Kevin's Birthday Cake

What's that? A cake?!?! Where are the cookies from Martha's book, you say? Don't worry, they'll be back. Kevin turned 36 on the 9th so I needed to make a cake worthy of him for his party. I picked up two kinds of Betty Crocker cakes mixes for him to choose from: Triple Chocolate Fudge and Chocolate Fudge. Well, true to Kevin's chocolate-loving ways, he couldn't choose just one and he wanted both. So, a mile-high, four-layer cake it was!

I alternated the flavors with the layers and then covered the entire cake with homemade chocolate-cinnamon frosting! Is your mouth watering yet? If not, it should be. I usually make buttercream frosting so I'm never quite sure on the best chocolate frosting. I followed the recipe on the can of Hershey's Cocoa. I made a double batch and then realized that 1. it wouldn't be enough frosting and 2. it was just too rich, dark and not sweet enough for my taste. I ended up adding about 2 more cups of powdered sugar (to finish off the boxes) and then a bunch of ground cinnamon. Absolutely divine!

I had just enough frosting (I scraped the bowl for every last bit) and added some chocolate sprinkles for decoration. The frosting was some of the easiest I have ever worked with and it spread like a dream. It was one of the quickest cake I ever frosted. In fact, I was too lazy to deal with couplers and tips, so I just used the pastry bag with a snipped tip that I used to fill between the layers to pipe the detail along the bottom edge. I really liked the simple, uneven waves it created that a tip, or even coupler, wouldn't have produced.

Well, as you can imagine, the cake was a huge hit and most came back for more. Even I loved it and I'm not a big fan of such chocolaty desserts! Definitely a keeper.

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5-chips (blogger was acting up - I'll try the images again later)

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Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars - Page 59

I made this cookie to take to PEPS (our parenting group that has turned into great friendships). I felt the need to make it up to one of the fathers, Brad, for not having bake-goods the last time we hosted. He gave me lots of grief and swears that's the only reason he comes to the get-togethers. Luckily, non of our kids have nut allergies, so I thought this would be a great cookie for the kids to enjoy. Plus, I was hoping to get Ava to eat one, realize peanut butter isn't all that bad, and pig out on the ton of calories I think these dense cookies hold.

This recipe used up almost an entire jar of Kirkland's Organic Creamy Peanut Butter (YUM!!) and a jar of raspberry jam, not to mention all the chopped peanuts on top. This made a huge batch in a 9 x 13 pan - I think I would only make a half batch in the future. I also baked this recipe on the lowest time recommended based on all the previous cookies. Well, it's the one time I could have probably baked them for the longest time. I'm not sure what the consistency was supposed to be, but these were like biting into a thick slab of peanut butter. We all looked like dogs trying to lick the gooey peanut butter off the roofs of our mouths. They were rich and beyond dense. I took half a batch to PEPS cut into squares that I quickly found were too big. They were just too much to eat that big of a cookie at one time. The other half was cut into smaller bars and given to Kevin to take to work. He reported back that the guys all loved them and that they gobbled them up right away. The flavor was that of one of the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you've ever had. But the texture was just too much for me to handle. I don't enjoy all the work of chewing these up and then feeling like a brick hit your stomach all within the first bite. Ava couldn't get past the texture of these and barely took a nibble. So much for getting her filled up on tons of calories and turning her on to peanut butter. I'll try these again when she get to be school aged.

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Butterscotch-Cashew Blondies - Page 277

I've been dying to use the Heath Toffee Bits I bought a couple of weeks ago from AmazonFresh and had to find a recipe to use them in. Unfortunately there were only two to choose from (I was dreaming of loads of toffee recipes), this one and Brown-Butter Toffee Blondies. Both Blondies (which I had never made) and both with nuts in them (I'm not a fan of nuts in my sweets). This one won however, because it had cashews instead of walnuts and butterscotch chips!

These were beyond easy to make, but once again I needed to adjust the cooking time down a bit (they must like really browned cookies over there at MSLO). I took them to our friends' BBQ and most were gobbled up quickly. These blondies look like cake but and sound like brownies, but they really do have the texture of a light and chewy cookie - just thicker. The consistency was much nicer than I expected and I liked them more than I thought I would. I did bump up the butterscotch chips and toffee bits a little bit and put in a little less cashews than it called for (being that I don't do nuts in my sweets). The flavor was light and honestly I could have handled more toffee and scotchie flavor - I'll have to add more next time. But, overall, I can honestly say that I like blondies. Who knew.

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Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies - Page 77

This cookie was calling me. It's looked delicious and somewhat nutritious (well, as cookies go). It doesn't have much butter and it's full of applesauce, oats, and golden raisins. These were quick and easy to make and best of all, you get to top them with icing!

Once again, I had to adjust the baking time. It calls for 13-15 minutes and I had to pull them out around 12-13 minutes. I'm finding it quite frustrating that Martha's staff can't seem to get the baking times correct. I keep thinking that maybe it's because they are in the Northeast and that could possibly make a difference. But really our altitude and weather conditions are not that far off from each other, so I don't think that is the case. I never have problems with any other confections - boxed or from recipe - so I'm leaning towards it being a problem on their end.

