The Ghost of Muffins Past

It's pumpkin season, it's pumpkin season! Near where I live, there is a Kneaders. Throughout the month of September, they had a countdown posted on their Marquee of how many days until Pumpkin Bread was available, on October 1st. Being cheap, on October 1st I made some pumpkin bread, but I posted that last year, so I decided not to repeat. I also made some pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes in honor of General Conference this weekend. And then I had leftover pumpkin in the fridge, so I made these delectable Pumpkin Muffins. I love October.

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Maple Pumpkin Muffins

From Tasteofhome.com

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Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
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Directions
In a large bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Whisk the eggs, pumpkin, milk, oil and 1 tablespoon syrup; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in pecans.
In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, remaining brown sugar and syrup until smooth. Gently stir into batter until mixture appears swirled.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups about three-fourths full. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 1 dozen.

Sukiyaki

This Friday I was introduced to a Japanese way of eating that I had never heard of before - Sukiyaki. My father-in-law served an LDS mission in Japan, and after we treated them to fondue last week, they thought it would be appropriate that they return the favor and make us Sukiyaki.

Basically what it was was a variety of foods - crab, water chestnuts, tofu, green onion, steak, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, peas, bean sprouts, and some lettuce-y looking stuff - which you throw in a wok that has some sort of sweet and sour beef broth in it. They you cover it, let it cook, and then put your choice of toppings over a bowl of rice.

My father-in-law tells me that in traditional Japanese eating, to finish off the rice you add a raw egg to the rice and it slides down real nice.

Wedding Cheesecake

Inspired by a cheesecake she saw in the May/June issue of Bride Magazine, my BFF decided that for her wedding she wanted a cheesecake instead of a traditional cake, makes sense if you don't like cake all that well. We won't go into details about making this cheesecake, just know that a lot of love and effort was put into it and that I am happy she was happy with the final product!

For some reason blogger isn't letting me paste in the recipe I want, so here is a link to Dorie Greenspan's cheesecake recipe. This isn't the recipe I used, but I can't find the recipe I used and this one was a close runner up.

A Great Big Kiss!

The theme of the potluck: Survival. I thought to myself, how is that a theme for food? Luckily, one of my coworkers mentioned that the birthday girl loved Hershey Kisses, so after a quick Google search I am across an article talking about making a 3-D Hershey Kiss cake, and with a little carving help from EC (ok, actually, he carved the whole thing, I never touched the knife) - Voile! Hershey Kiss cake was born!
I used a sour cream frosting, something I have never done and I am not sure what I thought of it...sour cream and chocolate and not two things I am used to putting together. I am going to have to give this one some thought.

The Wedding Cake!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, I made a wedding cake! Mi Hermanito got married a couple of weeks ago and I was in charge of the wedding cake. All of that practice payed off because it turned out mostly pretty good! The bride (my new Sister) watched me working on part of it, and that was slightly nerve wracking. Imagine making a huge cake, that you have never made before, and having the bride sitting there, staring at you - plus assorted family members, whoa.

When I was making the first 12 inch layer, I put it in the oven, I was watching it, everything was going well...and then it fell. Luckily my mom's friend who makes wedding cakes had volunteered to help me, so I called her, very distraught, and she came over. Thank heavens for friends. We found out after the wedding that the top element on the oven I was using wasn't working, so the fact that I baked a wedding cake in that oven, and not all of the layers fell is pretty impressive, if you ask me.

The next big piece of news is my BFF is getting married in less than 6 weeks, hooray for her! She isn't sure what she wants for her cake (or if she is sure, she still hasn't sent me a picture), so we may be in for round two here in a little more than a month!

Bridal Shower Cakes

Oops, my bad, it has been a long time since I have posted anything. There is a good reason for that. At the end of May I traveled home to see the family, throw a bridal shower, and drop EC off for his summer internship. Then I had to drive home, just me and the cat. Then 11 days later I turned around and came back home to see the family and bake the wedding cake for mi Hermanito's wedding, which is over! Congratulations Hermanito on being married! Yay for having a new sister!

Speaking of having a new sister, when I went through the receiving line after the ceremony and said "Hooray, a new sister!" I think my new sister may have said "Yay, I always wanted a crazy older sister." Not sure if she did or not, I'll have to ask when they get back from the honeymoon. Also not sure how I feel about being called crazy.

These are pictures of the cakes I made for the bridal shower. As part of it (aside from playing Family Feud) we had a cake testing party so the bride and groom could tell me what flavors they wanted for the wedding cake. They ended up choosing white, chocolate, and lemon.

Wedding cake pictures are soon to come. I am pretty excited that I can now officially say that I have made a wedding cake. How cool is that?

Spring Cake

One of the things that I like so much about making cakes is I feel like I am creating some sort of work of art. I have NEVER EVER been an artistic person. I had to take drawing in 7th grade and it was a painful experience. We once had to draw an animal, that animal morphing into some sort of tool, and then the tool. Seriously? Why? I ask you why?

So, you can imagine that when I work on cakes, I can get a little touchy with people telling me how to decorate them. I think most people don't understand that I put hours into these things, so someone telling me to just leave off part of a decoration irks me. So please, unless you specifically ordered flowers with no leaves, just trust me that most flowers have them and the whole cake will look better with them.

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Marshmallow Fondant

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16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)

2 to 5 tablespoons water

2 pounds powdered sugar

1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

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Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler: Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.
Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. (By the way, this recipe is also good for your hands. When I’m done, they are baby soft.)
Start kneading like you would bread dough.

Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.
It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.
Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible.