When I think of traditions I think of consistency. I think of something that you can rely on every year that does not change. As I’ve talked about before in an earlier blog, I am still exploring holiday traditions as a newly solitary orphan (meaning I live alone) and I spend the holidays in different places exploring what I want to do in my life. Before all of that, my family life was pretty traditional as I’ve stated before. One tradition that has been passed down generations in my family is holiday baking.
I love to bake. I started baking with my grandma when I was a little kid, and then with my mom as I got older. Every holiday, especially Christmas, my mom and I had a cookie day in the kitchen. We made other items such as candy and pies, but cookies were our big thing. My mom had a list of extended family and friends that we would bake for. The list included her best friends, coworkers, and distant cousins. We would bake shortbread, dip Oreos in chocolate, make caramel corn, and yogurt-covered pretzels. We then filled tin after tin and wrapped/labeled them. That weekend (usually the weekend before Christmas), we would have a “Santa day” as my mom would call it, and we would fill our car full of baked goods and drive around town and drop them off.
My favorite person to visit was my mom’s old boss and his wife, Jack, and Liz. Their house was a magical, enchanted house full of musical instruments and music boxes because Liz was a former music teacher. Jack was a former owner of a restaurant and my mom was his manager when I was really little. My mom and Jack would talk and I would turn on every one of Liz’s music boxes while Liz played me songs on the piano. We did this every year until Jack passed away when I was in middle school and Liz went to live with their son out of state.
Over the years, as life gets busy, my mom started a new career and slowed down on holiday baking. However, in high school, I picked it up when my grandma taught me how to make cake cookies. Cake cookies are not traditional cookies. They are done by using cake mix instead of cookie batter, oil, and eggs. When they are cooked, they have a fluffy, cake-like consistency that is appealing. Smaller than a muffin top but larger than a traditional cookie. My grandmother traditionally used the strawberry batter to make strawberry cookies because those were her favorite.
As I grew older, I began to experiment with different combinations of cake batter, toppings, and colors such as lemon cake with vanilla chips and red velvet cake and sprinkles. For events and holidays, I typically like to use this method to make cookies in bulk because I can knock out 200-300 cookies in a weekend and begin to package them up to distribute. It is a process that I have been doing for years. I make a lot of different flavor combinations and distribute them between different containers of various different sizes. Who do I give these cookies to? Everyone, of course!
Since I am a teacher, I make a small container for each of my bosses and coworkers. I make a large container for my classes (one cookie per student). Then, I make medium containers for my friends and extended family that I don’t individually buy gifts for. When it’s all said and done, I typically make around 300 cake cookies every Christmas for friends and family.
Why cake cookies and not more traditional cookies? They are a great time saver when it comes to making cookies because it typically only takes eight minutes to make a batch. Also, they are not cookies that you can typically go to a store and buy unless you know a baker that makes cake cookies. Since I have been making these for years, my friends, family, and coworkers expect me to bring them a container of cookies or bring them to family dinners. If I don’t bring them, I get asked, “where are the cookies?”
The recipe is simple enough to make:
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| *I typically don’t measure add-ins. I just put what I think looks good but this is for those that need a measurement. |
My Favorite flavor combinations (they are endless):
- Red Velvet + vanilla chips
- Red Velvet + chocolate chips
- Lemon + vanilla chips
- Strawberry + sprinkles
- Strawberry + vanilla chips
- Classic butter + peanut butter
- Classic butter + butterscotch chips
- Fudge + sprinkles
- Fudge + chocolate chips
- German Chocolate + German Chocolate Frosting
This past Thanksgiving, I whipped up a batch to take to dinner with my boyfriend’s family and they were well received. Jason told me when I brought them over that he didn’t think he’d ever had a cake mix cookie. So, I was able to share my family tradition with his family this year and introduce them to the love of cake mix cookies. That is what holiday traditions are all about.
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| Jason and I at Thanksgiving |
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