Mexican Wedding Cakes

These melt in you mouth shortbread like cookies have many names; a Russian Tea Cake, an Italian Butter Nut, a Snow Drop, and of course our favorite The Mexican Wedding Cake. These cookies have become very popular especially at weddings. When you first see these little cakes you may think that they are Melting Moments, but these two cookies are actually quite different in that Mexican wedding cakes are made with ground nuts ( ground pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts).

In order to make these wedding cakes taste their very best you must use the best of ingredients, such as high quality butter, and pure vanilla extract. The best way to tell if you are getting a high quality butter is by the lettering on the box. The highest grade of butter is AA (93 score). When looking for the best vanilla it can tend to be a challenge because there are so many choices. First, and the most obvious thing to do is make sure it say "Pure". One of the best brands of vanilla that you can find is called Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract that can only be found in specialty stores or online, and tends to be expensive. If you tend to be a little tight on cash there are plenty of other brands that are good to use, Just make sure to stay away from the extracts that say "imitation" on the label because they tend to have a bitter taste.

This recipe makes about 5 dozen miniature Mexican Wedding Cakes

Prep time is- 15 minutes

Cook time is- 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of AA grade butter, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp "Pure" vanilla
• 3/4 cup ground walnuts
• confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add flour and salt and mix thoroughly. Stir in vanilla and nuts until well incorporated.

2. Using your hands or a small cookie scoop, roll balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake 15 to 20 minutes or until just starting to brown.

3. While cookies are still hot, roll in confectioners' sugar. Store in a tin dusted with more confectioners' sugar.

Wedding Cake Cookies store just like any other cookies can. If they are kept at room temperature they will easily stay fresh for a week, as long as you keep them in an airtight container. If you like to make a lot of cookies at one time and save them for a later date, make sure they are in an air tight container, place in freezer, this will allow them to stay frozen for a few months.

You can also freeze your cookie dough up to 2 weeks as long as it's in a sealed bag.

When you are ready to eat cookies, take out of freezer and let them thaw out for several hours or over night.