Baking, Baking, and more Baking!

I hadn't planned on doing much baking this season but at the last minute my hubby asked if I would make a bunch of goodies for his office. So of course I said I would. Here are a few pictures of some of the goodies I have made in the last few weeks.

White Fruit cake (taste ton's better than traditional fruit cake) Macaroon's, Flourless Chocolate cupcakes, Peanutbutter cookies, Pumkin bread, and Chocolate covered Peanutbutter balls.
Flourless cupcakes, Pumpkin Bread, Eggnog Pound Cake, White Fruit cake, Caramel and Chocolate dipped Pretzel's
Chocolate cupcakes with Peppermint Frosting with crushed candy canes
Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange Frosting, topped with Candied oranges
Chocolate Cupcakes with peppermint Frosting and topped with Andes Mints!

Santa Stopped By...

It was late and the kids were fast asleep when I heard a noise. I jumped to my feet and tip toed to the family room and who did I see? Santa, of course! So I quickly grabbed my camera and was able to take a few shots before he disappeared up the chimney!

When the boys woke up the next morning I showed them the pictures of Santa. My older two were only slightly impressed, but my youngest was thrilled to finally have "evidence"of Santa . What a great Christmas we had!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

My oldest son just turned 15.(How can I be old enough?)
Anyway, for his birthday we had family over for lunch and cake.
For lunch I kept it pretty easy by having a Taco bar. I was able to prep most of the food the night before which made everything sooo much easier.
For his cake I tried something a little different. I found a recipe for Chocolate Pumpkin Cake from Countryliving.com
I think it turned out pretty good. What do you think?


1 1/2 cup(s) flour
2/3 cup(s) cocoa
2 teaspoon(s) baking powder
1 teaspoon(s) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
1/2 cup(s) buttermilk
1 cup(s) canned pumpkin
2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
3/4 cup(s) butter, softened
1 cup(s) dark brown sugar
1 cup(s) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk

Directions

1.Line the bottoms of two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper and lightly butter.
2.Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Stir the buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Beat the butter and sugars together using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and yolk, one at a time. Reduce mixer speed to low and alternately beat in the flour and buttermilk mixtures in thirds.
3.Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until a tester, inserted in the center, comes out clean--about 35 minutes. Cool layers completely before icing.
4.Step 1: Frost Beat 6 ounces softened cream cheese using a mixer set on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, 2 1/4 teaspoons cocoa, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla and beat on low speed until well combined. In a separate bowl, beat 1 1/2 cups heavy cream with 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar and a scant 1/4 teaspoon orange food coloring on medium-high to soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until well combined. Spread 1 cup frosting between the two layers and use the remaining frosting to ice the top and sides of the cake. Chill 30 minutes and proceed to step 2. Makes 3 cups.
5.Step 2: Glaze Place 4 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate, 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, and 3 tablespoons corn syrup in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring 1/2 cup heavy cream to a boil, pour it over the chocolate, and let sit for 3 minutes. Gently stir, using a whisk, until smooth. Let sit for 3 to 5 minutes, until the glaze thickens slightly. Pour the glaze onto the center of the frosted cake and smooth out to the edges to allow the glaze to drop over the sides. Makes 1 cup.

Late Halloween Update

I am really behind with my blog, sorry.
However, I thought I would still share with you what we did for Halloween.

The spooky food- monster face pizzas, muumy hot dogs, ghost plasma eggs and more.

I love the Halloween peeps on a stick.

The beverage labels are so cute! I got them free at centsationalgirl.com
Floating pumkins
A few of our monsters

Do You Boo?????

Never heard of it? Well it's kind of like secret Santa but it's for Halloween instead of Christmas . You secretly leave some goodies at someones front door with a boo sign and instructions for them to boo someone else, ring the door bell, and run! And hopefully you have a chain reaction of lots of people anonymously getting treats from others.

This is a family tradition we have been doing for years, the kids love it. OK....I love it too! You can't go wrong giving goodies to someone.

There are soo many different ways too "Boo" someone, get creative, have fun! Spread some Halloween Fun!!!!!

Here are a few examples I found on the internet.

papercraftsmag.com

giftgazette.blogspot.com

skiptomylou.org



eighteen25.blogspot.com

Camping, Pancakes and more

We recently went camping at Ft. Desoto and I must say we had a great time. The camp site was great, we were only yards away from the water, the weather was fantastic, the mosquitos left me alone, and the kids were great!! What more could you ask for?

Beautiful Sunset
Catching bait fish


Night time fishing with an amazing sunset.

Mama Raccoon (with no tail) and her only baby.

This sign is no joke!

We had a bag of Oreo's stolen from the cooler and they mocked us as they sat next to us eating them. They also stole some 18in long twizzlers and I have to admit that was pretty funny to watch.

Yummy Breakfast, Pumpkin Pancakes and bacon.

You gotta have bacon when you go camping!!!!

Pumkin Pancakes
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.

I think we made all the other campers jealous with the delicious aroma of pumpkin and bacon coming from our campsite!

We saw a group of people kite surfing down on the south end of Fort Desoto Beach. Unfortunatley it was very gloomy out, so the pictures do not do it justice! It was really pretty amazing to watch.

We will definately camp there again. Everyone had a great time fishing, even though we didn't catch very many. The only crazy thing was, the place was over run by racoons! The could be a bit intimidating (I am thinking rabies the whole time) but they were quite entertaining. They stole our Oreo's right out of the cooler and some Twizzlers. So make sure everything is locked up good.

Yummy Spiders AND Pumpkin Whoopie PIes

Isn't he cute? The boys and I had a great time making and eating these spiders.

Here they are guarding some whoopie pies.

Some of the whoopie pies were rolled in sprinkles and drawn on with chocolate.

Spiders
The spider were pretty simple to make.
The body is a Little Debbie Cake.
The eyes are Reese's pieces (except for the mean green eyes those are left over from another project)
The fangs are Mike and Ike's
The legs are pretzels dipped in chocolate / almond bark

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
These were delicious!!!Luckily I was making all these goodies for my hubby's work or I would be in trouble having all those pies in the house.

2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups solid pack pumpkin puree
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves (I used less)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
Combine the oil and brown sugar. Mix in the pumpkin and eggs, beating well. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix well.
Drop dough by heaping teaspoons onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cookies cool then make sandwiches from two cookies filled with Whoopie Pie Filling.

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.