Fluffy Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Frosting

I figured I'd better get a few sweet treats posted for Valentines Day.  These are one of the best treats.  Who doesn't walk through the bakery at the grocery store & not want to grab a box of these puppies?!  Then you look at the price & remember your New Years resolution & decide against it.  But for Valentines you can break the rules a little.  Whipping up a batch of these for your sweetie is a great way to show some love, & eat some yummy cookies.  Throw a little vanilla frosting on top & some sprinkles & they look as pretty as they taste.  These cookies are moist & cake-like & the homemade vanilla frosting is oh, so good!  Here's the DL...
Ingredients
3 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
In medium bowl combine cake flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Using an electric mixer cream butter & sugar together until fluffy.  Add in eggs on at a time stirring after each addition.  Beat until fluffy.  Stir in sour cream and vanilla until combined.  Gradually add in flour mixture just until combined.  Chill dough for at least on hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.

Roll 1 heaping tablespoon of dough into a ball (you may need a little butter on your hands to keep dough from sticking).  Place ball on the baking sheet & flatten to about 1/2 inch thick, molding sides as you go so it keeps it's circle shape.  Place dough balls about 2 inches apart.  Bake for about 10 minutes, or just until edges turn slightly brown.  Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes & then transfer to wire rack, let cool completely.

Spread frosting on top & immediately put on sprinkles.  Let set for about 20 minutes & enjoy!

Vanilla Frosting
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
about 2 tablespoons milk
Directions
Using electric mixer with whisk attachment blend butter & sugar.  Stir in vanilla.  Add milk a little at a time & blend until frosting is smooth & of spreading consistency.  May require more or less milk.  Add about 2 drops of red food coloring to make it pink (or a few drops of any desired color).  Use immediately.
*this will be enough to frost all your cookies, or two 8 or 9 inch cake layers, or 9x13 inch cake.

Red Velvet Cookies

Nothing screams Valentine's like red & chocolate.  Therefore, Red Velvet Cookies are the perfect Valentine treat because they contain both.  I'm a big fan of red velvet.  My Mom always makes red velvet cake for special events.  It's so beautiful to look at & taste so good.  These cookies hold up that reputation.  They are sweet, velvety (of course), & dainty.  They have a wonderful cake-like texture, but their thinness keeps them from being overwhelming.  Whip up a batch of these & your honey will melt like butta'.  Here's the DL...
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 cup white chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together flour, baking soda & cocoa, set aside.
Cream together butter & sugars until fluffy.  With mixer on low speed add eggs, vanilla, & food coloring.  Mix well but don't allow to get too fluffy.  Slowly add the flour mixture & beat until just combined.  Use spoon to mix in white chocolate chips.
Place heaping teaspoon full balls of dough onto a grease or lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are set around the edges but still soft in the center.  Remove from oven & let cool for 1-2 minutes & then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  Makes about 2 dozen cookies  Enjoy!

You Might Also Like...

Cranberry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Love Day Cupcakes

Handmade Butterfly Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones.  Here are some loving pictures to commemorate this day.

Hope you have a great Valentine's Day.  Now I'm off to DQ with my little loves & my main love for some treats!

Cute Valentine's Cards

Here's another super simple homemade Valentine's Day card.  My girls are in kindergarten & this is what they did for their classmates this year.  Now before you say I'm Super Mom or way too ambitious, keep in mind that there are only ten kids in their class.  So overall we only had to make twenty.  I love the cute little dragon fly & that the candy is attached!  I found this idea at dltk-kids.com and just tweaked it for my purposes.  This card is simple, requires minimal grown up work, and gets your kids creative juices flowing.

First I altered the printable from the website to the size that would work best for Smarties or a snack size candy bar.  I also put four cards per page so there was less printing.  Here is my template.

Next cut out the cards by quartering the page with a cutting board or scissors.  Now let your kids get creative & color in the picture.  Then have them write who it's to & from on the back (or the front if they can write small enough).

For the wings I used foam heart stickers.  You could also cut out little hearts from construction paper if you like, but the stickers are much easier.

I think the wings pop out a little more if you layer the hearts by putting a smaller heart on top of the big heart.

