Whiteley Creek Homestead

I have used this recipe countless times over the past 36 years to make frosted cutout cookies. It isn't fussy to mix together, rolls out easily without crumbling, and its flavor and texture rivals that of the best bakeries. The frosting is thick and fluffy creating a beautiful base for decorative toppings. 

 
Cutout Cookie Dough

2 cups sifted flour

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1/3 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

 1 tbsp milk

Sift (or whisk) first three ingredients together. Cream butter, vanilla, and sugar together; add egg and beat until fluffy. Blend in milk. Add dry ingredients gradually mixing well. Chill dough 3 to 4 hours. Roll on floured surface 1/8” thick. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on lightly buttered (or parchment-lined) cookie sheet. Bake at 400° for 6 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Frost with Vanilla Butter Frosting.

Vanilla Butter Frosting

(1/2 recipe is just enough to frost one recipe Cutout Cookies.)

1/3 cup soft butter

3 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 ½ tsp vanilla

About 2 tbsp milk

Blend butter and sugar. Stir in vanilla and milk; beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency.  Fills and frosts two 8 or 9-inch layers or a 9×13 cake. To fill and frost three 8” layers, use ½ cup butter, 4 ½ cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, and about 3 tbsp milk.  

Day 3 of the birthday party prep… baking, frosting, and decorating cupcakes. The carrot cake recipe Heather chose from allrecipes.com is by far the best I've tasted. All three of her kids (ages 2 ½, 6, and one day shy of 9 years) smeared the icing and formed a "campfire ring" on top using candy rocks. A birthday candle in the center provides the "flickering flames of a campfire", then they are set atop varying heights and sizes of mini wood slab tables borrowed from the kids play area. Heather ordered the cupcake liners from my daughter Jessie's fortandfield on Etsy Shop. 

 
Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/8 cups sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

½ cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups shredded carrots

½ cup crushed pineapple (Heather chose to puree it using a mini electric blender tool used to make smoothies to achieve an applesauce consistency. Nice variation. I will do the same.)  

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (Heather used whole wheat pastry flour.)

1 ¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ginger

1 cup chopped walnuts (½ cup stirred into batter + ½ cup sprinkled on cupcake tops) To make the recipe more kid friendly, Heather finely ground the walnuts since her kids don’t like walnut chunks. A hand crank nut grinder or food processor works well for this.

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Beat together the eggs, sugars, oil, and vanilla. Fold in the carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in ½ cup walnuts. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack before spreading with icing and sprinkling with remaining walnuts or other toppings. Yield: 12 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Icing Yield: Approximately 2 cups. Mix together 8 oz cream cheese, 2 oz room temperature unsalted butter, 1 tsp vanilla, and 2 cups sifted powdered sugar. Place frosting in the refrigerator for 5 to 10 minutes before spreading on cake.

My oldest granddaughter chose a camping theme for her 9th birthday celebration, so this week, during Dick's and my stay at our daughter Heather's house in New York, we were immersed in the most amazing transformation as a home became a woodland forest setting. It began with rolling out homemade graham cracker dough which Heather, assisted by her 2 1/2 year-old son, cut into firefly shapes while the birthday girl and her younger sister were in school. 

 
The fireflies were created by pressing a bee cookie cutter into the dough. After baking, they were stored in a covered glass jar to simulate catching real fireflies on a hot summer's eve. Baked pine tree graham cracker dough cutouts were destined to sandwich roasted marshmallows and chocolate to be eaten as s'mores. The recipe is seriously tasty!

Homemade Graham Crackers

½ cup all-purpose flour*

1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour*

½ cup light rye flour*

½ cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into pea-size bits

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp molasses

¼ cup cold water

1 tsp vanilla

*Heather substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose, whole wheat, and rye flours.

In a food processor or bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the cold butter and mix or process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Add the honey, molasses, water, and vanilla. Mix until the dough comes together in a ball. Between two sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap (or parchment paper), roll the dough ½” thick. Chill for 1 hour until firm. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°. Lightly flour the dough and roll 1/8” thick.  With a sharp knife, cut into 2” squares or cut into shapes using a cookie cutter. Arrange the crackers on lightly oiled or parchment lined cookie sheets. With a fork, prick several holes in each cracker. (Heather didn’t poke holes in her cutouts.) Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pan. Yield: 48 graham cracker squares.