Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies are light fluffy moist and oh so soft! This batch was made for our bake sale to benefit Farm of the Child

I cannot even explain to you how busy the last week has been! I was lucky enough to get tickets to an advance screening of Dinner for Schmucks and got to spend a night with the boys at the movies. I love being the girl in the all guy group, especially at a movie like that.....where every minute or so Brandon would throw his hand in front of my eyes. I'm 26 guys! Don't really need to hide my eyes anymore! The movie is funny. Ridiculous of course, but look at the premise. Are you really expecting anything sophisticated? Paul Rudd was rather disappointing. But I laughed myself sick so it's all good.

This morning however caused my coworker to ask me if I'd had a rough night and took up drinking. Okay, so casual Friday is being taken to a slightly grander extreme today. My oversized white tee, dark shades, ratted hair, slumped hobo, and pained expression.......well yeah, I can see what he was saying. I look like a little I partied just a little too hard. What did I do?

THE RUNNING OF THE BRIDES!

When my roomate asked if I wanted to come to this event I thought....oh sure that'll be fun! Um. Worst definition of fun. Mobs? Bridezillas? Henchmen? Bartering? Hoarding? SCARY! Scariest form of fun ever. These women go crazy! And let's just take a moment to consider whether or not it is socially acceptable to strip down to a bra and underwear in the middle of the store and try on dresses. I was shocked by first of all, some people's confidence in their bodies. They were NOT that attractive. But also, their sheer brazen disregard for any form of social propriety. You are in a store! Not your home! Deck yourself out in spandex and have a little pride woman!

And so today I am a little worse for wear (as was every dress paraded through that store). I'm posting something that isn't new, borrowed or blue. Here it is: my old fashioned sugar cookies!

merry christmas in july as well! i usually make these for holiday plates in december. 

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
3 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 c. evaporated milk or heavy whipping cream

Cream butter, adding sugar gradually. Cream until soft and fluffy. Then add eggs
one at a time, beating after each addition.  Sift dry ingredients together.
Alternately add ingredients and cream to egg sugar mixture.  Mix well.

Chill 3 hours or overnight.  Roll out on a well-floured board or countertop to 1/4-1/2
in. thickness.  Shape with floured cookie cutters.  Bake on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

(a secret:  the cookies won't be brown at all when they are done-press down lightly on a cookie when 8 min is up.  If the cookie springs back the cookie is done)

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookie Frosting

1/2 c butter
4 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 c powdered sugar (just enough to sweeten)
milk

Whip softened butter and softened cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add
vanilla and powdered sugar mixing until well combined.  Add milk to bring
frosting to desired consistency.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes with Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream

Tried out a new chocolate cake recipe! It bakes up the most perfectly shaped cupcakes I’ve ever had! Moist, and rich with a deep chocolate flavor, it pairs wonderfully with the chocolate hazelnut buttercream!

chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with a chocolate hazelnut butterceam frosting

Kickball lately has been a killer. Our team started out so strong! Two wins and a tie is a pretty good record…but then we lost three games in a row, and I got clothes lined last game by a player who decided running over the wrong base was a great idea. The way WAKA sets it up there are two first bases. One on the left, and one on the right. I use one, the runner uses the other, but it acts just like one extra large base. Why??? So you can overrun first base!!! Not the first base man!!!

kick ballers on the national mall, my WAKA team's shirt/logo

Being hung out to dry like that has given me a new appreciation for kickball night: it needs cupcakes. If I’m going to come out of this black and blue, there is going to be chocolate cake waiting for me! My teammates all have a little somethin’ somethin’ in the jell-o to take the edge of. I. Need. Cake.

So I schlepped a cupcake carrier through the metro at rush hour to make it to an 8:30 staff meeting. Then after work - thank heaven for interns - I dragged it (and myself) down to the National Mall in what is shaping up to be the hottest June on record. That’s love. Hear me teammates? L-O-V-E. 

Did the pregame sugar rush make a difference? Well...um...we scored one run. Which isn't so bad. We lost 1-2, but it was probably out best played game in a month....except for the everclear chocolate pudding that may have been the cause of a batting order mix up....maybe. Hey, I didn't have any. I went third, that's all I know. 


