Oreo Crumble Cake with Mocha Frosting

It was someone's birthday today…so I made cake! I honestly haven't made anything else in like the last month. It's pretty sad. If it wasn't for peanut butter, and other people who will feed me, I would starve. I'm really only kind of kidding.

I took a couple of different recipes and came up with an Oreo Crumble Cake topped with mocha frosting…there is also like a cookies & cream filling involved. The father (it's his birthday) is a fan of Oreos, chocolate cake, and coffee…so it was kind of a perfect combination.   

The cake itself has a fantastic texture. Super moist. The frosting is divine. Perfect touch of coffee flavor. The filling is great too…and I think next time I would double the recipe on the filling…or maybe just 1 1/2 it. It's a pretty fantastic cake. Really rich. Like, rich for me, rich. So for those of you who do not handle sweets well, beware. I recommend having a glass of milk. 

I will say that slicing it evenly & getting it out is a little challenging with the layer of Oreos in the center. But, hey, it's still delicious.

Oreo Crumble Cake

About 10-15 Oreos

2 cups AP flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 packet Starbucks Via Italian Roast (or other EXTRA BOLD roast)

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

• Preheat the oven to 350*F and prepare 2 9" pans appropriately. Twist apart enough Oreos to line the bottom of one of the pans, cream side up.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through instant coffee). Add the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until combined. (I use my KitchenAid stand mixer because it's fantastic.) Reduce the speed & carefully add the boiling water so you don't slosh batter everywhere. Then beat on high for about a minute to add some air & fluff. 
• Distribute the cake batter evenly between the pans. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
• Remove from the oven & let cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Then, remove the cake from the pans onto a wire rack & let cool completely.

Filling:

1/3 cup whipping cream

2 tsp powdered sugar

1/8 tsp vanilla

5-6 Oreos, well crumbled (I recommend using the "pulse" button on a food processor a couple times)

• In your stand mixer (with whisk attachment), whip the cream, sugar & vanilla until stiff.
• Fold in the Oreo crumbles
• Keep chilled until you're ready to use it!

Mocha Frosting

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

1 cup cocoa

5 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 packet Starbucks Via Italian Roast (or other EXTRA BOLD roast)

• Add the cocoa to a large bowl or stand mixer. Whisk through to remove any lumps.
• Cream together the cocoa and butter until well combined.
• Add the powdered sugar and milk to the mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar, followed by 1 TBSP of milk. After each addition has been combined, beat on high for about a minute. It will get nice & fluffy.
• Add the vanilla & instant coffee & mix until well combined.

I feel like putting this all together is fairly self-explanatory. And there's really no art to decorating it. I piped a little frosting around the bottom edge to finish it off a little. I crumbled the spare naked Oreos that went unused from the one with cream that were baked into the the cake…sprinkled them on top. Then I just broke a few more apart & put them on. Pretty simple. Super yummy. Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies

Well, this post is long overdue! Christmas has come and gone. Although, it didn't really feel like it happened. Every year, since I can remember, I've gone to Minnesota with the family to be with all the extended family for Christmas. This year, I was left behind to work. But I had some pretty sweet patients, and the family had left me some pretty fun gifts…so I guess it wasn't too bad! With Christmas comes lots of baking, and I wasn't about to forego that tradition. Three different cookies. Plus Oreo balls. It was quite the production:

I remade two recipes from last year: Eggnog Cookies and (my personal favorite) White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies. I figured the perfect holiday trio would include adding something on the gingerbread side. I'm not a huge fan of like actual gingerbread men or houses. But I do enjoy a nice, soft, ginger cookie. I came across a pretty good recipe on My Baking Addiction. I'm assuming everyone else thought they (well, really all of the cookies) turned out pretty tasty. Baking three different recipes results in obscene quantities of cookies. But between family, work, and the brother's friends, they have disappeared. Also, the dogs thought they were really good too…it's a good thing they're cute. If you want the recipes, just follow the links above!



And I don't think that a box of Christmas goodies would be complete without Oreo balls. And if that's too much chocolate for you (well, first of all, WHO ARE YOU?!), you can use Nutter Butters or any other sandwich creme cookie. My only issue is that the packages of Oreos have gotten substantially smaller, which has affected the Oreo-to-cream cheese ratio. So, if anyone knows exactly how many cookies that packages have shrunk by, please tell me. 

I hope everyone's new year is of to a smashing good start! I had a lovely time with some friends on NYE, but have since been slammed with the flu (and, yes, I got my flu shot). Hopefully this means I will be done being sick for the year once I'm over this. And, once I'm not sick, I can finish trying out all the new P90X-3 workouts so I can tell you about them! 

