Surprise Cookies

These are another recipe inspired by Pinterest, I stumbled across them while looking for ideas for a cookie swap I am going to next month. From what I have read, the original idea came from domestic goddess Martha Stewart. They are a lovely soft cookie and once iced you have no idea about the treat hidden inside!

Ingredients:
Cookies
2 cups flour
½ cup cocoa
½ teaspoon baking soda
sprinkle of salt
115 grams butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12-14 large marshmallows, cut in half horizontally

Basic Chocolate Icing
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
¼ cup cocoa, sifted
25 grams butter, softened
4-6 tablespoons of hot water

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C and line x2 baking trays with wax baking paper. 
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat until well combined.
Sift in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, mix on low speed until combined.
Using a tablespoon or small ice cream scoop, drop dough onto your lined baking trays, about 5cm apart.
Bake until cookies begin to spread and become firm, 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove baking trays from the oven, and place a marshmallow, cut-side down, in the centre of each cookie, pressing down slightly.
Return to oven for 2 minutes so that the marshmallows begin to melt.
Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
To make the chocolate icing place butter in a medium sized bowl with the icing sugar and cocoa, add hot water and stir with a large spoon to combine.
Place about 1 tablespoon of chocolate icing on the centre of each cookie (over the marshmallow), spread it outward until marshmallow is covered.

These are easy, delicious and cute! If you wanted to do a gender reveal (and were having a baby girl or could locate/make blue marshmallows) and cakes aren’t your thing these would be a great alternative. Regardless of the reason for making them these special cookies masquerading as a run of the mill chocolate cookie are sure to impress!

Ruffle Cake

I just think these are the most beautiful cakes and have been keen to try my hand at one for a while now but needed a reason. My sister Georgina left for Dubai to work for Emirates in March and was back on a layover for 24 hours, she is a real cake person, so I thought it would be perfect! I watched a few youtube videos to learn the technique and found this one the most helpful.

However, on the day I was pushed for time and had a very grumpy, clingy baby to contend with along with a phone that did not stop ringing (always the way isn’t it?). Then to top it off I couldn’t find my piping bag so had to do with a makeshift ‘Glad Bag’ and I ran out of icing to do the top! So my first attempt was no where near as perfect as the ones in the above collage (the ‘original’ Martha Stewart cake on the top right was my inspiration) but it still tasted good (that’s what counts I guess…) and I will definitely be giving it another go when I have more time and another special occasion.