Sweet Potato Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! As if you haven't heard enough about food the past few days, I thought I would share a recipe I made for one of the Thanksgiving dinners I ate. I wanted to make a dessert that was somewhat seasonal, but I just wasn't feeling the typical pumpkin pie. After searching Pinterest for some inspiration, I came across a Martha Stewart recipe for Sweet Potato Cake. The recipe recommends a whipped white chocolate frosting, but I decided to modify my cream cheese icing recipe to make a maple cream cheese recipe. Everything was delicious. The cake was very moist and tastes similar to carrot cake or a spice cake, and the maple frosting complemented it nicely. I followed the cake recipe for the most part, except I left out the macadamia nuts completely and only made the cake a 2 layer cake instead of a 4 layer cake.

Ingredients

2 pounds (about 3) sweet potatoes
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
Unsalted butter, for pans
2 cups cake flour, (not self-rising), plus more for pans
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brandy
1 1/2 cups unsalted macadamia nuts, toasted, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Coat potatoes with 1/4 cup vegetable oil, and place on baking sheet. Bake until tender, 30 to 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove skin, and mash flesh with a fork into coarse puree.

2. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Butter two 8-by-1 1/2-inch round cake pans, dust with flour, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add remaining 1 cup vegetable oil; beat on medium speed until well combined. Add the cooled sweet potatoes; mix until combined.

3. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; mix into sweet potato mixture. Mix in vanilla and brandy until combined. Remove batter from mixer; fold in 1 cup macadamia nuts by hand.

4. Evenly distribute cake batter into prepared pans, and transfer to the oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let pans cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto rack; cool completely, about 1 1/4 hours.

5. Cut each cake layer in half horizontally, creating four layers. Spread 2/3 cup chocolate frosting on one layer, then stack next layer on top, and frost. Repeat frosting-and-stacking process until each layer is frosted. Spread remaining frosting on sides and top of cake. Arrange remaining 1/2 cup macadamia nuts on top of cake, and serve.

Here's a picture of mine.

Pumpkin Apple Pie

Ok so I cheated on the "21 Day No Junk Food Challenge." I just got a terrible baking itch last week. There was nothing I could do to get rid of it. I had to bake. After seeing all the pies at The Cafe at Williams Hardware, I knew I had to make one. I was in the mood for something pumpkin, but I also kinda wanted to make an apple pie. After searching a few recipes online, I decided to type in "Pumpkin Apple Pie." Several great-looking recipes popped up right away. My decision was made.

I found the original recipe at TasteofHome.com. I ended up changing a little bit from the original. Here is what I used.

Ingredients
1 sheet refrigerated pie pastry
2 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples.
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

PUMPKIN FILLING:
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

TOPPING:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
6 teaspoons cold butter

Directions
On a lightly floured surface, unroll pastry. Transfer pastry to a 9-in. deep-dish pie plate. Trim pastry to 1/2 in. beyond edge of plate; flute edges. In a large bowl, combine the apples, sugar, flour, lemon juice and cinnamon. Spoon into crust.

In another large bowl, whisk the pumpkin filling ingredients. Pour over apple mixture. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes.

For topping, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly; stir in walnuts. Sprinkle over pie.
Bake 25-30 minutes longer or until a knife inserted into pumpkin layer comes out clean (cover edges with foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent overbrowning).

This pie was super yummy! The perfect fall treat. I would definitely make this again.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

I've been getting a lot of recipes from Pinterest lately, which usually trace back to a recipe on a blog. Here's the thing with blog recipes - you don't always know if it is going to be good. While it may look amazing in the beautiful pictures posted on the blog (sorry, you don't get beautiful pictures on my blog), it doesn't always taste amazing. I try to sift through some of the comments on the blog post for any hints as to whether the recipe is good or not, but most people post things along the lines of "this looks amazing!" or "I can't wait to make this!" Those comments don't help me out very much. I've learned that sometimes you just have to take a chance and test the recipe out, not knowing how it's going to turn out.