Lastly I just used a glue stick to attach the candy & they were done.  Super cute homemade cards are the best.  You can easily alter this project based on the child's age & skill level.  Happy card making!

Here is the original template that I adapted
Here is a more technical template 

Valentines Gift for You Winner

Congrats to 
scrappy chic said...

We LOVE to leave each other (all 4 of us) little love notes & treats in fun metal mail boxes all month. We of course LOVE each other all the time, but this is fun way to remember and get CANDY!!!

BTW: that owl oven mitt is stinking CUTE!

So happy you get to use that stinkin' cute oven mitt for you Valentine's celebration.  Enjoy making more treats to show your love with this fun cookie kit.

Thanks for all who participated.  I love hearing about everyone's traditions!

How I pick a winner: I use random.com to generate the winners of my giveaways.  No one ever sponsors my giveaways... in fact it's usually stuff I find in the dollar bin at the store.

An Easy Valentine's Treat

This is a super easy way to make Valentine's Day cupcakes.  All you'll need is a heart shaped cookie cutter & colored sugar or sprinkles.

 

First make your desired flavor of cupcakes & frosting.  I like how chocolate cake looks with red & pink so I chose it.  I would suggest using white frosting because it makes the color sugar/sprinkles pop.  But you can get creative.  Heavily frost the cupcakes.  Then set the cookie cutter on top & lightly press down.

Next pour in a bit of sprinkles/colored sugar.  You don't need to fill the whole thing up, just enough to coat the space inside the cookie cutter.

Gently holding the cookie cutter in place swirl the sprinkles around until the entire space is coated.

Continue holding the cookie cutter in place & pour out the excess sprinkles.

Remove the cookie cutter and viola, the heart shape is there.  You can use all kinds of shapes & colors.  Whatever floats your boat.  This is super easy, but looks like you took all day to make them... you supreme baker you!

Valentines Gift for You

The big day of love is only one week away.  In our family my husband & I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day.    But we always do something for our kids.  In our house Valentines is more of a kids holiday.  I get a small gift bag for each child with some candies & maybe a small toy or pair of socks.  Something really small & generally from the Dollar Store.  We also always make a trip to the Dairy Queen.

I know this may sound strange, but up here in cold Montana our Dairy Queens are not open year around (except the one in the mall, but I hate going to the mall).  The tiny huts that our local DQs call home are not warm enough to serve ice cream all year long.  Also, they have no indoor seating.  There are not too many people lining up outside in 10 degree weather to get a frozen treat.  Every year on Valentines Day the two little Dairy Queen huts begin operating again.  I love this for two reasons: 1)I can get the best cheese hot dogs in the world 2)It's a sign that spring is on it's way.  So each Valentines Day we make the trek over to the DQ & get ourselves our long missed baby cones & cheese dogs.

I like this holiday because it's low key, involves lots of chocolate (and in our case, cheese hot dogs), and is symbolized by my two favorite colors- red & pink.  In honor of Valentines treats & gift giving I'm showing ya'll my love by giving away this cute little baking set.  Included (all Valentine's Day themed of course) are 2 oven mitts, 2 silicone spatulas, a bunch of Valentine's cookie cutters, & an assortment of colored sugars & sprinkles.  You could decorate cookies all day with this fun kit!

To enter just tell us what your Valentine's Day tradition is in the comments section below.  I will randomly draw a winner & announce it on Friday.

Romantic Movies

Since this is the time of year to celebrate love I thought that one of the great ways to do that is through the movies.  Now, I'm not a huge "chick flick" fan, so my file of romance movies is a little slim.  But nonetheless, here goes- if you want to watch a romantic movie may I suggest...

Roman Holiday.  This one never gets old.  And I love that it's in black in white.  Plus is stars two of the most attractive people that ever lived, Audrey Hepburn can Gregory Peck.  It's a wonderful story of a princess that just wants to enjoy everyday/normal life.  So she escapes one night and goes out on the town, in Italy of course.  Now you have to watch the rest of the movie to find out what happens.

