Punkinhead

The crisp, autumn weather has made me slightly obsessed with baking with pumpkin.  And now that the shortage is over, I don't even feel guilty about picking up some pumpkin puree at the store.  The great thing about pumpkins is that not only do they taste good, but they're also good for you...low in calories, lots of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants.  Anyway, I made some Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Squares from a recipe on Martha Stewart's website.  I'm not sure why I keep using her recipes lately, but the bars were delicious.  They didn't taste too pumpkin-y and were very chocolatey.  The pumpkin added lots of moisture to the bars, so they didn't taste dry like blondies sometimes seem to be.  Here are some pictures:

Not wanting to leave anyone out, I also made some pumpkin dog treats.  The recipe came from The Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook by Jessica Disbrow Talley and Eric Talley.  This was the first time I've ever made dog treats, although I'm not sure it really counts since I didn't use any scary ingredients (okay, really I just mean liver).    Here they are:

Birthday Cupcakes!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful person in my world - my girlfriend.  To celebrate, I made some red velvet cupcakes:

The taste was really delicious.  The only problem was the red coloring.  I used a recipe on Martha Stewart's website.  Although I used gel-paste red food coloring rather than liquid, I definitely needed some more.  I've never made red velvet anything before, and I didn't want it to be too artificial looking, so I hesitated before adding more food coloring.  I should have trusted by instincts and added another tablespoon, but otherwise, the recipe was a success.  See the process below:

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

So last Monday, October 18, was National Chocolate Cupcake Day.  To celebrate, I made some chocolate cupcakes, of course!  Sadly, they were not my best work.  While they look delicious, the taste was kind of sad.  The cupcakes themselves were just kind of boring.  Like they came from a box or something.  Which was surprising since Sarah and I sampled the batter, and it was so yummy!  I read that cupcakes often come out dry because of their small size, so I'm on the hunt for a moist, yummy, chocolate cupcake recipe.  The frosting recipe came from King Arthur Flour's website.  The frosting was really good, but the combination was just too rich.  I'll keep this frosting recipe in mind for a lighter cake in the future.  Here are the pics!  

Do you like the cupcake liners?  They are Martha Stewart Crafts Halloween Blood Splatter Cupcake Wrappers by Martha Stewart Crafts.  They are very spooky and fun.

While these cupcakes aren't my favorite, I'm glad I got some practice in!  Sarah asked for some Red Velvet Cupakes for her birthday.  So I'll be whipping them up today.