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!

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Have I mentioned that I LOVE fall? I'm mean, they're seriously the best flavors in the world to bake with. The colors are fantastic, the smells are delicious. Seriously, what's not to love? And though I "start" fall on September 21st, was the Autumn Equinox-the official start of fall.

So what better way to celebrate than with scones?!!

These pumpkin scones are cakey and fantastic, plus they're finished off with double glaze.

Glazed Pumpkin Scones
Taken from We Heart Food

2 cups flour
7 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
6 Tbsp butter, cold, cut into squares
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3 Tbsp half and half (I used 2 Tbsp heavy cream and 1 Tbsp milk)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Either by hand, or with a pastry cutter, cut in your pieces of butter into the flour. In a seperate small bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, half and half, and the egg. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Be careful not to over mix or you'll end up with tough scones. On a floured surface, pat your dough into a circle and cut into 8 pieces. Or you can pat it in a square and cut it into pieces. For simplicity's sake, I patted mine into a 9 x 9 pan and cut it into squares.

Bake your scones for 16-20 minutes (depending on how you shaped them), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow them to cool before making and covering them with the plain glaze, and drizzling with the spiced glaze. Simply mix the glaze ingredients together to create.

Plain Glaze
1 cup+1 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk

Spiced Glaze
1 cup+3 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
a pinch of cloves
a pinch of ginger


I'm also super excited to be participating in the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies event, starting this Friday. For the next 12 Fridays, I'll be showcasing a different cookie recipe for that week. I'm excited, because I'm not much of a cookie maker as of right now, so I'm ready to try new recipes, flavor combinations, and of course, brand new delicious creations!

Cupcake Inspiration

I love cupcakes. Like a lot. I'm in love with cupcakes, if you will. I don't necessarily eat them, I'm not much of a cake/frosting person myself, but I love making them. You can be endlessly creative in your combinations and presentation. Plus, they're just mini, portable, and super cute! Can't beat a combo like that!

For me, there are certain desserts that I love making because you can change flavors and come up with something different everytime. So sometimes I'll see some flavor grouping and start thinking of them in terms of putting them together in a different way. Which is how these cupcakes came about.

As I said before, I love fall. And fall flavors are some of my favorites to back with. Lots of apples, lots of spices, pumpking, sweet potatoes, caramel... Yuummmm. So these cupcakes were inspired by simple caramel apples. I wanted to transfer those flavors into a cupcakes, and I'm really happy with the way they turned out!

This recipe also marks something new for me. I used box mix. I'm almost ashamed to admit it. Almost... But because I took the time to hand make caramel cream, apple cinnamon filling, buttercream, and apple chips, I'm not too worried about it. This simply helped me get the base done quickly and easily, which is something we all love. So I admit it, I didn't completely hand make these.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Spice Cupcakes
From Kraft
-1 box spice cake mix (don't be ashamed!!)
-3 eggs, room temperature
-1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
-1 1/3 cups applesauce-any kind will work, I used cinnamon to go with the spice theme

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Easy peasy. Mix all ingredients, pour into cupcake liners, and bake for 15-18 minutes, being sure to turn the cupcakes half way through, and make sure a toothpick comes out clean when they're done.

See, don't you just LOVE the simplicity of that? I know I do. Box mix recipes definitely won't replace my from-scratch cupcakes from now on, but from time to time, I'll definitely give them a shot.

Apple Cinnamon Three Milks Filling
From Never Bashful with Butter (The most fantastic blog. She really got me interested in more developed baking, and food blogs, as well. Unfortunately she's shut down her site, but since I knew it was coming, before she got rid of everything I managed to save 91 pages worth of recipes from her site! I know, I'm ridiculous. But I'm so glad I did. I refer to things she's done all the time.)

-1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
-scant 1/4 cup evaporated milk
-scant 1/4 cup heavy cream
-2 medium granny smith apples
-1 tsp lemon juice
-1 Tbsp butter
-2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-1/8 tsp allspice

In a small bowl, mix together condensed milk, evaporated milk, and cream, and set aside.

Peel, core, and chop the apples into small pieces. Remember that they're going into the middle of the cupcakes, and try to keep them around the size of your pinky fingernail. Toss them in the lemon juice. Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan or frying pan. When the butter begins to brown, add the apples. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. If the apples begin to brown before they're soft, turn the heat down a little. Once the apples begin to soften, add the brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Slowly add the milk/cream mixture, lower the heat, and cook until the apples are soft and most of the milk has been absorbed.


