Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Tea Cakes (With a Recipe)

If I had time to make my own Christmas cookies, these would be at the top of my list.  As a matter of fact, these are almost always at the top of my list.  A nice short base with a tiny hint of cinnamon and tons of chocolate makes for a dreamy combination.  Add it to your holiday cookie trays (for me, please!!).

Cinnamon Chocolate Tea Cakes

Makes ~24 1 in balls 

1 Cup salted butter, softened

1/2 Cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 Cups flour

1 cup chopped dark chocolate (reserve 1/4 cup)

1 cup chopped milk chocolate (reserve 1/4 cup)

*Note:  you can also use semi-sweet chips in place of the 2 chocolates, I just like the blend)

Preheat the oven to 350°.  In a bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.  Beat in the vanilla.  Gradually beat in the flour.  Stir in the chocolate (make sure to reserve 1/2 cup total).  Form the dough into 1 inch size balls (dough is very crumbly).  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes.  

Allow to cool.  In a zip top bag (I really recommend a brand name baggie here), microwave the remaining chocolate at 50% power until completely smooth.  Cut a tiny corner off of the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the cookies.  

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I had a ton of fun making (lots of!) these Thanksgiving cookies.

Elf of the Shelf

I'm so mad at myself for not taking a picture of these cookies before I wrapped them and they were on their way out the door.  The elf on the shelf is so popular and these are so adorable and a great way to welcome the elf back for the season.  These cookies were hand cut because I didn't like any of the elf cutter available.

Tropical Fish Birthday

When my husband's best friend turned 30 a few weeks ago, there was no doubt that he'd want fish cookies.  He has a bunch of awesome fish tanks, one of which includes all the nemo fish, so suffice it to say he'll be forever my daughter's favorite person.  

Anatomy Cookies

I hand cut all of these cookies except for the brain, which was a pumpkin cutter.  It fooled every one except my 3 year old daughter who said, "Mommy, that is a very dirty pumpkin!"

Fantasy Football Team Cookies

So, in one of the weirdest and most awesome orders ever, I got to make a cookie for each team logo of a fantasy football league.  I will admit, I got into these and they took a lot of time, but I think the end result was worth it!

Cars!

My favorite nephew turned one a few months ago and had a little cars birthday party.  We were leaving for vacation in the next few days, so some of his cookies were fondant pressed with the williams' sonoma Cars cutters, but he did get a few Lightning McQueen and Mater cookies.  

Halloween

As I was uploading the pictures (yes, I do about 2 months at a time, I'm a terrible site owner!) I realized that I NEED to learn to take better pictures.  I'd like to think my cookies look much better in person.

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, except for the abundance of candy, which is never bad, but I had a great time making these halloween platters.  I had several orders, so these are just a few snippets of them.

Shades of Gray Design Cookies

I got to make 'what ever I wanted' for a woman who ordered cookies for her office.  It was lots of fun to try out new (and old favorite) techniques like lace and plaid piping.  My favorite, though, was the blowing dandelions.

Hockey Jersey Birthday

Pittsburgh is a pretty big hockey town, so I'm surprised that these were my first hockey cookies.  A grandma surprised her grandson with these for his birthday and I bet became his favorite person ever!

Fall Wedding

I made these cookies for a friend who gave to her friend as a wedding gift.  The bride was having a very small wedding and my friend wanted to send her off with some sweets.  I'm happy they turned out well, and was so excited when they shared the professional photos their wedding photographer included them in!

Cowboy boots

I had fun making these boot and hats for a senior hoe-down at my church.  I had to make a large amount, so the key was keeping the design simple but fun.  

Teal Wedding

Another teal wedding platter.  I was very happy with how these turned out, especially the cakes!

Simple Elmo Cookies

A very basic elmo cookie, the hardest part is getting the eye/nose proportions correct.

Mario Brothers

There have been so many flashback cookies this year.  I really enjoyed doing these Mario Brother cookies for a surprise 7th birthday.

Thank you Cookies!

Every once in awhile I get to make cookies of my choosing and I always really enjoy that.  Here are some thank you cookies I made as a hostess gift for two awesome families that took us in for a day or two so we could catch up and visit with them in Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Lingerie Cookies (as thank you)

I made these lingerie and lip cookies for a friend to give to a plastic surgeon as a thank you for a charity donation.  Such a great idea, I hope they loved them!

Dragon Cookies

I made these dragon cookies for a little league team called the Red Dragons.  Hope they enjoyed!

Jake & The Neverland Pirates & Mickey Mouse

I had so much fun making these Jake & Mickey cookies for two little boys!  

Baptism

I've done 6 baptism sets in the last two months, and they've all been for boys!  I'm looking forward to a little girl baptism next week, but for now, here's a sample baptism platter.

General Birthday

Here are two different birthday platters. One is for twins' first birthday and one was for a 60th birthday.

Teacher Appreciation Cookies

I think it goes without saying that good teachers are severely under appreciated.  I was so happy when I had the chance to make cookies for Teacher Appreciation Week.  I hope that they enjoyed them!  These were apple cookies and popcorn cookies with tags attached.  It's easy to change up the theme of cookies with cute tags on favor bags.  Changing the saying would make this perfect for birthdays or movie nights.

Cake Stand Cookies

In my family we have two bursts of birthdays.  One in April and May and one in August and September, I feel like during those months, we have celebration after celebration.  My husband's Grandma recently had her 88th birthday.  She is a beautiful, wonderful woman and we had a lot of fun celebrating her special day.  I make a tray of cookies that are birthday cakes on a cake stand.  I used the basic Wilton wedding cake cutter.

Physician Office Cookies

I'm finally back to cookie-ing after a self-imposed break.  My husband and I welcomed a baby boy to our family in March and I must confess that initially the thought of baking with a newborn and a 2 year old in the house was more than a little intimidating.  However, after about 3 months off, I really missed my oven and mixer, so I'm back.  I'm going to try to keep the blog updated, more for my records than anything.

I started off with cookies for the orthopedic office where my sister-in-law just started working (and where in a case of small world-itis, they took great care of me when I had knee surgery a few years back).  Some scrub tops, stethoscopes, and their logo made the platter.
 

P.S.  Here's the cutie that kept me from baking! ;)

Christmas Cookies

Since I'm (cough) a little (cough) behind in my cookie posts, I thought I'd do a mini brain dump of cookie pictures.  I made a ton of Christmas and holiday cookies, and to be honest, they are some of my favorites I've ever made.   I made 3 platter styles; winter, kid's Christmas, and classic Christmas.