Red Velvet Cookies

Are you on Pintrest?  At first, I didn't really get it, but in the last few months I have really gotten into it.  It is actually so much easier to find things after I pin the picture than organizing them into bookmarks on my browser toolbar.  Plus, you get to see things like these delectable cookies -- red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips.  After seeing these pinned somewhere, I knew I had to make them.  I enjoy a good red velvet treat every now and then and these looked so pretty and delicious.

These cookies were pretty standard to put together.  The only strange step was to pour some white vinegar over the creamed butter and sugar.  It smelled pretty bad and I was wondering how the cookies would taste.  Luckily you could neither taste nor smell the vinegar in the final product, so don't worry.  I love the way these look.  They are such a beautiful color and I love the red and white contrast.  You can find the recipe here (I used regular flour since that is what I had).  I hope you enjoy these cookies and don't forget to pin them!

Happy Birthday America: Some July 4th Ideas

In case you were looking for some yummy treats for a 4th of July party tomorrow or any celebration that involves red, white and blue...


Red White and Blue Cupcakes

Red White and Blue Fruit Tart

A few red velvet things that could be made red white and blue with the addition of blueberries or blue sanding sugar...


Red Velvet Cupcakes (could also be done with blue cupcake wrappers to complete the look)

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

And the ever popular all American pie...
Blueberry pie

Blackberry pie

And finally strawberry shortcake, which you could turn into strawberry/blueberry shortcake

Red Velvet, For Those With a Sense of Humor

Woohoo! No more passover! Back to delicious, flour filled goodness...

Speaking of strange, Jewish-law based restrictions, I've been spending this year in school learning the laws of menstrual purity. Yes, this is about as exciting as it sounds. After spending many months talking about counting, checking, and colors, with my classmates, my friend Aaron and I planned an inter-seminary day for three schools who have been studying the laws of niddah this year, to get together and talk about some of the extra-legal issues we were thinking about. It was a great day-- very thought-provoking and a bit intense-- which I thought called for some baked goods.

And really, what better way is there to celebrate menstrual laws than with red velvet? (Because I assure you that one does not survive a year of niddah without a sense of humor.) So I went looking for a recipe and I found this one. Sometimes it nice to just doctor a mix, and this recipe did not disappoint. They actually reminded me more of cupcake tops than cookies in their texture, but either way, they were delicious and devoured by many a hungry Jewish seminarian. Purity and cookies for all!

For a Good Cause, Part 2: Red Velvet

The baking for the bake sale continues. I have to say, I have really given Sarah a run for her money these week, and I also have to say, I don't know how she bakes so much because I am totally exhausted. Whew.

Anyway. One of the things that was exciting about this week was I got my first two commissions-- I bake something, and the recipients make a donation to AJWS. Awesome! One of the students here had a birthday on Sunday, so two of her (and my) friends offered to pay me to make a dessert for her. The choice? Red velvet.

As you might know from reading this blog, the baking sisters have a complicated relationship with red velvet. I often find that it is very complicated to make, extremely messy, and not always worth it in terms of taste. In fact, the most successful red velvet cake I've ever made has been from a Dunkin Hines mix. However, I was game for the adventure, and they turned out pretty well.

Yes, red velvet is very messy. This is not the recipe to make in your black tie clothing. However, this version, from the new Kosher by Design was pretty good. It was moist and light. So if you're up for the challenge, I recommend.

And in other news, so far the bake sale fundraising has been very successful. Want to help out? Click here to learn more and donate!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
2 ½ cups flour
½ cocoa
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (1 ounce) bottle red food coloring
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:
1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 cupcake tines with paper liners.

Mix flour, cocoa and salt.

Beat the butter until it is fluffy. Then add the sugar and beat until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix after each one. Add the sour cream, milk, vanilla and food coloring.

In a separate bowl, mix the vinegar and baking soda. Add it to the batter and mix until just blended. Then add the flour mixture.

Divide into baking cups and bake for 20-22 minutes.

Once the cupcakes are cool, mix the frosting ingredients until well blended. Spread over cupcakes.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Red Velvet Whoppie Pies

I joined a new baking group, BAKED Sunday Mornings, which is based on the booked BAKED Explorations.  I got this book almost as soon as it came out, since I loved the first BAKED book and I was glad to find this group.  They bake every two weeks and post on Sunday mornings.


This week's selection is Red Velvet Whoppie Pies.  I guess they are appropriate for Valentine's Day (not a huge deal in our house), but they are also very appropriate for another major event in our household...Brown Bunny's Birthday. My very adorable son has a brown bunny that he carries around with him and sleeps with (actually it is a bear, but we don't argue) and he has cleverly named it Brown Bunny.  Apparently, the entire past month has been Brown Bunny's Birthday and his favorite color is red, so he needs a red cake for his birthday.  I convinced by son that red cookies were just as good as red cake, so we set about making these Whoopie Pies for Brown Bunny.  My son magnanimously agreed to eat one for Brown Bunny, and he enjoyed smearing it everywhere as well.


These were delicious.  The ones not eaten by Brown Bunny, I took to work, where they were promptly gobbled up, even by people who say they are on a diet.  Someone even called me after leaving the office to ask for the recipe.  All 15 mini pies and 2 large pies were eaten in one day.


An awesome bonus of this recipe is that it was so easy to put together.  I only made one change, which was to substitute butter for the shortening, since I am not a shortening person.  I made some mini (with my tablespoon scoop) and two large ones (with my regular ice cream scoop).  I think the minis were the perfect size, since you could finish them in a few bites and weren't too rich.  The cake was tender and soft and the filling was tangy and sweet at the same time.  I highly recommend these for the red velvet fan in your life (and you'll convert anyone who isn't).


You can find the recipe here.

What's Black and White and Red Velvet All Over?

So, here's a story for all of you.  The other day, I really wanted a red velvet cupcake.  I'm not sure why, since I can generally take or leave red velvet, but I really wanted one.  However, there was no good time to go get a red velvet cupcake, so I decided the only thing to do was to make one.  However, what was I going to do with 2 dozen red velvet cupcakes?  Even I can't eat that many cupcakes!

Then I realized...I had a staff meeting yesterday!  The teachers would eat them!    My religious school teachers are amazing in many ways, including in their ability to consume large quantities of food.  Since I was making them stay until after 8pm at a meeting, I thought these cupcakes might buy me some good will.

It took me a long time to figure out which red velvet recipe to use.  Many on the internet are very similar and I could not quite figure out what the differences was between different recipes.  However, in the end I decided to go with the recipe from Baked, because I have liked other things I made from the cookbook and it didn't have a neon-red color like some of the recipes I saw online.  In fact, the Baked recipe specifically says that it is not designed to turn anyone's mouth red.

This was a fairly simple recipe, although it requires a number of special ingredients including cake flour (which, thanks to Simple Girl, I now know is in a box and was easily found in the grocery store), red gel food coloring (not the liquid kind) and distilled white vinegar.  I died some part of my kitchen red while making these cupcakes, but I was able to get it out pretty quickly.  This recipe made such beautiful batter -- very pretty red color and shiny -- and baked up in about 25 minutes.

I frosted it with Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting, although I used less butter and a little more cream cheese than she calls for.  Delicious!

The cake recipe can be found here.

The frosting is here.