Ryan's in the Kitchen-Caramel Apples Kiddie Style

I love caramel apples and this was a perfect project for Ryan to help me with.

Here are all of the ingredients we used to make this treat.

Ryan loved his job of unwrapping all of the caramels. He did a little, "criss cross applesauce" as he put the wrappers in one bowl and the unwrapped caramels in the other.

Mmmm...Caramels are so delicious even when they are not melted!  To melt them, add 2 tablespoons of cream to a pot on a low heat and mix continuously for about 25 minutes. Eventually, the caramels will be runny like syrup.

In the meanwhile, Ryan prepared the apples by placing the sticks into each apple. We used popsicle sticks that came with the caramels but you could also use rounder, thicker sticks purchased at Michael's or any craft store. Dip the apples one at a time into the pot of melted caramel. Allow excess caramel drip back into the pot. Place directly onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and decorate immediately.

The fun had begun. Ryan chose all of the decorations for his caramel apple: mini m&m's, Oreo cookie crumbs, and some mini chocolate chips.

And carefully decorated his apple. After he was done, I decorated the rest.

Sometimes, simple is best...

But for you chocolate lovers...this apple may be preferred.

Chill apples in the fridge for a minimum of an hour before serving.

Enjoy.

Pumpkin Cake Pops

Do you ever wonder what to do with leftover cupcakes or cake?  



Use the leftovers to make cake pops! Remove the majority of icing from the cupcakes and place cupcakes into a large bowl.

Crumble up until dough sticks together when rolled into a ball.  If the crumbs do not stick, add a little more icing. Since this icing was orange, the cake balls became orange too...perfect for Halloween!

Form cake balls into desired pumpkin shapes. (I used the side of a spatula to form ridges in some of the cake balls to make them look more like pumpkins.)  Place in the freezer to chill for about 20 minutes.

Boo!!! 

Dip away and add desired toppings.

To make the stems, I moulded small pieces of Tootsie Roll. I crumbled up an Oreo cookie and used random crumbs to make the mouths and piped the eyes with melted chocolate.

Ever wonder what the inside of a cake pop looks like?  In this case, it is orange, just like the inside of a pumpkin. For a basic cake pop tutorial, click here.

Have a safe and happy Halloween everybody!

p.s. Doesn't my classroom door, decorated by my students look great?!

Pumpkin Muffins

I love carving pumpkins. And I love roasting and eating pumpkin seeds.  But that's about all of the baking, I that I have ever done with anything from a pumpkin...until I tried these delicious pumpkin muffins last year at our annual "Thanks'oween Dinner." I knew that I had to try them myself to see if they would taste just as good as I remembered them to be.

So, I e-mailed my friend Julia for Camille's recipe.  Thanks Camille for sharing it!  All of the delicious flavours of Fall in one bite.  Pumpkin, clove, ginger, cinnamon, brown sugar and chocolate chips!

I used an ice cream scoop to evenly scoop out the batter into a muffin tin.

And set the muffins on a rack to cool.

How about a little pumpkin butter to compliment the pumpkin muffin?

Mmmm....

Oh my goodness!  I totally forgot about the Wilton Halloween Cupcake Pack that I bought to make these look pretty!

Better late than never! I guess!

Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium bowl, use a fork to stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger (make sure that there are no lumps).

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir in brown and granulated sugars, mashed pumpkin and chocolate chips until blended. Stir in flour mixture until just combined.

Spoon batter onto a lightly greased muffin pan. Bake in centre of oven until a cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove and let cool on rack.

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!