Princess Bride, always a crowd pleaser.  I love satires so this one is on the top of my list.  Plus it has a million great one liners.  A classic rags to riches story that includes a princess, of course.  This is a great one to watch with your kiddos too.

The Wedding Singer.  First of all it's funny.  Second of all it takes place in the 80's.  Third of all, it's funny.  Fair warning there are some swear words (hard to find a movie without them these days) and two "not so pure" acting girls (but no nudity).  But overall a very cute love story with lots of fun 80's flashbacks.

Now it's your turn.  What's your favorite(s) romantic movies?  Please share your romantic movie suggestions in the comments section below.

Easy Valentine's Day Cards

This is a great way to do homemade Valentine's Day cards with your kiddos without having to do too much of the work yourself.  Isn't that how homemade projects always go, the adult ends up doing ninety percent of the work.  So with that in mind I'm sharing these cards.  That ninety percent part of the job you'll end up doing is easy & minimal, you could even watch "Say Yes to the Dress" while you helped make these.  Here's the DL:
Supplies
construction paper or coverstock
pipe cleaner
tape
"Smarties" candy
markers, stamps, or stickers

First fold a piece of construction paper or coverstock in half (if all you have is printer paper just go with it).  Now you are going to cut out a 3 inch butterfly shape.  My tip on this is to start like you would a heart & when you're a little from completing the bottom go back out & make a smaller upside down heart shape.  Or find a stencil, or get a picture from the internet & print & cut it out.  

Cut the pipe cleaner into 3 inch pieces.  Wrap around one end of the "Smarties" & twist a few times to keep it in place.

Then put the pipe cleaner antennas down so they are parallel to the "Smarties"

Next tape the "Smarties" to the butterfly wings & you're done.

You can leave them plane like this or do more decorating depending on the child's age.  Kids could decorate the wings with markers, sticker, or stamps.  For smaller children I would suggest stamps & stickers.  Have kids decorate the wings before attaching the candy.  You could also make these larger & use other types of candies, whatever floats your boat.

Teachable moment: you could use this project to double up on home school lesson about butterflies. Or teach about symmetry and have kids concentrate on making both sides of the wings the same.  Or do an art lesson on negative & positive space (the wings are the negative space & the designs they put on the wings are the positive space).

Good luck with all the Valentine's Day cards.  Hope this helps.

Love Story

For the next couple of weeks I'll try to stick to the Valentine's/Love theme.  So here's my first little love story.  Last night at church it was Mexican theme night at AWANA (a children's program).  In the course of the evening a piñata was smashed & my twins ended up coming home with a small stash of candy, erasers, stickers & little toys.  Later that evening when I went in my room to go to bed this is what I saw.  My sweet little second to oldest (but only by 10 minutes) had left little gifts on my husband's & my pillows.  For her Daddy she had sometime during the day found this magazine; and knowing how much her Daddy loves to hunt mountain lions knew he had to have it.  Because it has some sort of large cat on it, she knew it would be prefect.  And for her Mama she left some sweet treats & a little note- she's knows the way to my heart.  So sweet!  I think I kissed her a billion times after I found it.  Proving that it really isn't the gift but the thought that matters.  Remember that at Valentines this year, even the simplest, cheapest, most homemade gifts can really show how much you love someone.

If you have a cute love story please share it in the comments section below.  Everyone loves stories about love!

Valentines Treats

If your looking to make a Valentines cookie that's not a cut out heart or covered in frosting you've come to the right place.  These Cranberry Chocolate Oatmeal cookies are the ticket.  They have the red & white colors that Valentines warrants but are less time consuming than the tradition decorated sugar cookie.  These cookies are hearty, chewy, & just plane scrumptious.  Here's the scoop:

3/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly coat cooking sheets with non-stick spray.  Beat shortening, sugar & brown sugar until creamy.  Beat in eggs & vanilla until fluffy.  Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl.  Beat into shortening mixture until blended.  Stir in oats, dried cranberries, walnuts, & both chocolate chips until combined.  Drop on baking sheets about 2 inches apart & bake 8-10 minutes.

And that's all there is to it.  So quick and yummy, but still festive enough for the season of love.