pumpkin cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting

I woke up recently to windy weather, with highs of 74 degrees Fahrenheit, a stark contrast to the 102 temp we experienced the day before. In celebration, and in efforts to woo the Fall weather to stay a while, I decided to make something Pumpkin-y.

Luckily, someone else had posted on my dear friend Gina's wall, asking her for a pumpkin cupcake recipe. She suggested one she hadn't tried before, and it looked easy enough. I decided it needed a cream cheese frosting, so I whipped that up while they baked.

buns in the oven. LITERALLY.

the lighting in the kitchen really washed these out... they were kissed with gold.

My frosting. It was especially droopy and drippy, and I couldn't figure out why. I asked Gina, and after she heard all of my ingredients, we discovered my mistake: the recipe calls for softened cream cheese. Me not having the most baking experience thought this meant buying soft cream cheese (in the tubs). I was supposed to buy the bricks and let them soften at room temp. That was a good learning experience. Good news is it was still yummy and fattening.

The finished result, including my drippy frosting.

Gram enjoyed them.

At the end of the day I had reached my goal of having a yummy pumpkin-ish pastry, and I successfully reigned in the cooler weather for a week following. You're welcome, Sacramento.

Website for cupcakes: http://everythingishomemade.com/2007/12/03/pumpkin-cupcakes/

Link for frosting: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cream-Cheese-Frosting-II-2/Detail.aspx

a lifted face.

I didn't mean to... honestly. I was messing around with templates, and ended up losing my original, beautiful, SIMPLE template. So sad. I guess I've had this so long that my old template is old news.

Oh well, so is life. Time to move on. Bookshelves yesterday, utensils today, maybe something else tomorrow.

life is like a pan of baklava...

you never know how it's going to turn out.

It's amazing how one little alteration to a recipe can cause such a different result. One tiny decision that can't be reversed once made... you can't take the orange flavor out, or use less butter. You must partake of the work of your hands.

The brilliant thing is that, like baking baklava, you can learn from past experiences and alter the recipe a bit the next time around. After all, it would be pretty silly to expect different results by repeating everything the same way you did the last time around. I am talking about life here, in case you weren't tracking with my crazy hazy brain.

Who am I apart from everyone and everything that influences my decisions? I lack motivation, inspiration, initiation. But that's another long, complicated story.

And that's life, ladies and gentlemen.

Bon appetite!

chocolate chip cookie cupcakes

choca chippy WHAT-IES?

I was working with the Pat the other day, and she was sitting in her hospital bed being bored. I tried to rack my brain to come up with something fun that we could do indoors since she's not very mobile these days. I thought, "let's bake some cookies!" I looked, and sure enough, she had all the ingredients to make some chocolate chip cookies. When I went on Allrecipes.com, I found this recipe and thought, "That's either going to be epic, or epicly nasty! Let's do it!"

First, you make the cookie dough. Then you make small tablespoon-sized balls, and pop them in the freezer for a couple hours. Next you make a yellow cake mix batter, fill each cupcake cup 2/3 full, and drop a frozen piece of choc chip cookie dough in it.

Throw it in the oven for 20 min, and voila!

I didn't have the time or resources to make a decent chocolate cream cheese or butter cream frosting, so I bought some Betty Crocker Hershey's chocolate stuff.

Not as good, but served the purpose!

For the full recipe, go to: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-Dough--Cupcake--The-BEST-Cupcake-Ever/Detail.aspx

catch up.

my goodness, it has been too long since this blogger has... blogged. so many things have happened in my life lately... this summer has been a whirlwind, but a fun one at that, filled with plenty of exciting adventures, a few books under my belt, and many friends to enjoy.

one thing that seems to have not changed is my desire to get my family baklava on here. since march, i have made this classic m

editerranean dessert several times and have modified it

each time i attempted it. I don't know if i've "mastered" my recipe yet, but i sure do love it, and so do my friends. making a tray of baklava for your loved ones is a sure fire way of securing affection.

(Photos of my baklava, taken by... me.)

Next up... Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes!

kader family baklava needs to be here.

and it will be. as soon as school is over...

OY!