My Favorite Cookies

These are my favorite cookies: Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies!!  They have my 2 favorite things: chocolate and peanut butter.  They are really  easy to make and the batch is smaller than a regular batch of cookies.  Great for people like me who can't resist a cookie or know when to stop.  I found this recipe a while back from allrecipes.com.

Super Easy Oreo Surprise Cupcakes

This past Saturday was my son's 7th Birthday.  To celebrate his birthday we took cupcakes to school for the the first time.  I didn't want to just bring ordinary everyday cupcakes so I added a fun and super easy twist...Oreos. 

These were my supplies:  A box of cake mix, Oreo cookies{I wanted peanut butter but couldn't send them to school because of allergies} sprinkles, and chocolate coins.

Grab a helper.  Here is mine.  You can see she ate a bit more than she baked.

Simply follow the instructions for the cake mix.  Then put one Oreo in the bottom of each cupcake liner, top with batter, and bake as directed on box.  See, super easy!

Me and Emma decorated them with my homemade icing and sprinkles and then placed a chocolate coin on top.  We were trying to make them a Mario theme with the gold coins.

Ta Da!!  Delicious!  We sent a batch to school, and I took a bunch to work.  I had to make a 3rd batch the next day because my husband wanted more.

Homemade Icing Recipe

My mom gave me this icing recipe a couple years ago.  It is not a secret family recipe, just one she learned while taking a cake decorating class {she makes the best cakes }.  This recipe is great on cookies and cakes.

1 c. shortening
      or
1/2 cup shortening and 1/ 2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla { clear or regular }
4 cups { 1 lb } powdered sugar
2 Tbs milk or water

*using butter will make icing slightly softer
*using regular vanilla will result in off white color

Cream butter/shortening in mixer. Add in vanilla then gradually add in sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing on medium speed.  Then add milk and mix until light and fluffy.  Makes stiff icing { for flowers}.  *Add 1 more Tbs of milk or water for medium consistency { for borders, flat flowers, and stars } or  add 2 Tbs milk or water for thin consistency { icing cake }.

For my cookies in the picture, I cut the recipe in 1/4 because I only had 1 cup of powdered sugar and a small batch of cookies, but accidentally added too much milk.  So it was more of a glaze this time.  Still delicious!!