Hope you enjoy these cupcakes! I know 3 WAKA kickball teams sure did! 

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup dutch process cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

¾ teaspoon Kosher Salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened

3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line enough cupcake tins for 28 cupcakes.

In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.

In 2-cup liquid measuring cup, mix buttermilk and vanilla.

In a stand mixer beat sugar and butter until blended on a low speed then increase speed to high for a few minutes until light and creamy. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time while the mixer continues to run.

Add in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately. Beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour half the batter into a large pastry bag and pipe into lined cupcake tins.* Repeat with the remaining batter.  Bake 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.

*For a two 9 inch rounds bake 30 to 35 minutes. I prefer to pipe in cupcake batter to reduce air bubbles and have greater control over the amount of batter in each tin. It’s a personal preference, you can certainly spoon in the batter as you like.

Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar, more as needed

1 teaspoon vanilla

300 grams chocolate hazelnut spread

milk (as needed)

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using the paddle attachment. Add in the vanilla and chocolate hazelnut spread. If the mixture hardens, add a little milk. If it appears too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. Continue this until it reaches the consistency you’d like.

Enjoy! 

Cardamom Macarons with Lemon Buttercream

Light and crisp, these macarons have the sweet floral accent of cardamom. They pair wonderfully with the lemon-flavored buttercream. As Seen on Food Porn Daily (G Rated) and Photograzing. 

cardamom macarons

Butchie and I decided to take another pass at macarons and try another recipe. We used the basic recipe from when Helen of Tartelette was featured in Desserts Magazine and then added some cardamom.  I’ll admit while baking we were a little put off. They took much much MUCH longer to bake than we had anticipated.

Helen’s recipe said 10-12 minutes, but we baked our s for nearly twice the time and were still unsure if they were really ever fully cooked.  Luckily, the entertainment of the evening was so incredibly overdramatic that it completely took our minds off the amount of time these macarons needed to bake. [Leave Grey’s anatomy for two seasons, and you come back to find that not much has really changed. There are a lot of bad relationship choices, and Seattle Grace is still the only hospital in America in which you are more likely to be shot than cured.  --B]

By the next morning, we’d all but decided to forego the recipe based on the baking time, but then I came home early from work and ate a few of the leftovers. SO much better the next day.  I actually enjoyed them much more than our first attempt at macarons. This might be due to the fact that we were less stressed about the process, or because we had half the number of cooks in the kitchen, but mainly it’s that these macarons really did taste great.  Butchie can’t weigh in….I ate all the macarons and didn’t save any for her. [Jerk. –B. ] I’m not sorry. They were that good.  It is probably one of the best decisions I have made this week.

I really liked adding the cardamom to the macarons. It was a good flavor, especially when accented by the lemon buttercream filling. 

cardamom macarons, almonds,  and national cathedral

Cardamom Macarons

Adapted from Helen’s recipe at Tartelette

100 g egg whites

50 grams granulated sugar

200 grams powdered sugar

110 grams ground almonds (or blanched or whole)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

In a stand mixer, whip the egg whites into foam, gradually adding the sugar until you have a glossy meringue.

In a food processor pulse the powdered sugar, cardamom and almonds until smooth. If you are using whole almonds this will take about one minute.

Gently fold in part of the almond sugar with one or two strokes, then sprinkle over the rest of the almond sugar and cardamom. Be careful. This process should NOT take more than 50 strokes.

Using a pastry bag pipe out batter into 1 ½ inch diameter circles on to parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Allow to sit for one hour.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes (or 20 if you are us).

Allow the macarons to sit for 10 minutes before removing from the parchment paper. Any amount of time too long will brown the cookies and distract from the beautiful sheen they have.

Remove macarons from oven and transfer parchment to a cooling rack. When cool, slide a metal offset spatula or paring knife underneath the macaron to remove from parchment.

Fill with lemon buttercream.

Lemon Buttercream

1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp lemon flavoring
a pinch of salt
4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Whip (using a paddle attachment)  butter, and flavoring till creamy then whip in powdered sugar in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment.

Enjoy!