I have two other culinary creations that I made before these that I still have yet to share, but I can’t let this weekend end without writing about these beauties: Pumpkin Cupcakes with a Salted Caramel Buttercream frosting.  Have you ever heard a more amazing title? I must have recited that phrase over 20 times this weekend, and every time I got the same stupefied reaction, complete with a little drool.

As soon as I saw these on Made in Melissa’s Kitchen, I knew I’d be making them.  I didn’t know, however, that it would be in the two hours before a dinner reservation I had with my two best friends, or that I’d have to re-make the caramel sauce because I burnt it the first time.  Or that I’d have to switch the frosting tip because the first one just wasn’t right.  Or that I’d be frantically scrubbing the BUTTERcream off the pastry bags and mixer bowl in time to get ready to go.  But even with so many hiccups, these were probably the best baked goods I have EVER made.

I shared these with three different groups of people this weekend— my friends Amanda and Elyse, my family, and my South Plainfield favorites— and their reactions all reaffirmed why I love to cook and bake for the people I love.

I know I’ve told you to make many things in the past, but ignore all those suggestions and take this one: MAKE THESE.  You’ll love its moist, spicy Pumpkin base and the sweet and salty combo that the caramel icing provides.  Perfection.  These might be my contribution to Thanksgiving this year!

Recipe

I don’t fully understand where or how monkey bread got its name, but I do know that I’m in love with the concept.  I’ve been wanting to make monkey bread for a while now, and I wouldn’t be me if the thought of adding pumpkin didn’t push me over the edge.  

I had a lot to get done yesterday, but I knew I had to bake since I spent all last weekend at Justin and Genevieve’s wedding. I woke up early to make this because I loved both the idea of starting my day by making the house smell amazing and the idea of giving my family something sweet to snack on all weekend.  I definitely made them happy with this one!

For those of you that have never made Monkey Bread before, it can be a time-consuming process.  As with any yeast-based dough, it needs at least two hours to rise twice.  But it’s worth it because it’s SO fun! You basically cut the dough into little balls, rolls each one in butter and cinnamon sugar, and layer them in a bundt pan. When the dough rises for a second time, the pieces come together and form the cake (see above). After you bake it, you flip it upside down, and you’re left with a perfect pull-apart cake! When finished, this cake was absolutely gorgeous and the best word to describe its taste would be ADDICTIVE.  Each piece is almost like a pumpkin donut hole.

A word of advice: the maple glaze in this recipe definitely needs a little milk to thin it out, and the cake only needs a drizzle of it to enhance it. 

Have fun making this one, and then watch your family devour it over the course of a day!

Recipe

In a move that probably comes as a surprise to no one, I’ve fallen slightly behind on my blog.  I made these beauties last weekend, but never got around to posting about them.  However, these are COMPLETELY worth the wait! I have to be honest that, to date, I’ve played it a little safe in my baking.  Besides my masterpiece Pumpkin Cheesecake from last fall, I’ve mostly stuck to muffins, breads, and cookies— things that I knew I could pull off.  I wanted to step it up a notch and go slightly outside of my comfort zone, so stumbling upon this recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls proved to be perfect timing.  Besides that, my sister took one look at these and BEGGED me to make them.  When someone asks me to make something, I usually oblige.

Luckily, I had zero slip-ups in putting these together.  While they were pretty time consuming, a lot of that time was spent waiting for the dough to rise, so I had plenty of time to use Sunday for its other purpose- watching football.  Also, the actual steps that I had to take were relatively straight forward and easy.  

To say these were a huge hit is an understatement! They were gone by the next day, which meant that I didn’t get to share the love with my co-workers.  That’s probably for the best, because these were at their best when fresh and warm from the oven.  I’m glad I took the advice of Lindsey from Gingerbread Bagels (where I got this recipe from) and went all out by making a cream cheese frosting to spread on top.  Without it, they would have really fallen short.  And who wants to be healthy when they’re eating a cinnamon roll anyways?

Recipe

Being that I woke up in South Jersey this morning, and the first Giants game of the season was on in the afternoon,  I didn’t think I’d be baking anything at all this weekend.  I had grand plans to go a little outside of my comfort zone with a recipe I’ve been dying to try, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  However, I knew I had to make SOMETHING or I’d be breaking my promise to myself the second week in, so I decided it would probably be a good idea to use up the canned pumpkin that I had leftover from the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.  A quick search on one of my favorite food blogs, Pinch My Salt, and voila — I found this Pumpkin Spice Cake, which I just so happened to have all of the ingredients for.

