Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

These cookies - and yes, they really do have pudding in the recipe (find it here) - are the very first thing I made with my new mixer. I was super excited to use it, so I hope you'll forgive me if I just want to show off a few pictures of the new mixer in action...

Can't wait to use it even more!

New Mixer!

Happy Birthday To ME!! Just look at my beautiful birthday present:

Why are there 3 different (but identical) mixers?

Here's the story...

When I opened the first mixer, I noticed a small scratch on the top. It was small, but definitely there. And since these mixers don't come cheap, it seemed silly to keep one in less than perfect condition. So my mom and I boxed it back up and hauled it back to the store. Then, since they don't sell the pretty colors in the store, we ordered a new one. A little inconvenient, but not a big deal.

Until... the second new mixer arrived. I opened it up, excited to start whipping up tasty treats, and...noticed a scratch on top. What are the odds? And what to do now? Just keep it, as is, or order another new mixer? Well, since I am a little OCD about things, we packed it up again, dragged it back to the store and ordered another one! Definitely a pain in the neck, and super disappointing.

Until... the third mixer arrived. In perfect condition! Hooray! Let the baking begin!! 

Banana Cake Balls

The other day I found these recipes/ideas in my notebook:

Hmm...cream cheese, bananas, and chocolate in a tasty cake ball bite...sounds good to me!

I gathered up my ingredients, made the cake - which I have to say turned out fabulous - and frosting, then made some delicious cake balls.

I also learned a new trick for making the bottoms of the cake balls smooth and nice-looking, without all the drips around the edges.

While the chocolate is still wet, run a toothpick around the bottom edge. When it dries, pick up the cake ball and the chocolate around the edges will separate and you will have a nice clean edge!

Nice and Neat!

The One with Cookie Dough Scoops

Have you heard about the chocolate party my sister, Aimee, is having over at Someone's Gotta Pay?

No?! 

See the chocolatey looking button right over there, under the cupcake? --->

Click on it and go check out the chocolatey-ness: You'll find out about fair trade chocolate and some fun giveaways. Then come back here for the cookie dough scoops...I'll wait.

Along with her blog party, Aimee's also having a real-life fair trade chocolate party, and she asked me to make some cookie dough balls using fair trade ingredients. So I pulled out my sugars and chocolate chips and got to work.

I also had to find my recipe for no-egg cookie dough. It's super easy to make, and you can feel a lot better about eating it without worrying about those pesky raw eggs. I found this recipe on a blog a while ago, but I can't remember where, so you'll just have to read my messy writing!

You really can just throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them all up or you can mix them little by little. Either way, it should turn out looking like this:

Now usually when I make little balls of something (cake, cookie dough, oreos, etc...) I dip them in chocolate BUT the dipping chocolate isn't fair trade so I couldn't use it this time. That's why I decided to make cookie dough scoops instead of balls. Making the scoops involves 4 easy steps.

1. Cover a tray with wax paper.

2. Fill your scoop with cookie dough.

3. Dump the dough onto the tray.

4. Repeat until the tray is full.

Bonus Step #5. Enjoy your cookie dough, knowing that the chocolate chips were made by people with fair working conditions and paid a fair wage!

Now, what to do with all of this leftover dough?

Hmm...I can just see it being scooped onto some Ben & Jerry's (fair trade) vanilla ice cream OR being scooped right into my mouth. Either way, sounds great to me!