Pinterest fail

 I've seen this wonderful idea on Pinterest a lot lately. You use cake batter in a waffle maker and it's a great way to have cake quickly. I tried it. Things didn't go so well. It could have been the type of cake I made (it's a very runny batter, but an amazingly moist cake). Or, it could have been I didn't let it cook long enough (I know, what's 4-5 minutes) but I was afraid it would burn and you should have smelled it. It smelled amazing. I made one, failed, and didn't bother to try again. The boys enjoyed eating it (I used a fork to scrape it out and then we smooshed the cake into balls for them to eat).

Now, this is where the fail continued. I have some microwavable muffin "tins." They hold three muffins/cupcakes each. I bought them to hold water for painting. I decided to make microwave cupcakes. Didn't turn out too hot. They cooked, but they all merged together and blah, blah, blah. It was bad. I scraped them out into a bowl and decided to bake the rest in the oven. From there I figured I'd make cake balls. After talking to my mom I decided to make a trifle. The cake won't be cut into pretty little cubes, but who cares when chocolate pudding, chocolate cake, cherry pie filling, and whip cream are involved. I'm very excited about tomorrow's dessert option!

***Edited to add: the trifle was amazing! Chocolate pudding, crumbled cake, fresh sliced strawberries, whip cream, and repeat. No, I didn't take a picture, and yes I used some very fattening ingredients, but it is divine. The twins kept calling it ice cream and Husband was quite surprised (both by the amount I made and the taste). 

Sugar cookies with frosting

Yesterday we made cookies for my sister-friend. I knew it would be a long day at work for her, the weather was perfect for baking, and I wanted to. It also gave me a great reason to go for a walk with my boys (something I always enjoy/hate all at the same time).

I decided to make some sugar cookies using a recipe I got (and tweaked) in college. It is my go to sugar recipe. I would have done chocolate chip cookies, but we only have chocolate/mint chips and cinnamon chips. Not a big deal but both have reasons for being in the freezer and not being used. Anyway, I also decided to make some grenadine frosting. I bought some to make a Shirley Temple cake. That was an interesting cake (very sweet) but we don't buy soda and I wanted to find a way to use what I have in the pantry. This might not have been the quickest way to use it up but it was an intersting idea so I ran with it. There are a few different recipes on the internet for grenadine frosting. I went with the simplest and halved it because I knew we wouldn't need that much, also I was planning on using some sweetened lime syrup (by the same company) to make the other half with. Overall I was happy with how it all turned out. Sister-friend's co-workers said it was yummy and H loves the grenadine frosting. I may be the only fan of the lime...it is an acquired taste and a little goes a long way because it is quite sweet.

Here are the recipes I used.

Easy sugar cookies
- Adapted from a recipe from allrecipes.com back in 2002

2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gradually blend the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven or until golden (I found 10 minutes was perfect for the wheat flour). Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes to cool before moving to wire racks (they will look a little under cooked in the cracks and need some time to set up before being removed or they'll fall apart).

Grenadine Frosting

1/4 c. butter, softened
1 c. powedered sugar
1-2 tbsp. grenadine (start with 1 and add more to taste)

Mix together the butter and sugar with a fork. Add in the grenadine and stir until combined.

I used this same recipe but changed the grenadine for the sweetened lime concentrate to make the lime flavor.