pumpkin desserts before it's officially winter

I've obviously got some catching up to do. I've got a list of things to cover, so bear with me as I catch up. I'm catching up on my blog reader too.

I'm probably not your typical pumpkin fan seeing that I hate nutmeg and cloves, and often both of those are used to spice pumpkin desserts. (I hate nutmeg because I am my mother's daughter and I hate cloves because I had my teeth packed with them in high school and it ruined cloves for me for life.) But I love pumpkin desserts. So thus far this season I've made two. I hope to make a third for Thanksgiving.

First up, my pumpkin ginger snap trifle. I sort of came up with this idea myself and used recipes I had on hand for the different parts. It was for a group dinner for the Pens home opener. (squee!) I layered pumpkin bars with cream cheese whipped cream and ginger snap cookies.

For the bars, we have all of the ingredients in the Magnolia pumpkin bar recipe except for nutmeg. And no Sir Sous Chef, being as this was at Mark's.

Dry ingredients. I love how soft flour is. I'm a nerd. I know.


Beat pumpkin, sugar, eggs, into gloop.


Add the dry stuff and some nuts. That's looking better now.


In a pan, and into the oven.


And while that's baking, the cream cheese whipped cream (which would be SO fantastic on cupcakes, btw. Thanks Cooks Illustrated.)


Cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Side note: when I was little I hated cream cheese, as I did most cheese. And sometime in college, I decided to be bold and try it on a bagel. We have had a torrid love affair ever since. ;-)

Whip that up with vanilla and sea salt and heavy cream. While it's going, put some ginger snaps in your trifle bowl.


Add in a layer of the cream that is now done and delicious.


Chunk up the now-cool pumpkin bars and toss them in.


Keep going til it looks like this.


Then stick your face in it. No, dish it out and eat it like a civilized human being. Then when everyone goes home, stick your face in it. :)

****Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (for Dani's wedding)****

Ah, the return of Sir Sous Chef.


Eggs and sugar. And spatula.


Eggs and pumpkin. Bloop bloop.



Dry ingredients. Meet the pumpkin mixture.



Mix it up and add a lot of chocolate.


Get that dough on a sheet with some parchment.


Aaaaaand finish. Yummmmm. Netmeg free awesomeness.

here comes the cake truffles: dani's candies

My friend Dani married a great guy on Saturday. And because I have a great guy myself, Mark made cake truffles with me to contribute to her cookie table (a western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio tradition, apparently). Her colors were fall themed, so we made fall themed truffles.

These things are awesome. We heard the wait staff talking about them while we were loading up our plates with cookies.

You start with a chocolate cake. Mark likes to use the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe. Here's the main players. And Sir Sous Chef.


The awesome thing about this cake is that it's practically one-bowl. By that I mean you dump everything in at once, like so.


Boil some water. In a cow. (Thanks Amber's Aunt BeBe)


In the meantime, beat all the other ingredients.


Add the boiling water to make what looks like soup. Don't turn the mixer on too high or you'll spray your face. Trust me. I know this.


Get it in some pans. I like to use two 9-inch rounds.


Let those bake and get started on the cream cheese frosting.


Cream butter and cream cheese.



Add some confectioners sugar, milk, and the other players. Mix. Smell the yum.


At this point Mark arrived, so we cooled the cakes and chilled the frosting and watched Star Trek. Yep. And then he gunged the cake and frosting together to make cake balls.



To make the actual candies, Mark and I work as a team. I'm the sprinkle/jimmie master and he's the chocolate master. He fills the candy molds (that look like the bottom of peanut butter cups) with melted dark chocolate.


A cake ball goes in each and the trays go in the fridge to chill and set. This is what they look like when they are done.


Next they take a dip in colored white chocolate.

Next they are doused in sprinkles or jimmies. We used fall leaves. And here they come...



The cookies were delicious, cake truffles spectacular, and the bride radiant. And I got to dance with Mark to Billy Joel.

Good wedding, I'd say.

Trib contest update

I took second place in the first round of the Trib's Holiday Cupcake Challenge, which means I get to move on to compete at the Good Taste Pittsburgh Food Expo on November 7. We have four hours to make a cupcake creation that includes at least 12 cupcakes and is holiday themed. I'm not going to write about my idea here, but you will see photos after the event.

Wish me luck!

good dessert eats in the cleve

As Mark is originally from Cleveland, we make trips to his home city every once in awhile. And as we are always on the hunt for delicious desserts and special treats. Here is a sampling of the treats from a few of our stops.

*Presti's Bakery, Little Italy

Presti's is a fantastic little cafe/bakery in Little Italy that makes you walk up to the counter and want to press your hands and face up against the counter like you are five years old. It smells like a cloud of sugar and butter and flour and coffee. I'm not kidding. We usually try and bring a cooler to stock up on a few treats, but this time we ate in, as we were with Amber & Anthony (and Spiderman).

