Month: October 2014

Halloween & Fall Ideas 2014

2014halloweenHalloween is coming up on Friday! Do you need to make a treat for work or for your kid’s school party? Here are almost all of the Halloween/fall treats that have been featured on my blog throughout the years. Enjoy & have a safe holiday!

1. Sugar Pumpkin Cupcakes
2. Halloween Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Pumpkin Mini Muffins
4. Sugar Skull Cupcakes
5. Cake Batter Halloween Cookies
6. Candy Corn Cookies
7. Sugar Mummy Cupcakes
8. Indian Corn Cake
9. Pumpkin Cupcakes
10. Pumpkin Raisin Bread
11. Mummy Cupcakes
12. Halloween Brownies
13. Hoot Owl Cupcakes
14. Pumpkin Sandwich Cookies
15. Trick-or-Treat Rice Krispie Treats
16. Ghost Cake
17. Spider Cupcakes
18. Pumpkin Cupcakes II
19. Frankenstein Cupcakes
20. Candy Corn Cupcakes
21. Halloween Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
22. Chocolate & Vanilla Halloween Cupcakes
23. Pumpkin Spiderweb Cookies
24. Halloween Puppy Chow
25. Candy Corn Surprise Cupcakes
26. Pumpkin M&M Cookies
27. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
28. Pumpkin Pi Cookies
29. Caramel Apple Cupcakes
30. Candy Corn Cupcakes
31. Skeleton Cookies
32. Frankencake
33. Day of the Dead Cookies
34. Ghost Cookies
35. Monster Cupcakes
36. Candy Corn Mummy Cookies

Candy Corn Cookies

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This is last of my Halloween posts! I think Halloween is one of the best baking seasons – you can do so many cute things with so many great flavors. Christmas and Halloween can’t be beat for yummies, right? Every year I try to come up with a new way to bake something resembling candy corn — and this year it’s a simple sugar cookie decorated with sanding sugar. If you want to seen what I’ve done in years past, check out my holiday treats archive! Below are the recipes I used and the details for how to make these. Enjoy!

If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:

  • I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below.  Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350.
  • I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats, which is listed below.
  • If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats, which will teach you about outlining and flooding.  Bake at 350 is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).

Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:

  • I had a candy corn cookie cutter in my stash — but you know what would also work? An Easter egg cookie cutter. Improvise if that’s all you’ve got!
  • I made two batches of royal icing (recipe below). I dyed a portion of the icing orange, a portion yellow, and left the rest white. You don’t have to dye the icing (as you’ll be covering it up with sanding sugar), but I think the colors of the end product are richer if you do.
  • You will need orange, yellow, and white sanding sugar, plus the required outlining/flooding supplies as described in the links above.
  • I outlined the yellow portion of the cookies first, then the orange, then the white. Once all of the outlines were dry, I began the flooding process. Flood the yellow portions first — and dip into yellow sanding sugar. Allow the cookies to sit for about 30 minutes. Then repeat the process for the orange portion, then for the white portion.
  • As always, please let me know if you have questions :)
  • PS: the cookie/cupcake stand in the photo above is from Crate & Barrel (fall 2014).

Omi’s Sugar Cookies
Print Recipe
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes).


White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

** Note! I made two batches of this icing for this project.

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Cake Batter Halloween Cookies

DSC_1876x900I’ve blogged this recipe before — but I’m back at it again because it’s always such a huge hit. It’s one of Sally’s Baking Addiction‘s wonderful recipes and all I did was a little Halloween to the mix. But really. Make these cookies. Really. SO GOOD!

Cake Batter Halloween Cookies
Recipe source: Sally’s Baking Addiction
Print Recipe

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups white or yellow boxed cake mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (I used orange and black Halloween chips; plus a few chocolate chunks)
1/2 cup sprinkles (I found Halloween sprinkles at my local grocery store)

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed. Mix in the egg and vanilla until creamy.
3. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix!
4. Fold in the chocolate chips and sprinkles.
5. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour. (I let sit overnight) You must do this refrigeration step otherwise the dough will be too sticky and the cookies will spread.
6. Preheat oven to 350F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
7. Scoop rounded tablespoons of the cold dough onto the cookie sheets. Make sure that the balls of dough are taller than they are wide (I’m not sure how this works, but it helps to make the cookies thicker and they will spread less).
8. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks for complete cooling.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Pumpkin Mini Muffins

DSC_1170x900I know that I have professed my dislike of all things pumpkin many, many times on this blog. But these babies? They may have changed my mind. A little. Sort of. Kind of. I mean, I’ll still gravitate toward anything BUT pumpkin… but… these mini muffins were actually pretty good. My friend Andrea made them originally and brought about 80 of them to school. Our fellow law students descended upon her like vultures and the mini muffins were gone in about 20 minutes. I figured they had to be amazing and worth a try. :)

Pumpkin Mini Muffins
Recipe source: Sally’s Baking Addiction
Print Recipe

Mini muffins:
1-3/4 cups white-whole wheat flour (I used all-purpose flour; worked fine)
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup milk

Cinnamon sugar coating:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray mini muffin tin with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and stir for about 1 minute. Add the vanilla, pumpkin puree, and milk. Slowly pour wet ingredients into the dry. Stir together until just combined – don’t overmix!
4. Using a small spoon, spoon the batter into the muffin tins, about 2/3 way full. I used a cookie scoop for this — made it so much easier!
5. Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 6. While the muffins are cooling, make the coating: combine the sugar and cinnamon a small dish. In a separate small dish, melt the butter.
6. Once the muffins are relatively cool, dip into the melted butter and then into the cinnamon sugar.

Makes a couple dozen mini muffins.

Halloween Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

DSC_1468x900Did you like yesterday’s post but felt that there just wasn’t enough CHOCOLATE involved? Well I hope these cookies help! Basically the same concept as the cookies posted yesterday — but it’s a chocolate cookie dough instead. These are also a little more tricky to make, so read the instructions carefully. Because I didn’t the first time around. Whoops.

Halloween Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
Recipe source: simplygloria.com
Print Recipe

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 plus 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
1-1/4 cups (14-ounce can) sweetened condensed milk
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips, divided
18-20 Oreos
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate and orange colored morsels (found mine at Target)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking cocoa, and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl.
3. Melt butter in a large sauce pan on medium heat. Take off heat and add 1 cup of chocolate chips and stir until melted.
4. Pour sweetened condensed milk into the melted chocolate mixture. Add vanilla and beaten egg. Stir.
5. Gently fold in the flour mixture into the chocolate in the sauce pan. Once all combined, stir in the rest of the chocolate chips.
6. Use a large cookie scoop and put the each ball of dough onto a large baking sheet. Put a sandwich cookie right on top and gently pushing it down. Fold over the cookie dough and roll it up over the sandwich cookie. Cover the tops with chocolate morsels. [This step is important! The folding of the dough over the top of the cookie is important! If you don’t do it like this, you’ll have sad looking cookies — trust me… I failed the first time around!]
7. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 10-12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool completely on wire racks. Enjoy!

Makes about 20 cookies.