'Cause We're from O-Hi-O!

This is it. The big one. The one we wait for all year. It doesn’t matter if it’s not really that important once it actually gets here. It doesn’t matter that we’re already headed for more greatness, regardless of the outcome. This is the one we want to see more than just about any other. It’s Michigan week. For those of you who aren’t from around these parts, or for those that are and just don’t care (blasphemy, I say! Utter blasphemy! Yeah, I’m talking to you Boyfriend), this is the last week of the regular football season for The Ohio State University. The week traditionally reserved to play our rivals, the Wolverines, better known as the Team-Up-North. Yeah. We don’t say the name here. They're simply the "Team-Up-North". We’re that serious about our football. Because we’re Buckeyes. Our mascot? Not an animal or a warrior. It's a guy named Brutus with a nut for a head. A little silly, but go ahead and laugh at us. We dare you. We may be useless, poisonous nuts, but the key thing to remember? We’re nuts. As in completely and utterly insane.

Baby Shower Treats!

Kelli’s cousin Stacey is having a baby! Due in late December, her baby shower was this past weekend. As soon as I heard she was pregnant, I wanted to bake cute baby stuff for her! I’d seen tons of cute ideas on the internet for adorable sugar cookies that I was dying for a reason to make! With Kelli as the party planner, we were ready for one awesome shower! With close to 50 invitations sent out for the event, we were going to need a whole lot of dessert. Sheet cake was the obvious choice, but who wants a plain, dried out, over sugary store bought sheet cake? Not me! Stacey’s sister Ashley wanted to make a cake in the shape of a monkey to go with the nursery theme, but all the designs we could find only served 8 to 10. That would be enough for the immediate family, so how about cupcakes for everyone else!

Apple Rum Cupcakes

Apples—another great flavor of fall. There’s nothing better the crunch of biting into a crispy fresh apple. Except maybe pulling that crispy fresh apple right from the tree with your very own hands. There’s just something about walking through the orchard on a cool fall day, finding just the perfect ripened globe on a branch sagging under the weight of its glorious treasure. Apple picking is something I look forward to every year. I love coming home with my bag of apples bursting at the seams from trying to cram as many as I could into it. Unfortunately this year, I only had enough time to search for the perfect pumpkin at Lynd’s Fruit Farm, so my apple picking has been limited to wandering the crisp, cool aisles of the grocery store in search of the perfect fruit.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Pecan Crust

November’s here, and with it comes the start of all the holiday baking! It’s a good thing I have all those goodies to look forward too, because I’m definitely not looking forward to the nasty weather that winter brings with it. Gone are the bright colors on the trees and the crisp hoodie weather I love so much. In just a matter of a few weeks the view outside my back window has gone from gorgeous to gloomy, I finally had to break down and put on an actual coat, turn the heat on in my house, and I was not happy the first morning I had to scrape frost from my windshield. I cringe every time the weatherman hints at freezing temperatures and the possibility of the first snow of the season. And I heard Christmas songs played in a store the other day. Oh no. Not yet. I’m not ready yet! Fall passed me by before I got to fully enjoy it! So I’m holding on for dear life to the flavors of fall. You might snow on me, but you’ll never take my pumpkin away!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Rum Frosting

It’s been nearly a month since Cupcake Camp, and I realized I still hadn’t put up anything about my Pumpkin Spice and Cinnamon Rum Cupcakes! Talk about serious slacking. I’m kind of disappointed in myself for not getting this up sooner, because of the two cupcakes I made for Camp, these were by far my favorite. (I actually had time to taste them! And eat quite a few…) Although Cupcake Camp is long past, and Halloween has come and gone, pumpkin season is still in full swing, so I’m not too terribly late!

Fudgy Brownies

Although not quite as fierce as the battle over the perfect chocolate chip cookie, brownie lovers have their own fight over the perfect texture of their favorite chocolatey treat. Some, like me, are fans of the fudgy, soft, almost underbaked bar, while others are fond of the more cakelike, thick treat. Some just go for the crunchy corner pieces first, leaving the softer middle behind. Some like nuts in their brownies, and others are completely opposed to the idea. Some like them topped with chocolate or frosting, others like the simplicity of an unadorned bite. But no matter what kind of brownie you enjoy, there’s one thing I think all brownie lovers can agree on—they’re delicious and utterly addicting. If given the chance, I could clean out an entire pan of brownies singlehandedly. But to be completely honest, I’ve never really made brownies from scratch. Other than the Mint Filled Brownie Cupcakes, there’s only been one other attempt at making brownies that didn’t come from a box in my lifetime. When one of The Girls, Dani, came back up to visit from Texas again this week, she put in her request for brownies, so it was time to learn how to make them on my own.

October Baking at a Glance

October has been a baking filled month. I don’t think I’ve baked quite so much in such a short amount of time! It’s been so much that I haven’t had a chance to keep up with all the posts that go with them! So I’m going to take the lazy way out, and roll them all into one big post—October baking at a glance.

Technically the very first thing I made wasn’t even in October. It was the very end of September for Boyfriend’s birthday—Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. It was the first time I tried using mayonnaise in a cupcake, and I have to say, I’m sort of hooked. They’re moist and delicious! There’s just the pesky little voice in the back of my mind that tells me there’s 10g of fat in a single tablespoon of mayo… and I’m using a whole cup to make 24 cupcakes… If my math’s right, each cupcake has roughly close to 7g of fat from the mayo alone. But I’m trying desperately to ignore that…