Wordless Wednesday

FHE and pumpkin cake

We had a Merrill Family Home Evening yesterday. (Just in case you're wondering what in the world FHE is, click here.) Soup was provided, and everyone was asked to bring a snack or dessert. I saw this darling pumpkin cake online and thought "Hey, I can do that!" Except I didn't have a bunt pan. But I did have $6.00 to buy a bunt pan! Huzzah! My grand scheme was a-go!

I think my favorite was when of the little, little kids came up and wanted pumpkin, but not so much chocolate. He was more interested in the green leaves and the stem (which was a chocolate cupcake, so I don't know how he felt about it once it was on his plate).

For the recipe and construction details, see Pumpkin Cake on the cooking blog. I have to admit that I cheated a bit and used box mixes for the cakes. But if you're going to do that, the only brand I recommend is Duncan Hines. Their cakes turn out so moist! (Mr. Perfect said it wasn't moist, it was wet!)

Pie season has arrived!

And it's peachy!

The Filling of the Cupcakes

Last week, I signed up to bring a dozen cupcakes to a Relief Society activity. I'd never baked cupcakes by myself before. (Yes, I do realize that I'm 45 years-old and haven't had this experience yet. No snickering.) I found several recipes online for orange cream cupcakes, and decided to go for the one I already had all the ingredients for. (Check out the cooking blog for the recipe and more pictures.) So, not only was I flying solo on my cupcakes for the first time, I was also doing the "fully from scratch" methodology. Well, the cupcakes turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. The only problem was that I wanted to fill them with frosting, and that turned out a bit hit-n-miss. Some had filling, some did not. Oh, well, live and learn, I say.

Here's one of the successful fillings, courtesy of the the sweetie who picked it up and started eating it.

She said it was really good.

Easter egg cookies

Remember a few posts back when I made cookies for Mr. Perfect to take to a Young Men's activity and we had enough dough left over to make a huge egg? Well, we decided to make big egg cookies for Easter. The only problem was that when I wen to Orson Gygi to buy a really big egg cookie cutter, they didn't have one the size I wanted. They had normal sized ones and one HUGE one that had cut-outs already in it. We didn't want that. So I went on a search and found this lovely egg stencil:

Through the magic of computer stuff, I was able to print it the size we we wanted, and there you have it. The Huge Easter Egg Cookie Experiment could progress. We did two sizes of eggs: really big and normal. We decided on three colors for our eggs: green, yellow, and purple. I know, I know. They aren't exactly the Primary colors, but hey, they work for spring.

We don't have decorating bags for frosting, so we improvised and cut the tips off corners of baggies filled with frosting. They worked great, because all we really wanted was straight piping, not the fancy star-tipped stuff. Here are the results. Please vote for your favorite.

Which do you think is my favorite?

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me

Mr. Perfect loves everything about cookies. He loves making the dough. He loves eating the dough. He loves scooping the cookies onto the cookies sheet. He loves eating them when they're warm. He loves eating them when they're cooled. He loves eating them with frosting or without.

Last night I baked two dozen shamrock-shaped sugar cookies for a church activity. Mr. Perfect is the Young Men's president for the Special Needs Mutual in our area. They didn't have an activity last week because of the Utah political caucuses on Tuesday and Thursday. The church leaders asked the local wards and stakes to cancel all activities on both days so that people could attend the caucus of their choice. That meant no Saint Patrick's Day fun before Saint Patrick's Day, so it's this week. The kids will be decorating the shamrock cookies and enjoying way too much sugar for anyone's good.

Once we had baked enough cookies for the activity, it was obvious that we wouldn't be getting another full cookie sheet out of the remaining dough. I told Mr. Perfect he could eat what he wanted and to throw the rest away. He asked me to make one last, big cookie, and here's what we got:

Hmmm....Easter is just around the corner. Maybe some massive, intricately decorated egg cookies would be a fun thing to do. I'm just saying...

Papa Carrot

So, I've been making mini carrot bread loaves to give out for Christmas. I found this amazingly wonderful loaf pan at Orson Gygi (highly, highly recommended store, and no, they are not paying me to say this). It makes 9 mini loaves at one time. And they all bake at the same speed! Just look!

