My First Cake!

I made my first cake over the weekend!! And yes someone actually hired me can you believe it! My co-worker Sara asked me, or more like informed me months ago I would be making her daughter's birthday cake. I thought she was kidding because it was when my obssession with cupcakes began, however she was not!! Her daughter Avery's birthday is on Halloween, how awesome is that for a kid, so of course of all cakes for her birthday, she wanted a Haunted House Birthday Cake. I thought this was a tall order for being my first cake and a lot of pressure, but Sara reassured me it was for a 5-year old's birthday so she would think it's the coolest no matter how it turned out. She had all the faith in me!!

Luck for me I found a stand-up house cake pan by Wilton from Michael's Crafts which I used for the house and a 13x9 pan for the graveyard. I baked this white cake recipe (which I had to triple), with a buttercream frosting (gel colors included brown, black, purple, orange and green).

Coming all together

I put a couple Oreos in a food processor for the dirt walkway, black sprinkles on top of the roof, Milano cookies for the gravestones, and white chocolate pumpkins tinted orange around the house I made from a mold (those were add-ons at the last minute and not pictured).

Still need to work on my writing, it's hard! It doesn't help that I have child-like handwriting anyway! :)

The birthday girl asked for a flying witch, I made a few attempts at a witch on the roof but it was an epic failure so I opted for a witch in the window in the back of the house.

I hope to post a picture of the birthday girl with her cake...

Happy Halloween!

I made my first batch of Halloween cupcakes for a Halloween party we went to last night. They were so much fun and easy to make. There's no wrong way to decorate a cupcake but having a theme sure makes them more fun! Hope everyone has a great Halloween and stays safe trick or treating!

Pumpkin Time!

One of my favorite things about Fall is all the pumpkins that are ready to be picked and used for decorating, carving and baking! This year was the first year my father-in-law planted a pumpkin patch out in our garden. With the so called "pumpkin shortage" there apparently was this year I was very happy he planted them. My husband said we should sell them to our friends to make some money! We weren't sure how well the pumpkins would do but we ended up actually having a REAL pumpkin patch! My FIL thought we would get more pumpkins then we did but I picked 20 pumpkins!!! TWENTY PUMPKINS! I think that's a pretty good year, especially being our first year planting them. So what do you do with that many pumpkins?!?!

Our growing pumpkins!

The perfect pumpkins for carving! I picked four of them of course (one for me, one for my husband and one for each dog!) The dogs are so ready to get their pumpkins carved in this picture, ha ha!

Now what to do with all these pumpkins? I gave a couple away but with the rest of them I'm going to use them for baking! I have many pumpkin recipes that I've used in the past and new ones I want to try (cupcakes, cheesecake, bread, muffins, pancakes, etc) and using fresh pumpkin is suppose to be the best. Of course all these recipes will be coming up in the next couple months so stay tuned. As for now, it's pumpkin carving time and the main reason I love carving pumpkins is roasting the pumpkin seeds!! And I am NOT is short supply of those this year, remember 20 pumpkins! This week I sat down and cleaned out our four pumpkins and turned them into jack-o-lanterns. Dave took a look at them and asked me "Where's the happy one?" Jack-o-lanterns aren't happy, their suppose to be scary! Although I think two of them look more scared then scary.

Now making pumpkins seeds take a little more. I divide the seeds into one bowl and put all the pulp in a garbage bowl. Pumpkin seeds are extremely slipper suckers so beware! Once I have all the seeds out for all the pumpkins I'll soak them in a large bowl of water and squish the pulp to pull away from the seeds. I then put the seeds in a large colander and rinse with water a few times until the seeds are completely clean. Once clean I usually soak in salt water for a while then drain, season as desired and put them in the oven for roasting. I usually just coat my seeds with some extra virgin olive oil (evoo) and salt. This year I have two recipes I used this year that I got off allrecipes.com.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
• 2 Tbs butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
  

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter and salt. Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown; stir occasionally.

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

• 1 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
  

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Combine the margarine, salt, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce and pumpkin seeds. Mix thoroughly and place in shallow baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.