{Grain & Refined Sugar Free} PB Cookies

These are the other (somewhat healthier) peanut butter cookies I made this past weekend. First of all, the dough is incredible. Seriously, seriously incredible. The texture is like a fluffy frosting. Really, if you wanted, you could omit the egg and baking soda and use it as a peanut butter frosting. Or fruit dip. Or just eat it with a spoon... However, the cookies themselves have a really weird texture. They don't taste bad, in fact, they're kind of addicting. It's difficult to describe. They're moist and have this amazing peanut butter flavor. I have found that the texture is better if the cookies are frozen. (The cookies are still soft when frozen.) A little Nutella adds a nice touch. 


PB Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup natural peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
8 oz plain Greek yogurt (I used Fage 2%)
1/2 cup local honey
1 tsp natural vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and your choice of grease.
• Mix everything up in a bowl or use your stand mixer. Like I said, the texture will resemble a fluffy frosting. 
• Use a cookie scoop (about 2 tsp), placing the drops of dough about 2" apart on the cookie sheet--they will spread!
• Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden.
• Let cool for a couple minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Makes about 36 cookies. Enjoy!

PB Nutella Cookies

Peanut Butter. Nutella. What more does a person need? Kidding! Kind of... I pinned this recipe a while back. Probably during class sometime... I was excited to have a reason to finally make them! I'm kind of loving all of the brother's senior festivities because I am getting to bake a lot. I like it when I can bake it, try it, and give the rest away. The dough for these babies was great. The cookies themselves were also pretty great. The brother said, "These are the best peanut butter cookies you've made." A big deal, considering he doesn't generally like peanut butter. Shame. Although, he claims, "It's not that I don't like peanut butter. It's just overused." I don't believe that it's possible to overuse peanut butter, but I'm kind of an addict. Either way, the cookies were tasty! They're pretty soft, not too dry like some PB cookies. And the Nutella is a great touch. 

I didn't mess with these, so you can click here to get the recipe from The Sisters Cafe.

Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies

I finished up my leadership clinical rotation yesterday. To celebrate, I made some delicious cookies and took them up to the unit for everyone. I had found this recipe on Pinterest a while back, and was eager to try it out. I'm so glad I did! These cookies are fantastic. Big. Chewy. Goodness. I got about 78 out of the recipe. You could probably get a few more, but I have this problem with just eating the cookie dough... I left some for the family, but the ones I took to the hospital were gone by 1400. Apparently everyone thought they were pretty tasty. This is a really easy recipe, that could easily be made in to thirds. I actually ended up having to divide the batter in half before adding the coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips because there was too much for the KitchenAid stand mixer to handle. This recipe was featured on Good Morning America, although I snagged the recipe from Christmas-Cookies.com. Enjoy!


Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 TBSP baking soda
1 TBSP ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups butter (at room temperature) 
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups sweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together; set aside. Beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until combined. Add oats, coconut, chocolate chips, and pecans. For larger cookies, drop 1/4 cup dough on ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3" apart. Bake for 17-19 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. For smaller cookies (what I did), use 2 TBSP dough for each; bake for 15ish minutes. Move to a cooling rack. 

These are also good warm with a little bit of peanut butter!

Eggnog Cookies

My favorite cookie this year would have to be the eggnog one.  I love eggnog.  It's REALLY good that it's only around once a year...because it's terrible for you...but so tasty.  I was a little concerned about how the eggnog cookies would turn out.  I think sometimes things like this turn out tasting really processed or just end up with a weird flavor.  These cookies, however, turned out wonderfully.  Very soft.  Perfect eggnog taste.  Definitely a hit.  Definitely a keeper.  

Eggnog Cookies
Original Recipe from Your Cup of Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup eggnog
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
1 tsp nutmeg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. (I probably used a little more cinnamon and nutmeg than called for.)

Cream sugar and butter until light.

Add eggnog, vanilla and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth.

Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.  Do not over-beat.  

Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg.

Bake 15-18 minutes or until the edges barely start to brown.

While the cookies are baking, you can whip together some eggnog glaze.  Just combine eggnog with powdered sugar until you get the quantity and consistency you want.  Make a little extra to drizzle on some eggnog scones! (The recipe for those should be coming tomorrow.)

White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Merry Christmas!  Well, I got somewhat side-tracked in my holiday blogging.  I thought I'd have lots of time on Saturday to get totally caught up, but obviously that didn't happen.  I really wanted to make some kind of cookie with candy cane and white chocolate in it.  I don't really know what I wanted to do this because I'm not generally a fan of white chocolate and I basically totally despise mint (like I still use bubblegum toothpaste because I hate mint).  Anyway, I could NOT find a recipe for exactly what I wanted.  I looked on Pinterest and Google, which both sent me to various websites and blogs, but none of it was what I wanted.  I decided to just hunt down a recipe for a good, chewy sugar cookie and go from there.  It was a good plan.  I found a great sugar cookie recipe from The Food Network and tweaked it to my fancy.  The cookies turned out fabulously.  Huge hit.  My favorite comment (from one of the brother's friends) was, "Why does this have candy canes in it?  Because it is fantastic." 















