Not your average Pumpkin Cupcake

In keeping with all of the pumpkin love currently lining the grocery store shelves and coffee shop counters, here's a look into my take on the beloved fall favorite: The pumpkin cupcake.

Mine is a moist and tender pumpkin cake topped with a swirl of maple cream cheese frosting and a spiced pumpkin seed brittle. The perfect combination of crumbly, creamy and crunchy, this cake is sure to make anyone swoon over Fall. Let's get a close up of that brittle.

The cake is flavored using the homemade pumpkin puree I gave a tutorial on last week, and warm spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. The frosting has all of the nutty,creamy goodness from the cream cheese paired with the sticky, sweet maple syrup. Together they create the perfect compliment for the spice in the cake. A little crunch comes in with the toasted pumpkin seeds covered in amber colored caramel and hardened into a fall flavored brittle. Tailgating, anyone?

How to Roast and Puree a Pie Pumpkin

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, mainly because of the excuse to pig out on candy and all things pumpkin. These days you can find a pumpkin flavored version of just about anything in the grocery store and I definitely don't hate it. Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors to bake with especially when mixed with the right combination of spices and seasoning. My great-grandmother made homemade pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving using heavy cream and real pumpkin that she roasted and pureed herself at home. Inspired by her, I decided to forgo the usual Libby's can that I reach for this time of year and make my own pumpkin puree instead. I was so pleasantly surprised by how simple and tasty it was that I haven't used anything else since. Freshly pureed pumpkin has a sweet and mild squash flavor and a gorgeous, bright orange-yellow hue. The trick is to start with a pumpkin that is small in size and heavy in weight by comparison.

I'm lucky enough to be currently living in farm country VA, where a farmer down the road toured me around his place on his gator and helped me select this perfect pumpkin for only $2.00. But you can now buy pie pumpkins (sometimes called 'sugar' pumpkins) in most grocery stores or stands where you buy your jack-o-lanterns. For a size reference, I put mine next to a medium sized apple.

The first step is to split this baby open. I sliced the top stem off of mine and then cut it in half twice to get four, even-sized quarters.

Then I scraped the insides just as you would if you were carving a pumpkin for Halloween, and of course reserved the seeds for toasting.

Put the quarters in a baking dish, dot with butter and sprinkle with salt. Depending on what you're going to use the puree with, you can also start flavoring the pumpkin here by adding stems and leaves of your favorite fresh herbs. Rosemary and sage are my favorite herbs to use for most squashes.

Bake in a normal conventional oven at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until your pumpkin is soft all the way through and starts to look like this:

You may have to adjust the amount of butter or baste halfway through baking depending on how dry the pumpkin looks.

After roasting, peel the pumpkin "meat" away from the tough skin and puree in batches using a food processor, vitamix, or strong blender. I add a little hot water or melted butter to the mixture if it looks like it needs a little push. You should have a velvety texture and a bright orange color when all is said and done. From here you can refrigerate your puree for up to two weeks or freeze to use all season long. I add a scoop to oatmeal, pancake batter or milkshakes or use in place of Libby's for all baking purposes. Stay tuned for the not-so-average pumpkin cupcakes that resulted from this beauty!

The Rice Krispy Cake

Once you go homemade marshmallow you never go back. It's safe to say that I'm obsessed! Marshmallows are naturally gluten-free and fat free (definitely not sugar free, don't worry, no health lecture here...) and when made from scratch they are soft, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I have a fire pit in my backyard now and I've been making my own marshmallows for s'mores and sweet snacks but now I'm taking over the rice krispy treat too. In cake form of course:

I learned from my catering days that no matter how simple the quick combination of rice cereal, marshmallows and butter may seem, the results please the highest number of people every time. I could not make rice krispy treats fast enough to keep up with our demand - and we fed them to mainly adults. But seriously, who doesn't love this sweet, gooey, crunchy treat?

This is my take on the classic favorite. I kept it simple, but added a lot more love than the usual read-off-the- box-microwavable version. This rice krispy cake is made from homemade vanilla bean marshmallows and a pinch of sea salt, sandwiched between layers of milk chocolate ganache and garnished with rainbow non-pareils to complete the nostalgic effect. 

The Rice Krispy Cake as pictured here would be a great centerpiece to a birthday party or any fun-loving gathering. The idea could also be applied to a wedding cake if regular cake isn't your jam, and it could be filled and decorated anyway you like. Rice Krispies can also easily be covered in fondant or frosting to look exactly like a traditional wedding cake if you're a bride who wants the dream cake look but wants to eat this one too.

This cake is a whole lot of tasty and sure to be loved by everyone in attendance at any event.

Friday Faves: October-ganza

I'm not sure when it happened, but we're already about to start the third week in October. Craziness. I've been busy at work between my pastry cook day job and some new wedding cake plans but I've managed to squeeze in lots of Fall activities for some inspiration in between:

Favorite October Activity: Apple Picking

I headed to Carter's Mountain Orchard last weekend outside of Charlottesville on a hunt for cider donuts and freshly plucked Jonagold's. I have big plans for apple sauce, apple butter and possibly some caramel apple cider cupcakes.

