My Cup Of Tea: Food

Gingerbread Men Cookies

I hope everyone is in the Christmas spirit because I sure am! I decided to share one of my favorite recipes for the ultimate Christmas time treat. Gingerbread Men are perfect as a gift or to leave out for Santa, Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3/4 cups light brown sugar

2 tablespoons syrup

1 tablespoon molasses

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/3 cups un-salted butter

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

white icing

Directions:

On a low heat, in a saucepan, combine the light brown sugar, syrup, molasses, water, cinnamon, ginger, butter and then stir well. Then add the baking soda and make sure to keep stirring to avoid any burns at the bottom. Take pan off of heat and slowly add the flour, mixing well throughout. Mix until a ball of dough forms and leave the dough to cool for 30 minutes. After the 30 minuets is up, preheat the oven to 365 degrees Fahrenheit and spread the dough about 3 millimeters thick. Now, use your gingerbread men shapes and cut the cookies out and place them on a baking tray about one inch apart. Place them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until nice and firm. Let the cookies cool and then it is time to decorate! Fill a squeeze bottle with white icing and create your gingerbread men. Any color icing can be used but I went for the classic white.

Enjoy xx

http://saklk.com/easy-recipe-gingerbread-men-cookies.html

Colorful Blondies

One of my friends had surgery recently and to cheer her up and sooth my baking needs, I decided to come up with the colorful blondies to give her a little cheering up with a happy dessert.
You could also substitute any other treat, nut, cookie or anything you would like instead of Oreos and Sprinkles.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

Oreo Cookies

Rainbow Sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a 8 by 8 pan with cooking spray, butter, or aluminum foil. Heat butter to melt and add egg afterwards. Wait a minute to add the egg to the melted butter so the egg doesn't cook in the hot butter. Add the brown sugar, vanilla and mix until smooth. Add the flour and stir until combined but don't over mix. Stir in the Oreos and rainbow sprinkles and mix in evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until slightly firm and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and enjoy!

Enjoy xx

The Slutty Brownie Cake

The Slutty Brownie Cake is derived from the classic, the slutty brownie. Yes the name is not the most appealing but what I am about to show you makes up for everything.

I decided to go all out for my sisters birthday and make her this colossal cake on Sunday. It ended up taking some time but it was defiantly worth it.

The Very Simple and Fast Way
Buy 1 box of Devil's Food cake mix, 1 box of Oreos, 1 bag of Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, 2 containers of Vanilla Frosting and everything those recipes call for.

The Made From Scratch Way
Disclaimer: This cake is very rich and very sweet I could only have one slice!

Ingredients (cake): 1 cup white sugar, 1 1/8 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup softened un-salted butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans and set aside. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt then set aside. Cream together the butter (softened) and sugar until fluffy, and then add the egg and the vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients and beat the mixture until well blended adding a pinch of water if necessary.

Divide the batter into the two pans and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

p.s. The batter will be thick so you need to try and not eat the batter (I know it's hard) and use every drop of batter and spread it out well

Ingredients (cookie): 1 cup butter softened and un-salted, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs,, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 3 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons hot water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 8-inch round cake pan and set aside. Cream together the butter and the sugars until smooth. Add in each egg one at a time and then add in the vanilla. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add it to the batter. Stir in the flour slowly and the chocolate chips until everything is combined.

Place the batter into the greased pan and cook for about 25-35 minutes depending on how thick the cookie batter is.

p.s. My 8'' cake pan was about 1 1/2 inches overflowing with cookie when the cookie had risen but it ended up fine.

For the Frosting: You can either use a can a store brought frosting, a buttercream frosting (below) or a cream cheese frosting (below)

Buttercream Frosting: Cream together 3 sticks of un-salted softened butter, 1 1/2 to 2 cups confectioners' sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of heavy cream

Cream Cheese Frosting: Cream together 1/2 cup un-salted softened butter, 8 oz plain cream cheese, 2 to 3 cups of confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract