Experiment #2: Peanut Butter Cookies

As long as Holden wants to lick the beaters I will post a picture of him doing it!

While I was typing my last post Chris was out buying me a couple of wire cooling racks!

My long-time friend, Christine, gave me a journal three and a half years ago for my bridal shower which was meant to be a place for me to keep recipes. I'm ashamed to admit that until recently I hadn't really given this gift a second glance. I had almost forgotten that Christine had even started the book out by copying a few of her family recipes into it for me. Well, this little book will no longer be ignored! It now has a place in our kitchen next to Chris's cookbooks and I've even started adding to it some of my family's recipes. I also added the recipe for Black Magic Cake because that is a keeper for sure!

This recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies comes from Christine and I have to say it is very good...in fact, I am eating one of the cookies as I type this, YUM! It has probably been 15 years since I have baked peanut butter cookies but it definitely won't be that long before I use this recipe again. The whole family loves these!

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1.5 cups of flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in peanut butter. In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. Add this to peanut butter mixture and blend. Drop by tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet (or parchment) and criss cross with a floured fork.

Bake for 9-11 minutes.

I doubled the recipe and it made just over four dozen.

Experiment #1: Black Magic Cake

Holden loves to help mommy "cook!" He says, "I lick!"

I found out from my mother-in-law that Chris (my husband) had invited his entire family over to our place for dinner....everyone knew about this gathering but me. Ooops! I didn't mind, of course, because I love hosting get-togethers and I knew I didn't have to worry about what everyone was going to eat because Chris always does the cooking. This time, however, I decided to bake a cake as we were celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday. It was a good excuse for me to brush up on my baking skills!



I didn't have much time so Chris found a recipe online for a cake that seemed easy enough and for which we had most of the ingredients. He had been wanting to try this recipe for Black Magic Cake himself ever since trying the cake at work when one of his co-workers brought it in to share with everyone. The only ingredient we were missing was buttermilk so Chris told me he would pick it up on his way home from work. Since we had all of the dry ingredients I decided to mix them together the night before the party after putting my boys to bed so that I wouldn't have as much to do the day of our gathering.



So, the morning of the birthday party my two and a half year old, Holden, helped me mix in the rest of the ingredients and we had ourselves a Black Magic Cake! It was quite easy and lots of fun having him help me. I realize that the more I bake the more I am going to notice that we need baking supplies. I was surprised to discover that we actually own not just one but TWO nine inch baking pans which was exactly what I needed! We do not, however, own a wire cooling rack....I let the cake cool on parchment paper which some of you who really know how to bake probably could have told me that this was a bad idea. Some of the cake stuck to the paper, maybe I could have dusted it with a bit of flour? I don't know...I think I'll just buy the cooling rack.



Well, despite having a little difficulty getting the cake off the parchment paper, it turned out very well! It was moist and tasty and really I kind of impressed myself!



Here is the recipe:



1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsps baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup strong brewed coffee

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.



Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt (this is the part I did the night before)



Make a well in the centre and add eggs, coffee, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.



The batter will be thin. Pour into pans and bake for 40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pans and let finish cooling.



I used a simple cream cheese frosting but you can use pretty much any kind of frosting. Also, I used the Hershey's brand cocoa and they have a very similar recipe on the back of their can. Unfortunately, you may not be able to find that cocoa in Canadian grocery stores...Chris bought ours in the States.