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.

While I still think fall will trump any of the seasons (for me), spring still holds a soft spot in my heart. New season, new beginnings and everything is alive again. While I love the season itself, I usually opt out of Easter-type crafts since they tend to be a little too much on the cutesy side. However when I stumbled across this idea from Duncan Hines I scribbled down all the ingredients onto my shopping list and resolved that no matter how cutesy I just had to do them. So cute!! And so much fun, I might add. The best part? No-bake cookies - those are cut and decorated graham crackers you see. When I tweeted I was doing this, I got a few people asking how can you cut a graham cracker without breaking the whole thing? I thought the same thing but I am here to tell you that it can be done! Just be gentle and don’t use low-fat grahams (they’re harder to cut than the regular version). So if you’re interested in tackling some of these super-cute treats, I’ve outlined all the steps I took below. Please let me know if you give them a try!!

Easter Eggs Cupcakes

Cutting the graham crackers: It really is as easy as it looks. You can use a template or freestyle it. If you do use a template, you can take the tip of your serrated knife and drag it across the surface of the cracker, creating a traceable outline.

Then with gentle pressure begin cutting (or chipping away, really) the cracker.

It took me about 30 minutes to cut an entire box of graham crackers, all while my children ate breakfast. Easy!

Decorating the grahams: The original recipe says to use canned frosting that has been tinted, however that stuff takes forever to dry. And not to mention you make a mess tinting everything. So I picked up some bags of molding candy…

…microwaved them per the instructions on the bag…

…spooned a little onto the cracker…

…and then smoothed it over the surface.

While the candy was still wet I gave Conner some jumbo sprinkles and let him have at it.

Such a handsome assistant I have. Note to self: need to work on his “cheese” face…

And if you’re feeling really adventurous you can nuke some more candy, pour into a small sandwich bag, snip the tip and pipe more designs on the top.

After about a half-hour of decorating and another half-hour of sitting, my eggs were dry. It was so incredibly easy and clean up was a cinch! I will definitely be keeping this idea for the future. Then it was time to ice my cuppies (which I had baked the night before). This is when I say I love making things from scratch. I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and satisfaction baking this way, however. HOWEVER. Sandra Lee is also one of my favorites and if there are short cuts to be had, take them! Especially when you’re putting more effort into one area (cutting grahams into egg-shapes to decorate) and slacking off in another (enter boxed cake mix and canned frosting). Okay, so back to the icing. I tinted it green - which I didn’t have the right shade of green but didn’t have time to run back out so had to make-do with what I had - snipped the end of a freezer bag and slipped a #12 Wilton tip into the end. Then filled the bag with icing and began piping dots…

…and more dots…

…and more dots…

…until you are all set and there is your grass.

Now just place your egg in the center of the iced cuppie and voila! Super cute, easy and fun Easter dessert.

If all of that is too daunting, you can top your cuppies with robin egg candy or buy premade egg-shaped cookies.

Aside from the shade of green that I had to use, I love how they turned out! And they really were so easy and so much fun to do. Can I say that one more time? FUN!!

Have a great weekend and a wonderful Easter!

I’ve been looking around for some Easter crafts that both my four year old and my not-quite two year old could do together. Conner, my older son, does great with crafts, stays focused until the job is done. Max, my baby….eh…doesn’t. Even when I found this easy craft of tracing an egg shape onto construction paper and “decorating” the egg with colored marshmallows dipped in elmers glue, he did about two, then thought the bowl of glue was waaaayyyy more fun than I had made it out to be. So he proceeded to submerge the same two marshmallows over and over (for 15 minutes) in the glue. Conner, on the other hand, did a beautiful job decorating his egg.

He follows instruction so well. Normally. Nine times out of ten. On a good day. Anyways, I over anticipated just how many bags of marshmallows I would need for this craft and had two packages sitting in our pantry. We’re not a family that loves our marshmallows but I also hate throwing perfectly good food away so I thought I would whip up some rice krispie treats for the holiday weekend (altho no where near as cool or as fun as Amanda’s krispie treat challenge).

And I had gotten the super-fun fruity and colorful marshmallows so how pretty would they be? Perfect for Easter right? I’ve never really enjoyed making rice krispie treats because mine always got so dry and hard. And you know I love my rice krispie treats (Kellogg’s did me a solid by making them for me). So I scoured the interwebz to figure out why mine come out so dry and I think I have it figured out. Actually, I know I have it figured out now since they are so soft and so chewy. Well, according to my fingers and the fact that Max devoured his and he’s not normally a fan of chewy stuff. Oh, and it’s only three ingredients so another reason that I will love this recipe forever and ever. Amen.

