I made the cake above for a NYE party, and I didn’t love the recipe. I can’t put my finger on it, but there was something I didn’t like. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to figure out why, because I hate having cakes go wrong. The scientist in me should be able to work it out 🙂
I’m a bit behind in posting, but now that the holidays are over (except NYE), I have some time to catch up. I made this pumpkin bread pudding for Thanksgiving, and it was really good. It had a very subtle pumpkin flavor, but I think the pumpkin puree gave it a nice texture (so I wouldn’t omit it from the recipe). So this is perfect if you like pumpkin, but don’t LOVE pumpkin.
I used fresh pumpkin, as I always do, but you can use canned as well. I actually made the puree in October and froze it for a month, since there are never any pumpkins around by the time Thanksgiving comes. It worked out fine, and I think you can probably freeze fresh pumpkin even longer. We’re going to experiment next October and freeze some pumpkin for about 10 months so we can use it in a beer. Stay tuned!
I hope everyone had a great Halloween! It’s my all-time favorite holiday, and it lasts a full month in my house. I love to decorate with spooky decorations, go to haunted houses (the scarier the better), and of course cook and bake with fresh pumpkin.
This year, I searched Pinterest for new and interesting pumpkin recipes and found these baked pumpkin donut holes (by livewellbakeoften.com). They are so good! They go great dipped in your morning coffee, or as a dessert. The best part is that they are made in mini muffin pans, so they are super easy.
You can bake them ahead of time, and then dip in melted butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar the day you want to serve them.
It’s been a looooong time since I’ve posted, and part of the reason is the little guy above. Our poor cat Hades had a urinary block in mid-August, and it has only gotten fully resolved recently. Turns out, he had to be hospitalized 3 times, and ended up having surgery the last time he was there (third time’s a charm, right?).
Without being too graphic, the surgery involved the removal of his male anatomy so that he will no longer get blocked if he develops urinary crystals. Poor guy had to wear a cone for 2 weeks and even though he got his stitches out yesterday, he has to wear the cone a few more days.
It’s like he’s saying, “Mom, why are you photographing my humiliation?”
  He really has been a trooper through the whole process.
But you know who else was awesome? Our vet and his entire staff. They made sure our Hades was well cared for, and made sure the entire ordeal was affordable for us. At one point early on, I was worried we wouldn’t be able to swing the surgery and THAT was a scary prospect. But they worked with us, so that we could have the procedure done. Hades was so close to death the third time we brought him in, but they worked fast and brought him back (which was amazing). We are so grateful.
So when Hades had his stitches out yesterday, I decided I wanted to make cookies to thank everyone. And since Hades can be difficult at times (as his name suggests), I decided to make Hades cookies so they can bite his head off!
I can’t believe it’s been four months since my last post! Things have been so busy with the work and house…I haven’t had time to do much baking. But I did make these cupcakes last month for Father’s day, and they were a hit!
These were inspired by a tutorial I saw on Cake Central on how to make hi-hat cupcakes. They reminded me of the Mr. Softee cones, which I was first introduced to when I moved to New York. So I looked up how to make ice cream cone cupcakes, and to my surprise, you can actually pour the batter into the cone and bake it right in there for the same amount of time you would use for a cupcake liner. You can still bake them in a cupcake tin, just put one cone in each hole.
Then you make the hi-hat frosting, freeze for 10 minutes to solidify, and dip in melted chocolate. Easy! I used red Mercken Melts so they would look like a Mr. Softee cone. Also, because my husband hates regular chocolate (weird!).
What is cool is that when you cut it down the middle, there is cake all the way to the bottom! The cone gets a little softer and chewy, and takes on the taste of the cake. I used my go-to recipe for vanilla buttermilk cupcakes for this one.
The only real difficulty is how to transport these. My sister-in-law showed me some pics online of a setup where people cut holes in a foil tin and sat the cupcakes in the holes. I decided to do a variant of this, and got one of the chafing dish stands to help.
These are really fun to make, and also really fun to eat! Perfect for summer.
