ninja fudge brownies

 

Anthony requested fudge brownies for his birthday, so that's what he got. He didn't ask for ninjas, but thanks to Amber, he got those too. I used a fudge brownie recipe that had three kinds of chocolate (all fair trade certified, except for the last of the Hershey's cocoa we're using up so as to not be wasteful).

I really wanted to catch the egg mixture mid-drip.

I made a foil sling for the brownies so they could be easily pulled out of the pan and cut without damaging the pan.

 Once cool, we added the ninja honor guard.

And once at the restaurant, flaming pirate candles, including a ship, a parrot, and a treasure chest.

The yellow ninja in this next photo looks like he's fist pumping.

 

 

The most rich, fudgey brownie I've ever eaten. Right here to the west of Bounty Bay and north of Parrot's Cove.

spooky cupcakes

I'm obviously a little behind, still focusing on Halloween stuff, but these were too fun to not feature. They were also probably one of my top 3 cupcakes of all time, taste-wise. It was so hard to eat just one! I made these specifically for Mark to take to work, and thought it fitting to use his mixer for the job. (It's a vintage Kitchen Aid crank mixer. It belonged to his grandma.)

I only used the ginger and cinnamon, leaving out the other cloves and nutmeg (I hate both). I think it still gives a good "spice" taste.

Of course the cupcake liners had to be spooky skulls, being for Mark and all.

This is my favorite fall mug - and it seemed appropriate to house the spatulas for this particular project!

While the 36 (!) cupcakes were cooling, I worked on the cream cheese frosting. This was hands down the best cream cheese frosting I've ever made. Thanks, Martha Stewart.

 I had so many to ice that I didn't pipe the frosting. Sometimes I like the look of the homemade, almost unkempt cupcake. I also usually don't deal with cupcake picks since they feel kind of wasteful since you just pull it out, but with the skulls and the pick your poison sayings, I made an exception.

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I had so much extra batter that I made an extra dozen cupcakes to take to my office to share. I ran out of picks so I used my other Halloweeney sprinkles and went to town.

And my favorite shot, since I took it right before I plopped this directly into my mouth. SO delicious. I almost want to make them for Thanksgiving!

seasonal treat: pumpkin gingersnap cookies

Around this time of year, I love seasonal recipes and making things that remind me of fall. I made these for Mark this weekend, and though they turned out much more soft than what you'd usually think of as a gingersnap, they were still a great fall treat.

The black tar looking goop is molasses. I adore the smell of molasses and love cookies made with it. (Which reminds me I need to make a family recipe for molasses cookies soon...)

Batter for gingersnaps with molasses always looks gross until the dry ingredients are blended into the mix. Little clumps of butter and sugar everywhere.

There we go. This is better.