A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch

Make the cookies with a basic recipe using cake mix, eggs, and oil. I timed this article for making red, heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's Day. (Combining Red Velvet and strawberry flavors results in a nice red color—not too dark, and not pink.) The resultant chocolaty and strawberry flavors are a bonus. This simple recipe requires 4 ingredients:

• 1/2 box Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix (Only Duncan Hines makes this flavor.)
• 1/2 box strawberry cake mix
• 1/3 cup of oil (For a slightly nutty flavor, replace 1 tablespoon oil with sesame oil.)
• 2 eggs

Note: The stated weight for a standard-size box of cake mix is 18.25 ounces.

The following baking equipment required:

• cooky pan(s)
• pastry blender
• couple of bowls
• bowl(s)—one for mixing dry ingredients, one for mixing wet ingredients (unless you use a large cup for the wet ingredients)
• cooky spatula to lift and transfer baked cookies
• cooling rack for done cookies

Heart-shaped vs. Round cookies

• If making round cookies, a measuring spoon and spatula also required.
• If making heart-shaped cookies, a cooky shooter with heart-shape disk highly advised.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift or otherwise dry-mix the cake mix powders together thoroughly into a medium-large mixing bowl.
3. In another bowl or large cup, mix the oils and eggs.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the larger container and use a pastry blender to stir the ingredients together.
5. Dispense cooky dough as follows according to the shape you want.

Cooky shooter dispense method
For heart-shape cookies, my method is using a cookie press, which resembles a caulking gun, to push out the dough. (The disk resembles a "Y".) I use 1 and 1/2 trigger squeezes for each suitable-looking cooky. (I myself don't care for the cooky-cutter method, as the dough rollout is not all that fun.)

Round cooky dispense method
For round cookies, my method is as follows:
1. Use a round tablespoon to scoop the dough.
2. Flat-scrape the excess with a rubber spatula.
3. Use the spatula to turn and drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet.
4. Additional option: Flatten and spread the dough using the bottom of a glass.
6. Bake each batch about 10 minutes.
7. Use the cooky spatula to lift and transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.

The cookies are soft right out of the oven, but become slightly crunchy after a few minutes. The yield can be as high as 4 and 1/2 dozen.