Rice Krispie Treats

(1) stick of butter
(1) 16oz bag mini marshmallows
(11.5) cups rice krispies cereal (a 12oz box is enough with maybe a cup leftover)

Okay, first you’re going to melt your butter in a large sauce pan SLOWLY. By slowly I mean kick your burner back on low (2 or 3) and let it melt without it turning brown at all. Apparently this is what makes your treats hard and dry. Who knew? I surely did not.

When your butter is melted take your marshmallows…(so pretty)

…and dump them in, stirring to coat them in butter. Keep burner on low and continue to slowly melt them, stirring occasionally. This will take about 10-15 minutes.

Remember when I got so excited that my treats would be springy and pretty since the marshmallows were? Yeah, I didn’t factor in the melting process would turn from the above to the below. Oh well. Oh, and while your marshmallows are melting, line a 9×13-inch baking dish in wax paper (read: easy cleanup) and coat paper with cooking spray.

Once your marshmallows are about 80-85% melted (I like a few chunks of marshmallows in my treats), pour half of your rice krispies into the saucepan and combine. Then add the other half and combine the mixture until all the rice krispies are coated.

Pour entire mixture into your baking dish lined with wax paper and spread it around evenly and then pressing it down firmly into your dish, either with your spoon or with your hands (I wait until it’s cooled and set-up a little bit before I roll up my sleeves and pack it down with my hands).

Once cooled (about 30-45 minutes), cut into squares, set on plates and remind your children why you are the best. mom. ever.

Max, my official taste-tester. What’d'ya think?

Thumbs up!!

Enjoy!

I know for someone who claims that she hates to cook I post my fair share of recipes here. But I guess that’s because I have learned to streamline things and make only what is easy and delicious and some-what healthy as well (and can be done while holding a crying child or playing playdough). Hubby and I got a quesadilla makerfor a wedding gift and seven years later we still break that bad boy out to use regularly. The only thing is quesadillas, once they’re cooked, are not good after they are refrigerated. They get super soggy and overly chewy once they’re reheated. We found this out the hard way so we only make enough quesadilla’s for dinner, and refrigerate the filling to make more later, if we so desire. One morning I wanted some eggs, since I love LOVE love eggs, but wanted something different than my usual poached eggs. Rifling through the fridge, my eyes landed on the tupperware containing the quesa-filling and thus the best omelette ever was born. I think the beans and corn really make it, but so does the cheese. And the peppers. Ooooh and the red onion. Yes, win-win-win in my book. So give it a try and if you’re not a fan of eggs, omit the eggs and hang onto the recipe since it makes a great quesadilla or burrito filling as well.

Quesadilla Omelette

1 red pepper, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 orange pepper, chopped
1 cup red onion, chopped
1 cup frozen corn (you can use canned I just prefer frozen since it’s crunchy and canned corn is rather soggy)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried cilantro
3 eggs (or 2 whole and 1 egg white; 1 whole and 3 egg whites), beaten lightly
salt & pepper to taste
a little butter or olive oil for sauteing

Grease a frying pan with butter or olive oil and saute peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro until slightly tender (on med-high heat for about 5-7 mins). Add beans and corn and saute for another 3-5 minutes. Set aside.

Clean frying pan or use another and add a light layer of butter or olive oil. Pour egg into frying pan and cook on medium heat until the egg starts to gel (about 5-7 minutes).

It shouldn’t wiggle when the pan is jiggled (wiggle and jiggled - these are technical terms people)

When egg has set, add half of the cheese to half of the cooked egg…

…then add about 1 to 1 and 1/2 cup of your quesadilla filling (however much you want - I like lots of veggies in mine)…

…and then the rest of the cheese

Now this is the part where I tend to say very adult words because it can rip easily. Take your spatula and gently slide it under, in an up and down motion to release the egg from the pan. We have a great Martha Stewart non-stick pan but inevitably from time to time it will stick. And I like my food to be pretty - that’s more than half the fun for me.

So once you get that side released from the pan, fold it on top of the cheese and quesadilla mix and let cook for another minute longer, letting the cheese melt.

Once again give that bottom a gentle sweep with your spatula and slide off onto a plate.

And there you have a delicious and beautiful quesadilla omelette. It is so good you guys. And what’s even better, you have plenty left over to make about three or four more, or throw inside some tortillas for a quick lunch. Deeeeeelish.

My mother in law was in town this weekend to help out with the monkies while hubby was away. This meant a little more free time to myself and I got to tackle not only my inbox but also my feed reader (which I knocked out completely on Sunday, went back to check on it today and am yet again waaaaaaay behind. Blergh.) But while sifting through literally hundreds of updated feeds I found some little gems along the way that made my back straighten and my eyes perk up just a little bit more. So here ya go: Top Ten Pretty-To-Me Links.