The other thing I wish I had adjusted was the amount of liquid in the icing. When I read the proportions or liquid versus confectioners' sugar, it looked like it would make a runny glaze instead of a thicker icing. I trusted the recipe and it definitely came out thin and runny - not at all like the photos in the book. Because of this, I had to drizzle the cookies twice, and they still just looked shiny when the glaze set up (instead of the pretty white ribbons of icing I had imagined).

Even with the less than perfect "icing" these cookies are divine! They are what I love about a good cookie: soft, chewy, with great texture and bursts of flavor. I think I could have eaten the entire batch myself. Luckily, I sent 1 1/2 dozen with Kevin for the guys at his work before I could get too hooked on them. He said they were gone immediately. Ava loved them too and scarfed down the couple she got (which is saying a lot for a little girl who eats like a bird and it picky of her cookies). I want to make these again and again, but I need to move on to the next test subject.

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Peanut Butter Cookies - Page 184

Ava helped me pick this week's cookie. She picked "Peanut Crisps" from the index which made me think of regular ol' Peanut Butter Cookies. I checked the ingredient list and we had everything on hand. So, we had a winner.

I've never been real big on peanut butter cookies, but I don't dislike them either. It's just not what I would pick if given a choice of cookies. I thought these would be fun to make with Ava. I only remember making these once or twice as a little girl, but I know that it was fun smashing the fork into the tops. This recipe called for us to first flatten the ball of dough with a floured glass. Failure.

I'm not sure why, but my dough is coming out very soft (this happened last week too). Now, I will say, that I used the whisk attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer because my paddle attachment has been missing since we moved. But, I don't know if that would cause the dough to be so soft. The only other thing different was the fact that I only had about half the unsalted butter and used regular butter for the rest. That shouldn't make much of a difference. I did use Kirkland's organic, creamy peanut butter (yum!) which might cause the dough to be softer.

We skipped the glass step and moved right on to the fork. Ava thought it was neat and even got to try it a couple of times. Of course, she was a little over-zealous, but that's part of the fun of baking!

I baked two dozen (2 pans) of cookies at once - swapping the pans and rotating them half-way through the baking time. The bottom pan turned out great but the top pan got over cooked. I think I'm going to have to really watch the cook-time on these recipes, so far they have been too long.

Kevin tried the first cookie. He finished it off right away and then said that you need a glass of milk with them. He expected them to be chewy, not dry, and I informed him that they usually are dry. I had a generous bite of one, and to say they are dry is an understatement. It sucked every, last drop of moisture out of my mouth. They taste really nice, but after a big chug of water, I was pretty much done with them. The odd thing is that they are really greasy to the touch (2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of peanut butter, and 1/2 cup of peanuts will do that, I guess) so the dryness really catches you off guard. It will be interesting it see what others think of them.

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Chewy Molasses Crinkles - Page 83

Kevin and I flipped through the book and he narrowed the first choice down to three. I decided on the first cookie from those, based on the least amount of ingredients we would need to purchase (only molasses and allspice for this one). I made a full batch of cookies so we could take most over to our friends' for game night.


First, I would like to note that 1 hour of time to chill the dough is not nearly enough. I would say 2-3 hours at least and overnight is even better. However, I did bake the first dozen with only an hour of chill time, it just made for messier dough-ball rolling as the dough wasn't firm at all. I baked them on a Silpat® instead of parchment, and it worked perfectly. I did learn that you really can't expect to get a dozen on the sheet without having them all touch, as I really crowded the pan and got few circular cookies. Pan two was baked after the dough could chill longer and pan three the next day. They improved each time, but I would say they still weren't perfect.

I absolutely love molasses cookies, the really big, fat, and chewy ones. Ones where you're not sure if they even finished baking. These were not quite that. The overall diameter of the cookie is wonderful, but they thin out during the baking process, leaving the edges chewy, yet hard. The first pan was baked at the recommended 17 minutes, the second - 16 minutes, and finally the third at 15 minutes (each rotated 8 minutes in). The last pan was my favorite, but I think I'll try shortening the time even a minute or two more next time I make these. The flavor was wonderful and just what I had hoped for, it's too bad the density was just off.

Others seemed to feel the same, even though they kept coming back for more. And when Ava (primo-tester) was asked what she thought of them she said, "Ummmm.....(pause) cookie." Enough said.

So, here's my rating system - the Chip Scale (5 chocolate chips being the best). I've decided on two scales: one for flavor, and the other for texture (which will cover consistency, density, texture, etc. - basically how does it feel in one's mouth).

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Let the cookie testing begin!

I purchased Martha Stewart's Cookies on Friday. I don't think I've ever purchased any of Martha's books before. Magazines, yes. Special issues, yes. But never a book. All of her recipes are on her site and many on shows, so I've never felt the need. But I really liked how they organized the new book and figured it was worth the less-than $15 (at Costco) for an organized book of yumminess. The index has full-color photos of every cookie, broken down in categories (such as "Soft and Chewy" - my personal favorite, and "Crumbly and Sandy" - my least favorite), along with a nice color photo of every single recipe in the book. After flipping through it, I decided that no matter how much I perceived to love or hate the cookie, I was going to set out to make each of these recipes. So I decided while setting out to try and test all of these cookies - many I would never of even think of making - that I might as well document it all. This might take a few years, and I want to remember where it all started.