Halloween 2011

It was a dual celebration this year with pumpkin carvings taking place in Portland and Chicago! Our neighbors/friends/my coworker came over for dinner and pumpkin carving, which I hope turns into an annual affair.

 Portland pumpkin:

Nick + Kathryn

Nick and Kathryn tied the knot on October 22, 2011. The ceremony and reception took place at the Chapel Hill Botanical Garden and everything was just as it should be. We are so incredibly happy for these two. Ian and I fell down on our picture taking job, but here are the photos we did manage to take.

On the way to the botanical gardens:

 

Beautiful day:

 

Beautiful couple(s): 

 Ian and Dan: artists:

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

You know you have something special when you come home and your fiance surprises you with a pumpkin shaped bundt pan and top-of-the-line pumpkin carving tools (in a zip case). As I have stated numerous times, Halloween is my favorite holiday and time of year. I ran out of time to make the pumpkin cake on Halloween, but I made it as soon as I could. Pumpkins are totally still festive until at least Christmas, so I will be making another one of these for Thanksgiving.

This is what fall looks like:

The recipe came from Art and Soul of Baking and the pumpkin bundt cake pan is Nordic Ware (wonderful Minnesota company!).

 

 

 Pumpkin Spice Bundt cake

• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened (65° to 68°F)
• 1½ cups (12 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (8 ounces) canned pumpkin puree (not spiced pumpkin pie filling)
• 2 cups (7 ounces) sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¹⁄8 teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ cup (4 ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature

Mix the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed for 4-5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and pumpkin puree. Mix all dry ingredients and add into the pumpkin mix first then add the buttermilk and end with the flour mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Weekend In Review - Indiana Pumpkin Patch

Ian and I visited the County Line Orchard in Hobart, Indiana this weekend. We had a great time as always! There was a corn maze, pumpkin patch, apple orchard and plenty of donuts and cider. Until next year!

Whoopie{!} Pies

As of late, Whoopie Pies have become all the rage. I may even be so bold as to say they are replacing the cupcake altogether. After being signed up to make dessert (thanks Diane) for a Saturday night dinner, it was time to try my hand at this dessert. Diane and I had a great time making them and the result was far better than either of us expected.

The cake batter was delicious and rich and they baked exactly how they were supposed to. Thanks in part to Diane's timer skills and our new oven, which is much better than our old one.

The recipe came from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, but originally came from the pastry chef at Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland, Maine. I am dying to go to this place. As I am not sure the legality of posting original recipes online, I will just give you a general overview. The recipe for the cake is fairly simple, you just blend together eggs, sugar, butter dutch processed cocoa powder chocolate and flour +/- a few other ingredients.

The "Marshmallow Cream" was a bit more complicated. You are basically making candy by melting down corn syrup and sugar in a saucepan and then mixing it in with egg whites. Finally you mix that in with whipped butter and powdered sugar. The result was the silky, glossy buttercream you find in your local bakery. It was so good, I couldn't believe we made it. I mean, it didn't turn out exactly the way she explained it, but it was store-quality buttercream.

You just scoop a dollop of the marshmallow cream into the pies and press together. These pies went fast at the dinner; always a good sign.

Obligatory Whoopie Pie bite shot. I didn't get any shots of the final product because we were too busy eating the extra pie leftovers. So, so good.

Baby

My coworker is expecting -now past due-and I was asked to help decorate (see above - the extent of my artistic prowess) and bake cupcakes for her shower. I gladly accepted and used the opportunity as an excuse to buy myself a cupcake caddy. I may never use it again, but for the purpose of bringing 24 cupcakes to work, this thing is amazing.

 

 

As far as the cupcakes go, they were as expected. This was my work baking debut, so I was already nervous, but they came out alright. Just alright. The frosting hardened, and as with most baked goods they are best fresh, so they were a bit dry. All in all they worked out, but next time I would use a different buttercream recipe and bake them the morning of instead of the night before. 

For these cupcakes, I used the yellow butter cake recipe out of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. For the buttercream I followed a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe consisted of whipping butter for a few minutes and then adding four cups of powdered sugar in slowly. The result was overly sweet and heavy. I was looking for the light, whipped, glossy buttercream you get in stores. I am working on it.

Last Hurrah

Zucchini still looks alright (relatively) at the grocery store, so I made a last hurrah zucchini bread in its honor. This version from seven spoons has a number of components, but I was impressed with how well they all work together. This is a chocolate olive oil zuchhini bread with chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. It uses no butter, wheat flour and heaping cups of zucchini, so I am dubbing it healthy. The verdict is still out.

I love quick breads because they are just as they sound -- incredibly quick and easy. I also can't believe we have had the Cuisinart for a few years and never used the grating blade. It.is.amazing. So much faster than grating by hand, although the spinning blade can be a bit terrifying.

This a very unappetizing picture, but it gives you a sense of how hearty and zucchini-y the bread is. 

If you are looking for a quick baked good that makes your house smell delicious this is a great option. They are tough to screw up and always disappear quickly.