Have you ever had “one of those days?” A day where nothing seems to be going right? A day where everything ends up being so much harder than in should be or needs to be? Well that was how my day was when I made these really easy cookies.
The recipe for these cookies couldn’t be easier, but somehow I managed to really complicate them. The recipe basically is a cake mix without the water and with some extra flour. I read it wrong and left in all the water. It calls for three eggs and I only had one, so it was extra runny with not enough eggs. I tried to fix it by adding some white cake mix, but it didn’t work. I also didn’t have any pudding mix. When I cooked them the spread out to about the size of a pancake and they were extremely thin and fragile. I burned myself twice, got covered in powdered sugar, hit my head on the cabinet door twice, and dropped a whole bunch of cookies on the floor. By the time I was finished I had a batch of very strange looking cookies.
Lucky for me and you, I didn’t give up. I waited about two weeks before I tried making these again, and this time they turned out perfectly. So don’t worry, most normal people will find this to be one of the easiest recipes out there. It is cute, festive, and yummy. Perfect to give to neighbors and friends as a Christmas treat. Watch tomorrow for one more Christmas goodie.
Ingredients:
- 1 box red velvet cake mix
- 1 box instant pudding (vanilla or chocolate-but feel free to experiment with other flavors.)
- 1/4 C. self-rising flour (or 1/4 C all purpose flour, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, and 1/8 tsp. salt)
- 3 Eggs (or the quantity listed on the box)
- 1/3 C. Oil (go by what is listed on the box)
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 5 TBSP. butter
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 C. powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Mix together the cake mix, pudding mix, flour, eggs, and oil until a thick dough forms.
2. Drop Tablespoon sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Let cool completely before filling.
3. While the cookies are baking, make the filling. Beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high until smooth and combined. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar until it is all mixed in and smooth.
4. Once the cookies have cooled, sandwich a glob of frosting between two similar sized cookies. Make sure you have enough frosting in between to be able to see it.
5. Roll the edges with the frosting in Christmas sprinkles or crushed candy canes. Store in an airtight container.
Variation: You could also skip the filling,sprinkle a little bit of powdered sugar on top, and give them away as normal cookies.
If you liked this recipe, look at these:
- Pumpkin Whoopee Pies
- Easy Christmas Snickerdoodles
- Candy Cane Cookies
- Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies
Cookie recipe adapted from Broccoli and Chocolate and frosting recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. For a really good recipe made from scratch (and probably with much better results) click here.
