1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk – shaken

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup salted butter – room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

Directions

1.       Preheat oven 350 degrees.

2.       Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

3.       In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt

4.       In a cup, mix buttermilk and vanilla

5.       In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy.

6.       Add egg and beat until mixed.

7.       Add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk, and mixing between additions.

8.       Spoon (2 Tablespoon sized portions) onto cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

9. Cool thoroughly on a wire rack.

Before baking.

After baking.

Assembly

Pipe filling on a cookie and sandwich it with another cookie.  I used left over frosting from other baking projects (vanilla buttercream, raspberry buttercream, cream cheese frosting, and peanut butter cream cheese frosting), but next time I’ll try this boiled frosting. Add sprinkles to the exposed frosting.

Frosting in piping bags and sprinkles.

Clockwise from top right: vanilla buttercream, raspberry buttercream, cream cheese frosting, peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

Verdict: These were pretty delicious with a variety of fillings for people to choose from. The chocolate layers had great flavour and moist texture.  Next time, I’ll pipe the layers so that they’re all the same size and shape!