Buttercream Frosting

Zachary wants me to blog this as well from Betty Crocker, but this one we did adjust it.  Zachary used Country Crock instead of butter and once used almond extract instead of vanilla. It takes color well!

Ingredients:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup Country Crock- just from the fridge is fine.
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla or other flavoring
optional: coloring

Steps:

1 In medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk.

2 Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar. Frosts 13x9-inch cake generously, or fills and frosts an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake.

Zachary's Vegan Chocolate Cookies

This is actually from Loving It Vegan but if it disappeared from her site, we'd be devastated, so we are recopying it here for safe-keeping.

Vegan Chocolate Cookies:

• 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
• 1/2 cup (100g) White Sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup (125g) All Purpose Flour
• 2/3 cup (56g) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 3.5 oz (100g) Vegan Dark Chocolate + more for topping (chopped into small chunks)*

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Add the vegan butter and brown and white sugar to an electric mixing bowl and cream together. Add the vanilla and mix in.
3. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and mix in the baking soda and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing in by hand until crumbly.
5. Add the 1 Tbsp soy milk or other non-dairy milk and mix into a thick cookie dough.
6. Add the chocolate chunks and mix in. Your cookie dough will be very thick, but sticky enough to easily roll into balls.
7. Roll into small balls and space evenly on a parchment lined baking tray.
8. Bake for 10 minutes. The edges will be firm but the cookies will still be soft in the middle. This is fine, they will firm up as they cool.
9. Press in a few more chocolate chunks to the top of the cookies as they come out of the oven if you like (optional).