Tag-Archive for ◊ Halloween ◊

29 Oct 2010 Rum-Pum Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Author:  |  Category: Cakes & Cupcakes, Holidays & Events, Seasonal, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,  | 2 Comments

It’s Fall!  The goal is to eat a pumpkin rich food every day, right?  Today, Rum-Pum Pumpkin Cake!  I’ve been making this cake since I cut the recipe out of a newspaper in the nineteen-eighties.  The cake is moist, pumpkin rich, studded with 2 cups of dried fruit and nuts, with a splash o’ rum, a hearty heap o’ cinnamon and topped with an orange-cinnamon glaze.  What’s not to like?

Bundt cakes serve a lot of people, so invite the neighbors over for coffee and cake.  It’s a fun thing to do, and there’s no stress if you do it on-the-spur-of-the-moment.  While the cake is baking, send this email,  “Hi Neighbors, I’ve baked a cake, and we can’t eat it all ourselves.  Soooo, we’d like to invite you to drop by our house for coffee and a slice of pumpkin cake between 3 and 4 PM this afternoon.  Stay for 10 minutes, or stay for 30…just come on by! Come as you are, of course. We’ll see you soon.”  See how easy that is?  Now, no one would blame you if you wanted to close the blinds, encircle the cake, and eat it all yourself…the choice is yours!

Rum-Pum Pumpkin Cake

1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1 ½ cup vegetable oil OR 3/4 cup applesauce plus 3/4 cup  veg. oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons dark rum (The rum flavor is not very pronounced.  If you want a stronger rum flavor, use rum extract for part of the rum)
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cinnamon (yes, 2 tablespoons–it works, and is not overpowering)
2 teaspoons grated orange peel (optional)
2 cups dried fruit (Last time I used 1 cup dark raisins, 1/2 cup cherries, and 1/2 cup apricots. Use any dried fruit that appeals to you, or that you have on hand.  I think golden raisins and snipped apricots are especially good. Dried cranberries are also good)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I substitute 1 cup diced chopped and peeled Granny Smith apple)

Preheat oven to 350º.  Spray a 10-inch bundt pan with a baking spray or butter and flour.

Mix pumpkin, oil, applesauce and sugar together with an electric mixer.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Stir in rum.

In another bowl whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and optional grated orange peel.

In a third bowl combine the dried fruit, and the nuts or chopped apple.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoonful of the flour mixture over the dried fruit mixture and stir to combine.  Set aside.

Add remaining flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and beat well.

Stir flour dusted dried fruit and nuts/chopped apple into pumpkin-flour mixture.

Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for approx. 1 hour.  (Original recipe said 1 hour and 25 minutes, but I have never had to cook the cake for that long.

Remove cake from oven when done, cool for 3 – 5 minutes, then turn out to a baking rack to cool completely.

When cool, drizzle with cinnamon-orange glaze.

Cinnamon-Orange Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon orange extract OR grated rind of one orange
2 tablespoons dark rum

Beat all ingredients together until smooth.  Drizzle over cooled cake.

Now invite some friends over (or close the blinds).  Enjoy your impromptu party to welcome Fall! Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today.

27 Oct 2010 Fun Face Cookie-Pops
Author:  |  Category: Cookies & Bars, Holidays & Events, Seasonal, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

Is it a cookie?  Is it a lollipop?  It’s a Fun Face Cookie Pop!  My kids  loved these, both making them and eating them.  We’ve been making these candy studded spice cookie pops  every Fall  since 1998 (unfortunately I don’t remember where I originally found the recipe). One of the great things about this cookie is the kids see this as a lollipop.  Get it?  If it’s a cookie, they want two or three.  If it’s a lollipop, they think one is enough! (and with all the candy on each pop/cookie, one is enough). Make these with your kids for a Halloween party (I’ve served several consecutive life sentences as a Room Mother and often took these as treats for a party) or make them after Halloween with some of their Halloween candy.  Fun Face Cookie-pops are a great lunch box treat for that week after Halloween!

A few hints about this recipe. One, the dough is extremely soft, so be sure to allow enough time, at least an hour and up to overnight, for the dough to chill in the refrigerator. Two, the cookies spread a lot, so leave enough space between each pop on the cookie sheet (as you can see by some of the pictures, I did not leave enough space).  Three, be sure to bake the cookies long enough.  If you don’t the cookie will be too soft and will drop off the popsicle stick.  Four, M&Ms, chocolate chips (and butterscotch, peanut butter, and cinnamon chips, too–vanilla chips brown unattractively), sprinkles and colored sugars are the most versatile candies for this project.  Rolos, Hugs, Kisses and mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups are a bit big but super yummy on the cookie.  I have used candy corn to decorate these cookies, and it often melts into the cookie. Oh, and Five! Popsicle sticks are available at Michael’s or any another craft supply store. Be forewarned though! They don’t sell SMALL boxes!  One purchase will equal a life-time supply and only set you back about three dollars 🙂

Have FUN with this recipe,  it’s a GREAT kid-grownup cooking project!

Polly’s Fun Face Cookie Pops

½ cup butter
½ cupsugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour

Beat butter for 30 seconds.  Add in sugar and spices.  Beat in molasses, baking soda and egg.  Stir in flour.

Refrigerate dough for at least an hour, up to overnight.

Divide dough into 16 equal pieces, about 1 oz. each.

Roll each piece of dough into a ball.  Stick a popsicle stick into the middle of each ball.  Flatten each ball with the palm of your hand.

Decorate cookies, making faces, with m&ms, nuts, chips, sprinkles, colored sugars, Rolos, Hersheys Hugs or Kisses, mini Reeses peanut butter cups, etc.

