Easy Spice Cake Cookies

Fall foods are always warm and comforting.  These easy Spice Cake Cookies are delicious and definitely fit the bill for a delicious fall food. 

These cookies are ridiculously easy.  They're soft and pillowy with a sweet spice.

Jenny's Spice Cake Cookies

18.25 oz. pkg. Spice cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. Penzey's Cake Spice (optional, but I think it gives the cookies nice depth)

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Pour cake mix into large bowl.

Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended.   

Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners sugar.

Roll them around until lightly covered.

Once sugared, put them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 minutes and no longer!!

Bottoms will be light brown, and insides will be chewy.

You can also top these with some cream cheese frosting.  

Baking at the Cambridge Culinary Institute

Recently, I've been learning how to bake. I took a 4-part class called "Techniques of Baking" at the Cambridge Culinary Institute.

In our first class we learned how to make puffed pastry, or Pâte à choux. It's not as difficult as it sounds, but does take some time to to put it all together. I made my own dough, and made a coffee creme filling, and topped some with chocolate ganache and others with a vanilla icing. YUM! These didn't even survive one day before they were gobbled up!

For more information on The Cambridge Culinary Institute, please visit: http://www.cambridgeculinary.com/

I Heart Cuppycakes!

I love cupcakes!  There is something so fun about those little cakes that makes me happy!  I can cook, but I'm still practicing how to bake.  There's really less room for improv in baking.  Make sure you use the right "chemicals" (baking soda/baking powder/baking ammonia) or you could end up with a cake that tastes like soap!

I would say these cupcakes are some of the best I've made!  They are moist and delicious, with just the right amount of sweetness.  I changed the original from sweetened coconut to dessicated coconut to balance the sweetness of the frosting.  But feel free to use either kind you like.  Toasted or not.

Coconut Cupcakes

adapted from Barefoot Contessa

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

6 large eggs at room temperature

1 TBLS vanilla extract

3 Cups flour

1 tsp baking POWDER

1/2 tsp baking SODA

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk

14 ounces dessicated coconut, divided

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Using a paddle attachment on an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Change the mixer speed to low add eggs 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.  Add vanilla and mix well.

In separate bowl, sift together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour.  In 3 additions, alternate adding dry ingredients and buttermilk to the batter, beginning with dry and ending with dry.  Mix until just combined.  Remove from mixer and fold in half of the coconut.

Fill cupcake liners and bake 25-35 minutes until tops are brown and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound cream cheese at room temperature

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 pounds confectioners sugar, sifted

Using paddle attachment in electric mixer on low speed, cream together cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract.  Add the confectioners sugar and mix until smooth.

For frosting the cupcakes, pipe the frosting on as much or as little as you like.  No worries about this being perfect.  Over a bowl, put some coconut in your hand and gently roll and form the coconut onto the frosting until it resembles a "snowball".

Enjoy!