Honey Pecan Breakfast Cake

Wow. Well it's officially been over a month since my last post. So much for blogging, huh? It's sad that I don't just buckle down and post, because I have plenty of recipes and pictures just waiting to enter the great expanse of the internet. But hopefully my New Years Resolutions will stick and I'll get better at blogging. Which should work-this is my only specific resolution. I made very specific goals last year, and only managed to complete one. "Eat at 10 new restaurants this year." Surprising I completed that one, right? So, with vague resolutions this year, I'm hoping I can look back and say, "Sure, I sorta did all those!"
During a lull at work the other day, I spent an hour flipping through an all dessert special edition of some magazine I found in the cupboard (Better Homes, maybe?). Not that I ever need an excuse to flip through dessert recipes, but I was keeping a special eye out for something I could potentially bring to an upcoming breakfast potluck. So naturally the words "breakfast cake" caught my eye.

The cake went by another name in the magazine, but I can't remember it right now...Either way though, it's delicious. The cake is very textural, and even a bit dry, but soaks up a rich, flavorful honey sauce and the end result is rich. The thick cake stands up to the onslaught of delicious topping, and the addition of crushed oats leaves you with a slightly nutty, rich, delicious cake you can enjoy at breakfast-who doesn't love an early dessert?!

Honey Pecan Breakfast Cake
From...BHG? Not me, that's for sure.

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
2 tsp lemon zest
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup crushed oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 eggs
2/3 buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine honey, 1/3 cup melted butter, corn syrup, lemon zest and juice, and chopped pecans together. Spread into the bottom of an 8 in. cake pan.

In a large bowl mix together dry ingredients, including pecans. In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Create a well in the center of the flour mixture, and pour the wet ingredients in. Mixing from the center, slowly incorporate dry ingredients until just combined-mixture will still be slightly lumpy. Pour over top of the honey mixture.

Bake for 25 minutes. Invert onto a plate immediately after removing from oven (be careful, you're likely to spill some of the hot honey topping. Spoon any extra honey topping over the cake and allow to cool slightly before enjoying (I'd suggest having it warm-it's extra fantastic that way.). This would be a great quick brunch for the holidays-especially if you have guests coming to stay!

Snow Day!!

It snowed up here a few days before Thanksgiving. I was instantly transformed into a six year old kid again, and it was fabulous!

All my childhood memories came rushing back to me-spending Christmas break applying fake blue nails and watching Twister, only to lose a fake nail in the snow later that day. I remembered playing until long past the point my ice cold fingers would have wanted, only to rush home and dunk them in steaming hot water (which, by the way, I totally don't recommend!).

Just thought I'd share some pictures for those of you still enduring 80+ degree days!

The first day it snowed, it wasn't very sticky, so instead of a snowman I went with a snow angel.

Poor Arizona Freddy the Focus was coooold.

Snowy tree!

Front yard blanketed in snow.

It was cold. Like 22 degrees cold. Snow brings out the Arizona cold weather whiner in me rather quickly, though. Don't get me wrong, I've pretty much been cold here since mid-August. Even at the of July I wore a sweater all day with my shorts and sandals. But give it about 5 minutes of solid snow play and I'm ready to go inside and just look at it through the window. I told my mom the other day that I wanted it to snow again cause I wanted to play in it some more. But then I added that I didn't want to drive in it...or be cold. Something tells me that won't be happening!

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

I officially consider it Christmas cookie time. And since I first made these 5 years ago, they've been my go to Christmas cookie ever since.

I literally remember where I was standing when I copied down the recipe. Is that weird? Hey, at least I don't remember what I was wearing...

These cookies are just so fudgy and fantastic. They come out in perfect circles, and I love the textural and taste differences with the soft chocolate and crunchy peppermint. Trust me, you need to throw these on your cookie tray this year-you'll thank me.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
From Martha Stewart

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz. milk chocolate
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
3 eggs
35 crushed peppermint candies, divided


In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Melt together chocolate and butter in a large bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. Remove bowl from over pan and add sugar and extracts. Allow to cool, then mix in eggs one at a time. Slowly add in flour mixture. Stir in 15 crushed peppermint candies. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes, or as long as overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Roll dough into circles, and dip tops in remaining crushed peppermint candies. Place cookies on lined/greased baking sheets, and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool, and enjoy!

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!