Three-Ingredient Red Velvet Cookies!

I came up with this recipe after trying a 2-ingredient cookie recipe that used just yellow cake mix and butter to make an almost shortbread-like crisp bar cookie. The recipe said you could use any kind of cake mix, and with Valentine's Day right around the corner I knew I wanted to try to tweak it a bit. I usually keep boxes of red velvet cake mix on hand (I stock up around Christmas and Valentine's Day, since in my grocery store it's hard to come by other times of year) because I love these cookies, but I hate how sticky-blood-red my hands get after rolling all the dough balls when making them, and don't even get me started on how messy they are to make with kids.

I wanted my red velvet cookies to be a little softer than the two-ingredient kind, and since the other recipe had cream cheese in it I thought that might be a nice addition. I'll go through the directions/ingredients here first, then if you want to stick around I just have to share the trials of my first batch at the end of the post. Luckily it only took me two batches to get it just right!

Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:

1 box red velvet cake mix
1/2 box cream cheese, softened (4 oz)
1/4 cup of butter, melted (1/2 stick)

Optional toppings:
chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup)
Vanilla Candy Coating (1-2 cubes)
Cream cheese frosting would be really good too--you could really do anything you want on top!

After using parchment paper to line my pan on my first failed batch, I decided to try foil the second time around. You can safely use either--my failure had nothing to do with the parchment, I just wanted to see if the foil would work because it's easier to get it in the nooks and crannies of the pan. It didn't stick or tear at all, so I liked using the foil better.

Throw your softened cream cheese (1/2 brick) into the bowl on your mixer--if you didn't let it soften on the counter, the microwave works just fine. Beat it with the mixer a bit to soften a bit more, scrape it off the bottom of the bowl, then add the cake mix and mix on low. It will still be pretty dry.

It's good to have a helper.

Pour the melted butter on top and mix again. It should start to come together at this point, but will remain chunky.

Your helper may lick the beater at this point.

Pour the chunky batter into the pan and spread it around evenly.

Take off your rings at this point--the best way to press it evenly into the pan is to use your bare hands.

Way too many crevices to clean red velvet dough out of.
I know from experience.

Or to let someone else do it.

Yours will not be this squishy.  This is the failed first batch.

You might get some other interested parties as well.

How close can you get?

But guess what?  It didn't even turn our hands red.  A little greasy, but we didn't look like we'd just butchered something, which is a definite concern when working with red velvet.

That's it! You're ready to put it in the oven. Bake it at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes. Make sure your toothpick comes out clean (but it should also have a dry look to the top--my first batch passed the toothpick test but still ended up back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes!)

Now it's decision time. How do you want to top these puppies?

Yes, my candy coating was on clearance.  Doesn't expire for another two years,
so I stocked up--I'll need it for next December's Christmas Crack.

If you're using the chocolate chips, sprinkle them on top right away so they melt from the heat of the cookies. If you want to drizzle the candy coating or put frosting on (or just eat them as is), then let it cool in the pan until you can use your foil or parchment to lift the whole batch out of the pan and onto a cutting board.

Then you're ready to decorate!

Note--this is my first batch, that ended up going back in the oven.
Yours should look drier than this.

For drizzling, I used two squares of the candy coating. Melt in the microwave according to package directions.

Then scoop your melted candy into a zip-top bag and snip off one corner. The bigger your snip, the wider your drizzle will be. I went both vertical and horizontal. Then let the candy cool before doing anything else.

If you're doing the chocolate, sprinkle a thin layer of chips immediately after removing from the oven and let them melt. These chips are milk chocolate because it's what I had--if I were doing this again I would personally prefer dark chocolate chips since the cookies are already pretty darn sweet.

I know, this looks skimpy on the chocolate. But trust me--they're pretty
rich on their own and you don't want overkill.

Once they're melted, spread the chocolate thin to cover the surface:

I only used one cube of the candy coating for this one. And I just drizzled it with a spoon, since it didn't need to look as pretty at this point:

Since I knew I'd be doing this, and I like having the variation in there.

