Vegan Viands #6: Cake Cookies

Our best friends came to visit us this weekend. Aside from an absurd amount of laughter, we've done so many fun things! For example, we went to Jungle Jim's (an amazing grocery store), watched a documentary called Miss Representation on campus, and played with mBerry tablets (which we also did when my parents were in town last month).

When the four of us get together, I do the cooking for our major meals, which I absolutely love. As should be obvious by now, cooking makes me happy and cooking for others makes me extra happy! This weekend our food has consisted of garbanzo pasta (which The Bests hadn't had and very much enjoyed), Thai Food in Dayton, and penne vodka is coming tonight. One of The Bests likes penne vodka so much that she calls it "love sauce." The other normative food-related activity when we're together is to have some kind of treat. We started throwing around ideas, but then when I learned that The Bests hadn't had cake cookies, the conversation was over. These are SO good and they are the easiest cookies to make (so easy that I feel badly about calling a recipe... maybe if it was "recipe" I'd feel better). We made two flavors today: classic yellow and red velvet.

Cake Cookies
Ingredients
1 box of cake mix (pick your flavor)
1/2 c. canola oil
2 "eggs"

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1. Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Mix well, either by hand or with a mixer.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes (depending on size of cookie). Let cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie tray, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Helpful Hints

• The dough will get progressively drier as you make the cookies. It's fine, just press the dough together in your hand to make a ball; it will cook the same. Also, some types of cake will be slightly drier from the start than others (you can see this in the pictures below - the red is far more dry than the white at the beginning). Again, not a problem.  

• These are soft cookies, so they do not stand up well to being jostled about. 
• Yes, this is really it. Yellow cake seems to be the favorite, but I certainly haven't tried all the options. EDITED: Also, not all boxed cake mixes are vegan. I have good luck with Duncan Hines.
• I got a little creative with the two kinds of cake, too. Tee hee.

The post "Vegan Viands #6: Cake Cookies" originally appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.