Cupcake Birthday Cakes

 
Our family has grown so big that it's now beginning to be almost impossible to get everyone together on one date for birthday parties. We end up postponing over & over...

This weekend, we finally did catch-up and combined 4 birthday's into one party. Didn't want to bake 4 individual cakes (would have been too many leftovers) so I looked for ideas for arranging cupcakes and made cakes for 2 of the celebrants out of one cake mix. 

 

 



 My husband then made a rum cake for his dad & a vegan key lime pie for his vegan sister. We sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out candles four times in a row.

Jack-o-lantern Ideas

Jack-o-lantern Ideas, a photo by b-a-boop on Flickr.

My favorite part of Halloween is carving the Jack-o-lantern, well not so much the carving itself -leave that to my husband, but designing the face. I do have fond memories from childhood of cutting open the pumpkin and scraping out the meat with a spoon so mom could make us a pumpkin pie. We still use our pumpkin for pies and I've been craving one for weeks. Here are some of the many sketches from over the years of eyes, noses, mouths and whole faces we've come up with over the years.

Celebrating Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost here. We usually have a huge family dinner here at our house because we have the biggest dining room. For a few years now, my husband has been making a Maple Brine Turkey (it marinates for 3 days) So Good...But our oven has croaked and we are in the beginning stages of planning a major renovation to the kitchen. We only have a microwave to cook in, so we’re still waiting for the rest of the family to make a plan. Perhaps we’ll go out for once. But I’m sure either way my hubby will still be baking the traditional pumpkin pie (from the Halloween jack-o-lantern) and his delicious cranberry pie. Guess his mothers traditional squash casserole will have to wait till xmas.

Photo credit also goes to my talented husband.

P.S. as requested, here's the Cranberry Pie Recipe:

1 double pie crust (Pillsbury crust is good, and easy. It’s found in the refrigerated section at the store, usually near the cans of crescent rolls and cookie dough.)
1 cup sugar
¼ cup flour
12 oz. Cranberries (one bag, fresh or frozen*)
1 orange (about 1 Tbls. grated rind and ¼ cup juice)
½ cup golden raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg, (optional)
1 tablespoon water (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Fit one crust into pie plate. Mix sugar and flour and sprinkle ¼ cup of mixture evenly over bottom crust. Coarsely chop about half the cranberries. In a large mixing bowl, combine chopped berries, remaining whole berries, grated orange rind, orange juice, raisins, nuts, and butter. Mix thoroughly and pile mixture into pie plate. Sprinkle remaining sugar/flour mixture evenly over filling. Place top crust on pie and seal edges. If desired, brush the crust with a wash made by beating together the egg and water. Cut at least one vent hole near the center of the top crust. Place on a baking sheet in the center of the oven. Bake at 375 F for 50 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is bubbling. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
*If using frozen cranberries, DO NOT thaw them. Use a food processor to chop them or leave them whole.