Sugar Cookie Mix with Additions!

White Chocolate Chip & Chocolate Covered Pretzel Sugar Cookies

White Chocolate Chip & Oreo Sugar Cookies

I love using mixes to bake with, when I'm feeling a little lazy or want to make something quick they are perfect. I wanted to make something quick for my boyfriend last week and he loves sugar cookies and he suggested sugar cookies with pretzels and chocolate chips. (He loves the chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate covered pretzels) So I decided to make these sugar cookies with white chocolate chips and cut the dough in half and added chocolate covered pretzels to one and crushed oreos to the other!

Sugar Cookie Mix with Additions

1 bag of sugar cookie mix

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup chocolate covered  pretzels

1/2 cup broken oreos

1) Put cookie mix in a large mixing bowl. Add softened butter and  egg and mix until combined. 


2) Fold in the white chocolate chips and divide the dough in half.


3) Fold in the pretzels and oreos. Refrigerate the dough for a minimum of one hour.


4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Italian Anise Cookies

My dad has been begging me to make these cookies. He always buys Anise Cookies at Market Basket when he goes grocery shopping. I personally don't like them, I'm an chocolate girl. I love chocolate desserts, just doesn't seem like a dessert if there's no chocolate! I made these super moist and large because who wants to eat a small, dry cookie? Yeah that's what I thought, no one! These cookies are great around Christmas time and are super light. 

(Recipe from Women's Daily)


Italian Anise Cookies


Dough:
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/4 cup low fat milk
1 tsp anise extract
2 3/4 cup A-P flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
4 to 5 tsp milk
1 tsp anise extract


1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F and spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.


2. Dough: Beat the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl with a mixer until blended. On low speed,beat the next 3 ingredients until blended.


3. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough on the prepared baking sheets.


4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove cookies and move to wire rack to cool.


5. Glaze: whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 4 to 5 tsp milk and 1 tsp anise extract in a small bowl.


6. Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze and let set.

Ryan's Blueberry Birthday Cake

For my brother's 16th birthday he asked for a blueberry cake. I had no idea how to go about this. I knew there was strawberry cake mix and recipes for homemade strawberry cake, but I could not find a recipe for a blueberry cake. So instead I decided to try a white cake with blueberries folded in. It was a hit! Everyone loved it, even my boyfriend and I didn't even think he liked blueberries! 

I had a couple mishaps with this cake but they were easily fixable. When taking out my cakes both broke! :( so sad, but I did a little frosting fix and it looked good as new. The problem is the cake is super moist so it has to cool for a longer amount of time than the original recipe instructs. Also I would butter and flour the pans instead of using cooking spray to a smooth transfer to the cooling rack. 

Try this summery cake today!

(Adapted from Sandra Lee's Blueberry Lattice Cake)

Blueberry Birthday Cake

1 package white cake mix

1 package (4-serving) instant vanilla pudding mix (I used sugar free)

3 egg whites

1 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup fresh blueberries

2 containers vanilla frosting

1 bar baker's white chocolate 

blueberries to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans and set aside.

2. In  a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix and pudding. Add the egg whites, milk, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then continue beating on medium for 2 minutes until the batter is light and fluffy.

3. Toss 1 cup of blueberries in 3 tablespoons of flour and fold into the cake batter. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. 

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife  inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans for 20 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely on wire rack.

5. Shave baker's white chocolate with a vegetable peeler and set aside in the freezer. Frost cake when it is completely cooler. Garnish with blueberries and white chocolate shavings.