Monday, February 27, 2006

Aphrodite Cakes















I found this recipe on Barbara Fisher's blog Tigers & Strawberries last summer and have kept trying to find an occasion to make them - her writing is very persuasive. Friday they were my contribution at a friend's party.

For some reason her site was down this morning so I am posting the recipe below. I followed the directions exactly and 1 batch of dough made exactly 6 dozen cookies. 1 batch of icing was way too much for me, it probably was enough to ice 2 batches of cookies. It contains a very secret ingredient...sshhh.

Aphrodite Cakes

Cookie Ingredients:

1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 c. flour, sifted
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Icing Ingredients:
1/2 stick butter
4 ounces light cream cheese
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. heavy cream
2 tsp. rosewater (or to taste)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla and beat well.

Sift together flour and remaining ingredients and gradually add sugar to mixture, beating until well combined.

Roll into 1" balls and flatten slightly onto and ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 minutes (I baked 12 minutes): Do not brown.

Allow to cool a minute on the baking sheet, then carefully transfer to wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To make icing, blend together butter and cream cheese, then blend in the powdered sugar. Add rosewater and enough cream to bring it to a spreadable consistency.

Add food coloring to tint it pale pink (I used 1 drop of red), and pipe rosettes onto the cooled cookies.

What's left out of 6 dozen on Monday morning:

5 comments:

SnogAsh said...

Those look very pretty. I am hungry....Excuse me.

Anonymous said...

Oh, they do look pretty!

I do tend to use a bit more icing on the top than you did--but I still have significant icing left over. I usually freeze it in a doubled ziplock bag and use it for the next time I make cookies.

(If my daughter or husband don't find it and eat it first....)

But the way I use more is I generally pipe a rosette on top--using a star tip on the pastry bag, I hold it at a 45 degree angle, and pipe a spiral swirl that comes to a peak. That uses about half again as much icing as a straight up star does--and since everyone loves the icing, well, it makes the eaters happy. It also kind of makes them look more rose-like.

I am so happy they turned out so well and you liked them!

Anonymous said...

Hi!

I just stumbled on your blog, its quite fun! I'm a fellow Cleveland foodie-- I wish I could figure out a way to friend your blog-- I'm a livejournaler. (Although, my blog really isn't about food much)

Always nice to read Cleveland food blogs!

Anonymous said...

The way to do it is to set up a live feed for the blog on LJ. When I started Tigers & Strawberries, someone on LJ started the feed the day after I started writing--anyone who knows how can start the feed and it is owned by no one.

That way, readers on LJ can "friend" the feed and read the entries as they are posted.

holly_44109 said...

I will try making the rosettes next time...the icing is the best part!

Hi Morgan! Happy you found me!