Mexican Wedding Cake

Although called wedding cakes these little light cookies are incredibly easy to make and are heavenly to eat. These melt-in-your mouth, go by many names; a Russian Tea Cake, a Mexican Wedding Cake, an Italian Butter Nut, a Southern Pecan Butterball, a Snowdrop, a Viennese Sugar Ball and a Snowball.



They are very popular, not only during the festival seasons, but also at weddings, christenings, and other festive occasions. Looking at these cookies you may think they were Melting Moments, but the two differ in that Mexican Wedding Cakes contain ground nuts (ground pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts).

This recipe is adapted from http://www.joyofbaking.com/. There are few tips that I would like to share in the process of sharing this recipe with you.Before that lets check out the needed ingredients.

65 grams toasted nuts ( I bought Tong Garden Cocktail nuts , and used the cashewnuts, peanuts and macadamias)
227 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
30 grams icing sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
280 grams all-purpose flour (Pillsbury )
1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:
110 grams powdered icing sugar,sifted

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the remaining flour and salt and beat until combined. Stir in the grounded nuts. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour or until firm.
Form the dough into balls and place them 2 inches (5 cm) apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 12 - 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, line another baking pan or tray with parchment or wax paper. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the confectioners' sugar on the bottom of the pan and then place the slightly cooled cookies on top of the sugar. Roll the cookies in the sugar.I have made another half with some colouring.
The cakes are very delicate to handle.Therefore its better to place them in paper cups.Beside that if you want to store them ,use a container which has a bigger width space so you can place them in one row only.I used a container that has bigger heightwise and placed them on top of each other , it was a mistake because the cakes started to crumble after a few days.



The cakes were indeed very tasty , and melting to the mouth.Its very easy to prepare and took very little time. Advisable to use unsalted butter because the amount of icing sugar used is less.

You can get the actual recipe from here.


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