One more Taste of Fall Recipe!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes!

So, if you are still have leftover pumpkin, OR, squash puree  

(OR you have bags of puree in your freezer)

and you want a quick and easy sweet treat  that is the perfect amount of spice,
is very moist

uses basic food storage ingredients, 

is topped with delicious cream cheese frosting  

AND makes a batch of 24 cupcakes, this is a great recipe to make up.
(perfect to make up even at Christmas as the flavor reminds me of Spice Cake or Gingerbread)

It's delicious for an afternoon snack for kids, 

perfect to send in your families lunches, 

OR, to enjoy a "taste of fall" (OR, Christmas)
anytime of the year.

Easy, Delicious and Amazing!!  

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes 

1 cup pumpkin/squash puree

1/2 cup buttermilk

(mix together buttermilk and squash puree in a bowl and set aside) 

1 cube butter

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 large eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

2 cups unbleached flour

Beat together butter, sugars and vanilla  for one minute until fluffy.

Then add in eggs (one at a time) scraping down bowl as needed

Then add in salt, baking powder/soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and mix well.

Then add in flour alternating with buttermilk/squash mixture until well combined.

Spoon batter into 24 muffin tins (lined with baking cups).

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes, OR, until toothpick inserted in comes out clean

Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes.

Remove cupcakes from tins and let cool one hour

Frost with cream cheese frosting and ENJOY!

Cream Cheese Frosting 

1/4 cup REAL butter

4 (oz) cream cheese

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Beat together butter, cream cheese and vanilla until light and fluffy. 

Gradually add in powdered sugar, beating until smooth.

Enjoy a "Taste of Fall" all year long...

as long as you have pumpkin puree in your freezer

you can ALWAYS make these up to enjoy...

and take my kids word for them,

"they are absolutely delicious"!

Raisins anyone would enjoy!

Tracy and I LOVE raisins
and our food storage has a great supply of bags of raisins
as we enjoy them each morning
in our bowls of Steel Cut Oats!

Trying to get our children to love and enjoy raisins as much as we do has been a challenge. My kids will eat spinach, beets, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, artichokes, pomegranates, and pretty much any other fruit and veggie, but getting them to eat raisins has not been a success...YET!

I'm grateful for recipes that "disguise" things a little bit and your kids don't realize what they are eating, but they comment on how good it tastes and how much they love it. That's how my kid are about Raisin Bars.

I went to Education Week at Rick's College when Jade was just an infant and went to class called
"Feed me right...I'm Yours"!
I learned all kinds of great recipes to nourish your children's bodies and to get your children to eat more veggies, fruit and healthy snacks and treats and this recipe was one of them for a fairly healthy treat to make for your kids.
VERY easy to make up and uses basic ingredients that are part of our food storage.

Raisin Bars

1 cup raisins
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cups chopped walnuts
1/3 cup softened butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Glaze:
1 tablespoon warm water
½ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla

Mix raisins and water in blender for 30 to 40 seconds.

Combine dry ingredients and nuts in mixer bowl.
Add butter and liquids, including the water-raisin mix. Mix well.
Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 pan.
Bake in 375 degree oven for 14-16 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in comes out clean).

Remove bars from oven and let cool slightly while combing glaze ingredients in blender. Pulse until smooth.
Pour onto warm bars and spread with spatula. The thin glaze sets the bars.
Cut into squares after glaze sets.

Enjoy!

We celebrate with cake!

Traditions...

It’s that time of the year for Tracy’s birthday cake. Decadent German Chocolate Cake I might add. In 19 years we have never made anything else.
October 22nd means we get to enjoy this yummyness!

Note to my hubby...
I can’t believe that it’s been 20 years...(October 18th, 1989) since I saw the most handsome young man in my Pearl of Great Price class at Rick's College. Wearing a navy blue and white striped turtleneck, a white cardigan sweater with burgundy and navy blue stripes around the neck and black penny loafers with your curly hair and trendy eyeglasses! It truly was love at first sight and I can’t believe that out of all the all the girls at Rick’s College that I got to be the lucky one to date and marry you!!

Birthday Highlights...

NOW to the cake....

VERY yummy and easy to make!
Other than the occasional Angel Food Cake, I have never made a cake from a mix from the store. Flour, sugar, salt, soda, eggs, butter, cocoa powder, vanilla and milk are the ingredients used to make a chocolate cake from scratch.

Taking staple ingredients and turning them into something yummy and enjoyable is so much fun for me!
The German Chocolate topping is actually staple ingredients at my house as our food storage always has sugar, cans of evaporated milk, coconut, butter and walnuts available to grab.

German Chocolate Cake
(Cake)
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
In a mixer bowl stir together flour , sugar, baking soda and salt.

1 cup butter
1 cup water
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
In a saucepan combine butter, water and cocoa powder. Bring just to boiling, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat. Add cocoa mixture to flour mixture; beat with electric mixer on low speed until just combined.

2 eggs
½ cup buttermilk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
Add eggs , buttermilk and vanilla; beat on low speed for 1 minute. (batter will be thin). Put batter in greased/floured 9x13 inch pan (OR 2 round cake pans).
Bake in 350 degree oven until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (30-35 minutes)
Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan if desired.

(German Chocolate Frosting)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
pinch salt
1 cube REAL butter
1 can evaporated milk
Boil ingredients until it thickens. Cool.
Then add
2 tsp.vanilla, 2 cups coconut and 1 cup chopped walnuts OR pecans. Then put on top of chocolate cake. After I put the topping on the chocolate cake, I always chill it for 1 to 2 hours to set it up.

Enjoy!
I just LOVE Tracy's birthday cake tradition.
SO yummy, so easy and SO good!

Cupcake deprived no more!

"There's just something about a cupcake that makes you smile!"

I guess I am finally getting in touch with the trends...I've been in the dark ages of making cakes, cookies and pies and haven't ever ventured into cupcake making!
Heaven forbid, my poor children have never had a cupcake served by their mom until yesterday...
Every time we look at a magazine, look at someone's Blog, etc..., everyone is showing such cute and YUMMY looking cupcakes. Tracy had mentioned it would be fun to maybe try making up some cupcakes, but I can't ever bring myself to buy a cake mix, because I like to make anything like this
from scratch.
SO, I pulled out my cake book that I use for all of my cake making adventures (I actually got this book for Christmas when I was a Senior in High School) and found a yellow cake recipe that had an option for Cupcakes and made them up and what HAPPY little children and hubby I had. They turned out so well, I made up another batch so everyone could have a cupcake in their lunch the next day.

SO easy,
uses BASIC ingredients that everyone has on hand
and SO yummy!!

These were the cupcakes I baked up
...and here's the recipe!

(Click on the photo)

The recipe is from page 90 of the Better Homes and Gardens Cake Decorating Cook Book. I love that it has a single layer and double layer recipe so you can make a small OR large batch.
Enjoy!!

(frosted with this frosting)
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
½ cup REAL butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
(food coloring)

In a mixer bowl beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla till light and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating until smooth. Add desired color of food coloring if desired.