Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cake

This year was my first Thanksgiving in Washington since 1999. Nuts. And, to top it off, it snowed ALOT two days before Thanksgiving so if was white, cold and gorgeous!

Both sides of my family were doing dinners that day, about an hour apart from each other. I was supposed to bring dessert to both, but unfortunately it didn't pan out. With the snow and the treacherous roads (and my complete lack of prior snow driving experience!), I wasn't able to make it out to my second celebration for dessert. So we got double goodies at the first dinner.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake, and for the first time in all my cheesecake making attempts, I mastered it. There was one tiny 1 1/2 crack near one side, and that was IT! No giant crevices mussing up the perfect creamy landscape. Sadly...I didn't get a picture! But it was glorious, to say the least.

Even though in the end, things didn't work out for my second family celebration, my dessert was still prepared, so I can at least share it here! Since I was put in charge on both sides, and since I hate  pumpkin pie, I simply chose to avoid it. So instead I made a four-layer pumpkin spice cake smothered in cream cheese frosting. Oh yeah, baby...

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cake

Pumpkin Cake
From Martha Stewart

2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, room temperature
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together dry ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and eggs until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between each. Mix in pumpkin and vanilla. Slowly add 1/3 of the flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk until combined.

Divide batter between two greased and floured 8 in. pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in pans for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen cakes, and invert onto cooling rack until room temperature.


Cream Cheese Frosting
From Paula Deen

2 pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar (more may be necessary)

Combine cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add vanilla, and slowly add in powdered sugar one cup at a time. Once all powdered sugar has been added, you may need to assess the consistency and add more until the frosting begins to hold its shape-you don't want it dripping all off your cake!

To assemble, begin by cutting both cakes in half. Place bottom layer on a plate, and cover with 1/4 in. frosting. Place next cake layer on top, and repeat until all layers are assembled. Cover the cake in a thin layer to keep all the crumbs in place. After the crumb coat is in place, you can frost the cake to your desired thickness, without the mess of getting orange cake crumbs all over your finished product-magical!

I even used my special garage sale steal heart shaped Wilton pans to make this cake a little more special. Unfortunately I came home to find that pieces of this cake were literally just being shaved off, rather than figuring out the best way to cut even slices, haha. It looked cute in the beginning, though!

Cinnamon Pumpkin Hot Mess

Yep. That's what I made this week. I decided to go with something non-cookie this week, as cookies aren't actually a binding part of this exercise, simply a fun name. We're encouraged to make really anything we'd use as treats this holiday season. Easy peasy.

I was really successful last week with my Girl Scout copycat cookies. This week, was a complete disaster. I really wanted to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls to take somewhere tonight. So I made my dough...at 3:30. Then I let it rise for all of 45 minutes out of impatience. I rolled it out, filled it, rolled it back up, sliced it, and set it in the pan to rise...which lasted the amount of time it took for my oven to heat up. I was completely unprepared timewise to make these, so I should have gone with my back up plan-a cranberry walnut tart. But instead, I simply half-assed Plan A.

Dumb idea. My rolls were doughy, cooked longer than suggested, then I had to cut them all apart and cook this longer on cookie trays to cook it all. And it still didn't work. They're likely dense and doughy and disgusting-the three d's I try to avoid.

I'm even refusing to post the recipe on my blog, because I wasn't patient enough to do things correctly. Instead, I'll pass you along to the man who knows how to do it the right way. (Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Buns)-Listen to him, follow his directions, and you'll have delicious fall rolls. Don't follow me. Major. Fail.


P.S. I failed even more by getting all the way to Starbucks last night to load my pictures and write my post. Got all the way there with camera and laptop in tow, but couldn't find my camera cord I spent 5 minutes finding. Wrote my post, and then left without publishing it, only to find my camera cord in my pocket the whole time. Boy oh boy, I'm losing it. So posting this and adding pictures later. Or, better yet, just check out the original pictures since I took mine on the platter in my car in the Starbucks parking lot. Yep, just keeps getting better and better, I know!

Who needs Girl Scouts?

Finally, I'm on top of things this week!!

Tonight is the monthly women's group get together at my church and we're all bringing food and recipes. So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and bring cookies! So I sorta fudged my own rule of only making cookies I've never made before. I hate bringing things to a potluck if I've never made them before because I'm pretty critical of my baking. So, while I've never made these in cookie form before, I have made them as bar cookies before. Medium cheat, but what are ya gunna do?

I made Samoas! These are my absolute favorite Girl Scout cookies. They turn out chewier than the originals, but equally delicious.

Samoas Girl Scout CookiesFrom Baking Bites

Cookies
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Cream together butter and sugar. Slowly mix in flour, baking powder and salt. Add vanilla and slowly add milk until the dough comes together-you may not need all the milk. Roll your dough out to 1/4 inch on a floured surface, and you may need to add flour to keep dough from sticking. Cut into desired shape and place on lined/greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are slightly browned.

*On a side note-as legit as the cookies look with the center cut out, it's a total hassle when adding the topping, so if you don't mind the difference, just go with a circle!


Topping
3 cups shredded coconut
12 oz. chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Spread shredded coconut on a cookie tray. Toast for 10-12 minutes, strirring every three minutes. Let cool.
Unwrap caramels and place in a microwaveable bowl. Add milk and salt; microwave for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Fold in coconut. Spread topping onto cooled cookies.
After all your cookies are topped, melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning. Dip the bottom of the cookies into the chocolate. Place the remaining chocolate in a plastic bag, snip off a corner, and drizzle across tops of cookies. Eat one. Or two. Or 12.

Tutu Love

I made another tutu recently for my cousins daughter's 3rd birthday. I had an idea of a fun group of colors, and it turned out EXACTLY how I imagined.

I went with turquoise, magenta, and yellow (or T, M, and Y from here on out). They were so fun and girly together! Because my last tutus were sort of a free for all, and I used two base colors with an occasional third color added in, I wasn't sure how to structure this tutu. Did I want a TM-MY-YT pattern for continuity or MM-YY-TT for extra vibrancy? I wanted all the colors intermingled, but not at the expense of their vibrancy. So...I tested both.
I was initially wary of the mixing colors scheme, because of the way they looked tied together at the top.

But after separating the layers like the tutu would look in the end, surprisingly,the overlapping TM-MY-YT was exactly how I pictured the colors mixing, and they all still stood out on their own.

I loved it so much I considered making one for myself. My mom and my aunt both commissioned me to make one so I'm even getting paid for them now-exciting!