Pumpkin ginger pound cake

Tomorrow happens to be my dear father's birthday, but we are going to celebrate it a day early since he'll be leaving to go on a business trip in China tomorrow.
Instead of a traditional birthday cake, I decided to go seasonal and bust out the first-ever pumpkin post for this blog. The incentive for this bold move? There's a huge pumkin left over from Halloween which we forgot to carve, and I'll be darned if I let it go entirely to waste!
So I butchered it and grated the pieces, freezing it for later. I also used about a cup of this fresh pureed failure of a jack-o-lantern for this cake.
I found the recipe at finecooking.com, and the super long and complicated instructions irritated me, because I really am bad at following directions. So I simplified the process and got the same result. If you own a stand mixer and a billion mixing bowls and would like to follow the instructions step by tedious step, by all means go ahead and click on the link above.
The cake itself is absolutely amazing, and the notes of ginger are actually detectable as well as the pumpkin. This recipe's definitely a keeper!
Anyways, here's the whole process of the cake: from the butchering of the pumpkin to the finishing touches (Just warning you ahead of time; it's going to be a long post!)


Here's my intended jack-o-lantern

Cut open!

Cleaned and grated:

Pumpkin Ginger Pound Cake
RECIPE:
*1/2 lb. (1 cup) unsalted butter, completely softened at room temperature; more for the pan
*9 1/2 oz, (2 1/2 cups) cake flour; more for the pan
*1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
*1/2 teaspoon table salt
*1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
*1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
*1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
*4 large eggs, at room temperature
*2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
*2 cups packed light brown sugar (I used only 1 1/2 cups since I topped it with caramel)
*1 cup unsweetened pumpkin purée
*1/4 cup vegetable oil
*2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
*1 to 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar for dusting
*1 quart vanilla ice cream (optional)


PREPERATION:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan or 12-cup bundt pan, preferably nonstick. Tap out any excess flour.
2.) Sift together dry ingredients and set aside

3.) Put pumpkin and ginger together in a seperate bowl
4.) Mix together vanilla, butter, and eggs
5.) Mix everything together then stir in the vegetable oil

6.) Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean with a few moist crumbs clinging to it
7.) Let cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully run a paring knife around the side.
8.) Invert the cake onto cooling rack and gently remove the pan. (If you're making it ahead, now is the time to wrap it.) Allow cake to cool completely before dusting with sugar.


While the cake was baking, I made an easy caramel sauce to top it with (you can just dust it with sugar if you'd like) and chopped about 1/3 of a cup of almonds and roughly diced 3 slices of apple to arrange on top.

Here's the caramel sauce recipe from food.com, which also makes a great ice cream topping.
I found it to be a bit runny since I used half-and-half instead of heavy whipping cream, but it worked as a glaze. Also, this recipe makes quite a lot so if you're not planning to use a lot of it, cut the quantities in half.

Caramel sauce
RECIPE:
*1/2 cup butter
*1 cup brown sugar
*2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
*1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

PREPERATION:
1.) In a small saucepan melt butter.
2.) Add the brown sugar; whisk until combined and thickened (about 2 minutes)
3.) Whisk in the whipping cream, until thoroughly blended (2 more minutes).
4.) Mix in vanilla (if using) until combined.

NOTE; this sauce will thicken up more when refrigerated.

Halloween cookies- Nutella to the rescue!

Making homemade treats for kids on Halloween is a time-honored tradition that this year, I've decided to join in myself.
Originally, I had planned on making chocolate "Mummy" cookies with M&M eyes, and bloody marshmallow treats. However, when I checked the pantry today, there was no cocoa powder and no grape juice! I was strapped for time and in need of a chocolate cookie recipe that didn't require any cocoa powder or baking chocolate.
Then my eyes happened to rest upon this lifesaver:

Total "Heaven Hallelujah" moment. (And by the way this whole post is pretty much an ode to how unprepared I can be at times.)

I used this super simple 3 ingredient nutella cookie recipe, but you can add any variety of variations, uch as adding some chocolate chips or chopped almonds, or melting ome mini marshmallows on top. Caramel would be great too...
I added 1/4 of a cup of peanut butter to make the nutty taste stand out more, but left the cookie mostly plain for further decoration.

RECIPE:
*1 cup nutella
*1 cup flour
*1 egg

PREPERATION:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.) Mix all the ingredients together. The dough will be a bit crumbly but will hold.



(Yes I realize this looks quite dubious)



3.) Roll into 1 inch balls and then press down until they are round and flat
4.) Bake for 7-8 minutes

They don't turn out super pretty, but are quite delicious and not too sweet.

Then I drizzled them with vanilla frosting and put two Skittles to resemble eyes on top. I had originally planned on M&Ms to do that but couldn't find them, so I substituted with Skittles.

You can use a flat piper and make bandage-like strips (which was, again, what I had been planning on doing, but I had lost that particular piping tip so I had to make do with drizzling.)
or you can go creative and decorate it with skull heads and such. I was strapped for time and too tired to be creative, so the results were less fantastic as I would've liked the to be, but they still turned out great and plus I had everything done in under 30 minutes.
Happy Halloween!

