Strawberry Heart Cookies From A Cake Mix

As we gear up for Valentine's Day, I wanted to test a new recipe.  I found this one on Pinterest and it sounded good. The cookies were also really easy: just three ingredients plus a cream cheese frosting.

After we mixed together the cookie ingredients (cake mix, eggs and shortening), we rolled them into small balls and pinched the ends to form a heart shape.

As the cookies cooled, we made frosting, then iced the cookies and sandwiched them together.

These were so fun and easy to make and look festive for the holidays.  I think the cookies would also work great as a single layer, iced with sprinkles, like a Christmas sugar cookie.

Here's the recipe.  It's by Mique Provost.

Ingredients for cookies:

Strawberry cake mix

2 eggs

¾ cup shortening (don’t use margarine)

Ingredients for frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

½  stick butter, softened

2 t vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Mix the cookie ingredients together.  Roll into balls.  Pinch one end to make a heart shape.  Bake for 8 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Cool. 

Mix frosting ingredients.  Add powdered sugar slowly to form taste and consistency you prefer. You may need only 3 cups.  Frost cookies and sandwich together. 

Linking this to Tip Me Tuesday

Festive Holiday Cookies: Candy Cane Blossoms

I love these pretty holiday cookies. They are so festive and easy to make. They follow the same idea as Peanut Butter Blossoms (peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses) but are made with a sugar cookie base instead. The Candy Cane Blossoms are perfect for families with peanut allergies or any family! 

Really, I will take any excuse to eat the Candy Cane Kisses.  They are sooooo good. Here's the cookies we made:

The recipe for the Candy Cane Blossoms is from Hershey's.  It makes 3 dozen.  

Ingredients:

1 bag Hersheys Candy Cane Kisses

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons milk

Colored sugar

Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove wrappers from kisses. 

Beat butter, sugar, vanilla and egg in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternatively with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in colored sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press candy into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

We made three trays of cookies, one dozen each, and I learned a few tricks with each tray. White chocolate Kisses (Hugs, Candy Cane Kisses) melt faster than classic Hershey's Kisses. 

If you aren't careful, the Candy Cane Kisses will melt in the cookies as shown above. While they still taste great, the cookies don't look as pretty.  We got the best results by putting the Kisses in the freezer as the cookies cooked. 

Cookie Cutter Ornaments: My Creative Scrapbook

I love homemade ornmaments on a tree.  Today, I have some easy ones to make using cookie cutters. 

I used metal painted cookie cutters from Wilton as my base but any type will work.

Start by tracing the cookie cutter on patterned paper. I used Bo Bunny's Mistletoe collection, which was included in the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

I dut out the shape then used a glue medium to attach it to the back of the ornament.  I'm partial to Claudine Hellmuth's multi-medium matte.

Decorate as desired. This cookie cutter was meant to be a candy cane, but I liked it better as a stocking.  Artistic license and all that!

Before you start decorating the cookie cutter, think about how you want to attach a hanger.  If you have a strong hole puncher like a Cropadile, you can punch a hole in the top, then thread in twine for a hanger.  Otherwise, you can just tie twine around the top of the ornament. Either way works well.

On this ornament, I punched a hole at both the top and bottom of the ornament and ran twine through both holes with a jingle bell anchoring the bottom. I used baker's twine from Trendy Twine.

On this ornament, I traced the house shape, then pop-dotted the windows and doors. It's important to add dimensional elements prior to putting the paper on the back of the cookie cutter. Once the paper is glued on, it is really tight to work inside the ornament.  

To finish this ornament, I added a roof line, chimney, scallop trim and a tree. Decorating both inside and outside the cookie cutter gives a nice dimension.

I hung these outside to show them in natural light.

And they look so pretty on the tree.

The design team at My Creative Scrapbook has tips and tutorials for the holidays every day this month on the MCS blog. Thanks for stopping by!