This is a family recipe that always made an appearance during Christmastime when I was a kid. These cookies...we call them cakes because they're so soft and tall...are just plain delicious. They're basically a fluffy, cake-like sugar cookie. They are simply fantastic with a glass of milk...after you have a bite of one, soaked in cool delicious milk, you'll never go back. Also, if you have kids (or let's face it, most of us would enjoy doing this), these cakes are a fantastic canvas for decorating. Break out your colored sugars and jimmies! If you're really not into happy creativity like that, a good alternative is black magic goth sugar. Just kidding...obviously, emo tears would be a more effective topping to mourn the fact that you don't have enough creative spirit to decorate a cookie with colored sugar.
Did I mention that they're pretty easy to make and bake? They're electric and hand-mix friendly.
Sugar Cakes Recipe
Yields about 100
-2c sugar
-1c butter
-3 eggs
-1c buttermilk
-4c flour
-2t baking powder
-1t baking soda
-1t vanilla
Tip: Buttermilk Substitute
If you don't have any buttermilk on hand, an easy work-around is to mix 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 cup of milk (any sort of milk will work). I'd recommend you do that now...the mix will need some time to turn into buttermilk substitute...about 5-10 minutes is good. If you don't have lemon juice, you're still screwed. Go to the store and get buttermilk AND lemon juice...the juice keeps for a decently long time.1. Cream the first 3 ingredients. That's the sugar, butter, and eggs, if you were wondering. I recommend creaming the butter first (get it nice and warm...don't be afraid to microwave it for a 10 seconds or so if it's chilly from the fridge) and then adding the sugar...and then the eggs. If you don't have an electric mixer, I highly recommend using a potato masher. I have turned out more awesome batches of these cookies in my home kitchen using a potato masher than an electric mixer...there's something magical about it. I like to call the masher my "secret ingredient." Really throws people off, since it's not even an ingredient, per say.
Tip: Cracking an Egg
I used to think I had decent experience cracking eggs. After my first day working at The Flour Child (an amazing bakery in Columbia, PA...cry now if you're not close enough to visit...OK, that's enough.), I thought differently. I'll just say that I had the privilege of cracking somewhere close to 30 eggs that day...just for one recipe. If you're a pastry chef, that probably would not faze you...but lemme tell ya, it was an eye-opening introduction to the world of professional baking! And it was delightful. Anyway, since then, I've developed my egg-cracking technique somewhat, and I'd like to share. This method rarely yields egg shell bits in the batter, which was my main issue before...
1. Hold the egg securely in one hand (I prefer a loose 3-finger baseball grip).
2. Tap the middle of the egg lightly, but firmly, on the edge of the bowl you're using.
3. Rotate the egg slightly, and tap the egg again, continuing the crack line.
4. Rotate and tap again. By this time, the top half of the shell should be coming loose enough to easily remove. 2. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk. I like to use a fork to stir it up really well.
3. Combine flour and baking powder. Be sure to stir well.
4. Add milk and flour mixtures alternately to butter mixture. Add one...mix. Add the other...mix. Continue until you've added all of the mixtures together.
5. Add vanilla. Beat well.
6. Prep for baking. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. If you don't have a cookie scoop (like an ice cream scoop, but appropriately sized!), you should seriously invest in one. I just googled and found one for $3. If you don't have a cookie scoop, the cakes will turn out just fine. The important thing is to make sure all the cookies are similar in size...so they bake at the same rate and finish together. These expand easily twice to three times their batter size, so beware of placing the cookies too close to each other.
7. Decorate. Red, green, blue, yellow...layer 'em on! The more sugar the better! Plain old sugar is just fine too...you'll enjoy the extra kick.
8. Bake. Bake at 400-degrees F for 8 minutes. I like to have three cookie sheets rotating...by the time I finish filling one tray, the one in the oven is about half done.
Calories: About 60 apiece.
Variations!
Hot Cocoa: Add chocolate chips to the batter. Just imagine morsels of melty chocolate floating in soft, sweet, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth cake. Yep.Frosty the Snow Dork: Add a teaspoon of peppermint extract.
****May visions of sugar cakes dance in your heads...****
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