Bake in preheated 350º oven for 12-13 minutes.

Let cookies cool on tray for 2 minutes then remove to rack to cool completely.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today.  Here’s a picture of my Grandson, Zade, decorating his first Fun Face Cookie Pops on his second birthday!  He ate the peanut butter cups, and some of the M&M’s, and his Mom did the decorating.  He is not, alas, a cookie decorating genius just yet!


17 Oct 2010 Cheddar Cheese Crackers
Author:  |  Category: Appetizers, Holidays & Events, Seasonal  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | 2 Comments

Look what I made for my grandson’s “Pups and Trucks” birthday party,  dog bone crackers!  Aren’t they adorable?  I think the two year olds, and their parents, are really going to enjoy them.  I used a small cookie cutter to cut the bone shape out of a cheddar cheese flavored cracker dough.  Look how I’m going to serve them!  Don’t shudder, it’s a brand new dog bowl!  I bought it at the dollar store and I washed it well before putting the crackers in it!

The crackers taste great.  It’s sort of like the Goldfish crackers, not nearly as crisp, but much more flavorful (and no icky preservatives).  I’d never made crackers before, but now I know they are easier than cookies, and taste so much better than store bought boxed stuff,  I will be making them a lot more.  Think of all the possibilities: the bone cookie cutter would also make good Halloween treats (and the dough is slightly orange making it PERFECT!), for Thanksgiving  I could make leaf or acorn shapes, Christmas options are too numerous to list, Valentine’s Day hearts, Easter eggs and bunnies, Mother’s Day flowers…

I found the recipe at Yum Food & Fun for Kids magazine, October 2010 by Laura Flowers. THANKS Laura!

Cheddar Cheese Crackers

1 1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon onion powder
6 tablespoon unsalted butter, diced
8 ounce package shredded cheddar cheese
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons water

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (DO this, the crackers bake so much better on parchment paper). Clear a space in your freezer to accommodate the cookie sheet.  You will need to freeze the crackers for 15 minutes before baking.

In a food processor pulse together the flour, salt, paprika and onion powder. Add the butter and process until combined. Add the grated cheddar cheese and pulse until combined. Process in the egg yolk and water until the mixture forms a ball.

Remove the dough and knead in your hands for a few turns. Divide in half and roll one part between two pieces of wax paper to 3/8 inch thick. Peel off the wax paper and cut with cookie cutters (or just cut into a square or rectangular cracker shape of choice). Place the crackers on the parchment lined cookie sheets.

Freeze the crackers on the cookie sheets for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325º.

Transfer the cookie sheets to the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Cool crackers on cooling racks. Store in an airtight container.

I was able to get 70 1.5 inch dog bone crackers from this dough.

Happy Birthday Zadeykins!

16 Oct 2010 Pumpkin Chocolate Cake
Author:  |  Category: Cakes & Cupcakes, Holidays & Events, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , , ,  | 2 Comments

I took twelve slices of this cake to my clay class yesterday.  I think it made everyone very happy.  The class was certainly more social than usual!

I’ve had a request to post this recipe, so here it is, just in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving. It looks great, doesn’t it? This is truly a special event cake.  The pumpkin doesn’t really add taste, but it sure enhances the chocolate and keeps the cake moist.  The cake tastes sooo good. The frosting is cream cheese, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and a bit of cinnamon. YUM! (I think the frosting is the magic of this recipe) To gild the lily (I think that’s the right expression) the whole thing is glazed with bittersweet chocolate.  How can this be anything but good?

You can do this! My instructions are pretty explicit so if you have trouble with them, let me know! This has been Abby’s signature cake for a few years now, and a couple of her friends request it for their birthdays (even August birthdays!). This recipe is from a 2007 “Country Living” magazine.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

For the Cake:

1 ½ c. flour
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s Special Dark is good)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup canned pumpkin
½ c. buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
¾ c. butter, softened
1 c. dark brown sugar
1 c. sugar
3 eggs plus one egg yolk

Preheat oven to 375º. Line the bottoms of two 9″ cake pans with parchment paper and lightly butter (or spray with Pam for Baking). Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In another bowl stir together the pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the butter and the sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and then the egg yolk. Reduce speed to low and beat in 1/3 flour mixture, and then 1/3 pumpkin mixture. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake until cake passes the toothpick test, about 35 minutes. Cool, frost and glaze as directed below.

For the Frosting:

6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
¾ stick butter, softened
1 (16-oz.) box powdered sugar
3 T. cocoa powder
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
Maybe, 2 – 3 T. cream (you might not need ANY…)

orange paste food coloring, optional (the orange color, with the cocoa, makes for a sort of rust colored frosting.  I like it, but it’s purely optional.  There is no food coloring on the top, whole cake picture.  The second picture, the fuzzy close-up one, does have some orange food coloring in the frosting.)

Beat cream cheese and butter together until well blended. Stir in powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla, orange color, if using, and enough cream (IF needed) to make a stiff spreading consistency. Spread 1 cup frosting between the two layers, and use the remaining frosting for the tops and sides. Chill cake for a minimum of 30 minutes before glazing.

For the Chocolate Glaze:

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 T. butter
3 T. corn syrup
½ c. heavy cream

Place chopped chocolate, butter, and corn syrup in a small bowl. Heat heavy cream until boiling. Pour hot cream over chocolate mixture in bowl. Let sit for 3 minutes then blend with whisk until smooth. Let glaze sit for 15-45 minutes to thicken slightly. Pour the glaze on top of the chilled and frosted cake. Smooth out glaze to edges, and then let drip down the sides. Refrigerate to set glaze.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today. This is one of my “signature” cakes.  You have to make it at least once this Fall.  Send me a picture when you do!

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