White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp peppermint extract
3-4 TBSP buttermilk
4 candy canes, crushed (I used a food processor...make sure it doesn't turn to powder!)
6 oz (give or take) white chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the egg and peppermint.  Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.  Add enough of the buttermilk to moisten the dough and make it soft, NOT wet.  Stir in candy canes and white chocolate chips.

Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place on cookie sheet.  You might want to cover the cookie sheet with waxed or parchment paper and something like Pam.  (The melt-y candy cane likes to stick.)

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden.  

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

All my cookies for this year's Holiday Bake-A-Thon are new.  And considering this fact, it's impressive that this year's production took much less time then year's past.  I think I finally figured out multitasking.  Ha.  I wanted to incorporate the season's flavors: pumpkin, peppermint, and eggnog.  (I probably could have added something gingerbread-y too...but I didn't want to be too ambitious!)  I chose this Pumpkin Snickerdoodle recipe from the Six Sister's Stuff blog (there's lots of great stuff here).  These cookies, of course, turned out tasting delicious!  They're so soft and pumpkin-y.  I love it.  

   
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
1 stick margarine (I used real butter...Paula Deen would be proud)
1/2 cup shortening (I used the butter flavored kind because that's what we already had)
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree (do NOT use pumpkin pie filling!)
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

*Topping:
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger (or more to taste...I went with a whole tsp) 

*Note: You probably will not use all of this, but it's okay!  I used the extra up in a recipe for scones, which I'll be posting soon.      

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together the margarine/butter, shortening, sugars, pumpkin, and egg, beat well. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until well-blended.
Chill dough until it's a better consistency for rolling into balls.  (I cheated and put it in the freezer so it would go faster.)
Roll into balls the size of small walnuts.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Roll dough balls in sugar mixture until completely covered.
Place dough balls about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 7ish minutes until lightly browned, but still soft.
Makes a ton of cookies (at least 4-5 dozen).

{Flourless} Peanut Butter Cookies

The first cookies I made since being on break were peanut butter.  The brother requested them for his winter band concert.  I was pretty short on time, so I needed something really quick and easy.  I picked out a 5-ingredient recipe from Claire Robinson (Food Network...I love Food Network...).  It was SO easy, and the cookies turned out really well.  The were very peanut butter-y and had a nice flaky texture.  Would've been perfect with a glass of milk.  Click here to get the recipe!

Warning: Be prepared for an onslaught of recipes for cookies and baked goodness.  It's the holiday season.  And apparently I'm on the "Elf" diet...not really, but you may think so after you see what all I've been up to!

In other news, I managed to pull off a 4.0 for the semester.  Pretty miraculous considering I had been fairly confident I would end up with solid B's...only to discover the week before finals that I had 90's...which made me feel like I needed to try to do well on finals.  Apparently, it worked out okay.  My hamstring is getting better.  Definitely not 100%, but I can touch my toes! (Which is really good because they need painted.)  Well, I'm off to try to get everything done that needs to be done...it's a REALLY long list...that continues to get longer.

S'mores Cookie Bars

The 4th of July was a fun-filled day with the Liberty Fest parade, going to the movies, worship, and going to some friends' for food & fireworks...Oh, and baking these puppies!  I needed a treat to take to the festivities Wednesday night, and I came across this.  While there are many cute, and probably tasty, red, white, and blue treats on Pinterest.  I went with this one!  I figure s'mores are pretty American, right?  I also had graham crackers and marshmallows left over from a Velata party.  These turned out to be scrumptious.  Not that I was surprised.  I was, however, a little surprised by how rich these were.  You really only need one, if that.  So good:

Get the recipe at Leenee's Sweetest Delights! (FYI I used actual marshmallows instead of the cream and it turned out perfectly yummy...although there's not that lovely layer that you see in her picture) 

Valentine's Cookies

A while back, my roommate and I found a picture of some super cute heart-shaped cookies.  What's so special about a heart-shaped cookie?  Nothing. BUT, if you add some glaze with a sinus rhythm design, it becomes fantastic.  Seriously.  Especially if you are a nursing major.  So for Valentine's day, we made a trip to the store and got everything necessary to make these cookies...and then my roommate made them.  She's a pretty great baker.  I just tested the dough to make sure it wasn't poisonous or something (obviously, a very important task).   This morning, we brought them to class.  I'm guessing EVERYONE thought they were pretty fabulous because we brought a tub full, and there's like five left.  Our professor was even impressed.   

 

The recipe for these lovely little cookies comes from I Am Baker.  Just click here to get it!