Cookie, Cake AND Pie!

There is a blog I follow written by a Seattle artist who goes by the name of CakeSpy. Some of you may be familiar with it, but if you are not I urge you to check it out. She has fun with baking, trying all sorts of things I think would be interesting to have a bite of but usually wouldn't be willing to try myself.

Until now.

Everyone loves pie, right? And chocolate chip cookies? And who doesn't love a good cake? Well, what if you COMBINED THEM ALL INTO ONE MONUMENTAL DISH OF AWESOMENESS?! That would be good, right? You'd be interested?

Well then, let me introduce you to Cookie Cake Pie. No, I'm not kidding, and yes, it's exactly what you think it might be.

And the thing is, it's insanely easy to make. Ideally you make all the components on your own, but you don't have to and it will still be pretty dang tasty. We had one last frozen, 8-inch pie crust I bought at Immortal Pie and Larder's going out of business sale, plus we also had frozen homemade cookie dough balls (this is our favorite recipe, a Jacque Torres adaptation) and frozen homemade buttercream frosting. All I needed to do was buy a Betty Crocker rainbow chip cake mix and we were in business. The picture above is the finished product.

And with frosting.

I would like to point out that Wifey made this and surprised me when I came home from work one day. I love her so much. :)

Also, she differed from CakeSpy's recipe just a tad. The original recipe calls for putting the pie crust, cookie dough, and cake mix together and baking it at the same time, but if you look at the pictures the finished product seems exceedingly gooey (and I like gooey). Instead Wifey pre-baked the crust (about 12 minutes on 425 degrees), then added the cookie dough and baked it for another 20 minutes (at 350 degrees), then added the cake mix for a final 30 minutes (of course, actual times will depend on your oven).

That way when you cut out a slice you can see each of the elements is nicely baked, but not overdone. (By the way, click on the picture below so it fills up your entire computer screen. You're welcome.)

This. Was. Delicious! Yes, it was absolutely super sweet, but that's to be expected. Take a small slice at a time, share with friends who will be in awe of your baking cred, and freeze the rest for another day.

Now what does one do with half a box of cake mix? Make cupcakes of course! But wait, what if you have an odd amount of leftover cookie dough balls too? No worries, CakeSpy has you covered. Of course I mean cookie dough stuffed cupcakes - what else?!

Once again, these are super easy to make. You already have the cookie dough and if you just made the entire cake mix, you have that too. Just fill cupcake pans 2/3 full and drop roughly half the normal amount of dough to make a cookie into the middle of each. It should look like this:

(Those two on the top right didn't get a cookie dough ball - they ended up as boring normal cupcakes.)

Wait, can you not see clearly how it should look? This next picture should help you. (Click it and make it bigger! Impress you coworkers with the deliciousness!)

Cook them normal cupcake time (from the box) and they come out looking like...well, normal cupcakes.

Frost them up and they still look normal.

Then you take a bite or cut them in half - and EXPOSE THE AWESEOMENESS!

These, like the cookie cake pie, were excellent. Seriously, where the hell has this been my entire life?

We've eaten things similar to this from a bakery, but I was amazed at really how easy it was to make. Try it out on your own, you won't be sorry.

Hmm...maybe next time we use a Devil's food recipe...

Oreos Aren't Just For Kids

I'm probably not the only one in the world who grew up loving Oreos. They were one of the few packaged things Mom would buy, and even then not very often. When we went camping we always bought them and I ate more than my fair share.

When I went to college my roommates and I would scarf down an entire package in a sitting (no, this had nothing to do with munchies - just cause they were yummy).

But diets change and Oreos - with their highly processed ingredients and high fructose corn syrup - just aren't worth the calories anymore. I thought I would never get them again.

That is, until we found this awesomeness:

These are made in Portland by a baker who goes by Miss Zumstein. They are roughly 3-4 times the size of a traditional Oreo and about 75 times yummier. Hard to beat that, isn't it?

We found these at Heart Coffee Roasters on East Burnside and while the price - $1.50 each - seemed steep, we tried it anyway. Worth. Every. Cent. And I'd pay more. Obviously, for legal reasons, she cannot call them Oreos - instead they are simply "Chocolate Sandwich Cookies." Personally I would have gone for "Sweet Awesomeness on a Plate" but I can appreciate the restraint shown in the naming.

Heart no longer carries them, but Miss Zumstein's products can be found locally at Pastaworks, Extracto, The Daily Cafe, and others. Or you can, like we did, order them by the dozen over the phone (she also ships) and pick them up at her place on North Williams, by Tasty & Sons and Hopworks Bike Bar.

Look at that...don't you just want a bite?!

So why did we order a full dozen? Well, some of them are going into the blender for the next batch of ice cream: Mocha Madness, a recipe we found via King Arthur Flour.

I have a hunch it will be awesome. And even if it's not, we still have plenty of these grown up Oreos to munch. Oops, I mean Sweet Awesomeness on a Plate.