Double ButterScotch Cookies – Wedding Favors

These are one of the best cookies!  Once you eat one, you can’t stop!  I recently made these for a wedding as Thank you favors.  We dipped some in chocolate halfway and left one plain as we packed them into favor containers. Everyone raved about these cookies! These are delicious and is one of our favorite cookies! This makes quite a few cookies.

Double Butterscotch Cookies

Adapted From: Taste of home

Yield: 7 dozen Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 4 cups packed brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 package English toffee bits (10 ounces) or almond brickle chips (7-1/2 ounces)
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans (I left these out to avoid nut allergies)
• Chocolate (Almond Bark, or Chocolate Chips, or whatever chocolate you  would like to use.)
• Vegetable oil, to thin the chocolate a little bit

Directions

• In a large bowl, beat the butter, shortening and brown sugar for 2 minutes or until mixture resembles wet sand. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; gradually add to the brown sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in toffee bits and pecans.
• Drop by spoonfuls onto a silpat lined cookie sheet. (I used a cookie scoop to get uniform sized cookies)
• Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 9-11 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 1-2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: about 7 dozen.
• Chocolate: In the top of a double boiler, over barely simmering water, melt the chocolate, stirring often. Once melted, thin with a little bit of vegetable oil until you have a nice steady stream when a spoon is dipped into it.  Dip cookies halfway into the chocolate and set on a silpat (or parchment paper) lined baking tray.  Let set until chocolate hardens.

My First Wedding Cake

A short while back, I told you that my daughter and I were doing a Wedding cake and favors for a wedding in December.  This is the first time I have done a wedding cake, and I was quite  pleased with the results and thought I would share the pictures. So, without further ado, here they are:

The whole cake was a marble cake, but the bottom layer, I made chocolate swirled with vanilla to have it more chocolate than vanilla. All cakes were frosted with a Crusting Buttercream Frosting.

This was her side cake to make sure she had enough.

The littlest cake on the right here was for the Bride & Groom to freeze and eat for their 1st Anniversary.

The Bride & Groom were very happy with their cakes and they tasted good too! What more can you ask for?

I wanted to post the recipe for the Frosting that I used on this cake! I found it to be dreamy, tasty and easy to work with.

Crusting Buttercream Frosting (Viva Method)

* 2 lbs. Sifted Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup (1 Stick) Butter, Softened

1 1/2 Cups Solid Vegetable Shortening (Sweetex works best)

2 Tbsp. Clear Vanilla Extract (Available in Cake Decorating Stores, Walmart & Michaels)

1/4 tsp. Almond Extract

1/3 Cup Water or Milk (1/4 Cup for stiffer Frosting)

Cream butter, shortening and extracts until creamy and smooth.  Gradually add powdered sugar and milk. Mix thoroughly on medium speed for hand mixers, low speed for stand mixers, until smooth and creamy.  Do not over mix or mix on high speed.  For whiter frosting, use white butter, available some cake decorating stores and some health food stores.  If you live in a high humid climate, you can add 1-2 Tbsp. Meringue powder.   Be sure to sift your powdered sugar, even if it says pre-sifted as it will remove lumps from the powdered sugar, making your frosting creamier and smoother for easier decorating.   Let cake sit for 15 minutes after you’ve frosted it to smooth out your frosting with the viva paper towels.   Frosting can be refrigerated for 2 weeks in an airtight container, or Iced cake can be left at room temperature (if using water) for 2-3 days.

*Any flowers made with this recipe, will remain soft enough to be cut with a knife.

Hershey Kisses Rose Buds – Wedding Favors

Next month, (December 4th) my daughter and I are doing a Wedding cake, cookie wedding favors, and these Hershey Kisses Rose buds for a wedding.   These turned out really nice, and all in all are a really inexpensive impressive centerpiece/thank you favor for your tables. You can either put them in a vase on the tables, or a single rose at each plate setting.   These do take some time to assemble, but if you have a girls night of it and invite helpers, these come together in no time. (This is the route we took and it took us no time at all to finish these up. There were five of us working on these.

Here’s how we made them:

It’s a simple way to make each guest feel very special.

Hershey Chocolate Rose Favors

These favors made from Hershey’s Kisses are perfect for weddings, Valentines or any time of the year.

You can either give a single Hershey Kiss rose favor, or wrap several of them together in twos, threes or more with some attractive colored cellophane or Wilton’s Candy Foil.

Supplies you’ll need for each favor:

2 Hershey’s Kisses —

Floral tape

• Silk rose leaves
• Ribbon (Optional)
• Wooden Skewers
• Wilton’s Candy Foil Squares (We used Red & Sliver)

Instructions:

1.  Wrap wooden skewers with floral tip, almost all the way to the tip, leaving about an inch of wood at the top.

2. Insert kisses onto end of stick.  Take a four-inch square of cellophane or Wilton’s . Place the tip of one of the kisses in the center of the square, then wrap the cellophane around both kisses, gathering the corners together around the tip of the other kiss. Wrap the gathered corners together as tightly as you can without tearing the florist tape.

3.  Tape the silk rose leaves onto the stem, and/or decorate with a ribbon bow. (We taped two leaves to each rose with floral tape, to give them an authentic look!)