Thursday, January 22, 2009

Valentine Treats

These delicious chocolate butter cookies are a wonderful treat to have on hand for all of your Valentine sweethearts. They're filled with strawberry or raspberry jam and just melt in your mouth.

Chocolate Butter Cookie Sandwich Hearts
(makes 24 single cookies or 12 sandwich cookies)

1 cup of butter (2 sticks), softened to room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
Strawberry jam
Raspberry jam
White chocolate chips
Chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix until blended. Sift flour and cocoa into a large bowl. Combine with the butter mixture until dough holds together in a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill dough for 30 minutes. Portion out chilled dough and roll until it is ¼ inch thick. Dip heart shaped cookie cutter in powdered sugar and cut out 12 hearts. Roll out additional dough and cut 12 additional hearts. Using a smaller heart shaped cutter, cut a small heart in the center of the second batch of cookies. Bake all cookies in a 325 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool on cooling rack to 10 minutes. Once cookies are cool enough to handle, spread you choice of strawberry or raspberry jam on the full cookies making sure not to go over the edge. Top with center cut cookies. Melt white and chocolate candy melts (separately) and drizzle over sandwich cookies.


My daughter and I made these cupcakes last year. They're just plain, ordinary strawberry flavored cupcakes topped with strawberry frosting. What made them special were the roses we created and placed on top of each little cupcake. The roses are made with fruit roll-ups. These are those lovely and delicious fruity rolls that come in all flavors. Ours were, you guessed it, strawberry. It's very simple really. All you have to do is unroll the fruit roll and starting at one end, start re-rolling and crimping in the shape of a rose. Heres a close-up:
They're super easy and a lot of fun to make. I hope you try it with your kids.

Well, Brian, my daughter's boyfriend, was not going to be left out of my daughter's and mine baking adventures. He wanted to do something he had never done before...bake a cake. Actually, his idea was to make a giant cupcake for my daughter to prove to her that he was willing to learn something new. BUT, he wanted to make a giant cupcake in a bucket! You can imagine how well that went over. My daughter went out and bought him an early Valentine's Day gift, a giant cupcake mold.
You can see how proud he was with his first baking experience. My daughter just gushed at his adventurous efforts.




They decided to name this left over piece of cake Mr. Angry Cake. They kept looking at it and decided it had a face to it, an angry face. So to keep Mr. Angry Cake from being angry, we ate him!!

Was the kitchen a mess? Yes it was. But, you know, I'd rather have a mess in the kitchen and hear them laughing than wondering where they are and if they're OK.

I wonder what we'll make next?
*********************************
I've gotten a couple of inquiries about the giant cupcake mold. Here's a picture of it.



Amazon: Giant Cupcake Mold Here's where you can find it, or just type in giant cupcake mold in your search line and it will give you some link options.

14 comments:

Reeni said...

The cupcakes and cookies are so pretty!! How sweet-the giant cupcake! He did an awesome job! I didn't know there was such a thing as a giant cupcake pan.

Megan said...

I love the fruit roll up roses.They look so festive and perfect for valentines day. And how sweet your daughters boyfriend is to bake for her. And I so hear you about I'd rather have a messy kitchen and know where they are then to have to wonder. love the giant cupcake!

Chef E said...

I love those,and how clever to make flowers from fruit roll ups. I thought they were the tissue ones we made as kids!

How sweet he made a cake, my son cooks as well and girls really like it when a guy can do things like that!

Me too on the giant cup cake pan??? Do tell...

Joan said...

What a wonderful post! How cute! I cannot even tell me how much I agree with you on the last sentence. I say it all the time.

Joan said...

Sorry I wrote that wrong! I meant cannot even tell you.....brain malfunction!

Teresa Cordero Cordell said...

To Reeni and Chef E:
The mold is the bomb. We love it. I placed a picture of it on the post so that you can see it. Find it at Amazon or Wilton. It runs about $30.00.

To Megan and Joan:
You can always tell the "moms" who watch out for their kids regardless how old they are. The love will come back to you 10 fold.

Love you guys.

Finla said...

Wowo you are making a lot of reat for valentines.
Beautiful and delicou.
Thanks for the link tfot the giant cupcake pan.

Nazarina A said...

Wow Teresa, you guys sure bonded by baking all those delicious Valentine treats! I'll be yours ha! ha! ha! just to join you guys in eating all of them!!!

Maria said...

That's hysterical. I can't even imagine my daughter (she's a sweet 4 years old) getting to that stage--ugh!!

Everything looks delicious, but I love the giant cupcake. What a great idea--I love making cupcakes and am known to friends and relatives as THE cupcake baker, so it would be fun to make a monster of cupcake next get together.

*Kimmie* said...

It's all gorgeous, but those cookies look absolutely amazing!!!

Joanna said...

those cupcakes are far from ordinary!! i love strawberries. i eat them all the time.the fruit roll ups were such a nice touch.

i remember when i had a boyfriend- he loved helping in the kitchen, too. he always ended up eating whatever i baked before i even got to try it.

Reeni said...

Thanks for putting up the picture of the giant mold!! And the link! I'm off to check it out. HUGS

The Blonde Duck said...

I love the ginoumous cupcake! And those cookie sandwiches would be perfect for a party!

Photonuts said...

I am a little behind on posts, but isn't that cute!

 

blogger templates | Make Money Online