1) Vintage Paper Parade I just love this etsy shop. Super simple but super cute stationery - I can not narrow down which is my favorite, love it all! (and Pepper Design Blog is doing a giveaway so head on over to score some adorable and f-r-e-e goods)

2) Red & Teal Wedding While perusing the archives of one of my favorite photography blogs, I found this little gem and it blew me away. I would love to say I have the cahoonah’s to do such a bright color scheme for my wedding but isn’t it gorgeous?! And the cake, did you see the cake? OhMyGoshIJustLoveIt. LOVE. IT. *swoon* *drool* *sigh*

3) Best Easter Baskets Easter is one of my favorite holidays but sometimes the “cutesyness” of it overwhelms me. However, I am always a sucker for a beautifully designed and executed Easter basket. My favorite? The dyed Easter basket. So incredibly simple but so lovely.

4) Beautiful Cherry Blossom Cookies Aren’t these cookies amazing?? I don’t think I could bring myself to eat one! Wait, who are we kidding - of course I could. But I would take tons of pictures first.

5) DIY Ruffles and Lace Tank Top Sewing can be such a fussy process, one that irritates and bores me but I think I will blow the dust off of my sewing machine to make one of these - pink puffy *heart* this.

6) Only the best cake ever Today. (cuz we all know I will change my mind when I find another one tomorrow) but still, so stunning (Brandi, I think you should have this cake for Bug’s 2nd birthday party. Just a thought *wink*).

7) Macaron pops Love me some macarons. Love me some lolli’s. Love me some Bakerella.

8) Shauna Younge I am a huge Amy Atlas fan and love seeing what her genius-mind comes up with but I found another pro in the dessert bar field and I can’t get enough of her stuff either! Her “LOVE” dessert table knocked my socks off - so sweet and I am totally digging the silhouette’s.

9) Pentunia Pickle Bottom Cosmopolitan Carryall I mean, the name is just fabulous on it’s own (Petunia…so lovely). But then the description makes my eyelids flutter “Sapphire blue and Ocean Mist vintage inspired floral European cut velvet with coordinating sapphire blue wool tweed and sapphire blue water resistant lining” What does it all mean? I don’t care. All I know is she takes my breath away.

10) Simple yet Adorable Cuppie Today kicked my butt, especially between the hours of 3pm to 7pm, so to stumble upon this little gem really brought a sense of peace and tranquility to my mind. Is it weird that food does that? No? Good. A little yummy topped with sweetness on a backdrop of happiness. I know it’s weird but I’m 10% auditory, 90% visual so it just happens that way. But man, isn’t it a beauty.

Hubby went out of town this past weekend to Austin, TX to attend SXSW. Seeing that he and his crazy diet were going with him, I decided to break out one of my favorite (and super duper easy!!) breakfast recipes, chocked full of processed, buttered and sugary goodness to cook up for us to enjoy. This is one of those recipes that makes the words “comfort food” come to my mind. I remember my mom making this for us on Sunday mornings before we went to church. It is so amazingly delicious and smells just as good when it is baking that it would quite literally wake us from our Sunday morning sleeping. When I tweeted that I was going to devour my weight in monkey bread I received three twitter responses of “What is monkey bread?” and I just about fainted. Only because I am so sad that these women have lived for so many years without ever tasting it. And actually, you might have had it as a child only called it something else. I can not for the life of me understand why they call it monkey bread, but whatever I don’t care. It is so good. And I drop my voice as low as I can when I say gooooooooood. So here it is, my beloveds: the monkey bread recipe.

Monkey Bread

3 cans of refrigerated biscuits (regular size - we get the 4-pack)
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups confectionery sugar
1 to 3 tbsp water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9″ or 10″ bundt pan (or tube pan, as some call them, altho I like calling it a bundt pan mainly because I love the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the grooms mom brings the bundt cake to the family dinner and the mother of the bride can not pronounce “bundt” but then turns to her family, totally confused and says “This cake has a hole in it.” *snort*). Pour the sugar and cinnamon in a ziplock freezer bag, seal the bag and then mix it together until evenly combined. Quarter the refrigerated biscuits, pull them a part…

…and then place in the bag with the cinnamon-sugar.

Seal the bag tightly (and make extra sure it is closed or else you will have a big ol’ mess on your hands. and you can trust me on that one.) and then toss the bag around in your hands to make sure all that dough gets coated in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Take the cinnamon-sugar coated dough chunks and place them evenly around the greased bundt pan.

