CANDY CORN HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES: FINAL POST BEFORE MY KITCHEN RENO!

White Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Classic Buttercream and Candy Corn!

These are the last cupcakes I’ll ever make in my old kitchen!  Whee!

HALLOWE’EN OREOS

What’s a mommy to do when her 6 year old daughter has a play-date the next morning and there’s no time to bake?

I wanted to do something craftsy, but then didn’t have any idea what to do on such short notice. You know I have a pantry of baking supplies, so I thought best to bake cookies or something. The girls could bake the cookies and decorate them for hallowe’en. I had a flashback to last Christmas when I did something similar and recalled vividly the colourful sprinkles and dragees all over the countertops and floor. You couldn’t walk a step in the kitchen without hearing the tiny crunching of the sprinkles and roly-poly dragees underfoot. If was fun but oh so messy! Also, considering my time frame, I thought I had better rethink that whole process. By the time they rolled out the dough and cut them out, it’d be time for her buddy to go home and the cookies wouldn’t even have been cooled and decorated yet.

Fortunately, I work well under a bit of duress and the creative juices seemed to be flowing. So, being the smartie-pants that I am—actually, in this case, the m&m’s-pants—I had the brilliant idea to use white chocolate-covered oreos for my cookie base and just have the girls decorate with prepared tubed black icing (from Wilton). I grabbed some mini m&m’s, some hallowe’en coloured sparkles and raided my cake decorating cupboard for little sprinkles and candies. The spider bodies are of course, brown m&m’s. The heads are brown-coloured decorator candies. I clumsily piped 8 legs on the body and had myself a pretty tasty-looking spider!

When I did my jack o’ lantern oreos, I used the same black icing to pipe the lines that would hold the orange sprinkles first. Then I piped more icing on the north pole to have the green sparkles stick. The face was piped last.

A batch of Hallowe’en cookies isn’t complete without some ghosts, so I did some simple free-hand ghosts with the piping tube. The pink sprinkled ghost is a girl ghost.

You know…kind of like a “princess” ghost? Well, you’d know what I mean if you had a girl.

I am loving these white chocolate covered oreos. Whenever I see them in the store from now on, I’m going to grab myself a few dozen bags! What a super easy treat for Hallowe’en!

Happy Hallowe’en and do link back to me with your own creative Hallowe’en Oreo images!

Boo!

PUMPKIN PIE CHIFFON CAKE

dulce de leche dripping down ethereally soft pumpkin chiffon: doesn't that look sexy?
lookie...here's that adorable mini chocolate pumpkin i made! it's especially cute on cupcakes too!

Here's a recipe I promised to post utilizing some of the leftover pumpkin puree from my Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Brulees. BTW, I'm thinking of making those again because they were so good!

This Pumpkin Chiffon cake was so delicious! It was moist and had a tender crumb. The pumpkin puree, pie spices and cinnamon gave it a pumpkin pie flavour but the texture was so light and airy. You know how eating a pumpkin pie at the end of a meal can put you over the top? It tends to be very rich and dense in texture. Well, you could eat many more slices of this cake after your turkey meal and not feel the seratonin repercussions!

CAKEBRAIN'S PUMPKIN PIE CHIFFON CAKE
1 cup sugar
½ cup golden brown sugar
1 1/3 cups cake flour (measure unsifted)
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
7 large eggs, 2 left whole, 5 separated (at room temperature)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cream of tartar
2/3 cup water
1 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. pie spices


