It has been a very long time since I did a recipe post, and SO much has happened.  I am going to revitalize this and try to be better about doing these posts. 

I found a recipe on Cooking Classy for Pumpkin Bread Pudding, and I am going to try it tonight.  

The complete recipe can be found Here

Here is the recipe I will be using, and adjusted from their recipe: 

1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup (105g) granulated sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

4 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream

1 cup milk

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 loaf french bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt. 

Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in cream, milk, pumpkin, and vanilla.

Place bread cubes in an extra-large mixing bowl. Pour custard mixture evenly over bread cubes then gently toss to coat. Let rest 10 minutes.

Spoon mixture into a buttered 12 by 8-inch or 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven until set, about 45 - 50 minutes. 

Let cool for a few minutes then cut and serve. 

Optional topping: Salted caramel Sauce and Sweetened Whipped Cream

Follow the link HERE for salted caramel sauce step-by-step photos and recipe.

Recipe source: Cooking Classy

Reason for the recipes...

My mom has a friend who has a son who is getting married... WE were asked to help with the wedding since the mother of the bride isn't too helpful with the wedding.  So my mom volunteered to bake the cupcakes for the wedding.  This made me SUPER excited, to be able to bake since I LOVE to bake!  But the problem was, what does the bride and groom to be want? 

The groom likes white cake, so I made this massive white cake cupcake recipe, which turned out really REALLY good.  The recipe will be as follows.  The only thing I recommend... DON'T MAKE IT AS CUPCAKES.  Just make it as the cake.  It was not coming out of the wrapper the first day, the second day the wrappers were coming off.  They weren't this beautiful white color that I expected, they were golden brown on the top of it because of the butter in the recipe and toeing the line of JUST enough time to too much time. 

I also made a Magleby's cake recipe as cupcakes, and a Hershey's Chocolate Cake.  The winner of these two chocolate cakes? The HERSHEY'S of course!  The flavor is that RICH chocolate that you want in a cake, and the cupcakes were BEAUTIFUL.  So we are taking them tomorrow for a taste test.  And tonight, what am I doing?

I whipped up a batch of 4 berry compote.  It's SO pretty.  I did it with the 4 instead of the 3 because of the berries that we had in the freezer.  It's a nice purple color because of the Marionberries and blackberries in it.  So the recipes are below, with the links back to where I got them when available.  They are super good, I would do the Magleby's cake recipe as a cake, not as cupcakes as well. The top was crusty, not something a bride wants to bite into.

So the recipes are below. ENJOY!

Easy Big Fat Yeast Rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 tbls softened butter
1 egg, beaten
3 1/2-4 cups flour

Directions:

Put water and yeast in large mixing bowl and add next 4 ingredients.  Beat with dough hook until well blended.  Add 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour and mix until soft dough forms (should not be sticky).  Put out onto floured board and knead a few times until smooth.  Place in greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place approximately 45 minutes. Punch down and turn out onto floured board.  Shape into 12 rolls and place in greased 13 by 9 inch baking pan.  Let rise again about 30 minutes.  Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Brush tops of rolls with butter.  Recipe is easily doubled.

Okay, Here's my disclosure:

THESE ROLLS ARE AMAZING!!   My mom made them... and we devoured them in a matter of a day.  We are trying to watch what we are eating, but we couldn't stop eating these!!!  They are SO easy to make, and so good.  We haven't made them again because we don't want to eat them all again... Yay for delicious white rolls!!!

Pumpkin Poppers

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup milk

For Coating:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. Cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray mini muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, mix oil, egg, vanilla, pumpkin, brown sugar, and milk.  (Make sure to put the brown sugar in close to last if possible so you don't have clumps of sugar in your batter.)  Pour in flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Fill mini muffin tins until almost full and bake 10-12 minutes.

Melt butter in a small bowl.  Mix cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl.  After poppers cool for a few minutes lightly coat them in butter.  (I dipped them, but you can brush them with butter.)  Roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Enjoy!

For these, they taste JUST like little pumpkin pies.  They are SO good, so be careful to not pop a whole ton into your mouth!  I liked them best the next day, after the sugar melted into the butter and you didn't get the granules of sugar crunching on your teeth.  :) But the willpower to wait stinks!!!

4 Berry Curd

This is called a triple Berry Curd from the website Some the Wiser but I used the 3 berry mix from Costco and the Marionberry from Costco as well.  I just used 2 cups of the mixed berries to make up for it and one cup of the Marionberries as it states. ;)

Ingredients:
1 cup frozen blueberries, thawed
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
1 cup frozen marionberries, thawed
2/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Place the thawed berries in the blender and process until smooth.  Press blended berries through a fine mesh sieve positioned over a medium bowl.  Using the back of a spoon, press and scrape until you have at least 1 cup of puree.  Discard seeds and refrigerate any extra puree for another use.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, salt, and cornstarch with a whisk. Stir in 1 cup of berry puree, lemon juice, and eggs.  Stirring constantly with a whisk, bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute or until curd is thick, still stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and gently stir in butter.

Spoon mixture into jar or bowl then cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving. Adapted from Cooking Light.



I made it today, and it was a BEAUTIFUL purple color. I'm super excited to see how it turns out.  I put it into little jars, and it made about 2 and 3/4 cups of the curd, and it is super good from what I tasted out of the hot pan. :)  I like how creamy it is, with the seeds being removed from the berries.  Make sure you have a good size sieve to push this through, and a scraper to pull the mixture off the bottom.  :)  I will update how it turned out after I get to taste it tomorrow morning. :)

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water.

Instructions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour 2 (9 inch) round baking pans, or a 9 by 13 pan.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes.  Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. 

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans to wire racks.  Cool completely.  Frost.

For cupcakes: Line muffin cups with paper bake cups. (2 1/2 inches in diameter) Heat oven to 350 degrees, and fill the liners about 2/3 of the way full with batter.  Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. 

They have a chocolate frosting recipe you can put on it as well.  That will be posted as well.  This is a YUM cake!!! 

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:
1 stick butter or margarine (1/2 cup)
2/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa (or any cocoa you have...)
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:
Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa.  Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency.  Add more milk if needed.  Stir in vanilla. 


With this frosting, you need to make sure to follow the instructions.  Just adding the powdered sugar all at once makes the frosting lumpy and disgusting.  The texture is amazing if you do 1 cup powdered sugar, mix it up well and than add 1/3 of the 1/3 cup of milk.  It sounds hard, but if you slowly pour it in until it's just wet, you will do great.  And a pinch of salt to this increases the flavor.  Chocolate frosting needs a pinch of salt and vanilla.  It doesn't taste the same without it. But it's a SMALL pinch of salt, not a large one. :)