I know I’ve been on a bit of a Pumpkin-kick lately (even that’s an understatement), so last week I made it a point to bake something that had nothing to do with my favorite orange squash.  As I’ve been doing so often lately, I found this recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread on Pinterest, and its “over-the-top”-ness is what made me pick it. Not only does this bread include regular peanut butter, but it’s also chock-full of an entire bag of mini Reese’s peanut butter cups. 

It’s funny because I’m very much like my Mom in a lot of ways, but definitely not when it comes to baking.  She likes very simple, classic flavors, while to me more is better.  One of the recipes that she always made when I was growing up was a really delicious, really moist banana bread, so when she came home from work and saw that I had made this, she didn’t really understand it.  In fact, when I made a second loaf to take to work, she went so far as to say “Why don’t you just use my recipe?”

She may not understand it, but to me it makes perfect sense.  Bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate is an unbeatable combination.  The smell when I was mixing it was heavenly and the taste of the completed version was even better. 

Plus, her aversion to this new version of an old classic didn’t stop her from trying a couple pieces!

Recipe

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

Even though I made these a few weeks ago (and of course never got around to writing about them), they were SO good that I knew I needed to spread the word about their wonderfulness.  As soon as I saw this recipe on Gingerbread Bagels, I knew that I’d be dropping all plans and making them that weekend.  As some of you may know, I’m a Halloween fanatic.  I love being scared, getting decked out in creative costumes, and the overall fall atmosphere.  Unsurprisingly, I also love the candy and sweets.

When I was younger, seeing Halloween Oreos on the supermarket shelves always signaled the beginning of the season to me.  I don’t care what anyone says— they just TASTE different.  So when I came across a recipe that incorporated these neon orange cookies into both the cake AND frosting, I was sold.

I had a really fun time making these, which was great because I gave up a Saturday night to try them out.  It was my first time making a buttercream frosting and as nerdy as this sounds, I loved turning on my KitchenAid mixer for 10 minutes and watching the icing transform into something fluffy and beautiful.  And boy was that 10 minutes worth it- this was some of the best frosting I’ve ever had.  The Oreos really add something.

I won’t lie and say that these were perfect.  Although the taste was definitely spot on, I had a tough time getting them to look the way I wanted them to.  I wanted them to be over-the-top Halloween, but two things went wrong.  First, the orange gel food coloring I had somehow hardened and wasn’t very useable.  Second, the piping tip I had was big, but not big enough to allow chunks of Oreos to pass through, so I had to resort to the unwieldy spatula method.  However, these were SO good that I would make another attempt at getting them to absolute perfection.  Maybe for Halloween?

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

Breakfast of champions! A French Toast and Bacon cupcake from The Cupcake Corner in Garden City, NY.  Tide (client) had an event there yesterday, and I reaped the benefits.

I’ve developed this strange habit lately, of randomly baking when I’m bored or have some down time.  I usually start by digging around the pantry and refrigerator to see what we have on hand, and finding a recipe to fit those ingredients.  On Saturday, which was Keenan’s 24th birthday, we had a few hours to kill before heading out to Bistro 55 for dinner.  While Keenan wanted to spend that time playing with his new gadgets, I decided to play with MY gadget- that beautiful KitchenAid stand mixer that I can’t stop using.

There’s a chance that I was inspired by the case (and I mean CASE) of oranges that my mom ordered from the High School band.  I just had a feeling that she was going to end up having no idea what to do with all of them.  After I discovered a container of Ricotta cheese leftover from my mom’s homemade Manicotti, I instantly remembered a recipe from December’s Food Network Magazine- Giada’s Orange Ricotta Pound Cake (yup, more Giada!). So basically, I ended up stealing everything my mom paid for in order to whip up this wonderfully decadent dessert.  I hope she at least enjoyed her slice!

While the pound cake was simple to put together, I had some more difficulty during the actual baking process.  It took much longer than the specified 50 minutes; I would say it took more like an hour and 15.  Also, the cake ended up falling in the middle after I took it out to test with a toothpick. While it wasn’t the most visually pleasing dessert in the world, the looks certainly didn’t affect the incredible taste or texture.  The ricotta cheese guaranteed a dense, but very moist cake, and the amaretto and orange made the flavor fresh and bright.  

This is a great dessert to make before the weather gets warm and heavy sweets aren’t appealing anymore.  But beware- if you’re entire house is on a diet like mine, you might have to bring this pound cake to work and pawn it off on your unsuspecting co-workers.  Just an idea.

Recipe (*Note* I used the version of this recipe that appeared in Food Network Magazine, not the online one which included a strawberry sauce)

I was lucky enough to have Monday through Wednesday off this week.  I say lucky like these days were given to me, but really I took them out of desperation for some time off! In addition to getting a lot of serious shopping time in, I also had plenty of opportunities to try out some new food projects.  Unfortunately I forgot to snap pictures of the Devilish Sesame Chicken with Scallion Rice that I made for dinner on Tuesday, but this recipe was great for satisfying my Chinese food craving without all of the calories (and the ensuing pain that ALWAYS follows).

However, the food highlight of my long weekend by far was the Cannoli Cupcakes that I made for my good friend Katie Miller’s 26th birthday! I really wanted to do something special for her, since she has been such an amazing friend to me in the past year.  While I originally thought of making pumpkin cupcakes (she’s a fellow fanatic), I randomly had a vision of the cannoli cupcakes I recently saw on Cupcake Wars and KNEW I had to make them. After two minutes of searching, I found the perfect recipe on the blog “What’s Cookin’ Chicago?” I say perfect because unlike other versions, these cupcakes were stuffed with cannoli cream- how could I say no!?

While these were pretty time intensive, they were honestly pretty easy to make.  Maybe that’s because of my beautiful new KitchenAid Stand Mixer though ;) Regardless, these beauties are worth it in both taste and looks.  I shared them with about 12 different co-workers and they were very impressed! Give these a try if you’re looking to do something sweet for someone special in your life.

Recipe

Sometimes when I’m home alone (meaning no parents or siblings, but excluding Keenan) with a clean kitchen, I get the urge to spontaneously make some sort of dish or dessert. Usually it’s a dessert, since we always have the basics on hand.  On Tuesday night I noticed that we had a bag of apples, and I started to crave apple crisp.  I know it’s usually a fall dish, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to make it this year since I was so focused on pumpkin.  

Knowing that it was just me and Keenan in the house, and that a lot of food tends to go to waste during the holidays, I decided to look up a recipe for individual apple crisps.  I found an amazing looking one from All You on MyRecipes.com and started baking right away.  They were SO easy to make!

The result smelled incredible and tasted even better. ESPECIALLY with some vanilla ice cream on top.

Recipe