I realize there's always a chance a recipe isn't good, regardless of the source, but I am more trusting when using a cookbook because I know the recipe has probably been tested multiple times. It has also been published.

Last week I saw a beautiful homemade pumpkin spice latte (PSL) picture pinned on Pinterest. Sure enough, the recipe was linked to a blog. I decided to take a chance and try it out. It wasn't very good and wasn't even close to tasting like a Starbucks' PSL.

 But I did try to take some pretty pictures...

I know, it's not the prettiest picture, but I tried. I should have piled the whipped cream higher. 

Later on the week, I decided to try a recipe a friend has posted on her blog. She had found the recipe online, tweaked it a little and had good things to say about it. I made it not once, but twice last week because it was so good. It doesn't taste exactly like Starbucks, but it's still delicious. Here's the recipe...

Pumpkin Spice Latte

makes 1-2 servings (more like 2)

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

4 tablespoons canned pumpkin (recipe calls for 2, but it needs more)

1-2 tablespoons sugar or sugar substitute (I put 3 Splenda)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract (not a mistake)

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee or 1-2 shots of espresso

In a saucepan combine milk, pumpkin, and sugar on medium heat and stir until steaming. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and pumpkin spice. Transfer to blender and process until foamy (15-20 seconds).

Pour into 2 large mugs and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, or nutmeg. 

PS- I will try to give you my honest opinion on recipes I post. Some of the stuff doesn't always turn out great, and I will tell you that! No reason for you to make something that isn't good. 

Fall, Food and Football

Those three words sum up my weekend. This cooler, crisp weather has been amazing! Also, my awesome roommate snatched the last two cans of pumpkin from the shelves of Wal-Mart for me. The best part about that is that I didn't even have to go to Wal-Mart! While Wal-Mart may have had pumpkin all along, I try to avoid going there at all costs. Yes, Wal-Mart is a great way to save money, but I also have to prepare mentally each time I go there and pray for an extra dose of patience in the morning. Especially at Christmastime.

Back to the current season. On Friday, I celebrated fall by going apple picking at Sky Top Orchard. Here's a few pictures from our afternoon...

This is me giving Andrew the usual "can we please just get one normal picture?" speech. He doesn't look too concerned. Notice there are not any other pictures of us on this post. That's because we never got a normal picture. 

My and one of my roomies

Yummy!

While I haven't made any apple recipes yet, I did make some delicious pumpkin cupcakes that I saw on this lovely blog. Here is the recipe...

Pumpkin Spice Cake

1 Package Yellow Cake Mix ( I use Pillsbury Moist Supreme Classic Yellow)

1/2 c. Granulated Sugar

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 can pumpkin (15 oz. pure pumpkin–we like Libby’s brand)

1/4 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 eggs

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine all ingredients in bowl and beat until well blended. Bake at 325 for 23-24 minutes or until cupcakes spring back to touch. Frost with your favorite cream cheese icing. 

These cupcakes were so moist and easy to make. I modified my cream cheese icing recipe from this post for the frosting. I honestly don't know how much I added, but I put a little canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon until I was satisfied with the taste and consistency. Here are a few pictures of them...

I definitely recommend trying this recipe if you are craving some fall food!

Saturday night I watched those Clemson Tigers win again! So proud of them!

Falling for Fall

Fall is here! Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love the leaves, the cool weather, fall clothes, fall recipes, bonfires and football games. I should probably also mention my birthday is in fall :) I am so ready for everything fall, but have been a little disappointed with fall so far. It's time for the SC humidity and warm temperatures to go. We have had quite a few rainy, yucky mornings here, and I like to sip my coffee inside and pretend that it 's cold outside. Of course, I am hit with reality once I open my front door. A girl can dream, right?

