Holiday Baking

As I'm trying to get my business up and running, I'm trying a few test-runs, including selling holiday treats at my husband's office. I had quite a few orders, and they all turned out great!
I made mini Derby pies, red velvet cake balls, pumpkin cake pops, and red velvet cupcakes. I was a baking machine for a few days! Oh, and just for fun, I made sugar cookies, and decorated them too.
Check it out!
Sugar cookie snowflakes with royal icing and sanding sugar.


Sugar cookie candy canes with royal icing and sanding sugar.


Sugar cookie Xmas trees with royal icing, sanding sugar, and silver dragees.


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting and holly berry sprinkles.


Mini Derby Pies: Chocolate Chip-Bourbon-Pecan.


Red Velvet Cake balls- dipped in Red (vanilla) and Milk Chocolate with holiday sprinkles.


Pumpkin Cake Pops- dipped in white (vanilla) candy and topped with holiday sprinkles.

I had so much fun baking all these treats, I can't wait until I get paid to do it all the time!

Pumpkin Cake Pops!

The last of my Halloween treats were pumpkin cake pops. They look and taste like pumpkin. I made these Saturday while watching Back to the Future :)

I followed directions from the Cake Pops book by Bakerella. She uses green tic tacs for the stems, but I couldn't find green, so I used orange. Every time I make cake pops they turn out better than the last time, so that's encouraging.


I made the balls with pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting. Before I started I made sure that the baking sheet I had fit into the freezer and fridge, a mistake I've made before.


I melted the orange candy gradually according to the directions, and it was quite smooth, not like the chocolate I've used in the past. I'm still not satisfied with the bowls I have for dipping, maybe I need to search more for the perfect one. The pop has to be dipped in and out straight up and down, and that's my biggest challenge.

Anyways, dipped the pops, added the tic tacs for stems, and let them dry. They were already super cute!
Then, I used a food color marker to draw on faces for the jack o lanterns. Or at least, I tried to. I don't know what it was, but the marker wasn't working properly. I could get maybe one or two lines out of it before it died. I tried cleaning it on a paper towel, as suggested, but that didn't really help. I gave up after 4 or 5 pops, it was too time consuming and frustrating. Maybe the pops were too cold, but I left them at room temp for a while to see if it made any difference, and none at all. Oh well!
I still wrapped up the plain pumpkin pops in fun Halloween treat bags. Gotta love the dollar section at Target! :)
According to my taste tester, these were "mmmmmmm". I love how it looks with a bite missing. Yum!
This project was certainly more successful than the last, and hopefully the next one will be even better!

Halloween Cupcakes- 2 ways

I love making holiday cupcakes! This year was difficult, because I couldn't decide what kind of Halloween cupcakes to make! I had so many ideas: mummies, graves, eyeballs, witches, pumpkins, etc. I finally decided on candy corn and jack o lanterns. Classic Halloween icons.

I made pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, a recipe I have used before. I got 2 dozen cupcakes, so I decorated them half and half.


I found cute giant candy corn at the store, so I used that as my inspiration and topping for the candy corn cupcakes. I tinted some of the frosting yellow and some of it orange, and piped around the cupcake in the appropriate colors, ending with a dollop of white on top. I also used candy corn colored sprinkles, little balls and colored sugar, to add to the effect. Each cupcake was topped with the giant candy corn. Yum!


For the jack o lanterns, I smoothed on orange frosting, and used a black glitter icing from a tube to pipe on the scary faces. I tried t make a variety of looks, from traditional to goofy to scary. The glitter really sparkled in the light and adds that something special to the design.


I wish I had time to make more fun cupcakes, but I'll have to wait until next year.
Cake pops are still on the agenda, might make them tomorrow. Fun!

Pumpkin Bonanza! Featuring Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

So this week, in honor of Halloween, I've decided to make all pumpkin desserts. Monday I made pumpkin chocolate chip bars and pumpkin swirl brownies. Forgot to take pictures tho :(

Yesterday I made pumpkin whoopie pies, and I did get some pictures! They were super cute and yummy, and a cinch to make. I've made them before, but it's been a long time.

I used my whoopie pie pan for these, even though you don't have to. I only have one though, so I had to bake only 12 whoopie pie halves at a time, and wash out the pan each time. Might be worth getting another pan :)


These are super cakey and moist, with a cream cheese filling. I'm never sure how much filling to put inside them, so I start with a little and see how it goes. I did have some leftover, so I probably could have used more filling in each one.


I love the cuteness of the whoopie pies, and they're a little different from cupcakes, but still in the same family. Second cousins, perhaps.

I have 3 more recipes to make this week: pumpkin chocolate chip loaf, pumpkin cupcakes with Halloween decorations, and pumpkin cake pops. Yum!

Martha Cupcake Challenge #18- Pumpkin-Brown butter cupcakes

Spooky!!! These are pumpkin-brown butter cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Since it's so close to Halloween, I wanted to start making festive cupcakes with my holiday liners and sprinkles. These make my place smell amazing!
The batter starts with browned butter, which is just melted on the stove until golden and delicious. It has a nutty smell, very warm and fall-like. No mixer required either! The ingredients come together easily, since the butter is melted.

Here they are right out of the oven. The tops seemed a bit spongy still, but I knew after cooling for a few minutes they'd firm up, and they did. One thing I found odd, this recipe did not call for vanilla, which I love, so I added it. I think it gives a great flavor to any recipe, and always add a little bit no matter what.
I frosted these with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting, even though the recipe book calls for a brown butter glaze. I tried to use stencils to make designs with the sugar, but I think the frosting is too sticky, because they didn't really come out well. The stencils will work better on an unfrosted cupcake with powdered sugar, or on a harder frosting, like a ganache.
So I just ended up using pretty colored sugars all over.
This recipe made exactly 15, as it said it would. just enough to share with a few friends :)