Would You Care For a Cookie?

Easy Cake-Mix Cookies

When it comes to baking, MissPenny takes the cake!  She bakes the most delectable delights!  I'm gaining pounds just thinking about the cake she made for her hubby's birthday!  Anyway, back to the present.  Since I don't have anything particularly crafty to share (even though I'm wrapping up the repaint of the living room/hall area of the house. . . which just gave me a cool idea) I did want to at least share something!  So, here's a simple recipe my mom has been playing with and found to be quite handy!

Ingredients: 

• 1 box of cake mix (I like the ones with pudding in the mix - but it doesn't matter)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup of oil
• (maybe a tbsp of water if necessary)
• 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350*.  Mix the box of cake mix, eggs, and oil together with an electric mixer.  It should be moist enough by itself, but if necessary you can add a tablespoon or so of water to help soften the dough. (Cake mix with pudding already in it tends to be very wet and sticky - it was messy to work with but came out great!) You can roll the dough into small balls and bake for 12 minutes at this point (cooking times may vary depending on your oven - at Mom's house it takes 20 minutes vs. only 12-14 minutes at my house) or get a little crazy with it by adding other ingredients!

Here are my favorite variations:

Cranberry-pecan Cookies - yellow cake mix version with almond extract, 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup chopped pecans!  So yum!

Peanut butter cookies - yellow cake mix version, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, and as much peanut butter as you'd like - stir until it smells and looks like peanut butter cookie dough!

Super chocolate cookies - double chocolate cake mix (with pudding in the mix) version, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup of chocolate chunks!  SO GOOD!

Sugardoodles - the yellow cake mix version, rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking!

I've taken to jotting down the exact cook times for my oven since it varies so much from the recipe book.  I always tend towards undercooking my cookies - they stay moist longer if they aren't bricks to begin with!  Keep in mind that different cake mixes (brand wise) may be a little more wet/dry.

MissPenny will surely call this kind of baking the cheaters route - but I'll readily admit that I'm a cheater when it comes to cooking!