13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.
Mark 10:13-16
14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
This week we had the privilege of celebrating a pretty special guy, our Wyatt! As the middle child and the only boy, life can sometimes make him feel a little left out, so we are always looks for ways to make sure he feels extra special. Birthdays are the perfect opportunity to let him have some special recognition and celebrate all that makes him so special.
About 4 years ago, after a few years of different opinions and many school struggles, Wyatt was diagnosed with high functioning Autism. Let me be clear, the spectrum for Autism is huge, and Wyatt falls in at being pretty high functioning. For the most part his daily life is much like other kids, except he’s a total nerd (I say that as the proudest mom ever!) He LOVES to read, tell jokes, and learn as many irrelevant facts as his brain can hold. He loves spending his Thursdays in the gifted program with his little posse we have affectionately started calling the Miniature Big Bang Group. And while most days are great, he does have the occasional bad day. He has started to notice that his peers view him as weird and at times he is left out from the more popular groups. That hurts a momma’s heart in ways you can’t imagine. But he is tough. He never stops trying to love others. When he is excluded and made fun of, he is hurt, but continues to show kindness and love to others (maybe not his sisters, but you can’t win them all).
So, being such a special kid (yes, I am biased), and having his birthday fall the Sunday before Spring Break, I showed up to lunch last week with a cookie cake and his favorite Doritos Loco Taco. We kept the celebration going all weekend with dinner out for Mexican food on Friday, followed by dinner and a peach cobbler on Saturday with Nanny and Papa. That lucky kid is even headed off to the beach with Nanny and Papa, and my brother and his family for a few days this week. I am sure Nanny will keep the spoiling going all week, too.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- 4 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 2 1/4 cups light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs (bring to room temperature)
- 2 Tablespoons vanilla
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 12×17 cookie sheet with butter. Then lay parchment paper and butter again. This is the largest lipped baking sheet you can usually find.
In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars. Start slow and increase speed as needed.
Add eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla. Beat until everything is incorporated.
In another bowl, mix dry ingredients, flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture at a low speed. Once mixture is combined, fold in chocolate chips with a spatula.
Spread mixture evenly into prepared baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes, rotating pan 180 degrees halfway through, for even baking. Once cookie has baked, turn oven to broil and watch carefully. You want this cookie to just brown on top. This keeps the cookie soft, but gives it a nice brown color.
Decorate with icing of choice. I used a chocolate cream cheese frosting for the border and a small batch of green tinted butter cream for the center.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese very softened
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder sifted, I used Ghirardelli
- 4 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup heavy cream
Cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Add vanilla and mix well. Slowly add cocoa and powdered sugar. Add cream 1 tablespoon at a time until desire consistency.
Small Batch Vanilla Buttercream
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon milk or cream
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream butter with mixer, slowly add powdered sugar, followed by vanilla. Slowly add milk or cream until desired consistency is reached.
Easy Peach Cobbler
- 1 1/3 cup sugar, plus 4 tablespoons
- 2 cups self rising flour
- 2 sticks of butter, melted
- 2 (28 oz. ) cans of sliced peaches in heavy syrup
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl coarsely mix 1 1/3 cups of sugar, flour, and 1/2 cup of melted butter. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the mixture of the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Top with canned peaches, followed by the remaining dough mixture. Top with the remaining butter and 4 tablespoons of sugar sprinkled over the top. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until set. Serve warm with vanilla Blue Bell ice cream.
We are so blessed to call Wyatt ours and we hope that turning 10 is everything he wanted it to be!
Until next time,
Fellowship Foodie
Foodie Fellowship 