I just dragged a toothpick up and down the length of the pan to pull the white and milk chocolate together--you can vary the widths however you like. Once it's cooled enough, I moved the whole batch to a cutting board. After cutting out one heart, I decided that this decoration didn't show enough valentiney-red for me, so I added some red sprinkles.

SO after the cookies and the toppings have cooled, you can cut them into any shape you want. I chose hearts, since it's valentine's day (duh).

I have to admit though, if it weren't a holiday, there is no way I would have used a cookie cutter on these. So much waste. I don't mind eating the scraps, but it is a bit of a bummer for the kids, especially once they've seen all the pretty heart cookies. Instead I would totally just cut them into squares. Much more efficient.

 If you're really good with wielding a plastic bag, maybe you could just apply your melted candy coating in a heart shape to the top of the squares, and eliminate this whole problem.

Little  Sister doesn't seem to mind the scraps.

But the hearts do make pretty valentines for neighbors, teachers, postmen,  whoever.  If I had some pretty cellophane I might have dressed these up even more.

OK, so here we go with the directions all in one place for easy cutting-pasting--I'll repeat the ingredient list (all three of them) so you don't have to keep scrolling back up:


Ingredients (makes 15-24 cookies depending on how you cut them)

1 box red velvet cake mix
1/2 box cream cheese, softened (4 oz)
1/4 cup of butter, melted (1/2 stick)

Optional toppings:
chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup)
Vanilla Candy Coating (1-2 cubes)
Cream cheese frosting would be really good too--you could really do anything you want on top!


Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350.
2.  Place softened cream cheese in mixer bowl and beat at medium speed until soft.  Scrape bowl with a spatula.
3.  Dump cake mix into bowl and mix on low to begin blending the cream cheese in .
4.  Pour melted butter over other ingredients, then mix until blended (still chunky).
5.  Pour chunky batter into pan lined with parchment or tinfoil and press evenly into pan.
6.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Decorating with chocolate chips--sprinkle immediately after removing from oven to melt chips, then drizzle white candy coating before dragging toothpick up and down in parallel lines to form a chevron pattern.  Once cookie and topping is cooled, remove in one piece to a cutting board for cutting, either into squares or with a cookie cutter.

Otherwise, let cool in pan, then remove in one piece before decorating on a cutting board.

Once cookie and topping are both cool, cut into squares or use a cookie cutter to cut shapes.

Oh, and if you're still around, I guess my failed batch actually isn't that good of a story--I started with a whole cube of cream cheese and a whole stick of butter, and ended up putting the whole thing back in the oven for an extra 10 minutes, and then AFTER decorating and cutting out, I stuck them on a cookie sheet and baked them AGAIN for another 7 minutes or so before they finally held together.  In the end, they turned out pretty good, but using half the cream cheese and butter tasted just as good, had a better texture and way shorter baking time, and all around were just an easier cookie to deal with.  This may be the first time in history that LESS butter turned out better.  Take that, Paula Deen!

Messy Valentines!

We decided to make some valentines to send to our nearest and dearest this year.

I usually shy away from this kind of project (the kind where the kids, the furniture, myself, and who knows what else end up covered in sticky substances), but I thought that it would probably be worth it.

The funny thing is, my kids don't even enjoy getting covered in goo that much. But they do like making things. Here, Little Sister just wants me to wash her hand before she dips it in the paint again. We go through this every mealtime--"No honey, I'll wash your hands after you finish, I'm not going to wipe that ketchup off between each bite."

Wash meeeeee!

I made a heart shape out of tape on cardstock then let her fingerpaint all over the top, then pulled up the tape leaving a white heart. I used electrical tape here since that's all I could find, but it didn't release that well, so I dug deeper till I found some of the painter's tape I knew we had hiding somewhere, but that was only a little better. Not sure what the best bet would be. I pulled up the tape right away (while the paint was still wet). Don't know if it would be worse if you left it on longer.

Suffering for her art

Anyway, here's the finished fingerpainting job:

Then after pulling up the tape (this is the other one we did, but same idea), I embellished the white space with a little glitter glue. It distracted from the places where the tape had stuck down too well.

Our other cards were pretty self-explanatory:

Fingerpainting, then glue a heart-shaped cutout over the top:

Trying to maximize the amount of fingerpainting that
showed through by cutting an extra-wide heart,
but it ended up looking a little...bosomy.  Bear that in mind when cutting.

