Mo' Cookies (Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing)

We got our Mo' on... you should too! 

Before we get to the recipe/quirky story part of this post, we wanted to share with you the many possible titles we thought of for our Movember themed Sugar Cookies: 

*ahem*

- Mo' Cookies Mo' Problems 

- "Please Sir, can I have some Mo' [sugar cookies]"? 

- Sugar Cookies with the Mo'stest 

- One Mo' Time - we gonna celebrate [Movember]

- Cookie Mo'ster 

Now that you've been privy to our creative minds, lets Mo' on to the cookies (be prepared, dear readers, for many Mo' jokes throughout this post) (get it? Mo'... More... as in MORE (Mo') jokes about Mo's??) Gosh we're witty. 

Over the past few years, the month of November gradually became fondly referred to as Movember; a month in which men grow out moustaches to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer. These Mo's serve as a so-called "hairy ribbon"- much like the pink ribbon we wear for breast cancer. Since we sadly (or not so sadly) cannot grow moustaches, we wanted to participate in some other way! Bring on the moustache shaped cookies, or Mo' Cookies. 

For these cookies we opted for a Mo' traditional sugar cookie recipe along with the Mo'st simple royal icing for decorating. This recipe is great for much Mo' than just Mo' Cookies! It can be used to make quick, tasty treats of all shapes and sizes. So here we Mo'... 

THE RECIPE: 

Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar 

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 to 2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder (NOT SODA)

1 pinch of salt (a single pinch - don't get too excited)

1. Cream together butter and sugar until the mixture is fluffy! ("Cream" is just a fancy way of saying beat - aka mix with vigor! - or mix master, whatever you got!) Mo'ing on...

2. Beat in egg and vanilla. 

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and that SINGLE pinch of salt (F.Y.I. the emphasis on the single pinch of salt is merely us poking fun at the original recipe - we're not that strict guys cMO'n). 

4. Stir the flour mixture INTO the fluffy butter mixture 1/3 at a time (trust us on this one). At this point you can either divide the batter into separate discs, or keep it as one large disc - either way, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at LEAST an hour (but overnight or for 24 hours is Mo' ideal). 

5. Now all you do is roll out the dough (on a floured surface), cut into fun shapes (i.e. Mo's), and bake in a 350 degree oven for approx. 8 minutes or until the edges are golden. 

6. Let your Mo's cool, and decorate them at your will! Preferably using our Royal Icing :)

Some Mo' Mo's

Where the Mo'gic happened! Also known as our
not-so-organized cookie decorating station...
a.k.a the dining room table

Royal Icing

4 cups Icing Sugar

2 tbsp Meringue Powder (aka Cream of Tartar)

6 tbsp water 

1. Mix all ingredients together using an electric mixer (unless you are feeling heroic and have impressive arm stamina), until you get a consistency you like. If the icing is too stiff, add more water; if it's too watery, add more icing sugar! 

2. You can stick with boring white icing... OR you can have Mo' fun by experimenting with food colouring (we sure did!). Just get yourself some food dye and giver! We divided our icing into bowls so we could make a whole whack of colours. 

We at scrambledeggsetc are avid supporters of diversity and individuality. Therefore we wanted to cover Mo' than just your average Mo'. Top Left: Ginger Mo', Top Right: Standard Mo', Bottom Left: Pink Mo'! Bottom Right: Juvenile Mo'

Feel like doing some Mo'? Visit this AWESOME, deserving of donations, Mo' Space!!! 

Or visit Movember Canada to check out other Mo' Bros and Mo' Sistas!

Happy Mo'ing!

Caroline and Jo a.k.a. Mo' Jo and Caro Mo' 

Christmas Cake

It’s only six weeks until Christmas! It’s time to get out to the malls to do your shopping before the stores get too busy, start listening to your favourite holiday songs, make your list and check it twice, and… start your Christmas baking!

Okay, maybe you’re thinking it’s a bit early to start your Christmas baking – but that’s probably because you haven’t factored in Christmas Cake. I will be honest with you, dear readers: Christmas Cake is not my favourite holiday treat. This is probably because I’m not the world’s biggest fan of candied cherries – as pretty and festive as they look, with their shades of bright red and green. Christmas Cake is for me, however, as firmly ingrained in holiday traditions as decorating our Christmas tree or going to see the Nutcracker ballet. I think Christmas Cake is one of the many tastes of Christmas, and I am of the opinion that as far as Christmas Cakes go, my grandmother makes the best one there is.

