Twiggie Makes by Candace Grahl

This time of year really makes me want to write a pumpkin cookbook. I have so many recipes & I know I am not alone in my pumpkin obsession. Or am I? Doesn’t matter. All I know is just when I start cranking out some of my past favorites, I stumble upon more new recipes. This is one such a recipe, found at one of my favorite recipe sites, Kraft Foods.

Four Layers. Alllllllll together now…

*sigh*

It is so good, y’all. And easy!! You can find the recipe here, or bookmark this post for the recipe below. Enjoy!

Luscious 4-Layer Pumpkin Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
1-1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 pkg (8 oz) cream Cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tub (8 oz) whipped Topping, thawed
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup chopped Pecans

1) Preheat oven to 350°F.

2) beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans. Bake 28 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely.

3) Beat cream cheese in medium bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently fold in whipped topping. Cut each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. (Do not frost top layer.) Drizzle with caramel topping just before serving; top with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers.

*I omitted the chopped nuts & used toffee bits instead, & used a bag of caramels, following the instructions on the bag to make the caramel sauce. Easy!

What better reason to start blogging than this.

I mean, seriously!!

I love pumpkin. And I am not trying to use that word lightly. When the canned pumpkin shortage happened last year, I was one of those crackheads who thought about paying $16 a can on ebay. I needed my fix! But the shortage is now over and I am the proud owner of ten cans of pumpkin in my pantry. And that’s just to get me started.

The best thing about this recipe, besides the fact you can say you made it from scratch, is because it uses real pumpkin, they are not dry. At all. I love making cupcakes but sometimes I feel like beating my head against the counter for trying new recipes because they can come out very dry. But not the case with this gem - so light, so moist, so EASY, so delicious!! So grab a spatula, a can of pumpkin (or cans…whatever, I’m not here to judge) & let’s get cracking!

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

4 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F & line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.

2) Blend the eggs, oil, sugar, and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl & set aside. Sift together dry ingredients into a separate bowl.

3) Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and beat until well blended. Pour into lined muffin tins, filling about 2/3 full.

4) Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire baking sheets.

Maple Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
5 cups of powdered sugar (10-x)
1 tsp maple extract
1-2 tbsp heavy cream or milk

(If you have a standing mixer, you’ll want to use it for the buttercream.)

1) In a large bowl or 5-qrt standing mixer cream butter & maple extract until smooth.

2) Add powdered sugar 2 cups at a time, blending well after cup. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

3) Once all the sugar is added, beat on medium speed for 5-7 minutes. Around minute 4 or 5 you’ll notice your buttercream getting very fluffy which means you’re almost there. Add 1-2 tbsp cream or milk if your frosting is too thick. To pipe from a bag, the icing can’t be too stiff. To determine, pull the beater out of the buttercream. It needs to slightly shift or slowly fall off the beater. If it barely moves you’ll need to add some liquid & beat for another minute.

Back in January I went through an organizing overhaul and no closet, drawer or cabinet was safe. I can say I cleaned out and organized everything in this house. It was wonnnnnnnnnderful. Keeping it organized has been fairly easy (thanks in part to my understanding husband who complies with almost all the crazy rules I implemented
post-organization) yet my studio gets the raw end of the deal almost every time.

Since it is the first room you see when you enter our home, keeping it messy isn’t an option for me - drives. me. bananas. So when I’m done with a craft, I just stuff supplies back into drawers, cabinets, behind the island where it can fit that will not be seen. This type of unorganization makes things most difficult when I want to work on something fast and can’t find a darn thing.

I’ve really been into paper crafting lately so I decided to move out old craft supplies that I have temporarily lost interest in and were continuing to collect dust and organize the supplies that I was using now and those I will need for the upcoming holiday season. And like any good organizing project, it must get worse before it gets better, right? And what was assumed to be a small one-day project has turned into almost a week and I’m being so meticulous even my OCD is rolling it’s eyes at all the labeling and cross-referencing.

I tackled the paper first. I have lots of paper. I love it so much but even I did not realize just how much I had until I pulled it all out and began to separate it.

Some I had forgotten about so I am now super excited about knowing exactly where it will be so I can actually use. Crazy idea, I know.

So anyways, went from this (paper packs, card stock bundles still bound and in the original packaging)

to this

Ahhhhhh. Feels good.

I dissected all the paper packs, pulled them a part, labeled it all and everything.

And even my card stock got organized.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

And the best part is I forgot to make a card for a bridal shower I was going to and had to do it fast and it literally took two minutes to gather the supplies as apposed to the ten minutes it would’ve taken me because I couldn’t find the right shades of paper, inks or stamp set that I needed.

Stay tuned for the exciting sequel to this post: organizing all my stamps. It’s sure to be an award-winner. *snore*