i heart gingerbread men

They just look so adorable when they are in a cluster, don't they? I made a personalized gingerbread man for each of my coworkers and since our group works on cameras for Google Streetview, I made little cameras to go along with it. They were an instant hit of course :) 

I used this recipe but substituted margarine with butter.  Make sure you watch them while baking because they are soft and chewy with slight crunch normally, but will turn hard and dry very quickly if overbaked. For the frosting, I mixed 1/2 cup of confectioners' sugar with 1 tablespoon of nonfat milk and a pinch of cinnamon for more flavor. 

Happy Holidays! 

apple pastry cake

My first entry! 

I baked this apple pastry cake for Thanksgiving. The recipe was from a book A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman (this is an amazing book for those home bakers out there).  It is a hybrid between a pie and a cake. The entire cake is filled with plumped raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar coated apples (I think I used at least 8 medium sized apples) and after about 40 minutes of baking, custard is poured into the filling and popped back into the oven.  

It can be served warm or cold. The apples still have a bit of a crunch and the creamy custard filling between these apple pieces give each bite a wonderful mix of textures. 

 

I wish I had a picture of a piece cut out... 

A Thanksgiving Treat...

Ahhh Fall. I love how as Summer melts away, it brings a crispness in the air and a dash of color to the trees. One of the other things I love about fall is the seasonal food -- PUMPKIN! I love pumpkin everything -- pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin soup! Just writing this makes me crave more. If only it were available year-round!

Thanksgiving has just come and gone, and of course, a Thanksgiving meal is not complete without a pumpkin dish of some kind. Normally, I would've subsisted on buying a pumpkin dessert (Andronico's has the BEST pumpkin bread, btw), but I wasn't about to go this year without making something from scratch. And of course, since I have such a sweet tooth, I decided to make a lighter version. So I present to you my Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Now, I'm not quite the baker that the other girls on this blog are. In fact, this is actually my very first cake! I do think it turned out quite good though... at least that's what my Mommy told me. But maybe she was just being nice :P.

Pumpkin Cake

1 1/2 c. + 2 tb. white sugar + 1 pkt Truvia
3/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c. Canola Oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. canned pumpkin (Trader Joe's Organic Pumpkin)
4 eggs
2 c. all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1 c. chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 1/2 inch springform pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine sugar and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin, then beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread batter into prepared springform pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

You may have noticed that I've included an item called "Truvia" as part of a substitution for sugar. Truvia is the branded version of the sugar substitute Stevia. Stevia actually comes from an herb and is supposedly sweeter than sugar! It's a zero calorie food, contains no aspartame and is completely natural. It also doesn't have a weird fake sugar taste like Splenda or Equal do. For more on Stevia, keeps your eyes peeled for a post dedicated to the substance.

I happen to like my pumpkin cakes with rich spices...hence why I added so much variety of the warm winter spices. The applesauce kept the cake very moist and tasty, while also reducing the amount of fat originally in the mixture.

In addition to having this be my first cake, it was also my first time making frosting ... of any kind. To say it was a daunting task was an understatement. Also, I had no confectioners sugar....so I used granulated sugar and some Truvia packets as well, along with some corn starch to give it a thicker consistency. It was completely ad-hoc...sad to say, but I think it turned out quite well. And of course, if you don't think it's sweet enough, feel free to add more sugar. Me? I don't like my frostings to be teeth-rottingly sweet.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. fat-free cream cheese (cold)
2 tbsp butter (room-temperature)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 pkts Truvia
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp corn starch

Directions:

1. Cream butter and cream cheese together. Slowly add sugar while creaming until smooth.
2. Add wet ingredients and mix.
3. Add corn starch as necessary for consistency.

I had enough to frost the top of the cake. Added some chopped walnuts and some orange zest and Voila! Pumpkin Cake!