Cake Sugar Cookies

You know those amazing, soft, pillowey, cakey, sugar cookies that you can get at your local superstore?  When the different holidays roll around, they always have them out with the appropriate colored frosting.  As I strolled through a few days before St. Patrick's Day, those luscious cookies with the beautiful green icing were calling me.  I resisted and made some of my own when I got home.

 So you get those cakey cookies by using a cake mix.  All you need to do is follow the package directions:

• sugar-free cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 c. oil

All you need to do is eliminate the water.

 You will notice that the batter will be obviously thick; although it won't quite be as stiff as regular cookie dough.  My daughter and I wanted to get into the St. Patrick's day spirit and added some green food coloring to the batter -- about 3 or 4 drops did it.

 Spray your cookie sheets and preheat your oven to 365 degrees.  In order to handle this sticky dough, you should wet your hands.  This will allow you to roll the dough into balls.








Once you have the dough in balls, use your fingers to flatten them out to around 1/4" thick.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Cookies will be pretty soft.  Allow them to sit on the cookie sheet for a few more minutes before you move them to a cooling rack.

 To frost the cookies, I used a half of a can of sugar-free vanilla frosting.  Again, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, we added about 10 drops of green food coloring to the frosting.

(FYI:  since the sugar-free cake mix only comes in yellow and not white, we had to add some yellow food coloring to our icing to make the greens compatible)

Enjoy these soft cookies for any holiday or season with the coloring of your choice.  It's the perfect irony...Sugar-free  sugar cookies!

Sugar Cookies

I know, I know....Just the idea of  "sugar-free"  sugar cookies sounds like an oxymoron; but it can actually be done.  I came across this recipe a couple of years ago and have been making my favorite holiday decorated cookies and so far, everyone seems happy with the outcome.  Even my daughter's friends at college really like these cookies.  I am not sure where I got this recipe, and although I have searched the internet and found a couple that were similar, I did not find this exact one.

• 1 c. (2 sticks) I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
• 3 c. Splenda
• 2 eggs
• 4 t. vanilla
• 3 c. flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt

Start by beating the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Add the Splenda a little at a time and beat well.  Once you have incorporated the Splenda into the butter, add the eggs and vanilla. 

 One thing you will notice after you beat the wet ingredients together, is that the batter will almost look separated and not as well incorporated as a normal cookie dough.  Don't worry...it will mix well once you add the dry ingredients.





Next add the dry ingredients.  Stir in your dry ingredients using a wooden spoon or spatula.  Notice that the dough looks like it might need more moisture to fully pull together; but no.  After you have incorporated all of the dry ingredients, use your hands to do the final mixing and it will come together in a great, smooth dough.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator for a couple of hours to chill.

After the dough is chilled, flour your surface and roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thick.  You can make them a little thicker if that is more to your liking.  You may want to work with about half the dough at a time, as this makes quite a few cookies.  Use your favorite cookie cutter shapes, depending on your holiday or occasion.  You can continue to take the trimmings from your shapes and re-roll your dough to use it all.  Put shapes onto a sprayed cookie sheet.  Bake at 325 F. for 8 minutes.  Allow to sit on the pan for a few additional minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Your cookies need to be completely cooled before you decorate them.  The best thing I have found to decorate with and keep your cookies sugar free is Pillsbury Sugar-Free Vanilla Frosting.  This frosting lends itself well to food coloring and you can certainly then put your different colors into small zip bags and snip off the corners to use as piping bags.  You can always add a couple of drops of milk to the frosting if you feel like it is a little thicker that what you like or what you are used to using.  Use a small amount of icing and milk to thin it down if you would rather have a glaze for your cookies.  Just be sure to add the milk a little at a time and stir until you get the consistency that you are happy with.
Note:  At this point, you can add sprinkles in one of the many varieties that exist; but just remember that the sprinkles will add a small amount of sugar to your cookies.