Well, as you may have read, we had a bumper crop of carrots this year in our garden. We weren't able to harvest all of them before the cold weather, but Mr. Perfect knew what to do. You cover the plants with leaves or tomato vines and you can pick them throughout the winter. In fact, the ground wasn't even frozen under the mulch. Hurrah for our side!

And so it was that I discovered the father of all carrots. It was HUGE! Not just huge; massively huge. Well, at least for us. In the following photo, the red pen next to it is just a standard sized pen.

Isn't he a beauty? And don't worry, I picked enough that he was not sacrificed to the deliciousness of carrot bread. He will probably end up as sticks or slices for a salad.

Experimenting with pies

Tonight, the Relief Society activity is a pie exchange. Now, I love making pies. And Mr. Perfect loves eating pies I've made. His favorite is fresh peach. However, to make a fresh peach pie at this time of year would take a couple of weeks of planning (to find fresh peaches and give them time to ripen) and money (to pay for said peaches). So that left pumpkin, apple, or mincemeat to be truly seasonal.

Well, I do have fresh processed pumpkin in my fridge awaiting packaging for the freezer, but I wasn't in the mood for pumpkin (it's not my favorite). Plus, I haven never made a pumpkin pie, and I've heard it's challenging to make it with fresh pumpkin. I didn't want to show up at the party with a pie that would make the sisters in the ward pat me on the head, click their tongues, and pity my husband.

I've made several really good apple pies (according to others who have eaten them). I love apple pie, and I love making apple pie. However, this time of year, who isn't making apple pie? It just wasn't original enough for my Relief Society baking debut. (The cookies were for the Primary children, not their moms.) Is that too prideful of me? Probably. I have never claimed to be perfect.

I'm not even going to discuss mincemeat. I know my mom loves it, but really...

I didn't go hunting on the internet for a new pie recipe, but I did find one. And even though I wasn't up for experimenting with fresh pumpkin on my sweet T'ville 9th Ward sisters, I will experiment with Blueberry Sour Cream. I found this recipe on Jamie Cooks It Up. After the cutting and consuming tonight, I will post it on my cooking blog.

So, wish me luck.

The Great Carrot Bread Experiment

We have a lot of carrots. I mean a lot. Our garden did really well with most of the things we planted (carrots, sugar peas, beats, Swiss chard, pumpkins, spaghetti squash) and not so well with other things (beans [boo] and cucumbers).

As a result, we have a lot of carrots. Did I already say that? Well, it's true. So Mr. Perfect asked me to try making zucchini bread with carrots instead of zucchini. I didn't research to see if this had already been tried. I just went for it.

We thought this one looked like Delicate Arch in Southern Utah.

Mr. Perfect was happy to grate the carrots (the messiest job in the whole process). He's a trooper.

And it was amazing.

 The recipe I use for zucchini bread is really just a vehicle for vanilla and cinnamon. You could probably put almost anything in it for a moist filler and it would work. But the carrot bread was tasty. I like it better than zucchini bread. It really is more of a cake than a bread. We topped it with cream cheese frosting. Moist, moist, moist. Mr. Perfect was in heaven. Carrot is his favorite cake.

Another random pie sighting

Mr. Perfect's favorite pie flavor (for the moment) is peach. Right now, peaches are "on" in Utah, so I decided to research a good fresh peach pie recipe and try making one from scratch, including the crust. I know, I know. I had a bit of a mental breakdown the last time I made pie crust. But this time I was armed with fresh flour and the knowledge that I did finally make a good crust for the apple pie last Thanksgiving.

Well, this one only took one batch of crust (huzzah!) and three large peaches. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the huge fruit, but I do have pictures of the finished product. We took it to the cabin to share with Dad and Mom P and Painter Extraordinarie, Little Big Sis, and the three Genius Children.

None of the pie lasted the evening.

First pie (it's apple, which isn't random)

My first attempt at crust ended up in the garbage can, but this one worked!!! No pie was left to testify.

Baking for fun (and better grades)

Game Boy brought home a yummy recipe from school for us to try: Quick Microwave Cinnamon Rolls. They were quick, they were easy, and they were completely delicious. Plus, he gets extra credit for baking at home. Sweet!