Funfetti and Banana Window Cookies

I've made cake mix cookies before, but when I found this recipe from Monster Mama for cake mix sugar cookies, I wanted to brainstorm something fun.  I decided to combined a few design ideas I found in my new cookie recipe book, and I came up with what I deemed: "Funfetti and Banana Window Cookies."

The only modification I made to the original recipe was replacing the french vanilla cake mix with Pillsbury's Funfetti mix.  The dough was a bit, well, cakey, so it was difficult to roll out and work with.  I used a biscuit cutter to give the cookies a crimped edge and removed a small heart from half of the them with one of my new fondant cut outs.  Then into the oven they went.

These cookies only baked for about 5 minutes.  The trick was taking them out while their middles were still soft, since they continue to bake on the hot pan.  Keeping cookies in the oven until the look done is a mistake I've made too many times to count.

 When all the cookies were done, I stacked them into piles and set them aside.  I still needed a filling, and honestly, I hadn't planned that part ahead of time.  After a lot of experimenting, I ended up with a bowl full of frosting made up of many different things like powdered sugar, french vanilla creamer, maple extract, cherry juice, and banana pudding mix.  People seemed to like the end product, but no one could really guess the flavor.

Overall, I suggest just combining the pudding mix with some water and powdered sugar to make the filling, along with some food coloring and sprinkles for appearance sake.  This recipe ended up yielding just over 20 cookies, and the filling flavor went really well with the funfetti mix.

These cookies were so adorable, that I found myself opening the refrigerator several times just to look at them.  Not to mention I had a bunch of fun making these with my friend Janey, who's camera took all the lovely pictures.  :)

Well, that's all for now. I realize I've been posting pretty infrequently, so hopefully I can start keeping up with this better.  Annywho, toodles for now!

<3 Rachel