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Posts Tagged ‘decorated cookies’

Love baking cookies but don’t have time to make individual ones? You can make a giant cookie instead. Making one big cookie saves time. And it can be presented as a cake. You can decorate it with piped icing and even write on it. You no longer have to go to the store to buy an expensive cake when you can make a giant cookie cake easily.

There are some ingredients that are common to all big cookie cakes. You’ll need really good butter, sugar, and fresh brown sugar. You’ll also need eggs, flour, and vanilla. Be sure to use the freshest ingredients you can find as they will affect the taste of your cookie. That’s where the similarity in ingredients between recipes usually stops. From here you can add chocolate chips, nuts, shredded coconut, and more.

One thing every recipe for a big cookie will call for is a pan. You can either use a flat sheet pan, a pizza pan or a molded shape like a heart or a moon shape. These types of specialty pans are found in the cake and baking aisle in stores.

Baking the cookie is easier than making cookies one by one. You don’t have to stand there and wait for the first batch to bake so you can put the next batch in. You just pop the whole batch of dough in on the pan at once. Couldn’t be easier.

Here’s a favorite recipe from Allrecipes.com. It’s for a giant chocolate chip cookie.

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well.

2. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Spread in greased 14 inch round pizza pan. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20-25 minutes. Cool cookie in pan on a cooling rack. Decorate as desired.

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As you can see, it’s really no different than making regular chocolate chip cookie dough. The time-saving and super easy part is that you just spread the dough onto a pan once.

The decorating options are endless. Frost in blue frosting and make a Cookie Monster cake. Use black tinted frosting for the mouth and use cookies for the eyes. You can find frosting tints at a craft store that has a cake aisle. The powdered tints will yield a darker color than liquid food coloring. And the stain won’t come off on kids’ mouths if you use a powdered tint.

Other options for decorating a cookie cake include a harvest pumpkin (just frost in orange with a green stem), a soccer ball (use black and white icing to make the six-sided shapes of a soccer ball), or a spider web for Halloween (use white frosting and thin lines of brown frosting that you drizzle on and then drag a knife through).These giant cookie cakes make great birthday cookie gifts!

Well the free shipping promotion has come to an end, but you'll be happy to know that you are still going to get a great discount from now until the end of August. Starting this week, all decorated cookie bouquets are on sale, so now you can save up to $25 on these unique gifts!

There are so many options to choose from, and for so many occasions, that you will not run out of ideas! Not to mention, each bouquet is delivered with care and priority. So hurry up and browse all these great cookie bouquets, they won't last long!

Click on one of the delicious iced cookie bouquets below to start shopping.

Sale ends August 31, 2010

For the cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make this a stiffer frosting, which is preferable for piped designs, add more confections' sugar. To thin the frosting, add a few drops of water. To tint the frosting, use food coloring paste (available at party-supply stores) rather than liquid will thin the frosting. Use the tip of a wooden toothpick to add small amounts of the paste, blend, and add more if necessary to achieve desired tint.

1. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla, blending well. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until well blended. Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the dough in half. Roll out one half of dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters or knife, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Transfer cutouts to ungreased cookie sheets.
4. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are light brown around edges. Remove cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely

For the frosting

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk, plus additional if needed
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a small bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add about half of the confectioners' sugar, blending well.
2. Beat in the milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in the additional milk, if necessary, to make frosting spreadable.
3. Frosting the cookies and decorate using small candies and sprinkles.