1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325°F. Whisk sugars, flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl (at least 4-quart size). Whisk in two whole eggs, five egg yolks (reserve whites), water, oil and extract until batter is smooth. Stir in pumpkin puree, cinnamon and spices.
2. Pour reserved egg whites into large bowl; beat at low speed with electric mixer until foamy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar, gradually increase speed to medium-high, then beat whites until very thick and stiff, just short of dry, 9 to 10 minutes with handheld mixer or 5 to 7 minutes in standing mixer. With large whisk, fold whites into batter, smearing any blobs of white that resist blending.
3. Pour batter into ungreased large tube pan ( 9 inch diameter, 16-cup capacity).
4. Bake cake on lower middle rack in oven until wire cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, 60-70 minutes. Immediately turn cake upside down to cool. If pan does not have prongs around rim for elevating cake, invert pan over bottle or funnel, inserted through tube. Let cake hang until completely cook, about 2 hours.
5. To unmold, turn pan upright. Run frosting spatula or thin knife around pan’s circumference between cake and pan wall, always pressing against the pan. Use cake tester to loosen cake from tube. For one-piece pan, bang it on counter several times, then invert over serving plate. For two-piece pan, grasp tube and lift cake out of pan. If glazing the cake, use a fork or a paring knife to gently scrap all the crust off the cake. Loosen cake from pan bottom with spatula or knife, then invert cake onto plate. (Can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature 2 days or refrigerated 4 days.)
Serving: Drizzle a slice of the pumpkin chiffon with dulce de leche or caramel sauce. Top with a cute hand-made chocolate mini-pumpkin!


I have entered this dessert in the World Food Day Event hosted by Ivy at Kopiaste. Thanks to Giz, at Equal Opportunity Kitchen for informing me about this worthy event!
I have much to be thankful for: A healthy family, great friends and a food blogging community that is both inspirational and supportive!

PLAYING WITH CHOCOLATE: MINI CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN TUTORIAL

Here, by popular demand, is my tutorial on making Mini Chocolate Pumpkins.

Since it's a long-weekend here in Canada, I have an itty bitty amount of time between stacks of marking to give you a quick run-down on how to work "Chocolate Plastic" into cute Mini Pumpkins.

Remember those Chocolate Roses I made? (Check back later because I have to post that tutorial next!) I still have plenty of leftover chocolate plastic from making the roses. I kept it tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and then put all of that in an airtight plastic container. All you have to do is take a small piece of the chocolate plastic and warm it up in your hands or beat it with a rolling pin! What fun! Yes, the beating part.

The recipe is simple: Melt 6 oz bittersweet chocolate and combine it with 1/3 cup
corn syrup. Mix thoroughly until combined. Spread the mixture thinly and evenly on a plastic wrap-lined sheet pan for a few hours (covered with more plastic wrap). Knead the chocolate plastic to soften and keep it wrapped in plastic wrap when you're not using it.

Pinch a small ball of chocolate plastic in your fingers and create a ball by rolling it between your palms. You remember...kind of like when you were a kid playing with Playdough!

I like a squat shape for my mini pumpkins, so I kind of squash the ball between my palms. Then I use a toothpick (or a skewer, or my favourite tool--my metal "cake tester") and trace lines up and down...and all around the pumpkin to--well, make it look like a pumpkin!

Take a tiny ball of chocolate plastic and roll it into a tiny log to make the stem. Cut off a stem-sized piece and use a toothpick to position it into the pumpkin.
I like to make a hole down the top of my pumpkin with a toothpick first. I drill down to about the centre of the pumpkin.It's a delicate matter. You can use tweezers I suppose, but I find a toothpick works fine because the little point helps guide the stem end into the hole.

I use the toothpick tip to squish and press down the stem to attach it firmly to the pumpkin top and then proceed to make a leaf.

Create a tiny ball of chocolate plastic into a leaf shape. I know that pumpkin leaves don't look like this, but I'm working in such a tiny scale that I don't really care. This simple leaf design is so much easier to handle. If you're so inclined, go ahead and make the pumpkin leaves look botanically correct. I find that trying to make little curly tendrils doesn't work well as the plastic chocolate doesn't hold its shape so well when it's rolled so thinly.
You can use the Mini Chocolate Pumpkins to adorn Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Brulees or this Pumpkin-Pie Chiffon Cake oozing with Dulce de Leche. They're great on cupcakes too. If you want, you can use white chocolate and tint the finished shapes with food colouring but I'm not as crazy about the white chocolate flavour as real dark chocolate :)

Yes, I'll post my original Pumpin-Pie Chiffon Cake Recipe next (I was a busy little baking-bee this weekend). It's yummerific. I'm on a roll because I winged the recipe with all the extra pumpkin puree I had on hand from making those Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes. I still have some puree left and am thinking of adding it to a certain creamy dessert I've made in the past...

Enjoy!

MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BRULÉE

there's no squash quite so adorable as the pumpkin!

Canadians will be celebrating Thanksgiving this upcoming Monday. I am gearing up by buying little decorative pumpkins for the kids and I'm looking around for things to do with pumpkin puree as I just opened this massive can and have so much left over!

mini pumpkin cheesecake brulées: smooth, creamy and not over-spiced!

I used my mini cheesecake pan from Williams Sonoma to make some Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes. I bruléed the tops after they finished their overnight cooldown in the refrigerator and topped them with these adorable little chocolate "plastic" pumpkins. No, it's not plastic! It's made out of quality bittersweet chocolate and corn syrup! These are more yummy than the fondant pumpkins I made last year for my cupcakes. "You can't go wrong with chocolate" is my motto. I have plenty of this chocolate playdough left over from making those chocolate roses from the other day. I'll be doing a chocolate rose tutorial soon. Come back and check it out later!The recipe I created makes only 8 mini cheesecakes. I just wanted to use one brick of cream cheese, and I kind of just made the recipe up along the way.

MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BRULEE

Crust:

• 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine all the ingredients together, mixing well. Press an equal amount into 8 mini cheesecake molds.
3. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool while making the filling.

Pumpkin Cheesecake filling:

• 8 oz (250g) Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, room temp.
• 1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. pie spices
• 1 T. milk

1. Lower heat to 300°F.
2. Beat cream cheese in a standing mixer until creamy and smooth.
3. Add the sugar, pureed pumpkin and spices and beat on medium speed until well combined.
4. Add the egg and continue to mix for about 1 minute. Finally, add the milk and mix thoroughly.
5. Spoon equal amounts of the cheesecake filling into all 8 prepared molds.
6. Bake the cheesecakes for 20 minutes at 300°F
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the molds.
8. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove the cheesecakes and brulee just before serving.

Serving:

• Sprinkle granulated sugar over each cheesecake and use a brulee torch to caramelize the sugar until golden brown.
• Top with a mini chocolate pumpkin. Form small balls of chocolate plastic with your hands and use a toothpick to form grooves on the pumpkin and veins on the leaf. see tutorial

HALLOWE'EN CUPCAKES: FONDANT PUMPKINS

fondant pumpkin on a white chocolate cupcake

Bebe wanted cupcakes (Bebe always wants cupcakes) and she always ends up eating all the frosting first; leaving the cupcake behind. The other day I was making FIMO food with Bebe to stock her empty larder in her dollhouse's kitchen. We made carrots, hotdogs, hamburgers, apples, pears and bananas out of the polymer clay. I didn't realize how easy it was and all you need are toothpicks and a little knife. Afterwards you bake them, following the instructions, and you have sturdy hardened little pieces of food with which to play "house." I was thinking I could transfer my food-modelling skills to real food in the form of fondant or marzipan.

I went to open my huge tub of fondant which I keep in a plastic-lidded popcorn container. To my dismay the entire piece of fondant was rock hard. I chucked it out and consulted my Wilton manual for a recipe and decided I only needed to make little pumpkins and leaves--not cover a whole cake. I quartered the recipe with good success. The recipe for rolled fondant from Wilton was easy but required a lot of kneading. I didn't have orange food colouring in my stash of gel pastes so I just mixed in some red and yellow gel paste food colouring until it looked pumpkin-coloured enough for me. After a ton of kneading, the fondant finally looked evenly coloured and ready for modelling. The pumpkins are just little rolled balls etched with a knife. I used a toothpick to poke a hole down the centre where the stem would be. Then I inserted the tiny stem and a little leaf, using the toothpick to manoeuvre the fondant and attach it.

I made the White Chocolate Cupcakes and frosted with a simple buttercream. My white chocolate mousseline buttercream would have been especially delicious on this cupcake. We decorated with some sugar crystals and popped the little pumpkins on top and they looked so cute! Bebe said the pumpkins were the best part and proceeded to eat all the frosting afterwards. As usual, after licking off all of the frosting, she was too full to eat the cupcake part!

Bebe's philosophy of cupcake decorating is that you can't have enough stars and you can't have enough sprinkles.

a star-studded, sprinkle-laden cupcake being decorated by Bebe