Carrot Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

Hola!  I am still here.

J'existe.

It's been a busy, crazy fall.  Also, do you ever make a big plan to sit down and do something you're supposed to do, and then...

...just cross-stitch and binge-watch Friends instead?

CROSS-STITCHING!  It's coming back.  I can feel it.

I'm doing a street scene of a French flower shop(pe).

Between cross-stitching, I've also been making carrot cupcakes on an industrial scale.

Commissioned by the community-service committee in my church, I produced 150 cupcakes for an anniversary celebration.

It didn't take as long as I thought it would!

It's a bee theme, because service.  Keeps us busy.  Like bees.  You know?

Bizzy.

Mmmm carrot cupcakes!

Carrot Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

makes 24 - 36 (it's a big recipe!)

6 cups grated carrots
enough amaretto or apple juice to cover carrots
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisins
4 eggs
 1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

The night before, place raisins in bowl and cover with amaretto or apple-juice.  Allow to sit overnight.

The day of preparation, in a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar.  Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins.

Preheat oven to 350.  Line 2 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light.  Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla.  Stir in the pineapple.  Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, and stir into the wet mixture until absorbed.  Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts, if using.  Pour evenly into cupcake pans, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until cupcakes test done with a toothpick.  Cool for ten minutes before removing from pans.

Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
3 - 4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon milk
pinch salt

Beat butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together until well-combined, about 3 minutes.  Add vanilla, honey, milk and salt and beat until incorporated, about 1 more minute.

Chrysanthemum Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Flavored like pumpkin, frosted like chrysanthemums, that is.

Everything is all right tonight.  That's a nice feeling, isn't it?

Kids in bed, sleeping sound.  Roast chicken for dinner, nice neighbors dropping in and sharing it with us.

It's still cold, of course.  Always cold.

But I have a blanket.

Sugar cookies are probably my favorite kind of cookie.  I'll pick them over a whoopie pie, I'll pick them over chippers.

Sometimes I get a terrible craving for a gingersnap, but there's nothing like a smooth, buttery sugar cookie.

I thought I'd throw some pumpkin in, just to get my last pumpkin baking in before the season ends.  It was a nice variation on a settled theme.

It's a bit late in the season for chrysanthemums but you know?  You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit.

That's how it is in our house.

Now eat your cookie.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
adapted from The Wicked Spatula

Makes 24 cookies, cut thick

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves

Frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 - 4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a stand mixer, beat together your pumpkin, butter, sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla and eggs until smooth, about 3 minutes.

In another bowl sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and spices.

Dump dry ingredients into wet and mix until well incorporated.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll out dough, I like it thick so I roll it to about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thickness.  Choose your own adventure and adjust baking time accordingly.  Cut with flower-shaped cookie cutter (or whatever shape you want!).  Let your kid help.

Bake for 8 minutes, less for thinner cookies.  Just until barely golden at the edges.

Let cool, make frosting by beating together butter and powdered sugar for 3 minutes.  Add vanilla, salt, milk and cinnamon and beat for one minute more.

Frost!  And eat!  And share! 

Cinnamon Yogurt Twists

The weather is crazy!

This is the time of year I like to call "High Fall."

Its royal colors are iron gray and deep yellow.

My coat is deep yellow too!  But all the buttons are missing.  Can't have everything (don't wear your non-maternity clothes when you're pregnant).

There are frosty veins on rusty leaves when we walk to the crepe stand.

(They opened a crepe stand nearby!)

Fall is dramatic as an opera.

The down-side is the cold, of course.  It's started seeping in the windows and the places where you can see daylight in the doorframe of this 1970's house.

I guess I'd better get sewing those buttons back on.  And picking which knit hat I'll be wearing from now until April.

Cinnamon Yogurt Twists
taken from Taste of Home

Sometimes there is a fine line between a snack and a dessert.  These could even qualify as a breakfast, if you wanted them to.  They made a lovely snack or small lunch served with tea and pears.  Crunchy and sweet but not quite dessert sweet.  Cinnamon is the flavor of fall.

1 package (1/4 oz) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 - 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter, cubed
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

In a large bowl combine the yeast, salt, and 2 1/2 cups flour.  In a small saucepan heat the butter, yogurt and water to 120-130 degrees Fahrenheit, add to dry ingredients.  Beat on medium speed for two minutes.

Add the eggs, vanilla, and 1/2 cup flour, beat 2 minutes longer.  Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough.  Do not knead.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Combine sugar and cinnamon; set aside.  Punch dough down (whee!).  On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 12-in. x 9-in. rectangle.  Sprinkle 3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar over the dough; fold dough into thirds.  Give the new rectangle a quarter turn and repeat rolling out, sprinkling, and folding.  Do this three more times, totaling four roll-outs.

Roll into a 12-in. x 6-in. rectangle.  Cut into 24 1/2-in. wide strips.  Twist the strips!  (fun)  Place on baking sheet.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.  Bake at 350 F for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown.