My First Daring Baker's Challenge!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I've never eaten a cannolo nor have I ever made cannolo, so this challenge was a REAL challenge for me. After discussing the challenge with BF who point-blank told me he didn't like cannoli, I had to figure out a way that he and dad-in-law would eat them (mom-in-law would eat the original in a heartbeat after taking a Lactaid pill).

I figured I would bake the shells rather than deep fry them to decrease the grease involved and make the dessert seem more health conscious and replaced the traditional dairy filling of ricotta with an apple pie-like substitute. Topped off with some roasted sliced almonds and we have a completed first challenge!

Baked Cannoli with Apple Pie Filling and Almonds

The shells weren't as crunchy as fried ones, but they were still really tasty

 

BF thought they were an interesting take on cannoli. I think I'll have to try the original recipe another day when we're not so stuffed from all the Thanksgiving food

Cranberriful News!

It's been a while since I last posted, but I think most of you can understand how busy the holiday season gets. This year, Thanksgiving started early with BF's family hosting their immediate family gathering this past Sunday. But before that happened, I figured I might as well get some baking in after my first job interview on Friday!

YUP! I GOT A JOB INTERVIEW! It actually happened a couple of weeks ago with the jobbers calling to see when I was free to meet up, so I didn't want to get my hopes up and then feel disappointed at the end, meaning I kept it a secret from all of you until now (sorry, but I get crushed when I get rejected and being the critical arse that I am, berating myself and feeling humiliated is about all that I can handle without others' sympathy). I don't know if I got the job yet or not, I guess we're still in the negotiation period, but prospects look good! I'm so excited! That only means I'll be baking less, but am definitely not stopping.

Anyways, needing to come down from the adrenaline high I was on (both from the interview and from driving in the POURING rain that pelted NorCal on Friday - I'm an LA driver, so you can only imagine what that's like for me), I figured I would sneak into my stash of cranberries in the freezer. Since cranberries have such a sort season nowadays, I always buy a few extra packs and freeze them in case I want some sweet and tart later on in the winter or spring. I usually make orange cranberry muffins with these guys, but seeing as my Chinese classes were canceled for the upcoming week because of Thanksgiving, I figured I would try something different. 

Once again combing for a suitable match that would give me something tasty, I head to the joyofbaking.com and find cranberry shortbread bars. I'm into a real "bar" kick (as if you haven't noticed from my last 2 posts), so these guys seemed perfect in settling my OCDness. Flaky, crusty shortbread and sweet but tart cranberries - I don't know if there's any better combination. They were pretty easy to prepare and turned out just the way they should. I broiled them a little bit to make the top crust a little more crunchy which made my nightly cup of tea extra special. 

Cranberry Shortbread Bars

Ingredients: 
Cranberry Filling:
8 ounces (2 1/4 cups) (225 grams) fresh cranberries
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar 
3 tablespoons water

Shortbread Bars:
2 cups (270 grams) all-purpose flour 
2 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature 
1/3 cup (70 grams) light brown sugar 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place the wire oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter (or spray with a non stick cooking spray) a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) pan (I didn't have a 9 x 9 pan, so I used a 9 x 13 glass dish and just increased the amount of ingredients to make sure there was enough to go around).

Cranberry Filling: In a medium sized saucepan, place all the ingredients. Then, over medium-high heat, cook the ingredients until boiling. Continue to boil the filling until it becomes thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool while you make the shortbread.

Shortbread: In a separate bowl whisk the flour, cornstarch, and salt. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated.

Evenly press two-thirds of the shortbread into the bottom of the prepared pan. Then evenly spread the cranberry filling over the shortbread base, leaving a 1/4 inch border. With the remaining shortbread dough, using your fingers, crumble it over the top of the cranberry filling. Then lightly press the dough into the filling.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven, place on a wire rack, and while still hot, cut into 16 squares. Allow to cool completely in pan. Makes about 16 bars.

Cranberry Shortbread Bars

  A little more brown than golden, but still delicious!

Heaven is a Place on Earth

Especially when you have chocolate. ESPECIALLY because of chocolate I should say. In more questing to still figure out what to do with leftover buttermilk (apparently a 1/2 gallon is a lot), I once again turned to Mary the Food Librarian for help. She made a recipe that was featured on Better Homes and Gardens which is just a twist to traditional brownies.

It was interesting to cook the wet ingredients together and then add it to the dry ingredients. I'm used to blending all the wet together and then adding the dry to the wet. I think by reversing the process it actually made the brownies denser and a bit more on the chewy side. I tend to like my brownies more like cake, but hey, they were still pretty tasty. I think I would go with a different frosting though. This one dried pretty quickly and almost seemed like a glaze since it stuck to the brownies like a SoCal girl sticks to her heater in the wintertime in NorCal (can you tell that's me?). I think I'll keep to buttercreams and whipped creams.

Buttermilk Brownies

Ingredients:
2  cups all-purpose flour
2  cups sugar
1  teaspoon baking soda
1/4  teaspoon salt
1  cup water
1  cup butter
1/3  cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2  eggs
1/2  cup buttermilk or sour milk
1-1/2  teaspoon vanilla
1  recipe Chocolate-Buttermilk Frosting (below)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 15x10x1-inch or a 13x9x2-inch baking pan (I used this one); set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a medium saucepan combine water, butter, and cocoa powder. Bring mixture just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add the cocoa mixture to the flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared baking pan.

Bake about 25 minutes for the 15x10x1-inch pan, about 35 minutes for the 13x9x2-inch pan, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Pour warm Chocolate-Buttermilk Frosting over the warm brownies, spreading evenly. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Makes 24 brownies.

Chocolate-Buttermilk Frosting
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons buttermilk or sour milk
2-1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
In a medium saucepan combine butter, unsweetened cocoa powder, and buttermilk or sour milk. Bring mixture to boiling. Remove from heat. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until smooth. If desired, stir in 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans.

Buttermilk Brownies

Where's the soymilk?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Mom and Dad-in-law got me a present today. Yup, that's right. A deep fryer. I'm so excited. You have no idea how long I've wanted one but had to suppress the urge to order one in fear of becoming fat and unhealthy. But here it is. In all it's glory. I've already updated my to bake list to incorporate things I can now bake/fry/cook with this bringer of good eats. Wow, I think I need more time to take it all in.

Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

Paula Cole wondered this a lot while singing her very famous song back in the 90's. But for me, the cowboys have apparently gone to go get some coffee cake. Yup, you heard right. C-o-f-f-e-e--C-a-k-e. And not just any kind of coffee cake, but c-o-w-b-o-y coffee cake.

In my search to do something with the leftover buttermilk I had in the refrigerator, I came across Mary the Food Librarian's blog and a recipe for a buttermilk coffee cake aka cowboy coffee cake. The recipe is actually from Better Home and Garden's cookbook and is a sure-fire winner with cowboys and girls alike according to the numerous props it's gotten from various websites. Since I am a lover of coffee cake (or any cake for that matter), I figured I would give it a go.

Buttermilk Coffee Cake (aka Cowboy Coffee Cake)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup nuts (I used almonds, but walnuts or pecans would be good here too)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs beaten
1 1/3 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Butter and flour a 9x13 pan or line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the flour, brown sugar and salt in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter becomes small pieces and looks like crumbs.

Reserve 1/2 cup of crumb mixture for the topping. Add nuts to this 1/2 cup. Add baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg to the rest of the crumb mixture.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs to the buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the crumb mixture until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and add topping. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan and cut into squares to serve. Yum!

I think the corner slices are always discriminated against in photos, so I wanted to be an equal opportunity photographer

No almonds for the squirrels, this one is all mine!

How Unhappy You Made Me, Oh Mandolin

Well, you came and you took without givin'. So, I sent you away, oh Mandolin

I'm sure you've guessed it by now, but I had a slight accident in the kitchen with my newfound toy: Mandolin. Little did I know that this little toy could actually take a little piece of my thumb with it. I'll spare you pictures of what my desecrated finger looks like right now, but I will say that it hurts... A LOT! You would think that I'd be used to being a casualty of war that is baking and cooking, but nope, I'm not... not in the least. BF doesn't like it when I hurt myself in the kitchen (usually because he's the one that needs to patch me up time and again) so I'm trying my hardest not to be affected by losing a part of me (literally). *sigh*

Anyways, to console myself after my disheartening loss, I made myself a Pumpkin Spice Latte that could rival even that of Starbucks. I had some leftover pumpkin from making pumpkin cupcakes, so I figured I might as well try out something new (when am I ever not doing this?) So, thus began my combing of the internet!

And as always, I didn't find anything that I liked. Most of the recipes seem to either be a flavored syrup (like Torani's) only with pumpkin pie spices or the actual making of the latte itself. What I want is what Starbucks has: a premixed liquid that I can store in the refrigerator whenever the Pumpkin Piper comes calling for me so that I can just add it to my latte. Alright then, I'll take matters into my own hands (minus the little part of my thumb that's missing - can you tell I haven't gotten over it yet?)

True to form, I mixed two recipes that I found online together and made some adjustments. The first recipe comes from Stephanie at A Year of Slow Cooking. The next one comes from Teresa at Think Inside the Icebox. Ready? Ok, here we go!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon (I really like cinnamon, but if you don't, you can decrease the amount)
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1/4 cup pumpkin (canned or pureed will do here. If you don't want it too pumpkiny, then decrease the amount)

Directions:
Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and heat to a simmer (I left it on medium until it started to boil and then turned down the heat to low). Stir mixture often until sugar is dissolved. Add all the spices (be careful here because my mixture reacted pretty violently to the spices) and stir to combine. Continue to simmer syrup mixture until it becomes thick, about 5-8 more minutes. Add the pumpkin and simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring often.

Transfer mixture to a blender or food processor and blend into a smooth liquid (be careful to not burn yourself since the syrup is still pretty hot). You can also put the mixture in a fine sieve or cheesecloth to remove some of the grainy bits of spices and pumpkin. Place blended mixture into a container and let it cool to room temperature before storing it in the refrigerator.

Depending on how sweet you like your latte, I think this recipe can make quite a few cups. I use about 3-4 tbsp per latte since I really like to taste the pumpkin flavor. And as always, you can change around the recipe to suit your tastes. If you don't like so much pumpkin, just decrease the amount or if you like more spices, just increase them. As much as I like the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, I tend to think it's a bit on the sweet side, so this is just the right amount for me. If you want your syrup sweeter, just add more sugar.

Enjoy!

 Good Morning Latte

Rise and Shine

Red Headed Step-Child

BF's new boss, The Dude, (I had a debate with BF over the nicknames/code names I give to people. He decided on this one for his boss) requested snickerdoodles. Yup. The big man himself. So I wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary but still keeping with the theme, if I may call it that. I've been meaning to use up a package of instant Thai Tea mix in my tea cupboard for a while (which I actually don't like in drink form) and came up with the idea to roll the snickerdoodle cookies in this mix instead of the traditional cinnamon sugar mix (I still made regular snickerdoodles just in case these didn't turn out so great). I used Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodle recipe from AllRecipes.com and off I went to the land of non-traditional (which BF doesn't appreciate all the time, but humors me anyways).

Thai Tea Snickerdoodle

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar (replaced with Thai Tea mix)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (replaced with Thai Tea mix)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. (Begin deviating here). Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

The Thai Tea Snickerdoodle came out with a bit of a red tint from the tea mix. Since it's not really a traditional snickerdoodle and it's a little red, I call it my red-headed step-child.

What a Beautiful Mess I'm In - Finale

UPDATE EDIT: I didn't win the cake decorating competition for the trip to New York to attend the New York Cake Convention. =( I know, sad. But the cake that did win was amazingly beautiful. You can see all the entries here: The Daring Kitchen NYCC Cake Competition Entries.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post:

Ok, this is the last installment of Mooncake. Finally you may be saying to yourself. Same here buddy. Same here.

So here's where I start taking pictures for the actual contest entry.

A single, not-shaped/carved/sculpted 9" cake base naked with no frosting or fondant. Done.

Me working tirelessly on this cake into the wee hours of the morning. Done. Lucky for me, the two mixtures of doughs was enough for me to cover this final cake and make all the designs I wanted. Since the competition seemed to be more about decorating the cake, I threw caution to the wind (mainly me throwing dad-in-law's strict adherence to making the cake look like an ACTUAL mooncake into the wind) and decorated to my heart's content. I didn't care so much about the ridges this time around and used the sides as part of the cake decorating canvas. Now we're talking.

A picture of the final, completed cake. Done. Wow, what an incredible journey. I laughed. I cried. I even swore a little bit. But all in all, it was such an amazing challenge to put myself through. I don't think I'll ever look at mooncakes the same ever again.

But since I'm here, I might as well post some other pictures of the mooncake that Ironman took when he came down to shoot a wedding (he's a wedding photographer on the side and just so happened to have his equipment with him). I'll also post some more of my own pictures when I get some more time.

It really does look like a mooncake from this angle.

I still can't believe I did this.

Some side details

Ironman is not of Asian decent, so I forgot to tell him which side was up and which side was down. He had no idea which way the Chinese characters went. Ooops!

**EDIT**

Here are some of the pictures I took throughout the process.

Up close and personal of what the designs looked like before baking

Side view of designs

Side view

 Picture taken inside, hence the warm yellow lighting

Outside shot. You can see some of the side design

The sun was really bright out the other day so it made for some great lighting

What a Beutiful Mess I'm In - Part Three

I'm tired of cake. I never thought I would ever say that in my entire life, but it's absolutely true. I go into Mooncake Prototype Version 3.0 with a heavy heart and am just about to give up when I give it one last great effort and pull myself together to finish the cake. I'm hoping this will be thee FINAL cake that I can submit, but alas, I am wronged.

Here's how Version 3.0 goes:

I must be delusional cuz this mooncake dough is absolutely perfect! Since the last one seemed to melt away from the cake during baking, I decided to revamp Yan Can Cook's recipe by merging it with another one. This was totally an experiment on my part and I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Since there are a variety of mooncake crusts (something I didn't know), I took Yan Can Cook's "chewy" traditional, Cantonese style crust and mixed it with a more Northern style recipe that is flaky like a pastry which I found on Do What I Like's blog. I think my reasoning for this was that I need the chewy texture so that it would cover the cake without tearing and breaking, but I needed the flakiness of the pastry dough so that it would hold it's shape during baking.

 Completed... for now...

As insurance during baking, I locked and loaded the mooncake in a springform pan and used foil-wrapped dowels to keep the ridge-shapes on the sides.

Alright! The color is dead on and I couldn't have been happier with how the designs turned out. The only problem is that the designs are way too small for the size of the cake and need to be bigger. I also made a careless mistake and separated the two parts of the Chinese character. They each mean something separate from each other (the top part means rice plant and the bottom part means fire according to my Chinese teacher) but they're supposed to be right next to each other so that "autumn" is read. I also noticed that some parts of the cake stuck to the springform and came off when I took the form off after baking. Mooncakes aren't perfect by nature, but I really want mine to look pristine.

Here's a top view. When I reread the contest rules and looked through the forum on others' posted questions and answers, I realized that I made a huge error in just the cake base itself. There are 3 layers of 9" cake here to make my base. But in looking over the rules, apparently I'm only allowed a SINGLE 9" cake. Wow. I was doing so good too. Alright, Mooncake Prototype Version 4.0 has to be the final one otherwise I'm going to have to choke someone!! GARRRRRRR!! Seriously?!?! SERIOUSLY!!??

What a Beautiful Mess I'm In - Part Two

Ok, so with the prototype done, my next attempt was going to be something really out of the left field. Dad-in-law was really caught up on the fact that the prototype didn't have the right coloring of a mooncake. It has to be a deep, earthy brown, baked color. So the only other way I could think of to replicate the color without having to go out and buy an airbrush and test out my non-existent artistic skills was to actually use a mooncake dough that I could bake onto the cake itself. Alright. Do you see the wall coming? I thought you might've.

I searched around FOREVER online to find a mooncake recipe that I could use on the cake. Since I've never made mooncakes from scratch (its an extremely long and arduous process that usually isn't worth it to most people) I was a bit lost on this part. Well, when push comes to shove, you do whatever it takes, which is how I decided to use Yan Can Cook's mooncake recipe.

I made the dough according to the recipe and baked my 9" cake and was ready to go. Wow, smooth sailing. Making that prototype really helped out. Well, I spoke too quickly.

Here's Mooncake Prototype Version 2.0:

So what happened? When I put the cake into the oven to bake the crust, the dough began to expand. And in expanding, it also became heavy and slid right down the side of the cake. I couldn't salvage it in time, so I ripped the sides off and replaced it with a new layer, hence the large seam you see. I also realized that I'm going to have to flash bake this on high heat to get the dough set before it can melt off the cake. Here's where the burning comes in. I put the cake under the broiler thinking a few minutes would do, you know, to really get that brown color. What I didn't adjust for was the heat. There was just too much. Ok dad-in-law, you got your color; only its the color burned.

Sigh, here comes Version 3.0.

What a Beautiful Mess I'm In - Part One

The Daring Kitchen, in conjunction with the U.S. Confection Connection, is offering one lucky person the chance to attend the New York Cake Convention.The catch? Well, you just have to be the grand prize winner of their cake decorating contest. The rules? You have a single 9" cake (square or round) that you can decorate based on what Autumn means to you. Wow, that seems pretty simple, but to be quite honest, I didn't think I had what it took to really compete in this competition. I have 3 Wilton Cake Decorating classes under my belt, but is that going to be enough to WOW these judges?

When I finally decided to enter the contest, I hit a wall: what's something that represents what the fall season means to me and is different and creative? I tossed around a bunch of ideas with BF when it finally dawned on me to make a mooncake. Yeah, a mooncake. Ok, here comes another wall: how do I actually go about making a 9" mooncake?

I decided to document all my triumphs and failures on this blog knowing others are probably going to think I'm a crazy for doing all of this. But hey, I don't have a job or any kids and have the free time to do it, so I did.

Here's my first attempt: Mooncake Prototype

This 6" prototype was just to see if I could actually make a cake that looked like a mooncake. As you can see, it is possible. The next reason I did a prototype was to test out how to get the designs onto the cake. I tried laying out the designs onto the bare cake and then covering it with the fondant, but the fondant was too heavy and covered everything. I then tried scoring the fondant, but the designs just melted away. I decided I'll just have to put the designs on top of the fondant and blend them into it to create the "mold-like" feature in real mooncakes. Next problem to solve was how to get the correct coloring of a mooncake. I glazed the fondant with sugar water and tried torching it with my creme brulee torch, but it just melted the fondant instead. So I sprinkled some sugar directly onto the fondant and torched away. It turned out somewhat well for a first try, but dad-in-law drove me to challenge myself more to make the cake look EXACTLY like a real mooncake. Alright, attempt #2 here I come.

I like how it's named "BERNZ O MATIC"

A City Pumpkin Bumpkin

Pumpkins are a relatively new phenomenon to me. It's sad to say that I didn't really introduce it to my diet until I was in my early twenties and finally had my first experience via the Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte. And even then, I kept my pumpkin exposure to a minimum with the addition of using Coffee Mate's Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer (usually available in the Fall) which was introduced to me via Silent Lamb (my coconut loving roommate). But I soon began to realize that pumpkin was all around me - pumpkin pies from Marie Calendar's, pumpkin pancakes from IHOP, and pumpkin milkshakes from McDonald's. Wow, I thought to myself. If pumpkin is so popular that even the major food chains are picking them up, then maybe they're worth a whirl.

I worked my way up slowly, first by making pumpkin pies at home and then by making pumpkin pound cakes and pumpkin breads. And after so many years (mainly 5 of them to be exact), I have since grown out of my naivety and have wholeheartedly embraced the magic that is pumpkin. Yes, this city girl is now a pumpkin bumpkin. The only problem is BF dislikes pumpkin. He doesn't like to carve them. He doesn't like to eat them. He pretty much could live out the remainder of his life without ever having to see another one. Sigh, I say to myself. I guess I'm just going to have to feed someone else with my fabulous fall feast of pumpkin goodies.

As I looked for a new pumpkin recipe to try out, I thought to myself that the only other group of people that I really interact with regularly are my fellow classmates in my Chinese class. They would be perfect to feed since class is from 7-9pm and everyone is starving since most of them come straight from work. Ah-ha! I'm brilliant!

So I find a recipe for a pumpkin spice cake from the JoyofBaking.com which was adapted from Cindy Mushet's baking newsletter "Baking with the American Harvest" and decide to give it a go. The ingredients looked simple enough and I even liked the idea of using cake flour rather than regular all purpose to make the cake lighter and fluffier. And since I'm feeding 25+ people, I decided to turn the cake into cupcakes for easier eating purposes and omitted the frosting just to ease transportation difficulties (I'm also not a big fan of frosting either, so I just dusted them lightly with powdered sugar). The class seemed to like them and even mom-in-law had a few minis as dessert when I brought over leftovers after class. This was a great way to welcome in the fall!  

Pumpkin Spice Cake 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar 
2 large eggs

1 cup fresh or canned pure pumpkin (about 1/2 of a 15 ounce can)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups sifted cake flour (you sift the flour then measure, not the other way around)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I increased to 1 tsp)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (I decreased to 1/8 tsp)

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I also added in 1/8 tsp nutmeg for some more kick)

1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.  Butter and flour (or spray with Baker's Joy) two - 8 inch (20 cm) cake pans. (since I used cupcake cups, I didn't need to do this)

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Add the pumpkin puree and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.  Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the pumpkin batter, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Divide the batter in half and then pour the batter into the prepared pans. (I made about 36 mini cupcakes and 12 regular sized cupcakes with the batter.) Bake for approximately 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. (The mini's only took 10 minutes to bake but the regular sized cupcakes took about 15-20 minutes).  Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then invert and remove the cakes from their pans.  Cool completely before frosting.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

This almost reminds me of James and the Giant Peach

Here's the story (yes, there's always a story): BF's older sister's husband (Mr. Law-School) got me a pumpkin in Davis when they took Baby-Cakes (BF's nephew) to a pumpkin patch. I left it outside on the porch so trick-or-treaters would know we were dishing out the candy. I figured the pumpkin looked cozy there, so I left it outside for the rest of the week. When I went out to check the mail one day - BAM! There was a hole bitten right into the side of the poor thing! WHO WOULD DO THIS? Mom-in-law said it was most likely raccoons or skunks (we have both here in the wilderness that is NorCal) since the squirrels are too little to do this kind of damage. Whatever the beast type, my poor innocent pumpkin suffered unnecessarily. I immediately rushed it indoors and it is now residing in my living room; happy and homey like it should always be. I couldn't pass up documenting my pumpkin adventures, both culinary and creature created.

Nom Nom Nom Nom

Edits to Come

Ok, as great as I am as a multi-tasker, I think this blogging thing has taken on a mind of its own. When I first decided to take on this adventure in baking, I never thought I would also be learning about photography as well as website development. But lo and behold, here I am the owner of my very own light box (hand made of course) and blogspot with self-made title bar using Photoshop. Wow, I can't believe this is really happening.

So while I was juggling the set-up of taking pictures, making sure my blogspot wasn't a mess and of course baking delicious goodies, I failed to give credit where its due: to the recipes. I realize this is the biggest no-no to be done (you'd think I learn not to plagiarize after 20 years of schooling), but my lazy, uncoordinated self didn't even think to type out the recipes I used so that I could share them with everyone who may be reading this. I think I got so caught up in feeling proud of myself for accomplishing something that I didn't give others the chance to experience this joy for themselves.

My conscience has finally kicked me in the butt and I am happy to say that I will be posting recipes to all the things I've listed on this blog so that not only do you get to try them, but the original makers get credit too. For the things that are original inventions of my own, I'll try to remember what I did exactly and write them down the best I can. Just remember to pay it forward if you make it =)

Forgive me for overlooking this very major issue. I'm still a n00b, but am learning more as I go!