Gotta Back it Up a Bit

My darling niece Molly had her 1st birthday June 21 and we celebrated the following weekend with cupcakes and cookies at the park.

She's my favorite little girl ever.

I had the privilege of making her cupcakes and cookies for the big day!

This is the recipe I use for the soft sugar cookies:

4 c. sugar
2 c. Crisco
4 eggs
2 c. buttermilk
2 tsp. soda
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. vanilla
8 c. flour

I probably ended up using 9 c after rolling in my hands with flour. It's such a soft dough! I keep it in the freezer to keep it cold enough to handle. 350 degrees until lightly brown on the edges. In this case, I had to substitute milk + lime juice for the buttermilk and 1 of the eggs was 2 tbsp of cornstarch. It was late, and I was a little short, but it totally worked.

The frosting?

1 small can Crisco (do you see a pattern here?)
2 tbsp butter flavoring
2 tbsp clear vanilla
2 tsp water (mix all of the above until smooth)
2 lb bag of powdered sugar (add slowly!)

Makes enough to frost a Betty Crocker cake mix. Or a bunch of cupcakes and a bunch of cookies.

The fondant?

1/4 c. Crisco (again...)
1 bag mini marshmallows
2 tbsp water
1 tsp clear vanilla
1 tsp butter flavoring (melt all of these together...I like to do it in a big nonstick wok with a little Crisco painted on it and the spoon/spatula)
2 lb bag of powdered sugar (I add it in increments into the big wok to keep the mess down)

When it gets harder to knead with a spatula, I coat my hands in crisco and got for it like meat loaf. You can add gel food coloring early on (easier!) or later (harder, but you can make more colors)

The cake? (yes, I cheat - this is from the back of the Dream Whip box)

1 box cake mix
1 pkg Dream Whip
1 cup cold water
4 egss

Just some of the bread and butter from my cake decorating days. Use at your own risk. (to your hips and thighs, that is.)