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It’s been a busy couple of weeks. We picked up our new puppy, Henry, from a
breeder in Minnesota. Isn’t he cute!?!? He is adjusting well and has a ton of
energy. I’m sure I will be sharing many
more pictures.
Then, a week later, my mother-in-law and father-in-law
dropped off Ted for us to dog sit. They
are off to Hawaii for spring break.
Jealous.
(Yes, Ted is chewing Henry's tiny bone in the above picture. He looks pretty guilty too.)
Luckily, Ted is a great dog!
Calm, sleeps a lot, and okay spending time in his kennel. Reminds us that all this puppy ‘fun’ is worth
it.
We tried to get them to ‘play’ but Ted was kind of like, “I’m
too old for this crap.”
Needless to say, it’s been interesting going from a no dog
house to a 2 dog house.
It was also my husband, Jacob’s, birthday on the 23rd! We both took Friday off to celebrate and be
lazy.
Thursday we visited our local
pub for beer and nachos.
Friday morning, we used a Groupon and had an awesome brunch.
For this birthday cake, Jacob requested a cookie cake from
the store. And that just wouldn’t fly
with me. Really? You want me to BUY a cake when I love to
bake. I decided to give me a little
of both.
I found a recipe, courtesy of Martha Stewart, for basically
a cookie cake on crack. You make 5 or 6
big cookies, and then layer them with frosting between each layer.
For the frosting - I stopped at our local grocery store and visited
the bakery. Much to my surprise they
sell their cake frosting for $1.99/lb.
Score. I thought that was pretty
darn cheap. I purchased 2 lbs of
white cake frosting and a ½ lb of blue decorating icing. (After the fact, 1 lb of the white frosting would have been
enough.)
This does take a little time because you cook each cookie
layer separately so plan accordingly. I
didn’t stress too much about the layers being perfectly round. Once baked, it was super quick to slap
the layers together.
The finished product was delicious! The cookies were still soft but firm enough
to layer without breaking. I think the
frosting helps keep it soft for cutting/serving too. You do not need a big slice of this bad boy –
a little sliver will do ya.
Jacob did admit that this was great and better than the
store bought. Duh, Jacob.
Cookies:
(Makes 5 or 6 layers)
4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp
baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp
unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups
packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp pure
vanilla extract
2 large
eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
3/4 cup
heavy cream
3 cups
semisweet chocolate chips
Whisk flour,
baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
Mix butter, brown
and granulated sugars until combined and fluffy. Add in vanilla, eggs, and yolks and mix until
combined.
Reduce speed
and add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the heavy cream.
Stir in
chocolate chips.
For each of
the 5 or 6 layers, drop 1 level cup batter onto center of a baking sheet lined
with parchment (keep unbaked dough refrigerated). Using a small offset spatula, spread into an
8-inch circle. Bake until golden brown,
about 12 – 15 minutes. (Watch the first
one a little closer just so you don’t over bake.)
Transfer to
wire rack; let cool.
Frosting:
Purchase
from local grocery store bakery to save time
OR use…
40 ounces (5
packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered
sugar
Mix cream
cheese and powdered sugar in mixing bowl on medium-high speed until pale and
fluffy. Spread onto 4 cookies. Stack cookies, placing unfrosted cookie on top.
If frosting
is too soft, you can refrigerate until set. Serve at room temperature.
Tonight - we head to a Roller Derby game! We've never been but were given free tickets. Should be fun!!!
Thanks for stopping by.