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!

Carrot Cake

For as long as I can remember, when we were kids, my sister and I loved going grocery shopping with my mom to Concord Foods, only to buy their delicious, over sized carrot muffins and eat them as we were shopping! We always knew that they were one of the few carrot desserts made without nuts. And since we were, and still are both allergic to nuts, we were safe!

A few years ago, when I tried my friend Lisa's homemade carrot cake, the taste immediately triggered those same flavours! Bingo! Thanks Lisa for the delicious recipe. I no longer need to purchase muffins at Concord, I now make them myself!

Below is the recipe...

Carrot Cake
4 cups of grated carrots
4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 1/3 cup oil
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Grate carrots and set aside.

Process eggs with sugar for 1 minute. While machine is running, add oil through feed tube. Process 45 seconds longer. Add carrots and process for 8-10 seconds, until blended. In a bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to batter. Process with 3 or 4 quick on/off turns, just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into a well greased 9” x 13” baking pan. Bake at 325 F for 45 minutes to an hour.

For Muffins-fill muffin tins ¾ full with batter. Bake at 325 F for 20 minutes.

Grate carrots and set aside

Add remaining wet ingredients, then add dry ingredients...

WARNING...DO NOT REMOVE KNIFE FROM BOWL BEFORE POURING OUT BATTER! Otherwise, you might end up with this mess! (Thank goodness Adrienne was over as a spectator as I was baking for many reasons....to help me find a bowl and a measuring cup to pour the mess into, and to take the picture of course!

Generously spray pan with non-stick cooking spray. (I usually make this recipe in a 9" x 13" rectangular baking dish, but I decided to change it up this time!)

I had some leftover batter, so I also made some mini muffins!

The perfect snack to have while watching Glee!
BONE Appetit!

What's that you said? You want more?

Come a little closer!

The cake "turned out" so well onto my new 3 tier Snap 'N Stack Cookie and Cupcake Carrier! Thanks Jason and Kim!

Before serving, sift some icing sugar through a sieve to make it look pretty!

Serve with a nice, tall glass of milk.

Enjoy!

Banana Bread

Nothing like taking advantage of those bananas that you meant to eat but had already turned brown before you got to them! I like to put mine in the freezer and store them for when I am ready to bake banana bread! Most of the ingredients you will need to bake are pictured below. Add an egg and some salt, and there you have it!

I like to use my stand mixer to combine all of the ingredients. Be careful not to over mix!

This recipe makes two 7 x 3 inch loafs, but I divided what could have been the second loaf into into 4 mini fluted tube pans to make 4 mini cakes. On the loaf, I added a handful of chocolate chips to the top and sprinkled sugar and cinnamon to give it a sweet coating on top!

Banana Sour Cream Bread

2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1-1/2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed (I like to add 1 extra!)
1/2 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Grease two 7x3 inch loaf pans.
3. In a small bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons white sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon.
4. Dust pans lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
5. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1-1/2 cups sugar.
6. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon.
7. Mix in salt, baking soda and flour.
8. Stir in chocolate chips.
9. Divide into prepared pans.
10. Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Yield: Two 7 x 3 inch loaves (16 servings, 8 per loaf)

Just enough for a perfect snack...

...with a tall glass of milk.

Delicious!

Mini Zucchini Cakes

Have you ever in your life seen a zucchini of this girth??? Believe it or not, this massive vegetable grew in my very own garden! Let's call her "Momma zuc." "Baby zuc" was bought at the grocery store!

I love the fluorescent green colour of the shredded zucchini. And even more than that, I love my food processor! It makes shredding so much easier and faster. I will bake for anyone who would like to come over and clean up after me! Any takers???

I was very excited to use my mini muffin tin for the first time. I also used a mini cake pan set to make mini cakes!

To garnish, add a dash of icing sugar!

And to make them taste even better...I cut the mini zucchini cakes in half (using dental floss), spread cream cheese icing in the middle, assembled them back together, and dabbed the tops with a piping bag filled with more icing for that extra bit of goodness!