Carrot Cookies with Orange Frosting

Easter is coming! I wanted to make some kind of cookies to send to Myles in an Easter package. I remember one of the girls at work made carrot cookies several years ago. Her name is Olivia - we had 2 employees named Olivia, so we called her "Big O" because the other Olivia was a short Asian girl so she was "Little O." Since then, both of them have left Smiths. Well, Little O still works on some Sundays, but I never work Sundays, so I never see her.

Anyway, I googled a recipe for them, but they don't seem very popular. I finally found one with delicious looking pictures, and made it. As I was making it, I decided to look for Big O's recipe. I knew she gave me a copy of it. So I found it, and compared the 2 side by side. I decided to make them both. and a good thing too. The one's on the internet turned out gross! I found the recipe at Thirtyhandmadedays.com . She talks about how her mom always made these when she was a kid and how she got the recipe after her mom came and babysat while she was out of town. I told Ryan about it and he said maybe it was all nostalgia- you can't beat the taste of nostalgia. I think she just made some mistakes when copying the recipe. The biggest problem is that her cookies turned out really BITTER - That means too much baking soda. Also they are FLAT - Also too much baking soda- they puff up too fast and then fall. Do not make those!! Make this recipe instead! Olivia's recipe had baking powder and an extra egg. Here is her recipe:

Carrot Cookies from Olivia Wilkinson
1 c shortening (part soft butter)
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c mashed cooked carrots
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c shredded coconut

heat oven to 400 degrees. Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and carrots. Blend in baking powder, salt and flour. Stir in coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until no imprint remains when touched lightly. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Cool. Frost with orange buttercream.

I followed the recipe exactly - except used all shortening and left out the salt. I think next time I might use some butter instead of shortening and cut back on the baking powder. I don't think it needed quite that much. Also I might add some vanilla- the other recipe had vanilla and that seems like it would be good. In fact, I found a recipe at Genius Kitchen that is more like Olivia's recipe and has vanilla in it. The recipes I've tried from Genius Kitchen have been good, so it's probably a safe bet. I didn't used Olivia's recipe for Orange buttercream but here it is:

Orange Buttercream
3 Tbsp soft butter
2 Tbsp grated orange peel
1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice

Blend butter and sugar. Stir in peel and juice. Beat until smooth.

For my frosting I used all the peel and juice from 1 orange. I added about 2 to 3 Tbsp butter and LOTS of powdered sugar. Mine made more of a glaze. The other recipe's frosting was more glaze like. Then you frosted the cookies while they were still warm. Here are some pics:

Cookies from the internet recipe. 
Three of them are stacked in the back-
They are SO FLAT!

Big O's cookies - Nice and puffy!

Frosted cookies from the internet recipe

Big O's cookies frosted - look so much better than the others!

Chocoflan??!!

Myles emailed us this past Tuesday and said he had chocoflan. What??  Myles said is was one of the best desserts he ever had. So Ryan and I did a quick google search and found recipes for Chocoflan. Looks like chocolate cake with flan on top. Myles said that his had flan on the bottom. I said they made it wrong. He said no, it was authentic!
Then on Wednesday, I got a call from Ryan at work. The conversations goes like this:
He says, "I sent you a picture. Can you look at it?"
Me, "A Picture? It's busy, maybe I can look later. What is it a picture of?"
Ryan, "Just something I made. You have to look at it."

Finally several hours later, I got a chance to pull up my email and this is what I found:

I made chocolate cake flan. I used dulce de leche instead of caramel sauce. Now it has to chill for several hours, then we can eat it. 🍮

He found a recipe and made it! I was so impressed! So of course I had to post it. The flan he made is excellent! The chocolate cake could use some work - but that could be because of the cake mix he used - just some old (and I mean really old) cake mix he found in the basement. It did turn out super moist and was great with Dulce De leche poured over it. Next time I think we will use a better cake recipe or at least a fresher cake mix. Also we decided next time use milk instead of water, and butter instead of oil. 

He found a recipe on allrecipes and made a few changes:

1/2 cup dulce de leche
1 box devils food cake mix
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
Flan:
4 ounces Greek cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat 12-cup fluted tube pan with no-stick cooking spray. Place piece of rolled up foil over tube of pan to prevent cake from dropping down inside. Pour dulce de leche topping into prepared pan.
Prepare cake mix according to package directions using the water, oil and eggs. Pour evenly over dulce de leche.
Combine cream cheese, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla in blender. Pour slowly over cake batter. NOTE: While baking, the cake rises and the milk mixture goes to the bottom.
Coat piece of foil with no-stick cooking spray. Cover pan, coated side down, tightly with foil. Place pan in large roasting pan. Pour hot water into roasting pan to a depth of 2 inches.
Bake 1 and 1/2 hours or until toothpick in center still has a few moist crumbs. Remove cake and roasting pan from oven. Leave cake in the water filled roasting pan for 10 minutes. Then remove it to a cooking rack. Cool 15 minutes. Remove foil and invert onto serving plate. Cool 1 hour at room temperature. Chill 4 hours or overnight.

Ryan has turned into a great cook! Sometime I will have to post the recipe he made me for Valentines day: Low Carb Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Creamy Bacon Sauce and grilled asparagus.