I have always vaguely known that my grandmother makes her Christmas Cake well in advance of Christmas – but when I got the phone call earlier this week inviting me to come over and help “stir the cake”, I learned that it is in fact six weeks before Christmas when she makes it. I also learned today that the stirring is quite the strenuous ordeal.

Christmas Cake is made in advance of Christmas because once it is baked and cooled, you wrap it in a brandy soaked cheesecloth and store it in a cool location until Christmas. The six weeks or so gives the brandy time to soak in to the cake to perfection – leaving the cake moist and flavourful. Something to look forward to: six weeks from now, I will be back at my grandparents’ house for Christmas dinner… and that dinner will end with a slice of this golden, red and green marbled cake.

As I typed out my grandmother’s recipe from her well-used recipe card, I asked her why it was titled “Light Christmas Cake” and not just “Christmas Cake”. She informed me that there is also such thing as a Dark Christmas cake, which is made with molasses and dark raisins, but we both agreed that the Light Christmas Cake is much nicer.

The process of making Christmas Cake is quite time consuming – my grandmother started it yesterday, when she prepared the fruit – and although we have baked the cakes today, they will need to cool overnight before she wraps them up tomorrow to store away for Christmas. So I apologize this is not one of Scrambled Eggs Etc’s simpler recipes – but a classic one to know, no less! 

THE RECIPE:

Day 1: Prepare the fruit

2 cups almonds

1 lb of red cherries, whole

1 lb of green cherries, whole

1 lb of glazed pineapple, cut in pieces

1 lb mixed glazed fruit

3 cups of light raisins (golden raisins)

1/3 cup white sugar

½ to ¾ cup Metaxa (or other Brandy)

1. You can either buy peeled almonds, and then they will be ready and save you some time – but if you buy regular almonds, as my grandmother did, you will need to peel them yourself. Put the almonds in boiling water for a few minutes. When you remove them from the water, you will be able to easily remove the peel. Next, place nuts on a tray in 325 oven for 10 minutes to lightly brown.

2. Cut red and green cherries in half, and put in large pot with glazed pineapple and mixed fruit. Save some nuts and cherries aside to decorate the top of the cakes.

3. In a pot, put 2/3 cup of water and 1/3 cup white sugar and bring to a boil. When water is boiling, add the raisins. Cover the pot and let simmer 5 minutes. Let cool.  When cool, pour over the fruit in the big pot. Stir Metaxa into the fruit. Leave overnight (with lid on the pot – and can sit out on the counter).

4. Leave your pound of butter out overnight in the wrapper so it will be soft for the baking the next day. 

Day 2: Baking

1 cup of flour

1 lb (2 cups) butter

2 cups white sugar

3 cups of flour

6 eggs

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons baking powder

¾ cup evaporated milk

1. Sprinkle 1 cup of flour over the fruit and stir into fruit. This will help keep the fruit separate so it will be easier to stir later.

2. Line the bottom and sides of pans with 2 layers of dampened parchment paper. We used 3 square pans – 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small. The pans we used have removable bottoms, so I suggest using a springform pan (for the amount of batter this recipe makes, you will probably need two 9” springform pans) for easy removal. When I asked my grandmother where she got her cake pans from, she said she’s had them since she got married… so that was 59 years ago!

3. Cream butter well. Add sugar gradually. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour to creamy mixture alternately with milk, 1/3 at a time, ending with flour and mixing well.

5. Add the cake batter to the fruit and stir with a large wooden spoon until all fruit is well coated

6. Pour into tins (a little over half full) and smooth the top, and decorate with reserved fruit and almonds.

7. Before transferring cakes to oven, drop/bang cake pan on the counter to remove any excess air in the cake.

8. Bake at 275 degree oven for approximately 3 hours. Check them after 2 and a half hours. (Our smallest cake was ready in 2 and a half hours). Insert stick of spaghetti into cake to test if it is cooked – when the spaghetti comes out dry, it is cooked. Be careful that the spaghetti stick does not break in the cake! (This is a new tip I picked up from my grandmother today, rather than the tried and true toothpick test). 

9. Let cool in cake pans overnight.

Day 3: Wrap up and store away for Christmas! (Like a present!)