Another major disappointment has been the lack of pumpkin products at my grocery store. I have scoured the aisles looking for pumpkin pie filling during my last two shopping trips. They don't have it yet! I left the store disappointed today, my cart full of all the other ingredients for pumpkin pie cupcakes. I have two events this weekend I was hoping to make pumpkin cupcakes for, so I am crossing my fingers that they will get pumpkin pie filling later this week.

Even though the weather has been hot and I haven't been able to find my ingredients, I still have high hopes for fall. I know it won't let me down. Sometimes summer likes to wear out its welcome before it lets fall take the stage. In the meantime, I will prepare for its grand appearance by finding lots of fall things on Pinterest :) Here are the cupcakes I am planning to make...

I will be sure to let you know how they turn out!

How to decorate your Thanksgiving table

Thanksgiving is here! Well technically it's not here for two more days, but I have one more class until break so it feels like it's here for me. Some of you may be having family over and scrambling around for ways to try to make your house look "thanksgiving-y" (yes I just made up that word). Here are a few simple ideas that you could try. My cousin got married last weekend and my mom decorated the table for the rehearsal dinner. Here is what it looked like....

This look is really not hard to achieve. Here is what you need:

• Vases varying in height and size (most of us have a few random vases sitting around somewhere-now is the time to use them!)
• Fall-colored flowers-we used orange roses and reddish-orange gerber daisies. You don't have to go all out here-just go look at the grocery store!
• Greenery- go look out in your backyard! You made have some pretty trees that you can just cut a few leaves off of. If you don't have good trees, then just look for flower arrangements with greenery interspersed throughout when you are buying your flowers.
• Leaves and twigs-just walk outside-they are EVERYWHERE.

Now you get to be creative. Just start putting different flowers in different vases. It doesn't have to be this huge bouquet or have a pattern, just start creatively placing things. If you look at the pictures, you can see we just placed various flowers throughout the vases. Some of the vases have one sole flower in them, and some have a  mini-bouquet of flowers. Add some small candles, mini-pumpkins, or scattered leaves around the vases to complete the look.  These decorations are different from your typical cornucopia, and they also are cheaper and easier if you are trying to pull something together last minute. Good luck!

Fall is here!

So I have decided to give blogging another try. This summer I created a blog and wrote one whole blog post. So it's time for attempt #2. I am hoping this one will be a little more successful than the other one. I decided to create this blog to practice writing however I want, unlike all the writing I do for my communication studies. Another reason I want to blog is to write about all the things I don't always have the time or opportunity to do in real life, but still love to do. Things like decorating, baking, planning and decorating for parties, DIY projects, or any other artsy thing that inspires me. While I might not always have the time to do this in real life, I can at least pretend that I am going to eventually do everything I write about in the blog world. It probably won't  could happen, right?

Here in the south, it always seems like it takes fall forever to decide to make an appearance. I am always so ready for it to come-90 degree weather at the end of September is not fun. Fall is my favorite season-cool(ish) temperatures, scarves, the leaves on the trees turning brilliant shades of orange and red, college football, and of course, my birthday :). However, I think fall has finally decided to stick around-temperatures have been cooler and the leaves are starting to change! To celebrate the season, my boyfriend and I went apple picking last week at Sky Top Apple Orchard. Even though the leaves hadn't really started to change a lot , it was still a beautiful day and it actually felt like fall outside. We got way too many apples so we baked two apples pies to get rid of some of them. They also had tons of fun, fall decorations at the apple orchard. I only got one pumpkin to put on the porch but I would love to decorate my porch like this or like this...
                                     
However, I do not have the money or space to decorate like this, so my little porch with my lone pumpkin and my mums will do for now :)
Another thing I love about fall is all the pumpkin flavored things-pumpkin spice lattes (my favorite), pumpkin pie, pumpkin pound cake, and pumpkin bread to name a few. I have been making pumpkin spice coffee every single morning for the past few weeks and haven't gotten tired of it yet. Hopefully I will find some time to make some yummy fall treats soon. Might even post about them. We shall see. That's all for today!