Peanut Butter Cookies

I have only baked cookies once before so I decided to bake some for Christmas. I found the easiest recipe I could find:

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter 

1 cup granulated sugar 

1 large egg 

Step 1: 

Mix together until smooth. I mixed with all my might but it never got smoothe. I ended up adding another egg. It  became a little smoothe. 

Step 2:

Drop by teaspoon 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. I mis-read this instruction and dropped by a tablespoon. Disaster was coming!

Step 3:

Press with fork and press again in opposite direction.

Step 4: 

Bake at 350F for 12 minutes.

Mine was a disaster that does not warrant a picture. My drops were too big so they all joined together and looked like a fudge but was too thin to be passed off as fudge. Alas! The easiest cookie recipe was still too difficult for this fledgling cook. But, tomorrow is another day and with it, another cookie recipe!

Guyana Black Cake

Every Caribbean nation has their version of Black Cake, a rum cake made at Christmas. I'm trying as much as possible to have a traditional Guyanese Christmas, so Black Cake was a necessity.

This is the recipe I used: 


Ingredients:


Cake:


1 lb butter
2 lbs brown sugar
8 Eggs
1 tsp lemon essence
2 tsp almond essence 
2 tsp vanilla
1lb flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp all spice 
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup boiling water


Fruit Mix:


1 lb pitted prunes
1 lb raisins 
1lb currants
1 bottle cherry brandy
2 bottles Guyana Rum ( I used Lemon Hart)
2 tbsp Angostura Bitters ( found at your local liquor store)




Step 1: 


7 days before the cake is made, chop up prunes, raisins and currants. Mix together in a large container (with a lid) and add Angostura Bitters, 1 bottle of rum and cherry brandy. Place in a blender and blend until thick and chunky. Add more rum if you need to for the blending. I damaged 3 blenders because I didn't add enough liquid. Place in container and cover. Keep in a cool place. 


Step 2: 


Place 1 lb of sugar in a pot on medium heat. You have to stir constantly as the sugar caramelizes. Once the sugar turns dark brown and like a syrup, add water slowly. I made the mistake of adding the water all at once so it was lumpy.


Step 3: 


Cream the butter and 1 lb sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add lemon essence, almond essence and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, all spice and nut meg. Add fruit and caramelized sugar.


Step 4: 


Pre-heat oven to 250F. I was worried about the cake because I thought this was too low but the cake was fine. Pour mixture into greased cake pan. Bake for 3 hours. Once cake is finished, pour the last bottle of rum on top. Once cooled, store cake in a refrigerator.