This Decorated Cookie Cakes recipe has oatmeal but these are not the typical oatmeal cookies with spices. This cookie is iced and layered and iced. It has a deliciously surprising flavor, vanilla with a hint of almond. No almond meal or nuts. I acquired this recipe, given to me years ago, and have never come across anything like it since.
The cookies are decorated and it is time to let you in on the secret.
Packed with goodness! This was my choice for an energy bar in the 60’s, BUT you will have to eat two to get the calorie count of most energy bars of today. I was hooked the first time I made this Date Nut Bar!
Have you heard of Mineral King? Beautiful place chosen by Disney to develop a resort in 1965. This resort project fell through. Kathryn and I planned a day hike in Mineral King about this time. This bar never tasted so good.
Try this Mexican Wedding Cake Cookie with a milk chocolate kiss, my favorite! This is one of those cookies that has a long history with me. My first experience with this recipe was not really appreciated. And in fact, for the reasons this cookie is popular, subtle flavor with extraordinary richness, my parents found it difficult to enjoy. It was just not a chocolate chip, peanut butter or oatmeal cookie. But after years of making these I was asked to bake them, dozens and dozens, for a reception my mother was giving. This cookie now surpasses many other cookies in popularity for my family.
I added a chocolate kiss to the center of this cookie to surprise my very young children. It isn’t a practice now. In fact, the children prefer the Mexican Wedding Cake without alteration!
Today I decided to try dark chocolate. To my surprise the dark chocolate steals the taste of the cookie. I recommend a milk chocolate instead. And baking a few without this alteration for the purists.
This is another recipe where you are likely to have all the ingredients in your pantry most of the time!
Family just loves this moist delicious coffee cake! I bet your pantry and refrig have all you need. Whip this up and bake. And when the smell permeates the house those sleepyheads will be up in no time.
As American as Apple Pie…. That brings about emotion, doesn’t it? And in our family we love our apple pie … not necessarily to just eat. Especially our Favorite French Apple Pie! I started baking pies as a preteen … Not surprising to my children. But what they don’t know … my father was the first to show me how to bake an apple pie. Now this was odd in any day! My father was an athlete, always golfing in his spare time. And had never shown any interest in cooking before this … other than barbecue. But his mother, my Grandmother Rose, was always in the kitchen. So, I concluded he was quietly observant as a young boy. And craving apple pie as he remembered it. His most important step was to precook the apples to assure that they would be fully cooked after baking. What my son, Stephen, likes to refer to as the applesauce pie. Stephen didn’t taste my dad’s pie and I don’t use this method. But I do like to bake my apple pie until the apples are no longer al dente. (Al dente is not used to describe fruit? Oop.) This is the applesauce bake. You can be sure when I bake this for Stephen’s birthday I strive to keep the apples a little firm. This is sometimes done by baking the pie less time, or using 3 different apple types that cook at different rates. Oh, one last trick … not cutting the apples pieces smaller than 1/8 of a large apple. But the tenderness of the cooked apples is not the only thing that comes under scrutiny. The crust … two crust versus one, versus French topping (brown sugar vs white, flour vs oatmeal), versus butter crust, vs vodka crust, vs vegetable shortening crust. You get the picture.
I just love this pie!
What do you do when the family is expecting chocolate chip cookies tonight but the chickens haven’t laid because they’ve decided it’s winter already and you have yet to install your chicken coop light to fool them? Whoa! And you don’t want to disappoint your grandchildren who have mistaken you for a gourmet cook! Chocolate & Walnut Toffee Bars!
On a twenty dollar weekly budget in the late 60’s, substitution became common place. I hate to think back to what I used for butter. I still have my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, thank you Margaret, from the same era. This cookie is inspired by the recipe on page 151, Toffee Bars. The ingredients are similar to those of a chocolate chip cookie recipe … Omit the egg, soda, and white sugar, and voila, you have Chocolate & Walnut Toffee Bars.
You can double the recipe. Our family is into hot from the oven. So, I generally opt for a smaller batch. This recipe makes 16 two inch bars if an 8″ by 8″ baking pan is used.
Many years ago I was having an early Sunday breakfast with my friend Charles. He had purchased the major newspapers of the day for us. While he was reviewing the whereabouts of Jimmy Carter, and the continuing news of Watergate (Deep Throat) I was focusing on Food and Entertainment. Frank Sinatra had married again, and Julia Child and her recipes remained newsworthy. Somewhere in all these newspapers I came across a recipe for Roca Cookies, not Julia’s. Since my father’s favorite candies included Almond Roca I took a second look.
In the 1970’s I began baking these cookies. The recipe has changed over the years but remains very different from any other Roca Cookie recipe I have reviewed. I hope you will try this recipe and enjoy these cookies as much as my sons, Steve and Ian, do.
This delicious yellow cake is a simple version of my Italian Cream Cake. When the coconut and pecans in the original recipe are removed the crumb of the cake changes to a light fine texture. Coconut is a taste and texture not all appreciate. The cream cheese frosting has been changed as well for the same reason. Yep, this was changed up for a special birthday.
This was Marc’s choice for a birthday cake … The Mystery Cake for the mystery man.
I have tested alternatives to the main ingredient, canned tomato soup. With this recipe I substituted pumpkin with terrific results. The idea of pumpkin puree just sounds better for several reasons.
The cake is called a mystery because of the hidden tomato soup ingredient that cannot be detected in the flavor of the cake. As for the pumpkin substitution, it is hard to determine if the spices used take the palate to a pumpkin place as in pumpkin pie.
This is a rich tasting but light in texture yellow cake … A cake I made for my daughter’s birthday today. I have added just a touch of drizzle … But did not pour a chardonnay glaze over the cake as in the original recipe.
I’m not sure who to give the credit to for this recipe. It was given to me many years ago but I fail to remember the details. With a little research I have found it has been recorded by Cindi Leive, 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know.
Changes have been made to the glaze only. I like to make all cakes from scratch. So, with this recipe I experimented with replacing the vanilla pudding with ingredients like extra eggs and cream for the whole milk with disasterous results. I did a little research here but all the suggestions were very chancy. Dry whipped topping was suggested, too. But if using this topping I might as well use the pudding mix as in the original.
Try this Chardonnay Cake with Buttercream or Citrus Drizzle! After all it has been recommended as 1 in 100 recipes women should know! That says something, doesn’t it?