Amber had a regular cannoli. I believe Presti’s makes their shells as well as the cream. Anthony had a custard puff, which he said was “filled with delicious custards” (with a big smile on his face). They split some berry gelato as well. (There is some debate as to whether or not it was raspberry gelato or simply a generic berry gelato. We will stick with berry gelato, as either way, it’s a berry.)

After a great deal of deliberation, Mark and I chose two desserts to split. I was lusting after the strawberry cassata cake. It was incredible. Apparently cassata cake is traditionally made with sponge cake, ricotta cheese mixture, and candied fruit. I prefer Presti's version with light white cake, strawberries, and cream.

We also tried a chocolate mousse enveloped in another layer of chocolate. That was pretty much amazing.

If you ever take a vacation to the Cleve ala Liz Lemon, stop at Presti's and you won't be disappointed. You'll just wish you brought a bigger cooler.

***

West Side Market

The West Side Market is a foodie's dream come true. Mark and I could have stayed all day. We bought Madagascar vanilla beans for $1.95 a piece, some pomegranates for $1, and got 3 beautiful red peppers (turned into roasted red pepper pasta sauce that week) for $1. Make a pilgrimage and go there.

We tested three cupcakes from one of the vendors (can't remember the name! ack!).

This one was chocolate raspberry and was quite good. The cake part had some jam mixed in and was moist. The icing didn't taste much like raspberry, but that could have been because it was in a box bumping around all day with the other ones.

We tried an espresso cupcake with a chocolate covered espresso bean on top. Again, pretty good.

The best of the bunch was the buckeye cupcake with peanut butter. I liked the peanut butter frosting a lot, and it made me want to find a recipe for good peanut butter buttercream.

We also visited a vendor called Cake Royale that makes all of its desserts from scratch. A husband and wife team own the business and we got to talk to the wife for awhile. Made us want to open a bakery.

They had the most incredible cakes. The photos I took were so bad I don't even want to post them because they don't do justice to the desserts. We had one piece called "France," made up of white and dark chocolate mousse in layers. Another, called "Nescafe" was espresso and caramel and cream. Their specialty was a chocolate "Monk," which was chocolate and raspberry mousse enveloped in a shroud of chocolate that looked like a monk's robe, and dusted with chocolate powder. Heavenly. And knowing they were made lovingly by hand by someone self-taught made it even better.

c'mon get happy: the final chapter of cake class

September was our last month of cake class, as we finished the Fondant & Gum Paste course at Michael's. As usual, our instructor was really great and let us do whatever we wanted for our final cake instead of something cheesy from the book.

During one of the classes, a remark was made about one of the fondant cutters looking like a partridge or baby chick. There is still debate about who came up with this first, but since this is my blog, I win. I said it first. It looked like a partridge. So I made a Partridge Family Cake.

Not my finest work, but it sufficed. It was cookies and cream cake and was enjoyed by Amber's esteemed colleagues (though apparently no one likes to be the first one to cut a cake covered in fondant, so Amber had to step up and take care of business).

If you're interested in cake decorating, take these classes. It will really give you the basics you need to attempt the designs in your head. :)





P.S.: Don't forget you can still vote for my cupcake using the widget to the left! Voting ends Friday!

double whammy: vote for me and feed a needy family for Christmas!

So I did it. I entered a local charity cupcake contest. Before I explain, this is my entry.


I do love the Pens. And even though the name of the contest was the Holiday Cupcake Challenge, your first entry didn't have to be a holiday cupcake. So I went with the Pens. You can never go wrong with the Pens.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is sponsoring the contest to raise money for Operation Santa Claus, which partners with the Salvation Army to provide complete holiday meals for families as well as storybooks for the children in those families! Food and reading! Yes!

Voters donate to Operation Santa Claus for votes to apply to cupcakes, starting with $5 for 5 votes, going to $25 for 40 votes. The top 5 cupcakes at the end of the voting period get the chance to compete at the Good Taste Pittsburgh Food and Cooking Expo in November. There, the contestants will make a holiday cupcake to compete for $1,000.

And to top it all off, Duff Goldman from Ace of Cakes will be at the Expo! Squeeeee!

My entry is a devil's food cupcake with buttercream frosting, black and gold jimmies, and fondant sculpted figures: Iceburgh, Mellon Arena, and the Stanley Cup (which belongs to us right now, thank you very much Detroit! :) )

First we start with ingredients (minus Sir Sous Chef).

Chop up a whole buncha chocolate.


Add some cocoa powder and boiling water to make chocolate sludge.



Cream the butter and sugars. I always love this part.


Add eggs.


Sour cream and vanilla.


Mix it up with a combo of cake and all-purpose flour, and you get batter that smells delicious and looks like mousse.




At this point I forgot to take photos of the finished cupcakes. But you know how the story ends.


If you feel so inclined, please vote for my cupcake and donate to Operation Santa Claus by clicking on the widget to the left. Pass it to your friends.

Even if I don't move on to the next round, and you vote for any cupcake in the contest, your money will help needy children and families during the holidays. And knowing that people voting for my cupcake might put some Christmas dinner and storytime on the menu for a family this December is good enough for me.