Pumpkin White Chocolate Muffins

I have a confession to make..... I am not a big fan of anything that is made with pumpkin.  I can't lie I have carved enough of them over the years and saw the lovely ooey gooey insides that it didn't help with my aversion to pumpkin-made things.  So, unless I asked to make them for something I didn't, until recently.

I was discussing with my husband want he wanted me to make for Thanksgiving dinner.  He had this look like he wanted a pumpkin pie, but he knew it would be a waste to make an entire pie just for him.  I told him I would see what I could find on the internet.  I thought I could find something that was a mini version or something similar.  I figured it wouldn't be hard since I have found recipes for mini cheesecakes and individual pineapple upside down cakes.  I didn't search long before I found a recipe for muffins.  I found it originally on Pinterest, then found the original post on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  Here is the direct link to the web page....  http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2012/09/04/pumpkin-white-chocolate-chip-muffins/

If you don't feel like going over the page here is the recipe:

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Muffins

1/2 cup of walnuts, chopped
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
4 oz unsalted butter, melted
6 oz white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla bean paste, pumpkin, and unsalted butter. Add in the chocolate chips and nuts.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix.
5. Scoop batter into greased or paper cup lined muffin cups. Bake for about 20-22 minutes or until puffed and springy to the touch. Cool then remove from cups. Makes 12 muffins.

I only made a few slight adjustments to fit my needs.  First was I didn't add the walnuts.  Truth, I just don't care for baked goods with nuts in them.  The second item I changed was the vanilla bean paste.  I just used pure vanilla extracted.  I did this mainly because I didn't know what vanilla bean paste was or how to make it.  The extract worked just fine in my opinion.  One thing I found out was if you use regular muffin tins, you can get about 18 muffins instead of 12.

This is a picture of one the many batches I made.

Ok, I will admit these muffins have definitely changed my mind about pumpkin.  They were soooo good.  The white chocolate gave them a very nice sweet taste.  They have been something I have made several batches.  They even have made me think of trying some more things with pumpkin.  I guess I need to hit the internet again and see what I can find.

Next time I will talk about a blueberry lemon loaf that I tested out with some very good results.

Until next time...... Happy Baking!

White Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago was my hubby's birthday, which gave more then enough reason to bake a cake.  My initial plan was to use the cake pan that I bought Valentine's Day, but he didn't want me to do use it.  So, it was to Plan B.  (Why do they need to make things difficult?)  Anyway, off to think of something else.

With it only being three of us, I didn't need to make anything too big.  I decided on a two-layered round cake.  Since he isn't to fond of regular chocolate, I decided to make a White Chocolate Cake instead. I was able to find a recipe on one of my favorite sites allrecipes.com.  Here is the link to the recipe if you would like to check it out for yourself... http://allrecipes.com/recipe/white-chocolate-cake/detail.aspx .  The recipe also has the how-to to make a icing, but I didn't use that.  Because hubby really like white chocolate mousse, I decided to try something with that instead.  There was the hard decision to make in whether or not cover the whole cake or not.  After some thought I decided to got with just a layer of mousse in between the layers and on top of the cake.  It was just enough icing for the cake.

Mmmmmmm!

The cake itself is bit more dense then most cakes I have made, but it was not heavy and sit in your stomach.  It did look like a regular White Cake, but definitely had the light chocolate taste to it.  And of course the best thing about the cake was the birthday boy loved it.  That is all that matters, right?

Until next time.... Happy Baking!

Valentine's Cake

I know Valentine's was almost two weeks ago, but this is the first chance I got to write about the two cakes a made for that day.

About a week and a half before Valentine's day, a teacher at my daughter's school asked me if wouldn't mind if I would think of something to make for her and her husband for Valentine's day.  Of course I was more then happy to think of something for them.  This wasn't very hard because I was already eyeing a new toy I wanted, but had no reason to get it.  Now I did.

I wanted a pan that Wilton made that allows you to do this......

I couldn't wait to try the pan out.  I decided to make a trial run before the final product.  The final cake I would be making was a chocolate cake with white chocolate mousse and buttercream icing.  Something I thought that would have a very nice contrast.  But, for the trial this combination would not work because hubby isn't too fond of chocolate.  (I know... How dare he?  Everyone loves chocolate!)   So,  I needed to come up with something else.  Also, I didn't want to do the same old same old.  After thinking and surfing the web, this is what I cam up with..... Applesauce Cake with a Apple Mousse.

The trial was a 50/50 success.  The cake it self turn out great.  It is a little heavier then a regular was is fine.  If you like to try is for yourself here is the link http://www.marthastewart.com/340985/applesauce-cake .  I am not a big fan of Martha Stewart usually, but this was good.  The Apple Mousse.... well not so good.  The taste was great, but the texture was something to be desired.  It ended up being more like a thicker applesauce then a mousse.  Because of this, it made it interesting putting the cake together.  I was able to, but in the end the cake ended up soaking in much of it.  So, when I cut into we had a hole in the center of the cake rather then a nice filling.  Oh well!  Live and Learn!

The final cake came out much better.  L and her hubby were very happy the cake.  I only wish I could have gotten a picture to share with all of you, but she forgot.  (It is ok.  It just gives me another excuse to use the pan again.)

I have a few other things happen these past few weeks, but those are for other posts.

Until next time....... Happy Baking!

Things are looking good!

I recently had many good things happen to me in just last few days.  About 3 months ago some of you may remember I made a Transformer birthday for someone I worked with.  At the time I was hoping for some big things to happen, but not much did.  Little did I know that  the proverbial ball did start rolling it just took to now to catch me.

I had another co-worker ask me to make her daughter's graduation cake.  This time it is completely my own design.  She needed a relativity large cake.  So, I came up with the idea of making in look like the front page of a newspaper.  It will have headlines and pictures.  Don't worry I will post the pictures after it is made.  So, you will just have to wait until then.  The downside in this whole thing was I had never baked a cake that big before.  I had a pan that was perfect.  I would just need to bake two and then put them together.  No big deal right?  Wrong!  Your standard one batch of cake mix is not enough.  Lucky for me I have a husband whom always thinks of the smallest details before doing anything says to me, "Well sweetie, why don't just make a trial run just to see what you need?"  D'oh!  Why didn't I think of that.  Silly me.  I guess that is why I am the talent and he runs the business side.  So, any way last weekend I made the trial run of the red velvet cake.  I found out exactly what I needed and how long to bake it.  It came out great.  But now..... I have this 9 x 15 x 2 size cake with no where to really take it.  Then the light bulb went off. (Yes, I actually do see light bulbs and yes I know I am crazy.)  Cake Pops!  I ended up making 25 red velvet cake pops dipped in white chocolate.

I took the pops to work on Sunday.  Everyone who had one LOVED them.  But, this is the best part....... the co-worker whom I had to do this for looks at them as says, "Hey, do you think you could 50 of this for me for another party I am having?"  In the back of my head I am jumping up and done going "YES! YES! YES!", but I calmly say, "Of course I can.  When do you need them?" So, I will be making Cake Pops again in about 3 weeks.  Can't wait it is going to be so much fun.

But, wait there is more.....

I will be making a cake in the shape of Snoopy for this weekend coming up.  I asked to do this by another co-worker who had one of my pops.  I am really looking forward to making this cake since Snoopy is one of my favorite characters.  I also have the potential for two more cake orders and another order of the Cake Pops.  I'll let you know how those go.

So, as you can see it may not be a very big ball, but it seems to be getting bigger and moving a faster.  Let's keep our fingers cross that it just doesn't run me over.

Until next time....... Happy Baking!