Cookies & Cream Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze

Henry's baby brother is going away into the army on Sunday, so we're having a casual party for him today. I thought I would make a cute bundt cake to thank him for his service to the wonderful USA!

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COOKIES & CREAM BUNDT CAKE WITH VANILLA GLAZE

Ingredients for Cake

•  1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick softened butter
• 2 whole eggs (room temp)
• 2 egg whites (room temp)
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 7 Oreos, crushed

Ingredients for Glaze

• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup teaspoons light cream
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Method

1. Double grease and flour your bundt pan
2. Beat butter, eggs, egg whites, and granulated sugar in large bowl until well blended
3. Add milk and vanilla and mix well
4. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until smooth (about 2 minutes)
5. Fold in crushed oreos manually until they are dispersed throughout the batter
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
7. Place cake on wire rack over a cookie sheet and allow to cool completely
8. Melt butter for icing and add it to other ingredients for icing, mixing well until a loose, creamy icing has formed
9. Pour icing generously over cake 
10. After icing has hardened, remove cake from wire rack and place on a platter/cake dish. Garnish with Oreos

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Wedding Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
1 cup pecans, chopped into very small pieces

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans with a spatula. With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a crescent. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in additional confectioners' sugar. Cool on wire racks.

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Christmas Sugar Cookies

I make these every year. They are a mess and probably are way more trouble than they are worth, but it is a tradition!

You must let the dough sit in the refrigerator for a long time. It's annoying, but it will make your life so much easier.

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Prep:

2 sticks butter
2 small eggs or 1 large egg
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 or 3 cups flour
scant teaspoon salt
scant teaspoon baking soda
teaspoon pure vanilla

After cooked:

1 cup confectioner's sugar
milk or orange juice

Mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg(s) and mix again. Add vanilla, salt, and baking soda and mix again. Finally, carefully mix in flour until well blended and sticky dough results. Let dough sit in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Take dough out of fridge and use flour very generously to spread it 1/4 of an inch and cut it into desired cookie shapes. Place cookies on greased bake sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 heat.

Take cookies out and let cool on wax paper. Mix a little no pulp orange juice or milk with confectioners sugar until a thick, smooth, white mixture results. Spread over cookies and place festive sprinkles on wet icing. Let icing harden for an hour, then place cookies in tins, separated in layers by wax paper. Keep refrigerated or frozen.

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Earl Grey Macaroon Sandwiches

I love all things tea--smell, taste, sound. I recently went to a dessert expo here at Duke and had some AMAZING Earl Grey Tea Cookies with chocolate in the middle...So I decided to try to find a recipe and create my own spin on it (which, of course, is modeled after the one that I tasted at the dessert expo).

The this recipe is adapted from this website.

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Prep:

3 oz almond flour (2/3 cup) or blanched sliced almonds (3/4 cup) or slivered almonds (2/3 cup)
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa
3 large egg whites, at room temperature for 30 minutes
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Earl Grey tea (from 1 tea bag)

After cooked:
1-2 slabs of Chocolate Almond bark (melt as needed)

Grind almond flour or almonds with confectioners sugar and cocoa powder in food processor until powdery. Sift twice through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl. If it's not fine enough for almost all of nuts to go through sieve, regrind.

Beat egg whites with salt in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until they just hold soft peaks. Beat in granulated sugar, a little at a time. Increase speed to high and beat until meringue holds stiff, glossy peaks. Fold meringue into almond mixture with a rubber spatula until completely incorporated. (Meringue will deflate and batter will be loose.)

Grind tea to a fine powder in grinder.

Spoon half of batter into pastry bag (or gallon-sized bag with hole in corner). Holding bag vertically just above baking sheet, pipe 1 1/2-inch-wide mounds of batter about 1 inch apart, stopping pressure and flicking tip sideways to avoid peaks (tamp down any peaks with a wet finger). Refill pastry bag and repeat. Sprinkle tops with about 1/4 tsp tea powder (reserve remainder). Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature until a light crust forms, 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake at 300 heat for 22-28 minutes until crisp and interior does not give easily when a macaroon is gently pressed. Cool completely on baking sheets on racks, about 30 minutes. Loosen macaroons from parchment with offset spatula (they will be very fragile).

After cookies have cooled, melt Almond Bark and combine it with the remaining amount of ground tea leaves. Spread a very thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of cookie and sandwich it between another cookie.

Layer macaroons between sheets of parchment in an airtight container and let stand at room temperature at least 2 hours to soften before eating. Makes 2 1/2 dozen macaroon sandwiches.

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I will make this recipe during the holidays, and we'll see how it goes. Pictures to come.