Combine the melted butter and the remainder of the cinnamon-sugar mix and drizzle on top of the dough. Place in the oven, bake 30-35 minutes. Once done, remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Invert onto a plate or cake stand. In a small-medium sized bowl combine the confectionery sugar and water, adding a tablespoon at a time and whisk until all lumps are gone and icing consistency is achieved (in between runny and sludgy. or sludgey. is that even a word?). Drizzle on top of warm monkey bread.

Pull a part and be ready to eat so much you will make yourself sick. But in one of the best ways possible!

*You could also add raisins or nuts before you put it in the oven, if you so desire.

Since I am swearing off refined sugar for a month *gulp* I thought what better week to do a Flickr Friday showcasing my favorite sweet treat: cupcakes and frosting. Especially buttercream frosting. Lots and lots and lots of buttercream…so beautifully delicious.

1. Cupcake Pops, 2. Colorful Engagement Cupcake Samples, 3. pink cupcakes, 4. Marie Antoinette cupcakes, 5. Strawberry Cupcakes, 6. what’s for dessert? // vegan mint oreo cupcakes, 7. Bright Flowers 21st Cupcakes, 8. Pretty pink cupcakes, 9. Easter Cupcakes & Minis, 10. Pink & Blue Vanilla Cupcakes, 11. Baileys flavour white cupcake, 12. rose cupcakes, 13. cupcake, 14. cupcakes, 15. green tea cupcakes, 16. red owl and bird cupcake box

It is March 1st. FINE. UH. LEE. Normally the early months of the year don’t bother me too badly but we’ve had the most bonkers amount of snow and March 1 is just a nice reminder that spring IS a-coming! Even if they’re calling for more snow this week (which they are) we’re getting there!

I have to share this easy, healthy and oh-so amazing recipe with you. My husband has recently started a year-long wellness journey and one of the aspects of this project is that he not eat meat. This isn’t much of a stretch for either of us since the first three years of our marriage I was a vegetarian, so he got used to eating meatless meals. So in honor of his new eating habits & getting to crack open my dusty vegetarian cookbooks, I wanted to share this recipe with you. It is one of our favorites from back in the day & is now a family favorite - my picky four year old will even eat it, spinach and all. Enjoy!

Mediterranean Pita Pizza

(5) Whole wheat pitas
(2) 15 oz. cans of northern beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup crumbled feta
Fresh spinach leaves (about 4 hand fulls), rinsed and cut into strips**
(2) cups shredded mozzarella
(1) tbsp minced garlic
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mash beans in a medium sized bowl with a fork (this is relatively easy if you first rinse the beans in warm/hot water) or food processor. Drizzle with olive oil, add garlic and mix. Spread bean mixture evenly on pitas and bake 10 minutes in oven. While they’re baking, chop the spinach leaves. When pitas are done
remove from oven and sprinkle (in this order) mozzarella, chopped spinach, and feta. Cook an additional 10 minutes. You can also add chopped sundried tomatoes if you’re a fan or you want more pops of color.

** for this, I pluck any long stems off the leaves, pile them together & lightly mince them

A few weeks ago one of my dear friends Amy asked me if I would make a cake for her, & not just any cake but a surprise-gender cake for her, her husband & their family. They are having their first baby & were headed for the big ultrasound. They wanted the u/s tech to keep the gender a secret, they would then bring me the information & I would put either a pink or blue layer of icing in the center of the cake to indicate what they were having. Then the family would gather together that evening so they could all find out together. A pretty cute idea right? & I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a little drunk with power as they handed over the results & I watched her husband squirm at the thought that someone other than the doctor knew what they were having (sorry Jared!).

I had made the cake the night before (using Bakerella’s scratch yellow cake recipe - wonderful & relatively easy I might add) & once I had the ultrasound results in-hand I assembled the cake.

I have to say that I’ve iced cakes before but never trying to do a smoothed buttercream finish. I was quite nerve-wracked about it but it wasn’t that difficult. The best part about doing a buttercream finish is that if you mess up, you can smooth over the smudges pretty easily. I still need to perfect the overall “smoothness” but for my first go with it, ever, I wasn’t hating the results. I had to add the dots because I love polka dots & after Conner’s birthday party I was itching to use my icing tips some more.

Over all it was one of the funnest projects I’ve done in awhile - I got try something new & for something so fun as letting mom & dad know what they were having. I should add that I had to make four - yes, FOUR - batches of buttercream frosting. There was about three layers around the cake with two thick layers of icing on the inside & the thing weighed eight pounds (I got out the wii fit balance board & weighed it) - it is serious. I kept telling mom to prepare herself for the diabetic coma that would inevitably follow. I love having these types of projects to do - new, fun & a gift of sorts.

Oh, & they’re having a baby girl. Congratulations Amy & Jared!