Chocolate Cool-Whip Birthday Cake

I found this recipe when I was looking for the perfect birthday cake for my baby's first birthday. It turned out fabulously! We all loved it so much, but when David's birthday rolled around and he requested the same cake - I knew it was a real winner. And SO yummy. 

Chocolate Cool Whip Birthday Cake
Source: My Stubborn Miss (She has awesome step by step pictures that are really great. I'd recommend jumping over to her website to check them out.)

Ingredients:
1 tub of COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
1 box chocolate cake mix (and the ingredients listed on the box)
Melting chocolate or Almond Bark

Directions: 

Mix the chocolate cake batter according to the instructions on the box. Bake in 8- or 9-inch rounds and let cool. Slice each round in half to make four circular cakes. (If you happen to break one, don't worry, you can put it back together with your melted chocolate.) 

Melt your chocolate according to the package directions and spread it between the layers of cake you just cut apart, then reassemble the two round cakes to create two circular cakes with a layer or chocolate in the middle of each one. Let cool. 

Assemble the cake with COOL WHIP between the two cakes, then frost all over the outside. Top with sprinkles.

Want to see a flashback to Lydia's first Birthday party? I made a large cake for everyone else and a small cake just for her. It was so fun and really did turn out perfectly. I dare say this cake is a new family favorite! 

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

Another delicious Peaden family Christmas Tradition.

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
Source: Sue Peaden

Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cup (about) flour
Large marshmallows

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 - 2 lbs of powdered sugar
1/2 milk
1 tsp vanilla
5-6 Tbs of cocoa powder (until frosting is about the same color as the batter)
dash of salt

Directions:
Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, beat to incorporate. Add baking powder, salt, vanilla. Add flour, cocoa, and milk alternately until all ingredients have been added. Create a test cookie by following the directions for completing the cookies below. Check texture of test cookie. If the edges are crispy and crunchy, the batter needs just a little bit more flour. If needed, sprinkle just a small amount of flour and mix into batter.  Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet, about one inch round. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, then check for doneness. Just before they are done, add half of a marshmallow to the top of each cookie. Bake for another minute until the marshmallow puffs up. Remove from oven and place on cool countertop or table.

While cookies are cooling, make up your frosting. Cream softened butter and 1 lb of powdered sugar, adding milk a little bit at a time. Add salt, vanilla, and half of cocoa. You want to keep adding milk, sugar, and cocoa and until you get to a smooth yet firm consistency that is about the the same color as the cookie batter.

After cookies have cooled, frost with Chocolate Buttercream frosting. Let frosting set up, then place in tins to freeze. (Optional: Before the frosting sets up, you can dip the tops of the cookies into chopped pecans.)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It seems that everyone has their very own "BEST chocolate chip cookie" recipe. Some like it thick and chewy. Some like it thin and crispy. Some try to dress it up. Some try to make it healthy. Some add random ingredients and call it an improvement. However, I am the kind of person who just likes a good traditional chocolate chip cookie. It's hard to know what recipe will be best. I searched and searched (always making another recipe that I had found) hoping to someday to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. 

I am happy to say, finally, that I have found the perfect recipe! This recipe hails from Dana @ Dana made it, and all I have to say is, Dana - you are my hero and you make the best chocolate chips cookies I've ever had!  I've really wanted to be able to stop looking for a different recipe every time we make chocolate chip cookies and this recipe has made that happen. I love it because it makes the perfect texture of cookie, it's fairly simple, and it's so so good. Also, it makes a TON of dough and I've loved being able to freeze the dough for those nights that we just need some cookies but don't have the time or energy to make them. It's awesome. 

 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Dana Made It (Please check her out - she's fabulous!) 

Ingredients:
1 cup Shortening
1 cup Butter (don’t use margarine)
1 1/2 cups White Sugar
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
5 1/4 to 5 1/2 cups Flour *
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 bags chocolate chips (12 oz bags) – 1 semi-sweet, 1 milk chocolate (*David and I like to substitute a mixture of butterscotch and chocolate chips into the cookie dough. Mmm... delicious!)

Directions:

Mix the shortening and butter with white and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix the buttery/egg mixture for a full THREE minutes. The time is important for the eggs and butter to become fully whipped and to develop new chemistry. 

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, and salt). Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix. Then add the other 1/2 and mix.

Add chocolate chips/butterscotch chips and combine. (The following method for making the cookie balls is one trick that I learned in all of my recipe testing.) Use your fingers/palms to make a ball that is twice the size of what you want the cookies to end up as, then split the ball in half and place on the ungreased cookie sheet with the broken side up. This gives your cookie a nice textured top with a nice shape. Place about 12-15 cookies per sheet (depending on how big you want to make them.)  

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes or just until the cookies are (just barely) slightly golden on top. If you wait till the cookies are entirely golden on the outside, it’s too late. They’ll be overcooked. You want them to be soft inside. Allow them to cool for a few minutes and transfer to a cooking rack. 

Enjoy hot! 

Dana includes some key points in this recipe, these are the ones that I think really need reiterating:
1. Use shortening and butter. The shortening is what gives the cookie a slight crispness around the edges while still feeling soft inside.

2. Mix the buttery/egg mixture for a full THREE minutes. 

Freezing Cookie Dough Loaves:

This recipe makes a lot of cookies, you could go ahead and bake them all - or you can freeze the rest of it into cookie dough loaves and then have freshly baked cookies any time you want!

* Divide the dough up into 2 or 3 piles.
* Set a pile onto a sheet of plastic wrap and use it and your hands to shape each pile into a loaf.
* Roll them up inside of the plastic wrap.
* Wrap each loaf with tinfoil. 

* Label your tinfoil package and write the date you made the cookie dough. 

You can choose to place them all in a ziplock bag together, or leave them separate. Then put them in the freezer!

When you’re ready to bake a few cookies, take out a cookie loaf. Defrost it for about 20 seconds. Make dough balls like above and bake them for 8-9 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Chocolate Waffle Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c. butter
4 sp. unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs beaten
1 3/4 cup sugar
3 c. flour
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Melt together butter and chocolate and mix that with sugar. Add eggs, flour, vanilla, baking powder, salt. Heat waffle iron and drop one scoop of batter in each section. Be careful not to burn.

Frost with chocolate frosting.

Shantel's Dad's Special Frosting: (His amounts are approximate and were full of hand gestures paired with statements of "about this much." If you get it right - it is divine.)

1 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs melted butter
4 capfuls of milk
Cocoa to taste.

Mix