Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes for my Scrapbooking Friends

Last Friday night was my monthly get together with my scrapbooking buddies. After the huge success of this month's MSC: Challenge...Pumpkin Patch cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting...I decided that the cupcakes would be perfect for the occasion. I was right, all my friends loved the cupcakes.



(I am so proud of these pictures. When given the right light, I think my picture taking abilities have gotten better than they used to be!)

We had a few newbies to our group this month, four of them to be exact! One of the girls, Denise, was BRAND new to scrapbooking. She was starting with some paper, a few embellishments, and photos of her daughters. One of the layouts she was working on was of her two daughters eating cupcakes! I had just made a cupcake diecut using my Cricut machine, so I offered it up to her to use on her layout. I think she was so excited that I gave her the diecut! She did a great job on her first layout, and hopefully she will be back next month.

Chewy Pumpkin Cookies

Last week I read this incredible cookie recipe on Design Mom. Design Mom is one of the blogs that I read regularly via Google Reader. And although I'm not a Mom (yet!), I still enjoy her beautiful blog everytime I see a new post. So when I saw this recipe, I absolutely had to make it. And, lucky for me, I had everything on hand in my pantry.





Alex enjoyed them, and I he isn't a real big fan of pumpkin. Although, if I keep making my Pumpkin Patch cupcakes, I may be able to make him a fan! I took these to work the next day, and my crew seemed to really enjoy them. It makes me feel so good when my co-workers say that they enjoy my baking. :)

For the recipe and instruction, visit Design Mom's blog post here. If you make them, let me know how they turn out!

MSC Challenge: Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

October's Martha Stewart Cupcake Challenge, headed up by Betty at Eat My Cupcake, was the Pumpkin Patch cupcakes. This month's cupcake was selected by Kim at What The Whisk. Please pardon the crummy pictures...I took them at night in some bad kitchen lighting.

Okay, I've made plenty of cupcakes in my day. I've had this blog for about two years now. These cupcakes just might be best that I have ever made. The response by my co-workers was amazing. Well, except for the co-worker who is allergic to pumpkin.....good thing I told him what kind of cupcakes they were right when he was about to eat one!



I didn't have cake flour on hand, and I never have. Does that make me a bad baker? Anywho, I found the conversion on line and added corn starch to all purpose flour to make it the equivalent of cake flour. I thought these were fairly easy to make, and smelled fabulous while they were baking. I topped them off with the cream cheese recipe from the book, which is a great recipe, too.



I packed up the cupcakes in my favorite new accessory, my cupcake courier. I also packed a few extras in another box to take to my hair stylist (I had an appointment that day) and her staff. They loved them so much that I got an order to make them for the salon in November!


I will DEFINITELY be making these cupcakes again. For the order next month, of course. I'm also thinking about making them for Thanksgiving this year. Maybe I'll even make them into those adorable Turkey cupcakes on the following page of this recipe!

Workin' for the Weekend

The week that Alex and I got back from our honeymoon, things were very hectic at Wizetrade TV. We were transitioning into our new studios, and I put in 60 hours that week, mostly on the weekends. My co-workers and I were working long days to try to get ready for our launch on Monday. On that Saturday night, I got home around 8pm, and decided to bake for my hard working co-workers. This was the result:



Two pumpkin spice cakes. Mom and Lori surprised me with this bundt pan, and I love breaking in new pans! I brought the cakes in on Sunday morning, and they were a huge success.