Paint the hands with red paint and press onto paper one at a time to form a heart, then decorate with glitter glue to reinforce the heart shape:

We added heart-shaped stamps around the outside on this one.

And this one, my personal fave: we made a big heart out of tape and painted around the outside (Liam did the painting on this one), then peeled up the tape and made a heart with one hand from each kid in the blank space. It seemed to work better to make the heart with the fingers coming together for the point. This one is for Daddy. I'm pretty sure he doesn't read my blog so it's probably safe to show this to you before we give him the card. Hmmm, I wonder if he reads my blog? Honey, if you're reading this, act surprised. Also, let me know! If you're not reading, I can start posting embarrassing pictures of you!

Little Sister really does have all of her fingers. Maybe she's just a trekkie in training!

Canvas Wall Art!

This post should be sponsored by Pinterest, because this single project is an amalgamation of FOUR (wait, actually FIVE) ideas that I had pinned there.

Pin #1: Since redoing Little Sister's bedroom, we've had some extra wall space. So when I saw this link to the New York Public Library Digital Image Gallery (free!), I went through and found these cool iris botanical prints. I wasn't sure how I was going to display them, but I thought they'd look neat on her wall.

Pin #2: Then I found a 3-pack of 8x10 canvases at Ross for $4.99, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try this process of printing on tissue paper and using mod podge to apply the image to a canvas, allowing the canvas texture to show through the image.

Note:  8x10 is pretty small, but it's nice because you can
 print your image on one sheet of computer paper.

Pin #3: I wasn't going to BUY mod podge though, so I used the stuff I made according to this recipe.

I followed the tutorial listed in Pin #2 exactly, I was so good. And it worked, but...

When I printed on the tissue, my printer got a few of these black gunky spots on my image.

And this faint black stripe across the top.

I thought maybe there was just some gunk in my printer, so I tried printing on normal computer paper, to make sure the gunk was all gone, and it didn't show up...

So I did another one on the tissue, but the gunk was back. It wasn't too bad, and mostly along the top so it was an area that was mostly being trimmed off in the end anyway, but kind of a bummer. Probably just my printer, but something to be aware of.

Anyway, smoothing out the tissue is kind of difficult, and mine tore in a couple of spots the first time around, so luckily I had my first trial tissue printout, so I used little pieces of that to patch the hole.

My next try went better--my advice is to use a VERY thin layer of the mod podge, because the wetter the tissue gets the more easily it tears.

But all in all, a quick and easy project--and I really like the way the canvas texture shows through, especially on this antique-looking botanical print.

Pin #4: To hang these on the wall, I tried this technique, which works well as long as you can get the pop tab off the can with the little internal ring intact. The link above has a link to a method for getting the ring off every time, I guess.  To be honest, I don't even have this pinned--I remember seeing it on Pinterest, but couldn't find it there, so found the source directly, but for some reason it won't let me pin from that site?  I don't know.  Anyway, luckily we had pop tabs in the house from Liam's birthday party last weekend--normally we don't drink soda so the timing was right!

Here they are hanging on the wall above the changing table. Little Sister couldn't help getting in the picture.

Surveying her domain

And here they are straight on.

Well, as straight as I could get them with my lazy picture hanging.

Pin #5: I had an extra canvas, so I tried this cool free printable I had pinned. I think it turned out good, but I do think the technique looks better with more "antique" types of images (to hide the imperfections better). This image is so clean it doesn't leave a lot of room for error.

Life is a beautiful ride.

Close-up

Bonus Pin #6: Since we were having a pinterest kind of day, we went ahead and made these celery stamp pictures as well.

Little Sister's masterpiece

And then I made this crock pot shredded chicken with beans and salsa for dinner, also from Pinterest. How did I ever decide what to do with myself before Pinterest?  If you're not on there yet (and want to be), let me know--I'll email you an invite!

Portable Felt Car Mat!

Phew! I finished it in time for The Boy's buddy's 3rd birthday party last weekend!

Happy Birthday, Big D!