Caramel Buttercream
From Annie's Eats

-2 sticks butter, room temperature
-3 egg whites, room temperature
-3/4 cup sugar
-1/2 cup caramel sauce

Cut butter into 1 inch pieces, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix sugar and egg whites. Place over a pan of boiling water, stirring constantly (you don't want scrambled eggs, after all!). Heat until egg whites reach 160 degrees on a thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, simply cook the egg whites until they're warmer than body temperature and the sugar has dissolved-when you rub some between your fingers, you don't feel sugar crystals.

Using a hand or stand mixer, whip the egg whites until they reach stiff peaks. Slowly begin adding butter pieces while still mixing. Don't be afraid if your buttercream begins to look like a hot mess at this point. After adding all the butter, and a few extra minutes of mixing, it'll come together. Trust me! Add the caramel sauce, and mix until combined. Voila-delicious buttercream!

There are just some things I can't wait to get up here in Washington. My cupcake courier, my favorite piping tip, and my stand mixer (be still my heart), are the absolute top of my list. And once I get those again, it'll be no holds barred cupcake time. Not sure where they'll go, though...

Falltime!

Today is officially the first day of September! Falltime!! For those of you who aren't aware, I'm a tad bit obsessed with Christmas. I start listening to Christmas music in late July/early August. My Christmas decorations are up on the first Saturday in November. Mind you I lived at home with my parents, and had 4 boxes of decorations just for my bedroom! But that just means I'm extra prepared for my first Christmas in an apartment. Luckily I already have a full sized Christmas tree!

However, November technically falls into the spectrum of fall. So in order to find time for fall decoration, fall baking, and fall scents, I officially start the fall season on September 1st. Part of that is my tradition of having pumpkin pancakes for breakfast and making pumpkin bread on September 1st.

It was rather hard to find pumpkin up here though! In Phoenix, the Safeway by my house carried canned pumpkin year round, and in the big sized cans, too. It took me four grocery stores before I was able to find pumpkin. One had only pumpkin pie mix, two had absolutely nothing, and finally the fourth has the small sized cans of "organic" pumpkin. For $2.59 a piece! I felt swindled, but I also didn't feel like driving to another store, since the closest one would be 10 minutes away. No thanks.

The pancakes are quick, and delicious. The don't overpower, and they're so soft and moist. Yummo. I like to make a whole batch, eat a few, and freeze the rest. I place them in plastic bags with squares of wax paper between each. That way I can pull out a couple someday when I'm craving them, and pop them in the toaster for a quick fix!

Pumpkin Pancakes
From Sandra Lee

1 cup pancake mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger

These are literally the easiest. Simply mix all the ingredients together, then cook like normal pancakes. Done and done!

Now, for those of you like me who have no pancake mix, and are to cheap and hungry to buy any, you can make your own! The Domestic Goddess herself, Nigella Lawson, has an easy recipe for instant pancake mix.

1 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Mix, add pumpkin, spices, and 1 cup milk rather than water. (I used milk instead, since this mixture wasn't for buttermilk pancakes).

Now onto the pumpkin bread! This is Martha's recipe, that I tried randomly a few years ago. I love the strong ginger flavor, it's one of my favorite spices. Somehow over time this recipe evolved into my fall baking standby. It makes two loaves, and you can add a powdered sugar glaze on top, but I choose not to.

Ginger Pumpkin Bread
Martha

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 3/4 cups pumpkin
3 eggs
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour two bread load pans.

Mix together flour, baking powder, ginger and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Slowly add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir until combined. Divide the batter between the pans. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool for a few minutes, before removing them from the pans and cooling on a rack. After the loaves are cool you can, 1. add a glaze, 2. add powdered sugar, or 3. dig in. I choose the third option...

On a side note, if your oven timer beeps three times and simply shuts off when it's finished, do not, I repeat, DO NOT watch an episode of Doctor Who with excessive shooting or beeping. You'll simply add the beeps to the show background noise, like adding your alarm clock sound into dreams. Luckily I think I only over cooked it by 2-3 minutes. But still, regrettable...