Pumpkin Muffins

My absolute favorite fall flavor is pumpkin; I can’t get enough of the stuff. You can put it in pie, cookies, cake, even butter and I’ll eat it! This week though I needed a quick breakfast option, so I chose muffins. Mmmmm cake for breakfast -- you can’t go wrong with that!

I picked this Ellie Krieger recipe and made a few changes to it after reading some of the comments. The original recipe calls for pumpkin seeds to be sprinkled on top of the muffins. I didn’t have any, so I subbed in chopped walnuts. I also doubled all of the spices to make it extra flavorful and added in some raisins.

There’s no other way to say it other than I adore these muffins! They are so light and spongy, even though they have whole wheat flour in them, and the pumpkin and spice flavor is right on. It’s pumpkin perfection!

Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from Ellie Krieger’s Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin, vanilla and raisins. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the walnuts. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

Giada’s Halloween Spice Cake

Happy Halloween! This spice cake recipe from Giada De Laurentiis is really easy to pull together and has a nice flavor, but the best part is the heavenly smell it creates in your house. Mmmmmmm. After first seeing the cake on the Tricks or Treats episode of Giada at Home, I knew I wanted to try it. It mostly uses pantry staples, so I walked into my kitchen and voila I had all of the ingredients on hand. Score!

This cake does require a bit of measuring, but once you have all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, it really comes together in a snap. In reading the online reviews, I noticed a lot of people had some problems with the cake taking longer to bake than listed in the recipe. I actually didn’t experience that problem, and my cake took only 45 minutes until a toothpick came out clean and the cake had a gorgeous, crispy top. It was sporting a nice rise in the oven, but unfortunately as I left it cool, it sunk a little, leaving me with a denser and moist cake.

I really liked the flavor of this cake though. It’s unlike any other spice cake I can remember. I think adding the cocoa powder not only gives it a nice dark color, but also helps to deepen the flavor. I found it to be really similar to gingerbread. We served it sprinkled with powder sugar and also a little whipped cream.

All in all, I thought it was a great Halloween cake.

The scariest part of Halloween though was my kitchen! I am the world's messiest baker…. ever!

Happy Trick or Treating everyone!

Halloween Spice Cake
from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients

* Butter
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
* 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
* 2/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* Powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions

For the cake: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.

In a large bowl, beat the sugars, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla extract to blend. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake for 10 minutes. Unmold the cake and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar and cut into slices for serving.