This may look somewhat familiar (from this post), but as it is pretty much impossible to get two exactly alike, it is actually unique.

Original Recipe and Next Generation

The new one looks so bright and shiny and clean next to ours:

Ooh, grungy!

But that just goes to show how much love this one has gotten in the last year. This thing gets played with A LOT. And it's traveled to the beach with us many times. It's even gone to Montana!

So not a real tutorial, but here's a rundown on how I did this in case you are so inspired:

1. Make a list of items you would like to put on your map.
2. Plan out your "road" on a sheet of paper, then tentatively figure out where you'd like things to go.
3. Lay out your felt--I bought a yard of medium green for the background, a yard of dark green for the backing/trim, and a yard of gray for the road. It's 72 inches wide, so a yard gets you a lot. My mats are about 36" wide, and the main part of the mat (not including the garage) is almost square, so I have about half of my light green and gray leftover (plus scraps). I needed more for the dark green since I used that to make the garage pockets at the bottom.
4. Trim the lighter green a bit so you can see dark green all around the edges. I made my light green a square about 36x36. Then lay the gray on top, trim it to the same size, fold it in quarters, and cut an arc so that your gray is a circle.
5. Draw out your road on the gray felt (I used a sharpie). It doesn't have to be perfect because you are going to flip it over before you sew it down--but if you want roads to go a certain way, remember to do it backwards. I didn't really care, so that's why the basic design is opposite of the first one I made.
6. Flip the felt road over, then pin and sew it down to the light green square along the edges of the roads. I made an executive decision to only use white thread for the whole thing, even though it's contrasting with some of the buildings, to save time switching thread. The continuity of all white thread actually looks cute, I think.
7. Cut out all of your little buildings with as much detail as you want. I cut every little thing out of felt the first time, and it took forever. For this latest incarnation I relied a lot more on fabric paint, and I think it looks just as great. For size, I made sure each building was big enough to hold a die-cast car (even the bigger Disney Cars ones, because that's what my little guy likes best).
8. Once your buildings are cut out, lay them out on your road. Figure out if any of them need to be trimmed down to fit. I made mine have a "neighborhood" area, a "downtown" area, etc.
9. Once you know you've got everything how you want it, sew the details onto the buildings, then pin and sew the buildings to the light green mat. This part is KEY--I chose to leave the bottom edges of the buildings open, so they could be used as garages, and this is one of my son's favorite features.
10. Lay the finished light green mat on the larger dark green piece, then fold the end of the dark green up about 6 inches. Sew seams every 3.5 inches or so across the bottom (I left one larger pocket at one end for bigger cars).
11.  Fold your mat in thirds lengthwise, then roll it up.  Then cut a length of ribbon long enough to wrap around the rolled up mat and tie in a largish bow.
12.  Now  fold the ribbon in half and pin the fold of the ribbon between the dark and lighter green pieces of felt at the center of the top of the mat.
13.  Pin and sew the lighter green square to the darker backing, making sure to sew the folded ribbon inbetween at the top.
14.  Paint your details on the mat, such as yellow lines down the center of the road, crosswalks, lettering on signs, etc. You could paint your building details before sewing those down, but I chose to do all of the painting at once.Then paint the letters "GARAGE" on six of the center pockets.

That ended up being long.  Sorry!  Now for another long list--here are all of the buildings and decorations I have put on the various car mats I have made, for your inspiration.  Many of these were added to our mat after the fact by request from my child.

1.  Houses

2.  School

3.  Church

4. Stores (toy store, grocery store, cafe, ice cream shop, car repair shop, gas station, car wash)

5. Public buildings (police station, fire station, bus/train station, library)

6.  Park (tree, flowers, slide, merry go round, swings, seesaw, pond, fountain/statue)

7.  Street signs/markings (stop sign, railroad crossing, bus stop, pedestrian sign, crosswalk, stop light)

8. Sports fields (soccer, baseball)

9.  Railroad track

Other:  construction zone, zoo, Mater's garage, park and ride

These are so much fun to personalize too--you can add landmarks from your own neigborhood, add kids' names, etc.  Have fun!  I'd love to see pics of other people's ideas--we're always adding to ours, and there are still a few blank spots left!