Coffee Cup Chocolate Cake and Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honor of this day of love I wanted to share two recipes that I found this week that are the perfect treat to end a Valentine's Day.

The first I got was through an email from my Mom.  The email referred to it as "the most dangerous cake recipe in the world" but I prefer to refer to it as Coffee Cup Chocolate Cake due to the much less...sinister...connotations!  But sinister it is!  The fact that making the entire concoction takes roughly 5 minutes and can be made with things that are most likely already in your pantry makes this recipe something to only pull out when you really need a chocolate fix!  Also, don't let your eyes get bigger than your tummy!  Due to my ever expanding pregnant belly Jason and I thought that we would make two but we probably, together, ate one if that! The picture below is one cake served with Cool Whip due to the fact that we didn't have any ice cream but I bet ice cream would only make this dessert even better!  So, here's the recipe!

Coffee Cup Chocolate Cake

4 T Flour

4 T Sugar

2 T Cocoa

1 Egg

3 T Milk

3 T Oil

3 T Chocolate Chips (optional)

Small splash Vanilla Extract

1 large Coffee Mug

1. Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.
2. Add egg and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour in oil and milk and mix well.
4. Add chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla and mix.
5. Put in microwave and microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 watts
6. Don't worry, it's OK if it rises over the top of the mug!
7. Tip onto a plate and enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream!

The second recipe is one I saw on Bakerella's blog this week.  To see her post with this recipe gohere.  Most of Bakerella's treats intimidate me but I knew that I had a Red Velvet cake mix and cream cheese frosting in my pantry (due to a different recipe that I've been meaning to try for a while) so I thought I'd give this a try.  Making this didn't take 5 minutes but from start (getting out ingredients) to finish (having the sandwiches iced and in a container) it only took one hour!  Still pretty good for a fun dessert in my book!  To be honest I cheated and used canned cream cheese frosting intsead of making my own though so if you're making the icing like Bakerellainstructs then it will take longer.  But these babies are yummy and well worth it!  The funny thing is that a girl from work sent an email out to the office saying that SHE made these last night and had brought them to work!  I told her that emails talking about treats in the break room usually make me sad since I work from  home but that today I had those exact same treats in my kitchen! :)  

So either use my amended/cheater version or go and see the real recipe from Bakerella's blog! 

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix

1/2 c Butter, softened

2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix until mix, butter, and eggs are combined
3. Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart
4. Bake 10 - 12 minutes
5. Cool
6. Assemble with store-bought icing in the middle or Bakerella's Cream Cheese Filling

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!