Easy Recipes: Chocolate Cake Cookies

When I’m stressed out I crave cake, and ain’t nothing quite as stressful as watching your 3-year-old be wheeled away for surgery.

My son Henry had his “huge” tonsils and his equally large adenoids removed recently and thankfully everything turned out fine, but it wasn’t without some scary moments. A condition that runs in my family meant that he needed an intravenous cocktail of anesthetics, as opposed to the usual gas.

Not only was he extremely peeved that he didn’t get to “wear a mask like an astronaut,” he reacted rather badly to the drugs. His surgery was at 8 a.m. and at 2 p.m. he finally snapped out of a fugue-like state of hysteria, disorientation and combativeness.

I cried right there with him, curled up on his bed, and when it was over I wanted to eat my feelings. Which, strangely, tasted a lot like chocolate cake.

The boy has no diet restrictions but of course he doesn’t want to eat much, so to soothe myself and tempt him I made these yummy little cookies.

Chocolate cake cookies are the perfect combination of cake and cookie — they are soft, chocolaty and you can eat several one with a single hand. I haven’t made these in a really long time (like, since before my oldest was born) and my 7-year-old taste-tester declared, “Mom, you’ve really outdone yourself this time!”

Is there any better testimonial?

I subbed half of the sour cream called for in this recipe with non-fat plain Greek yogurt and I couldn’t tell the difference. Next time, I’ll use skip the sour cream altogether and just use the yogurt.

You can also frost these (I’d use this recipe), but they’re delicious plain. Enjoy!