Black and White Red Velvet Cookies for a Special Wedding Shower

Deciding on Refreshments To Carry Out the Color Theme

The shower hostess group I belong to at church got to host a wedding shower last week for a special couple named James and Jenna.

After learning the bride’s colors were red, black and silver, my imagination went crazy. What could we serve that would taste good, be a little different and still carry out the color scheme? We wanted something totally off-tradition.

We have a reputation for going against the grain. For example, we’ve done a pie bar, mini-bundt chocolate cakes and Gooey Chocolate Cakes with Coffee Ice Cream in the past.

Then I remembered a post I published recently on Black and White Cookies–the traditional kind with white batter and a subtle lemon flavor. How would they taste if I used a red-velvet-cake-kind of recipe instead?

I set to work experimenting with my original recipe. After what seemed like at least 100 bottles of red food coloring, this is my recipe for Black and White Red Velvet Cookies. The frosting is the same for both cookies.

Original Black and White Cookies

These gorgeously-colored red cookies with a cake-like texture have a mild chocolate flavor with the barest hint of almond. One of Helen Corbitt’s (a strong influence from my past) favorite tricks was to dip her measuring spoon in almond extract before measuring out the vanilla.

I do this a lot (sometimes more than a dip), especially in ice cream and pudding but also anything chocolate.

Implementing Our Plan To Make Black and White Red Velvet Cookies for a Crowd

My friend Debbie (second from the right in picture below), the leader of our hostess group, offered to help bake since we estimated needing at least 45-50 cookies. Saturday night before the shower we produced 3 batches and slathered chocolate frosting on one side leaving them to dry overnight.

I woke up nervous that we didn’t bake enough so I hopped out of bed early Sunday morning before church to make another batch. At this point, the cookies started to take over the kitchen and dining room and I began feeling like a big blob of frosting.

Cookies seem to explode in my dining room.

We made them big since they would be the main event with sides of nuts, mints and punch. Each batch produced 14-16 cookies using two ice cream scoops for each cookie. Of course, we had some rejects and a few had to be taste-tested by the husbands.

Hostesses pose with the happy couple.

Once the shower started, it appeared we might run out of cookies. The tray of emergency-only rejects were retrieved from my car. It was difficult to decide which would be more embarrassing–to serve ugly cookies or have to tell our guests we had no more cookies. Of course, everything worked out in the end. (Thank-you God.)

Table Decoration by Karan.

This shower was special because both the bride and groom grew up in our church so their parents have been friends for a long time. As you can imagine, guests and gifts were plentiful to honor this special time in the lives of James and Jenna. May God bless their marriage.