Cauliflower Cake

I made Smitten Kitchen's Cauliflower Parmesan Cake today. I've got a busy week coming up, so I wanted to have something all ready to eat when I'm on the run. It's delicious and was actually quite easy to assemble. I highly recommend it!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

I made these a couple weekends ago. We only ate a few of them at first, and my roommate and I had grand plans of taking them to school on Monday and sharing them. Didn't happen, as there were about 3 left over after a day in the fridge. Yum!

I used Just a Taste's recipe for the cookies and my apple cinnamon cream cheese recipe from my pumpkin cupcakes. The recipe makes a whole boatload, so make sure you have somebody to share with! I ended up throwing out some batter because I was tired of baking and needed to clean up my kitchen for the guests who were coming over to eat them.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Apple Ginger Glaze, Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, and Candied Walnut Garnish

I love just about any baked good with pumpkin in it. The inspiration for these cupcakes was pumpkin + my favorite fall flavors. I took these to a party, and they were extremely well received!


For the cupcakes:

• 1 Box of Yellow Cake Mix
  
• 3 Eggs
• 1 14oz Can of Pumpkin
  
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
  
• 1 tsp Vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350.
   
2. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix together until well blended. This is a thick dough.
3. Put 1/4 C of batter into each prepared muffin cup. You will have enough batter for about 16 cupcakes. I made 12 and then baked the rest of the batter up in a mini muffin tin measuring out 1 TBSP of batter in each.
   
4. Bake for 18-22 minutes. (The mini muffins take less time, but I forgot to record how long.)
   

For the Glaze

• 1/2 C Powdered Sugar
• 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1 TBSP apple juice (or more, depending on desired consistency - I made a very thin glaze that you can you barely see for the pictured cupcakes, but I'd go for a much thicker one next time.)

1. Mix together all ingredients.
2. Poke a few holes in the tops of the cupcakes, and pour a bit of glaze over each cupcake.
   

For the Frosting

• 8oz Brick of Softened Cream Cheese
• 4oz of Softened Unsalted Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 TBSP cinnamon (more or less to taste)
• 2 TBSP apple juice (more or less for desired texture)
• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar

1. Beat together with an electric mixer the cream cheese and butter until smooth.
   
2. Add in the remaining ingredients. Beat until well combined - about 2 minutes.
3. Frosted the cupcakes. I had a fair bit of frosting left at the end, but I frosted the cupcakes rather conservatively.
   

For the Candied Walnuts

• 2 oz walnuts
• 1/4 C Butter
• 2 TBSP Brown Sugar
• Splash of Water
• 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Or whatever spice you're into)

1. Melt the butter in the microwave.
   
2. Add everything but the nuts, stir, cook for another minute, and stir.
3. Dump in nuts. Cook for 40 second intervals, tossing in between. Do this 4-6 times, and sniff the nuts aggressively towards the end to make sure they aren't burning.
4. Pour the nuts out onto a lined baking sheet or a Silpat. Allow to cool and then garnish the cupcakes.
   

These cupcakes are for the Sweetest Kitchen's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge. This month's theme is "orange", which can either be the color or the flaor. I'll remind you when voting starts, so you can mosey on over and vote for your favorite cupcakes!

The winner of October’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela's Images; a selection of handmade crafts
• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; 2-fold Madagascar vanilla extract & 3 Tongan vanilla beans
• Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
• Lisa Orgler; an 8.5"x11" original art print of your choice
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
• Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children's books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

Oven S'Mores

I am obsessed with S'mores. I made S'more cupcakes early this summer. Then I revised the recipe into a bundt-style recipe. The batter looked pretty:


Last week, Our Best Bites posted a recipe for oven S'mores. I wish I'd never considered the option of making an actual S'more in the oven. It was way, way too easy. At least with a cupcake, I have to dirty some bowls.

Here's what you do:

1. Turn your oven to broil.

2. Lay out all of your graham crackers on cookie sheets

These graham crackers are upside down! Don't do this!

3. Put your marshmallows on top.


3. Get your chocolates ready! I used Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey Bars. Yum! Once you pull the pan out of the oven, you've got to go go go, so make sure you have all of the candies unwrapped and broken.

4. Put the pan in the oven for 1-2 minutes, whatever your marshmallow preference is. I'm a big fan of burned marshmallows, but I realized this was kind of burning the graham crackers, so be aware of that!


5. Pull them out when you're content with the marshmallows' brownness. Put the chocolates on top as quick as possible!


6. Stick the second graham crackers on top! Done!

I ate one while it was hot and then shoved the rest in the freezer so they'd cool and be easy to stack up in a tupperware. These babies were bake sale bound!

Gelato

I am on vacation with M's family at their lake house in North Carolina. His mother recently bought a gelato maker on deep discount at Williams Sonoma. M's mother is a bargain hunter. I think she bought this for less than 25% of its retail price.

We have made an absolutely obscene amount of gelato this week. It started simple - vanilla, bittersweet chocolate. Then we branched out to banana stracciatella and almond wine. I think my favorite flavor is lemon - we've made it three times already and it's absolutely divine on M's grandmother's peach cobbler made from South Carolina peaches. Yum, yum, yum.

Back to Iowa City tomorrow. 2L year begins Wednesday.