Red Velvet Hearts

Valentine's Day is less than a week away!!!

When I think about food that goes with this holiday, I think about desserts.  That's it.  No regular food.  Just chocolate and sweets! 

These Red Velvet Hearts are a super easy Cake Mix Cookie that is perfect for Sunday!

Your Shopping List for the Red Velvet Hearts:

• 1 box red velvet cake mix 
• 1 stick butter 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• red sugar sprinkles (you can always use plain white sugar and color it red if you cannot find red sugar sprinkles) 
• 24 dark chocolate hearts, unwrapped (like the kind by Dove)

Now Let's Make the Red Velvet Hearts:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract
3. Add the red velvet cake mix and the baking powder to your mixer and beat together until a soft dough forms
4. Use a cookie scoop to form dough into 24 balls (about 1 inch each)
5. Roll each dough ball into the red sugar sprinkles
6. Place onto prepared baking sheets and bake in oven for 10  - 12 minutes
7. While the cookies are in the oven, unwrap your chocolates and have them ready 
8. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate heart into the center of each cookie
9. Allow to cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely
10. Once cookies are cool and the chocolate has completely set, store in an airtight container

Friday Favorites: Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is only three weeks away!  I have lots of love for this special PINK holiday!

1. Valentine's Day Treats:

If time allows, there will be tons of Valentine's Day treat making in the next few weeks!  I will be sharing some new recipes as well as making a few of last year's favorites (like the kiss cookies pictured above).  Click Here for all of my Valentine's Day dessert recipes that you can make for your sweetie, your kids, or anyone special in your life!


2. Kitchen and Bath Towels:
One of my favorite ways to decorate is to change out the bathroom and kitchen towels to match the current holiday!  Let's be honest, doing this is easy and it's about all I have time for at this crazy stage in life!  I just ordered these Love You More than coffee kitchen towels.

And here are a few more cute towel ideas:

3. Valentine's Day Plates:
Another thing that I always do is buy kids plates to coordinate with the season or upcoming holiday.  Right now we are enjoying some plates that I got at Wegmans!  I often joke that the food store is where I do 90% of my shopping these days!  However, I am eyeing up some other cute, festive plates!

4. Valentine's Day Baking Supplies
Oh there are just so many fun things to help make Valentine's Day treats.  The first one that I am obsessed with is this adorable heart shaped bundt pan.  How cute would this pan be for making a cake every year.  You can also use it on your anniversary too!

If you don't want to make a huge heart shaped cake, I really love this sweet little pan to make heart shaped cakelets! This is really fun, especially if you have kids! Then everyone gets their own mini heart cake!

And finally some other fun Valentine's Day supplies for the kitchen! I always love finding a good cookie cutter to add to my collection for each holiday!

Today I am linking up my Friday Favorites with:

and 

Red Velvet Hearts

Valentine's Day Week is upon us!  If you have been keeping up with this blog, then you know that I love this special holiday!  It is a day to celebrate love and the color pink!  It is also a time when Red Velvet desserts are in abundance!  And I love me some red velvet!  I also happen to love chocolate...seriously I have to eat chocolate every.single.day!  It's a must!  So I combined my love of red velvet and chocolate in this recipe!  It's the perfect treat to whip up for Friday!

And it's a cake mix recipe!  Cake Mix Recipe #28 if you're keeping track!

Here's What You Need to Make the Red Velvet Hearts:

• 1 box red velvet cake mix 
• 1 stick butter 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• red sugar sprinkles (you can always use plain white sugar and color it red if you cannot find red sugar sprinkles) 
• 24 dark chocolate hearts, unwrapped (like the kind by Dove)

Now Let's Make the Red Velvet Hearts:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract
3. Add the red velvet cake mix and the baking powder to your mixer and beat together until a soft dough forms
4. Use a cookie scoop to form dough into 24 balls (about 1 inch each)
5. Roll each dough ball into the red sugar sprinkles
6. Place onto prepared baking sheets and bake in oven for 10  - 12 minutes
7. While the cookies are in the oven, unwrap your chocolates and have them ready - don't forget to unwrap a few extra to eat while you are waiting! 
   
8. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate heart into the center of each cookie
9. Allow to cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely
10. Once cookies are cool and the chocolate has completely set, store in an airtight container

There is just nothing better then a cookie topped with a piece of chocolate!  

Click here to check out my original Cookie Butter Kiss Cookies that I made for Christmas!  

And click here to check out my Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies made with funfetti cake mix!  

Strawberry Malted Milkshake Cookie Bars

Oh My Goodness, we have had the plague at our house!  Not really, but it sure felt like it!  First it was me, then it was the girls, and then it got to John.  It even reached out to my own mama and my father-in-law.  Ugh!  I am really really really ready for spring!  So if you have been wondering what happened to me...I have been here...sick...and taking care of others who got sick!  It has not been a fun week, but we are finally on the mend!  And I am back, sharing a great new recipe with you!

Strawberry Malted Milkshake Cookie Bars

These bars are awesome!  They are so easy to make (hello cake mix), and they are delicious!  They are also a very cute Valentine's Day dessert!  

Here's What You Need to Make the Strawberry Malted Milkshake Cookie Bars:

• 1 box strawberry cake mix 
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 2 cups malted milk balls (like Whoppers) roughly chopped or lightly crushed - I put them in a Ziploc bag and used a rolling pin to crush them up
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Now Let's Make the Strawberry Malted Milkshake Bars:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, melted butter, beaten eggs, and vanilla extract until a soft dough forms
3. Fold in the malted milk balls and chocolate chips
   
4. Press dough into greased pan if you like sprinkle a few extra malted milk balls over the top
   
5. Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the edges have just started to turn from pink to brown
6. Use the back of a spatula to press down over the surface of the cookie bars to ensure that they are flat 
7. Cool completely before cutting into bars and storing in an airtight container 

 I don't overly crush the malted milk balls because I want to see big chunks in my cookies!

