All Whisked Up - November

It's the November edition of the Wisconsin Whisk All Whisked Up Challenge! How this works is that Members of the Wisconsin Whisk group are blindly sent a blogger by the organizers and sent their info via email. We are to wander through their blog, learn about them, and cook one of their recipes.

This month, I was given YummySprout as my blind blog. Tara, from the Madison area, creates her own recipes, with the occasional inspiration from other recipes she finds online. She also teaches cooking classes at Whole Foods in Madison for children and adults. I love that she is getting the kiddos active in cooking at such a young age. This really instills great food choices at a young age.

Tara and her girls have some food allergies and intolerances that put them on a stricter diet -- soy-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Tara's blog is filled with amazing recipes that don't lack flavor or fun even with these restrictions.

Because I am a lover of all things pumpkin, when I came across her recipe for Pumpkin Honey Cake. I don't have a gluten intolerance so I used regular all-purpose flour in my recipe but that was my only edit to keep it as true to the original as possible.

The other great thing about this recipe is that I had all the ingredients in my house. My guy just moved in with me on Halloween weekend and that meant an influx of food items. I was very happy to make this cake to help empty my pantry.

I mixed all the wet ingredients together in my "new" bowls. My guy had some really wonderful bowls so I gladly donated my college-era bowls to Goodwill and used these wonderful ceramic bowls.

Cooking with pumpkin makes such a beautiful colored batter, don't you agree?

Something new that I have never done with a recipe before but might do this from here forward, putting some butter in the pan and place the pan in the oven while it preheats. This allows the butter to melt and coat the pan.

I couldn't help but watch this cake rise while baking in the oven. There was no need to burn my pumpkin candles while this was in the oven. My house smelt like absolute heaven!

I pulled it out at exactly 40 minutes and my toothpicks came out clean. The cracks on the top also let me know it was done.

I let it cool just a bit on the stove before sneaking a piece. I drizzled some honey over and dug in. This was excellent. It wasn't as sweet as a typical cake, but I didn't mind. The honey added extra sweetness to it.

My guy and the girls had a piece before school this morning and they too liked it. My guy told me it was more of a savory and not overly sweet treat but he liked it. I liked that there wasn't processed white sugar and instead used honey for sweetness. We did think that cream cheese frosting or a powder sugar drizzle would be awesome on top of this cake. This will definitely go on my list of fall treats!

I love being paired up with other Wisconsin blogs. It opens my eyes and belly to other's cooking styles and let's my kitchen adventures continue. So far, I am two for two on recipes that were enjoyable. Last month's Loaded Cauliflower Casserole will be added to the Thanksgiving table this year!

An InLinkz Link-up

Easy-Bake Oven???

Growing up, I never had an Easy-Bake Oven. I always helped bake with my mom and grandma  but I did want one. All my friends had them and they looked so fun.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to use one with my guy's daughters. And let me tell you, I suggest using the word "easy" loosely. Overall it's an easy process to make the food, but the oven itself is another story. And it's really time-consuming for the minimal amount of food you get at the end of the process.

We let each girl pick out one treat to make and although one of the girls picked out a chocolate cake ball treat, the package actually had red velvet mix in it. We improvised and went with it and she was happy it was red with pink frosting! Bonus win!!!

The girls did all the mixing, stirring, and pouring, and even started sneaking bites of the treats before cooking. My guy and I managed the oven because even though it's made for children, it still gets rather hot and adult supervision/assistance is a must!

We learned right away on the first cake that we (as adults) should have read a bit more about the oven. The first cake went in and 16 minutes later, came out raw. We accidentally slid it too far over in the oven and had it in the "cooling area." So back in the oven it went for another 10 minutes until cooked through. Then before the cake could be crumbled into balls, you have to let it cool completely. During this time, we started the second treat.

His other daughter picked brownie sandwiches, which involved mixing up brownie dough and frosting. We had to add a lot more water than the directions stated in order for the dough to form. Then there was flouring the child's hands, rolling the dough in a large ball, then cutting it and forming 12 flat balls with the dough and placing them on the pans. Each ball was about an inch around - such tiny treats!

And here is where we learned another thing about the Easy-Bake Oven. It truly can burn the food. I had issues getting the "muffin" tin to come out of the oven straight and I ended up getting one of the brownies stuck on something inside the oven. It came out with a scrape in it and the next thing I saw was a little smoke coming out of the oven from the food left inside. There is a collection drawer in the bottom, so this must happen from time to time and that's the only access you get to clean it out. The entire oven is sealed with screws, so you are truly at the mercy of the entrance and exit of the oven to see what you are doing. But this makes it very safe for the children to not burn themselves.

Once everything was cooled down, we let the girls add their own frosting and sprinkles to the treats and fingers were the chosen spreading tool. They both did a great job with their treats and we all shared the final product.

I will say that it is a lot of work for the minimal amount of food that you get from the oven. But the girls really loved it and seeing their smiles made it all worth it.

I definitely would like to bake with them in the future, but I'm thinking we make a batch or two of full size cookies that they can help with. You get a lot more treats from a full size recipe with just as many dirty dishes!

Harvest Time - Apple Cake

Fall is in full swing in Wisconsin and I am seeing apple picking and pumpkin farm trips on a lot of my Facebook friends' feeds these past weeks. I don't think I'll be making it to a pumpkin farm this year, but it was a great time last year. There are two pumpkins that my mom told me I could carve if I wanted to, so I'll work on those next week.

But I was able to use a few apples from a local orchard (Patterson's in Greenfield). I came across this recipe from Lui in Cucina through my blog searching and Pinterest and although this was called a cake, it looked like bread to me and that drew my interest.

It was a recipe that sounded simple enough that I would make it for my boyfriend while he recovers from rotator cuff surgery. I didn't remember the small step of using an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar, so I attempted it by hand.

I think I did a great job because the batter ended up looking normal.

 Mixing up the brown sugar and cinnamon was much easier :)

 And I almost forgot the flour the pan - that could have been disastrous!

Then it's as simple as combining the rest of the dry with the wet and getting it in the pan.

You put half the batter in the pan, then add half the chopped apples and half the cinnamon mixture.

 And repeat!

 On this layer you have to push in the apples a bit more so they cook into the batter.

40 minutes later and I was able to have a bite of the best apple cake I have had! It was moist and solid like a pound cake but juicy like cake.

It was gone in just a few days!

I am so thankful for places like Pinterest and blogs so I can try new recipes that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. Visit Lui in Cucina for the complete recipe. You won't regret it!