Favorite October Aroma: Roasting Butternut Squash

Last night I roasted a perfectly ready butternut squash with rosemary, sage and a libery apple. It made my whole house smell like Fall while it baked away for an hour. Now it's a puree that is destined to become a delicious soup. Don't worry- more on roasting squashes later, especially of the pumpkin variety.

Favorite October Breakfast: Blueberry Almond Steel Cut Oats

In keeping with the Fall foods theme, there's nothing like waking up to a warm and creamy bowl of steel cut oats made with almond milk, homemade summer blueberry jam and even a few chocolate chips.

Favorite October Flavor: Figs

I'm loving the figs that keep rolling in from late summer and this chocolate, olive oil and fig mini cake from Food Network Magazine looks amazing.

Favorite October Cake: Ghost Mallows

Such an original fall cake idea to stuff a cake with homemade ghost marshmallows complete with a little ghost family on top. I love the contrast of dark chocolate on white marshmallow, and how the figure can still be seen in each slice.

Happy October weekend, go outside and enjoy it!

S'mores Cupcakes

In honor of the cooler weather, the return of Sunday football and campfires everywhere, I've been working on a new fall cake flavor. It's the perfect slice of heaven to brighten up your cozy evening at home on the couch, or add some flavor to your tailgate parties. The cake is a moist and delicious graham cracker pound cake that is designed to reflect the sweet and nutty flavor of Nabisco's classic grahams. It is stuffed full with a smooth and creamy dark chocolate ganache and topped with a toasted marshmallow frosting.

I went classic with the garnish and snapped off a piece of a Hershey's bar to place alongside a graham cracker. I usually prefer to 1) garnish with something either homemade or fresh and b) not use Hershey's chocolate in general but I made an exception for this one. Hershey's bars are just oh-so-s'mores-y, plus within the past year Hershey announced they are moving towards being fair trade which makes my certified chocolate loving heart very happy. 

But before I garnished, I toasted that gooey marshmallow frosting to give it an almost brǔleéd finish. 

  

And here's a shot of the chocolate lava center just in case you still needed convincing. I personally believe that s'mores don't taste as good unless you get them all over your face. The cupcake version is no exception!

Friday Faves

My weekends are a little different now that I'm officially living in Virginia for the next six months while I'm completing my externship for pastry school. Yesterday  was my "Monday" and I'll continue working all weekend as the restaurant life goes. But I'm more inspired than ever so I still wanted to take a moment and share a few of my favorite pictures from this week, that you can enjoy on your hopefully relaxing Friday. It's no big secret that I love Fall and all it's flavors, textures and cooler weather. So prepare yourself for a Fall overload now that it's actually here:

Favorite Fall Cake: Subtle vs. In your face Fall

I couldn't pick so here's two. I love how earthy but romantic the first one is because that's exactly how this season makes me feel. The second one would be a fun update on my caramel apple cider cake, or even my chocolate cinnamon pear cake.

Favorite Fall Cake Stand: Planter style

What a perfect way to recycle empty pots and planters now that the weather is cooling down. These would be great for a fall baby or bridal shower.

Favorite Colors: Autumn hues, what else.

Favorite View: White Oak Canyon, Va

I went hiking this week in Virginia for the first time in years and I'm just falling in love with this state all over again. Can't get enough of those beautiful baby blue mountains!

Mini Cakes

My sister is getting married! And I simply cannot wait any longer to post about her cake. I'm so excited for it that the planning process has moved ahead very rapidly and very detailed (which is good considering I'm splitting the day of duties of MOH and cake decorator...) and I just have to share some of the exciting things we've been working on. My sister Cortney and her fiance Jack are quite the nerdy pair- in all of the best ways possible of course. In fact, she's reflecting their nerd love by having "bookish" elements sprinkled throughout the wedding that you can read about over on her blog. I was definitely on board for a scrabble cake, but we decided to go a slightly different route...

Another cool thing about my sister's wedding is that she is DIY-ing the heck out of it. She has a lot of projects in the works that aren't mine to spoil, but I will say that her wedding will be full of pretty fabrics, vintage finds and lots of personal touches. The cake will be no exception:

We know a few things for sure: 'the' cake will actually be many cakes, they will be mini, and they will be naked (yep, still talking about cake here). They're getting married June 2014 in Louisa, Va at Prospect Hill Plantation Inn which has gorgeous floral backdrops all on its own. We're not planning on adding many flowers, but the cake will probably be studded with a daisies and billy balls to bring out her wedding colors of yellow, gray and blue. I'm also hoping to incorporate some of her wedding ideas by using the fabric scraps to make a bunting decoration, and scouring antique stores to find the perfect step ladder to transform into a cake stand. You may remember that I recently became obsessed with the idea of using ladders to display desserts when I happened to cross this beauty. I'm planning on creating an entire dessert table of antique plates and platters with the step ladder being the center of attention. You can follow and see more of our ideas on the Pinterest board I made for them too.

It's been so fun really diving into this one and pulling out all of the stops. Because this cake is for my sister I can really go over the top and try some new things out. We're working hard and planning far ahead so it can all pay off when her day comes. Check back here to see how the progress is going!