Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip Squares

On Sunday, we enjoyed another Thanksgiving meal with some of our friends here in Oklahoma City.  I was in charge of buns (watch for upcomig blog) and dessert.  I decided to try Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Squares from the Martha Stewart Website. 

Here are the ingredients that you will need.  Plus Chocolate Chips...not sure how I missed putting them in my picture!

 Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and pumpkn pie spice together.

 Cream butter and sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Next, mix in the pumpkin.

Don't forget to add the chocolate chips! 

Here it is ready to come out of the oven.  Make sure you let it cool COMPLETELY before cutting it or trying to take it out of the pan.  Mine was still warm and the middle sort of melted in.  Still tasted good but didn't hold up as a square.

Here are some of the squares.  I spread a little Cream Cheese Frosting from the Pumpkin Cupcake post on top of the squares and it was delicious together.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have been eyeing up lots of great pumpkin dessert ideas the last few weeks as today is American Thanksgiving.  I already got to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving before I moved to Oklahoma City, but I love a great excuse to do baking and cooking.  Plus, who doesn't love turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and more.  Mmmm...it sure smells good in my kitchen right now.  It is wonderful to have my parents visiting, and my Mom has definately been a great help in the kitchen today! 

So, for dessert I decided to do something we had never tried before.  I found a recipe for Pumpkin cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting that can be found here.  How fitting that it is from a Canadian magazine!  I didn't have buttermilk so I used a mixture of plain yogurt (about 1/3 cup) and 2% milk, to make a total of half a cup.

Here are some special pumpkin ingredients I picked up.

 How about these great pumpkin cupcake papers.  I brought them with me from home and was excited to finally get to use them.  They are very festive.

The recipe says that it makes 12 cupcakes, but it makes 12 BIG cupcakes.  This is the amount of batter that was in each wrapper. 

When baked they looked like this.  Mmmm....they smell delicious!

Next add some of the Cream Cheese icing and some Autumn Sprinkles.

Check out these delicious, pumpkin cupcakes!

Our Thanksgiving meal is almost ready!  I can't wait.

P.S- we of course had to have a taste test of the cupcakes and they are nummy.  Everyone likes them and the icing very much!

Happy American Thanksgiving to everyone!

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Football Oreo Truffles

I first got to taste an oreo truffle at a Super Bowl Party last January.  They were delicious and everyone wanted the recipe...yet I never did get it!  So, I decided to do a Google search and came up with a few recipes like the one found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-oreo-truffles-186726

This past weekend my husband's hockey team and a bunch of the wive's & girlfriend's went to an OU football game.  There were over 85, 000 fans at the game- what an experience!  Of course we went early and did some tailgating, so I decided to make some Oreo Truffles to take along.  I was inspired by several posts on Bakerella's website to make them into the shape of footballs.

First, crush whole Oreo cookies in a food processor.



Empty the crumbs into a bowl.



Mix in a package of cream cheese.  I used a spoon and my hands when needed.

Shape the mixture into balls, or in this case, mini-footballs.

Now, this is where I need more practice!!  I melted the chocolate almond bark in a pot on the stove and then poured it into a small bowl.  I dipped the footballs in chocolate and then set them on wax paper to dry.  I tried to dip them with a toothpick and then hold them to dry a bit but they started to break apart.  Next time, I will put them into the fridge for a while to make them a little harder.  Since I set them down wet, the chocolate dripped down and formed a flat bottom.  Maybe if I wouldn't have been making them at 10:30 at night I would have taken more time.  I placed them in the fridge to harden the chocolate quicker.

Once they cooled, I used a knife to very carefully cut away some of the flat base.  Next, I melted some white almond bark in the microwave and placed it in a decorating bag, cutting off the tip.  I cut the whole a little big so the laces turned out a little messy too.  I drew one line down the middle and then three smaller lines across it.

The mini-football Oreo truffles were a HUGE hit and the football game was a blast with Oklahoma taking home a big win!  The truffles may have been referred to as 'heaven' and I may have a few orders for the next road trip! 

Mmmmmm! Delicious!



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Lemon Update

So, the lemon icing was delicious, but I found it a little strong for my tastebuds.  At first I thought it was too lemony, so I tried adding some salt and more powdered sugar.  After some more tasting by my husband and I, we decided that it was maybe too sweet.  Eventually, I decided to add some Cool Whip as I had some in my freezer.  I probably ended up adding close to two cups of Cool whip to the icing and it tasted soooo good.  Of course with so much Cool Whip, it was no longer an icing that I could use to decorate, but rather a glaze to put over the cupcakes.

Find the Lemon cupcakes and the Lemon Kissed Buttercream frosting at http://the-cupcakery-blog.blogspot.com/2008/02/week-8-lemon-cupcakes-with-lemon-kissed.html

The cupcakes have a light lemon taste that goes nicely with the frosting, but I would suggest not putting too much icing on top unless you love lemony sweetness. 

Here are some alterations that I made to the Frosting, making it more of a Glaze.

1 stick of unsalted butter

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp milk (1%)

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 cups Cool Whip

I will update this post when I get around to making this a scond time since this time I was really just playing around and didn't keep track of exact measurements.  We really did like the taste of it though! 

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Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

I recently visited Pinkitzel located in Bricktown of Oklahoma City.  Check it out online at: http://www.pinkitzel.com/  It has a super cute interior and delicious cupcakes.  I must admit that this place has truely inspired me to get baking and creating once again.  Yesterday I spent many hours checking out great baking blogs and found delicious recipes that I just can't wait to try! 

So today I went and picked up some last minute ingredients and baked up a storm.  I chose a lemon cupcake with lemon frosting, and while they are pretty tasty, I found the lemon frosting a little overpowering so I will definately need to do a little tweaking to get it to perfection. 

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Jewelery Box Cake

I made this jewelery box cake for Taryn's 7th birthday.  I used a square cake, cut it and layed one portion on top of the other.  I used graham crakers to make the sectionals on the top layer.  The 'lid' of the jewelery box was not edible as I made it using cardboard covered in tin foil and icing.  It was fun to add some candy heart rings and candy necklaces to the jewelery box.  The kids loved them!  

I added some colourful gumballs around the edge of the bottom drawer to add some colour and fun for the kids.

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Giant Cupcake

Ella got to smash the first giant cupcake for her photoshoot, so I got to make her a second one to enjoy at her birthday party.  I used lots of the same colours but decorated it a little bit different.  Imagine a great big #1 candle sticking out of the flower on top.  So much fun for a little one's first birthday!

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