Cupid's Coconut Clouds

I love coming up with new cookie recipes!  And yesterday I wanted a lighter cookie recipe!  Something that wouldn't break those New Years Resolutions...you know those ones that we all made less than one month ago!  So I took my recipe for Coconut Cloud Cookies that I made every year for Christmas and made them lighter for Valentine's Day!

Cupid's Coconut Clouds!  

And these really do remind me of clouds!  They are light and airy!  Little pillows of deliciousness!

And did I mention that you only need three ingredients...well I guess 4 if you count the water! 

Here's What You Need to Make Cupid's Coconut Clouds:

• 1 box angel food cake mix
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup water 
• 2 cups sweetened coconut flakes

Now Let's Make Cupid's Coconut Clouds:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment) beat together the angel food cake mix, almond extract, and water on low for 30 seconds
3. Increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute
   
4. Fold in the coconut
5. Use a cookie scoop to drop dough onto prepared cookie sheets
   
6. Bake in oven for 12-13 minutes until lightly golden 
7. Remove pans from oven and cool completely on sheets before storing in an airtight container

*TIP* I like to transfer the sheets of parchment paper to cooling racks to let the cookies cool completely rather than leaving them on the hot pans

Lacie and Blakely give it their stamp of approval! 

Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars

I love red velvet anything!  I have shared my love of this delightfully scrumptious flavor on my blog from time to time!  Check out my past red velvet recipes...

The Best Red Velvet Cupcakes You Will Ever Eat

Red Velvet Fudge Bars

Red Velvet Cookies

And Now Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars!

Red Velvet is the perfect dessert for my two favorite holidays - Christmas and Valentine's Day!  That's why I thought today would be the perfect time to share these bars with you - Valentine's Day is 3 weeks away!  Inspired by original Neiman Marcus Bars (also know as Chess Squares or Gooey Butter Cake or sometimes Texas Gold Cake - I promise whatever they are called you have had them at some point)...I simply swapped out yellow cake mix for red velvet cake mix!  That makes these bars Cake Mix Recipe #25!!!

That's It!!!

Here's What You Need to Make the Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars:

• 1 box red velvet cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 block cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups of powdered sugar (which equals 1 pound...which is one box...or a half of a 2 pound bag) 

Now Let's Make the Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan with butter or nonstick spray
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, one egg, and melted butter until a soft dough forms
3. Press dough into bottom of prepared pan
4. In the stand of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat together the cream cheese, remaining two eggs, and powdered sugar until combined and smooth
5. Spread mixture on top of red velvet cookie dough - it will look like this
   
6. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes until the edges are crisp and the top of the cream cheese mixture has a slight crust but doesn't seem completely set (the center will still wobble a bit) - The picture below is what you are looking for 
   
7. Allow pan to cool on a wire rack for thirty minutes
8. Transfer pan to fridge to cool completely (an additional two hours)
9. Cut into bars and serve or store in the fridge until you are ready to eat

These Bars Get Lacie's Stamp of Approval! 

If you liked these Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars, don't forget to check out my other Red Velvet Recipes!  You can also find a butterscotch version of this recipe - Blakely's Butterscotch Neiman Marcus Bars - Here!

Happy Friday!

Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies

Last Friday, I shared with you how excited I am about the upcoming PINK Holiday!  Yes people, I am referring to Valentine's Day!!!  It's one of my favorite holidays.  I know some people don't like it or view it as a "fake" holiday...but I am not one of them!  Any holiday that brings love and the color pink into focus is a great reason to celebrate!

This week I had actually planned on sharing a different Valentine's Day dessert with you (one that I made John last year) but then I was at Wegmans and inspiration hit me in the holiday aisle!  I came across this

 VALENTINE'S DAY FUNFETTI CAKE MIX!!!

And then I saw a package of these

VALENTINE'S DAY HUGS KISSES

And I was INSPIRED!  I knew I needed to make cookies with these two ingredients! 

So I came home and whipped up a batch of Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies!  They are just like the ones I made at Christmas...but even better for two reasons:

1. They are a cake mix recipe (cake mix recipe #23 to be exact)!

2. They are PINK! (and red and white too)

Here's What You Need to Make the Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 box Valentine's Day Funfetti Cake Mix 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 24 unwrapped Raspberry Hugs Kisses - they are so so so pretty 
  
• assorted sugar sprinkles in holiday colors - I used hot pink, a light pink and white mixture, and red

Now Let's Make the Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract
3. Add the cake mix and the baking powder and beat together until a soft dough forms
   
4. Use a cookie scoop to form dough into 24 balls (about 1 inch each)
5. Roll each dough ball into the sugar sprinkles
   
6. Place onto prepared baking sheets and bake in oven for 10 minutes
7. Remove from oven and immediately press a kiss into the center of each cookie
8. Allow to cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely
9. Once cookies are cool and the kiss has reset, store in an airtight container

These cookies taste amazing and look so pretty at the same time!  It doesn't hurt that I was able to whip up the dough in about 3 minutes...in fact rolling the dough in the sprinkles is the most time consuming part - and if you have older kiddos they can definitely help you with that!

Can't find the Valentine's Day Cake Mix?  You can use white cake mix and add extra sprinkles to the batter! 

Happy Pink Baking!