1. Remove cakes from pans and remove paper. 

2. Cut cheesecloth into pieces big enough to cover each Christmas cake. Dip cheesecloth into brandy and wrap it around the cake. Cover with saran wrap and then foil, and transfer to a cookie tin, and store in a cool place until Christmas (for approximately six weeks).

So, now that I’ve officially started my Christmas baking… expect more to come soon - there's a lot a girl can do in six weeks! 

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This banana bread and I have grown up together. Unlike some things I may have loved as a young child – overalls from Gap Kids, boy bands, and purple hair mascara, etc. – this recipe for chocolate chip banana bread was no passing phase.

When I was around the age of 10, my parents gave me a cookbook for Christmas called Kids Can Cook! – a sign that I started my cooking obsession at a young age. The cookbook had lots of great, simple recipes that I loved to make, especially the banana bread recipe… but unfortunately, somewhere along the way it got lost. Not all was lost, however: thankfully, I had typed out this recipe for banana bread.

In grade 10, my homeform teacher decided we should do class breakfasts on the two mornings a week we had homeroom. This idea was to encourage the importance of eating a healthy, balanced breakfast every morning. With a partner of our choosing, we got assigned a date when it would be our morning to bring in breakfast. Montreal style or Gryfe bagels with cream cheese, a selection of fruit and Tropicana orange juice was probably the most popular breakfast option – but when my turn rolled around, I, in typical me fashion, wanted to bake something for the class. (Note: This was at a time before schools were so strict about nut free regulations, so home baked goods were allowed). So I brought in this classic, one of my favourites that I had been baking since I first received Kids Can Cook: chocolate chip banana bread. It was a hit, and my homeform teacher asked me for the recipe. So I typed it up to give to him. Now, thanks to that teacher I still have the recipe saved, while I no longer have the cookbook, Kids Can Cook!  

This recipe came with my to university as well. In my second and third years at Queen’s, I lived in a seven person house, with six other girls. Our oven in that house was ancient, and rather small, but it still got the trick done, and I loved to bake for the house. This banana bread was a fast favourite – and I quickly discovered that one loaf, freshly out of the oven, divided by seven girls equals a remainder of just a few crumbs. So, I adapted and chose to double the recipe when I baked the banana bread. This meant we could have 2 loaves: one for immediate consumption, and the second that may last a day, or two, if we were lucky…

This banana bread has simple ingredients (sugar, butter, bananas, flour, chocolate chips, etc...) and the dash of cinnamon very nicely compliments the banana flavour. It is easy and quick to prepare and will fill your kitchen with an amazing smell while it bakes for an hour. Really, your oven does most of the work (timewise, at least) with this recipe!

THE RECIPE:

½ cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3 ripe bananas (I only use 2, unless they are small) 

2 cups all purpose flour (I use 1 cup regular and 1 cup whole wheat)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

½ salt

¾ to 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Heat the oven to 325ºF (160ºC). Grease loaf pan.

2. In medium bowl, combine butter and sugar. Cream together with wooden spoon until smooth. (This is word-for-word from Kids Can Cook!  - since I like to use my stand mixer for just about anything I bake, I cream the butter and sugar together… if you are cooking with a child and want to avoid using an electric mixer, by all means, cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon – or maybe you prefer to use a wooden spoon! Totally up to you!)

3. Add the egg. Mix well. (Or in my case, blend in the egg)

4. Mash bananas and add to other ingredients in the bowl. Stir together.

5. In separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 

6. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture. Stir thoroughly. (Blend in with mixer, if using)

7. Add the chocolate chips. Stir.

8. Spoon the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Baking time will depend on your oven, but when the loaf is finished, the edges will be golden brown and a toothpick (or fork) inserted in the centre of the loaf will come out clean.

9. Wait for the loaf to cool a few minutes before consumption – this may be easier said than done because it's going to smell delicious!

If you are part of the 1% who doesn’t like chocolate, try making it without the chocolate chips – I’ll try not to judge you, too much…

I like to keep bananas on hand in the freezer so that when the mood hits, I can bake my favourite loaf: chocolate chip banana bread. Try it, you’ll love it, and if you’re anything like me, this recipe may just stick with you for a long, long time… Thank you, Kids Can Cook! (Lost, but never forgotten).

A note about defrosting bananas: I like to defrost mine by running hot water over them in the sink. The peel will be a bit messy coming off, but I find it is best if the bananas are still partially frozen inside (so they’re not too mushy) and then I mash them and add them in. 

Happy Eating!

Caroline