My mother's birthday story

Yesterday it was my mother's birthday, so I concocted a birthday cake for her that turned into a one-way guilt trip to heaven.
You see, the story goes like this:

I started out making a simple dark chocolate cake from the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake recipe on the back of the box.

When I took it out of the oven, I couldn't resist having the tiniest sample.
It tasted rich, delicious, chocolatey, and not too sweet. Bafflingly, however, it stuck to my well-greased pan though the cake itself wasn't burnt at all, and when I tried to get it out, it crumbled. How sad it was, that all my efforts for my wonderful mother's birthday cake were seemingly wasted, as I had no more time to bake another cake.

Not to fear; I wasn't born a professor's daughter for nothing! I quickly decided that the heavenly mountain of crumbled cake could still be decorated quite appealingly. After all, cake must not be wasted. So I drizzled it with the chocolate frosting I had previously prepared, and then iced it with dollops and swirls of vanilla buttercream icing. I then added some extra color and seasonal flavor with organic cranberries that happened to be on hand.

Voila! Disaster averted, and not to mention my dad's diet plans were ruined. 

We then went out for dinner in the city at Jax Cafe, which is famous for their pork chops and steak. However, since the lighting was too dim to do justice for their tender and juicy steak, I just quickly snapped a few pictures of our appetizers to commemorate the special evening as well as my adolescent immaturity.(I apologize for the grainy shots; couldn't fit a bulky camera into my purse so these were taken with my ipod.)



Check out my artistic skills as I attempt to give Simba a makeover




Bread basket! The raisin bread was really nice, a perfect balance of fresh, doughy, whole wheat bread and sweet dried fruit




Really nicely made fresh pita bread and different types of hummus dips.
The orange dip was definitely my fave, with what I swear was a note of cumin and a bit of spiciness from the paprika, as compared to the more generic and slightly salty regular hummus dip.

Moment later, as my famished family dug in...


...

Everyone in my family except for the (more prudent) me was full before the main course!

Tomato Basil soup. Very seasonal and fresh, but a bit too salty.

Quick random excerpt from today: After having an extra guilty helping of leftover cake this afternoon, I had a major sugar rush and was itching to play a game of tennis (too bad the season's over and there's no one to play with me right now anyways) but I went on a nice long jog/walk with my dog instead and spared my mom an hour of having to deal with a super jittery, sugar-hyped teenager. That's my good deed for the day.

Best chocolate frosting recipe ever!

I'm usually not a huge frosting fan- usually it's too sweet or too artificial tasting, and for storebought frosting, the ingredient label is just too long. However, here and there youll come across recipes that,with just a hint of tweaking, turn out great!
I was scoping around for a nice chocolate frosting recipe to frost my cupcakes with the other day, and came up with this recipe from Allrecipes.com. It's not too sweet or runny, and if you put it in the fridge for a bit, you can even use it as icing.

RECIPE:
* 2 and 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar (I used 2)
* 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 6 tablespoons butter
* 5 tablespoons evaporated milk (regular milk or half-and-half work)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

PREPERATION:
1.) In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa powder and sugar and set aside
2.) In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar mixture, and vanilla extract until smooth and fluffy
3.) Resist urge to blend with grahmn crackers and peanut butter and eat with a spoon.

Apple Bread

First off, I would like to apologize for not posting as often as I would like; between school, tennis, music, homework, various extracurriculars, and volunteering, I don't exactly have a lot of spare time. However, this makes me treasure the little free time I do have, and I try to make the most of it.
They say "time moves slowly, but passes quickly." I can't help but agree- after all, it seems like summer was just yesterday but feels like my immense school workload has been on my shoulders forever! And as the time so quickly passes, it's almost October. Thank god apples are still in season though, because they are one of my favorite ingredients to cook with. Apples and pumpkins are kind of like how peaches, watermelon, and tomatoes are to me in the summer. Last weekend I made one of my favorite baked apple recipes; a quick and easy apple bread that is extremely versatile and can be spread with cream cheese and enjoyed as breakfast, baked into muffins, or, with the help of some honey or extra sugar, be served as dessert.

My warning about this bread; eat with caution, for even when the bread part may seem cool enough, the baked-in apple bits are like little heat bombs! The same warning applies to blueberry muffins.

RECIPE:
*3 cups all-purpose flour
*2 teaspoons cinnamon
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon baking powder
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1/2 cup vegetable oil
*2 cups sugar
*2 eggs, beaten
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla
*2 cups apples (peeled, cored, roughly chopped)
*1 cup walnuts or chopped

PREPERATION:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.) In a large bowl, combine cinnamon, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt
3.) In another bowl, combine vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, and sugar
4.) Stir the two together, then stir in apples

5.) Divide mixture between two 8 inch by 4 inch pans
6.) Bake for 40-45 minutes, then let cool