Baking with Buttercream

Lately, I've been baking up a storm.   Call it too much time on my hands, call it rolling around in the luxury of having only one man to attract now that I'm married off at last,  call it the tale as old as time that it is: a simple girl in love with a Buttercream KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

This is me on the day I came home from my honeymoon and saw the kitchen aid for the very first time.  Truth be told, even as I was opening it, I knew what it was...

My sister and brother sent this breathtaking appliance to Sam and I as a wedding present.  We have a lifetime of thanking them to do, but now-adays we let our baked goods do the talking.  So come on down Danny and Manda for a big old cake of appreciation!  (Also, for those of you who haven't received a thank you note yet, please don't think we are ungrateful and heartless.  They are still in progress!)

I am not the only one in love with the Kitchen Aid.

This is Sam in a recent KitchenAid Cookie Coma.  I made my Aunt Bev's molasses cookies and they are one bad little bunch of goodness.

I just recently acquired the skills to make these cookies life size on your screen.  I'm ridiculously proud of myself for this accomplishment.


Soft Molasses Cookies
3 dozen cookies


1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


Cream together butter and sugar until lightly colored and fluffy.  Beat in molasses and eggs, set aside mixture.  In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cloves and cinnamon.  Blend thoroughly with a wire whisk.  


Gradually mix flour mixture into creamed ingredients until dough is blended and smooth.  Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.  Dip tops in granulated sugar and place 2 1/2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 11 minutes.  DO NOT OVERBAKE!!  YOU WILL BREAK MY HEART!!!  Cool (after NOT overbaking) on wire rack. Store in tightly covered container to maintain softness.


WARNING:  These cookies do have addictive properties (see picture below) that have not fully been explained yet.  So far, the only potentially harmful effects are possible weight gain, but research is still pending.