2009 Ficco 4th of July Party Desserts

I was in charge of making desserts for my family's annual 4th of July party. I picked a bunch of fun things to make and take with me...a little something for everyone!

The line up...

Zesty Lemon Sugar Cookies

(Source: Feeding My Enthusiasms)

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
Mix the above ingredients together until creamy.
3 cups all-purpose flour (I ran out of regular flour, so I ended up using 2 C white flour and 1 C whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
zest from ½ a medium Meyer lemon (I used regular lemon)
Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and zest together. Combine with the butter mixture. If too dry, add mile, one tablespoon at a time until dough forms.
Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters. Place unbaked cookies on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F. until lightly browned, about 6-7 minutes. (If dough sticks while rolling, refrigerate briefly). Remove from oven when done, cool on baking sheet a minute, then cool on cake rack until fully cooled.
After cookies have cooled, can be frosted and decorated as desired.

Lemon Glaze
Zest from ½ a lemon
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
juice from Meyer lemon, heated for one minute in the microwave

Place zest and confectioners’ sugar in a bowl. Whisk in a little of the lemon juice. Add dribbles of the juice until a glaze is formed. If too thin, add a little more sugar; if too thick whisk in more lemon juice. Reserve left over juice for another use. Using small offset spatula, ice tops of each cookie. Set on cake rack to dry.

Oreo Rice Krispy Treats

Just your basic recipe, kicked up a notch....

4 T butter

10 oz mini marshmallows

6 C rice krispies

1 bag of mini Oreos

In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in cereal and oreos. Stir until well coated. Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool. Cut into 2-inch squares.

Mounds Angel Food Cupcakes (pic disappeared into the depths of my computer)

1 box of just-add-water angel food cake mix (prepare as directed on box EXCEPT replace 1 T of water with coconut extract)

1/3 C shredded coconut

1/3 C mini chocolate chips

3 T cocoa powder

Fill paper cupcake liners 1/2 full with batter. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

Icing

In the interest of time, I mixed a tub of whipped vanilla icing with some coconut extract and shredded coconut. I put a dollop on top of each cupcake along with a few chocolate chips.

Red/White/Blue Birthday Cake

We celebrate the family's summer birthdays over the fourth of July. My 3 nieces are the lucky summer b-day girls! I let them help me decorate the cake.

Basically I used 2 boxes of plain white boxed cake mix (prepared with the directions on the box)...and stirred in a bottle of food coloring in each, and baked as directed. I iced the giant cake using an icing made of cool-whip and pudding mix (1 box of cheesecake flavored pudding mix, 1.5 cups cold water...mix well, fold in a container of cool whip).