It’s hard to beat a classic like this.  The sour cream made the cake amazingly moist, and it tasted perfect with a cup of Pumpkin coffee. My co-workers will be a bunch of happy ladies tomorrow morning…

Recipe

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s actually fall again! Time for hot coffee, full Friday’s at work, and everything pumpkin. Also time for me to start blogging again, I’ve (once again) decided. It wasn’t so much the blogging that I stopped this summer, it was sort of the cooking all together.  I was busier than I’ve ever been, and when I cooked I tended to stick to light, uninspired meals.  Now that the weather is getting cool again, I’m busting out my KitchenAid Mixer and bringing back my quest to bake something every week.  And let’s be honest, most of them will be of the pumpkin variety.

My challenge with baking is that sometimes I’ll make something and it will sit in the kitchen until it gets thrown out.  Not because it’s bad, but because my family will decide that they’re back to “low carb” or watching what they eat.  Yes, we’re all very much alike.  That’s why I decided to ease back into my culinary groove by making something that I know everyone will be OK with eating.  I could have gone with sugary Spiced Pumpkin Bars (and those will come, promise), but I decided that everyone, especially my sister, would love Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins.  Relatively simple, but definitely something that brings excitement about Fall being here.

Sure enough, as I write this, Marissa has already had 2, maybe 2.5.  I’ll be taking these to the office with me for breakfast this week.

Recipe

What’s a girl to do when she has half a can of pumpkin leftover from making Pumpkin Chiffon Cake? Bake up some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies of course! They’re not very creative, but they’re so yummy and comforting.  I’ll be bringing these into the office tomorrow for all of my DeVries PR girls, and I know they’ll appreciate them :)

Recipe 

This week I started going through all of my food magazines and ripping out any pumpkin recipe that I could find.  While I was doing that, I came across a recipe in Every Day with Rachael Ray for Pumpkin Chiffon Cake.  I was feeling a little soft around the edges that day, and I saw that it was light and lo-calorie like an Angel Food Cake, so I decided to go for it.  To me, the selling point was that even though most of the cake was made up of egg whites, it still looked dense enough to be satisfying.

Sure enough, I was right.  I’ve been eating this Pumpkin Chiffon Cake all week and I am SO happy with it.  It has the perfect pumpkin flavor, and I don’t feel weighed down after having a slice.  Plus, it was highly entertaining to make my first cake where I had to hang it upside down for an hour and a half after baking :) I highly recommend this cake for those weeks when you’re in need of a break from all the heavy, cold-weather food, but still want something seasonal.  Or anytime at all!

Recipe (I’ll have to post this one a little later, as the magazine’s website still hasn’t posted it.) 

I didn’t post about my fall baking adventures last week because they didn’t exactly go as I had planned.  I took a stab at recreating the success that I had last year with Rachael Ray’s Giant Bavarian Pretzels, but a few things got in my way.  For one, the difficulty of making these without a stand mixer/bread hook really got to me. Also, instead of just adding an egg white, I added in the whole thing, which definitely messed up the texture. It wasn’t that they turned out AWFUL, but the taste and color were both off.  I’m going to try making them again, but not right away.

As for this week, I was inspired when I saw Ina Garten make her Maple-Oatmeal Scones. I had every intention of making them, but then my mom suggested Pumpkin Scones and I was sold.  No surprise there- I should just give in to making a different pumpkin dessert each week.  After Googling a recipe, and deciding that I wasn’t interested in the Starbucks copycat recipe (to me, a great scone isn’t overly sweet), I settled on this version from PickyCook.com.  The picture sold me, because to me they were what a pumpkin scone should look like.  Overall, I was happy with them.  Their smell was INSANE, and the texture was great.  While I was glad that they weren’t overly sweet, the pumpkin taste was almost TOO subtle, but still delicious.  I would make these again, but I might try out a different recipe just to see what else is out there.

Recipe

I recently made the decision that every weekend up until Halloween, I’m going to make some sort of Fall “project.” Keenan’s family came together in Brick this weekend for Point Pleasant’s Seafood Festival, and his mom asked me to make a dessert.  I figured it was the perfect chance to kick off this endeavor, and I started with a bang- a Pumpkin Cheesecake.  If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with anything pumpkin, and cheesecake has always been one of my favorite desserts, so I was excited to make this.  I remembered that I had seen an awesome looking rip-off of the Cheesecake Factory’s version in an old issue of Food Network Magazine, and I found the recipe on the website.  The whole process of making it wasn’t without mistakes, but it came out ridiculously delicious!  ESPECIALLY for my first attempt at a cheesecake.  I recommend this recipe for anyone who’s looking for the perfect dessert to celebrate the season. 

Recipe