Orange Cranberry Cake

Cranberries are in the stores! I grew up in Cranberry Land (aka southeastern Massachusetts) so cranberries are a required ingredient for the holidays. I often buy a bag with no real purpose in mind. They never go to waste!

I made this dense cranberry cake (a coffe cake type of cake) for a brunch that I hosted. It was delicious - not too sweet and plenty moist, with a crunchy sugar coating baked on top. The only changes I made to the recipe in the link below is that I added a teaspoon of almond extract and added about a quarter cup of additonal sugar to the batter.

http://www.unegaminedanslacuisine.com/2012/11/cranberry-buttermilk-cake.html

Here is my rescue reindeer (found at a creepy estate sale, with no nose or antlers, and purchased for a quarter) having a taste. He gives it the North Pole Lick of Approval.

(Not Just) Another Carrot Cake!

 Do you like my squirrel banner? I was inspired by a more elaborate banner I saw on Pinterest. I wanted to do something autumnal and simple for decoration. I think I like this carrot cake better than the last one I posted. That one was good but this one doesn't feel quite as dense. The orange and the coconut are subtle but add a nice depth of flavor. I frosted this with whipped cream sweetened with maple syrup and a little vanilla extract.

Carrot Cake (adapted from Carrot Cake III from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs (room temp)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp maple extract
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 cups grated carrot
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly spray two 8" baking pans with cooking spray and place parchment circles in bottoms. Alternatively, spray (or grease) pans and dust evenly with flour. Carrot cake is sticky.
2. Combine first seven ingredients (up to the flour) in a mixing bowl. Beat together on low speed until combined.
3. Sift together dry ingredients and then add to wet mixture. Or, if you hate sifting, put the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk them together vigorously. Beat wet and dry on low to medium speed until just combined (no dry spots but there could still be lumps)
4. Fold/stir carrots and coconut into the batter using a spatula or rubber spoon, making sure that the carrots 'n' coconut mix is evenly distributed throughout.
5. Immediately pour batter into pans. Bake about 30-40 minutes, rotating pan about halfway through. Check for doneness with a toothpick in center.

Skully

Well, Halloween is over for another year. I am NOT moving right on to Christmas like SOME people (major retailers and the hair salon in the skyway - I'm talkin' to you!). Here's one last look back at the ole' Hallow's Eve - our little skeleton guy is dressed up all Steampunk! Isnt' he cute? My sister took this picture while we were gathering the decorations to pack away.

My Jack-o'-lantern - all lit up!

Skull and Spiderweb Cupcake Decorations

Here's another Halloween/Day of the Dead cupcake design. I hardly ever work with candy melts (frequently called "white chocolate" on shows like Cupcake Wars, which drives me nuts) because they are so weird and artificial. They have two distinct benefits: the "chocolate" doesn't need to be tempered  AND it dries/hardens quickly.

After melting my melts, I piped my design freehand on a piece of wax paper. You could easily slip some clip-art or another design under the paper as a guide. When it dries, carefully peel the decoration from the wax paper and top your cupcake! For the spiderweb one, I piped the web onto a pretzel stick for some height in the decoration. These were done quickly so are a little messy. With care, you can execute some pretty intricate designs.

Here is a website with illustrated instructions on making a piping cone from parchment paper.
http://www.fantes.com/parchment-triangles.html
 This is what I use for piping small amounts of something for decoration instead of using a big ol' plastic piping bag.

Another Witch Cupcake!

Despite signs to the contrary, I'm not really obsessed with witches. Oh, I like them just fine (old-fashioned scary ones) but I also like a a nice scary bat, a cute pumpkin, or a spooky ghost. It just worked out that I made a bunch of witch cupcakes this year.

These cupcakes were made by piping a big dollop of swiss meringue buttercream (dyed green) for the face. Height is important - don't make a squished witch face! Decorate the face with more buttercream and a green M&M for the nose. The hair is made of edible Easter grass (again - you could use licorice or strips of fruit roll-ups). The hat is made out of a Fudge Stripe cookie with chocolate ganache piped for the cone of the hat. The buckle on the hat is made from more buttercream frosting.

Making the ganache is easy - heat one cup of cream and pour over two cups of dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Let it sit for about 5 minutes then stir to melt all the chips. You will need to let the ganache cool to good piping consistenc - too warm and the hats will flop over but too cold and the hats won't pipe out of the bag.

Steampunk(ish) Costume

This year some of us decided to go "Steampunk" for Halloween. I don't know if I would say my costume is really authentic Steampunk (which is funny to say since it is a sort of made up time period) but I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I am supposed to be a Steampunk Entymologist (bug scientist).

We did a little photo shoot at an abandoned building that had a kinda Old West facade. It used to be an antique store, I think, but it's falling apart now. You can see more of my costume here. My mom added the puffed sleeves to my shirt but most everything else I just bought at the thrift store. I made the "cincher" corset-type-thing from a paper bag and gold duct tape.

Here's a better picture of my hat. I made the form out of cardboard and covered it in wrinkly paper bag. Then I painted it, added some faux-leather trim, some packing tape with an insect pattern (found at Target in the office supply section) and some plastic insects I had "antiqued" with black and gold paint.

Below is a picture of my sister's costume, from the back. She's lucky because her hair looks cool without having to wear a wig! Isn't the tree awesome?

Here's a action shot of my brother-in-law above and one of my sister (Ma Barker style) below.