Pumpkin Madness

Well it all started at the beginning of the fall/pumpkin season when I went and bought a pretty large pumpkin and came home to cook it. My sister-is-laws mother told me how.

This is what I do: Cut pumpkin in half, clean out all the inside, put some foil on a baking pan (hoping half the pumpkin will fit on it), put a little oil on the pan so the pumpkin will not stick. Put pumpkin cut side down on the pan, then bake at 325 degrees until a fork can easily go into the pumpkin (an hour or so). Then you peel the pumpkin and then puree it. Then I always separate in two cup baggies and freeze it. They say it should last about 6 months in the freezer. One pumpkin usually gives me plenty of pumpkin to use, share and usually throw away the next year. :)

So this Thanksgiving I chose a pumpkin theme for all my desserts.

First of course a traditional pumpkin pie. Well three one for us, my parents and husbands parents. Actually I did make one with splenda for my sister-in-law (the one for my parents house) who is a diabetic. Could anybody tell? I guess we will see :) (Well even with Splenda in one pie I don't think anyone could tell) Here is the recipe link: (one in which I replaced the sugar with Splenda. However she still will not be able to eat the crust, I did buy sugar free cool whip) http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=18470

Then a yummy pumpkin torte: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Praline-Pumpkin-Torte I have made this before and it is always a hit, it is delicious (and was a hit)!! I made it in a rectangle plan this time because I am splitting everything for two houses. It still turned out great. The circle one is much prettier!

Pumpkin roll (this was a favorite!): recipe link: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=32372

Carrot and pumpkin bars: I took another recipe and made it my own my by making it whole wheat and sugar free. Again for my diabetic sister-in-law. You have to watch out for white flour also, not just sugar so I changed white flour to wheat flour and small amount of oatmeal, then replaced all sugar products to splenda products. I also added a little extra cinnamon and I did double the cream cheese part, so I used and entire pkg of cream cheese. We will see how everyone likes them? They are actually not that bad. (Everyone that tried them actually liked them!!) :)) Recipe link: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=28459

Sugar free Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake. It might be sugar free but I know nobody will be able to tell :). It looks delicious and can’t wait to eat some! recipe link: I used the pumpkin torte pecan praline mixture (the 1st step in the recipe) and made in with splenda brown sugar and poured it on top of this recipe (This was a really big hit, it did not taste sugar free at all!): http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/31/PumpkinMarbleCheesecake63802.shtml
Here is an non-sugar free one that looks pretty yummy: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=140531

Here is a platter I will be taking with some of the yummies I made on it. Hope everyone likes it!

Pumpkin dip: Well I actually did not make this one, I ran out of thawed pumpkin and chose to be lazy, but I went ahead and left it on here so you might try it. This recipe I did not have to try out first because my good friend/neighbor made this for a party she had and I got to taste it. It was pretty yummy on cookies and it says for fruits also. Maybe I will try it for Christmas? Recipe link: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/philadelphia-pumpkin-dessert-dip-52069.aspx

I also previously made some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and they were pretty good. Here is that link?: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=128665 although I am sure I added more chocolate chips than called for. :) My daughter did eat them and she is pretty picky, it must have been all the chocolate!

I also made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, I did not like them that much, but when made into a cake (I added some baking soda) instead of cookies they were a bigger hit at my husband’s work. But also a note I used regular all purpose flour and it called for self rising flour so maybe that was the problem? Here is that link: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/10/pumpkin-pecan-chocolate-chunk-cookies.html I also did not make the icing, I am sure that adds loads of goodness also.

Hope you have fun trying out some pumpkin recipes and have a Happy Thanksgiving! Please feel free to share your favorite recipe anytime!

Turkey's

Well, I am finally finished posting all my old cake pictures so now I will just be posting things as I do them.

Today was my daughter's Thanksgiving feast at Pre. School so I thought I would make some Turkey cupcakes. They were fun and a challenge all at the same time. The most time consuming thing was making the wings and heads out of sugar cookies.

So this is an all in one dessert. Sugar cookies, white chocolate, milk chocolate, icing and cake.

These were the flock that made it to the Feast, but sadly none made it home :(
Here are some Turkey's that got away and made it through the school cut, but I don't think they will last long, they already look like they are running for it :)

Other Cakes Misc.

Well, here are just some random cakes I have done over the years:

This one was my grooms cake, my husband rode motorcycles and this was a surprise cake I did for him. He was sure there would be no motorcycles at our wedding. :) An easy winter cake:

Strawberry

A simple no theme birthday cake:

A simple birthday cake in spanish, I did have to look up how to spell it :)

We went to the beach this summer for vacation with some friends so I had to bring some cupcakes that look like the beach: (not sure why some pictures are coming in sideways?)

An anniversary cake:

A simple cake, but complex insides. This was a yummy chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling with buttercream and chocolate gnash drizzled on the outside with chocolate flakes. That made me want to go make one. :)

Baby Cakes (Showers and Baptism)

So here are some of my baby shower cakes and one baptism cake:

This is my baptism cake:
This was a baby shower cake I made for my good friends shower. I got inspiration from a wall hanging that matches the baby's room.

This was for an old neighbors sip-n-see / baby shower

This was another cake for a good friends baby shower, she was decorating everything in pink and brown

This was for a neighbor that was throwing a baby shower and the baby room was done in blue and brown and this monkey

This is a bad picture but it is supposed to be like a baby blanket

This was one of my first attempts at fondant, I have come a long way but this is still pretty good. This was for a coworkers baby shower.

This was an easy baby cake to make:

All kinds of Birthday's

I hand drew this elephant on this cake A fish cake for my father-in-law, he likes to fish! I drew it:

Hand drew this one also:

Cookie monster:

Batman cake for my husband, he likes batman :)

Another husband cake, he likes motorcycles also:

A care bear cake for a friends daughter's 1st birthday:

Strawberry shortcake cake for a friends daughter that is good friends with my daughter

A surprise cake for a friend from her husband, she likes Wisconsin

I got the privilege of making my husband’s papa’s 98th birthday cake. He likes to fish so I came up with this:

A friends daughters birthday cake, I tried making it look like her invitation:

Tinkerbell

Skateboard cake for our neighbor, he likes skateboarders. I think it was only appropriate we got him a skateboard as a present:

Friend of my daughters from dance birthday cake:

Friends daughters first birthday cake, they had a cool circus theme:

Neighbors twins birthday cake:

Mater from the movie cars:

Firetruck cake:

Spongebob for a friend of my daughters from dance:

Farm cake: