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…


Those cupcakes were for Boyfriend’s actual birthday. I made these for his birthday party, which was the first weekend in October. Vanilla Cupcakes with Cinnamon Rum Frosting. I was testing out the frosting before Cupcake Camp, and oh man is it good. But I just have to say, Martha lies. This recipe for the Vanilla Cupcakes from the Baking Handbook was supposed to make 2 dozen. I’ve never gotten under 3 dozen out of it. And I thought I was bad at math.

The Vanilla cupcake recipe calls for 8 egg whites, which left me wondering what to do with 8 egg yolks. I remember Cassie from How to Eat a Cupcake having the same problem a while back, and making Challah out of it. So I searched through my cookbooks, and sure enough, there in Martha's Baking Handbook was a recipe for Challah, using all 8 of the egg yolks. With my newfound confidence with bread, I gave it a shot. It probably would have worked out really great, if my mom hadn’t shown up in the middle of it and sat and talked for a couple hours. Sharing the chatty gene is not a good thing while baking, leaving me with not enough time before Boyfriend’s party to bake the bread, and also allowing it rise to a mammoth size while I wasn’t paying attention. I threw it in the fridge overnight and rebraided the next day, letting it rise one more time. It still came out monstrous looking, but it tasted pretty good!

That was also the day of the Pumpkin Cookie Throwdown. So many pumpkin cookies came from this challenge. Between the 3 test batches I made, and my official entry, there were close to 125 cookies. And those were just what I baked. Kaitlin and Aunt Kelley both made about 2-3 dozen each as well. I’d be okay not seeing another pumpkin cookie for awhile. And I’m sure my coworkers, who ate a good portion of my test cookies as well as the leftovers of each of the entries, would be okay too.

The 2nd weekend was Cupcake Camp! I had two entries to bake this weekend. I made Wild Blueberry and Gouda Cupcakes, based on a truffle from Pure Imagination Chocolatier in the North Market, where Camp as held. I also made Pumpkin Spice with Cinnamon Rum Frosting for the harvest category. And I ate so many more! There were so many glorious cupcakes featured! I can’t even remember what all I had, but I know they were all delicious! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Round 3! And I have to start thinking of ideas!

The third weekend I had two things to bake for. The first was my Grandma’s 90th birthday. Originally my mom was going to throw a big party for her, with close to 50 people. I was planning on making the cake—my very first tiered cake. I was really excited about it, because I’ve always wanted to try making tiers (and almost did for Boyfriend’s birthday, but chickened out). However, a week before the party, my grandma decided she didn’t want a big affair, so it would just be a few people going to a nice lunch. With no cake. I did end make cookies though. Using the idea from my decorated cookies at the fair, I did some pretty purple and white birthday cookies, and snagged some cupcakes from my other baking endeavor that weekend, because what’s a birthday without cake! Even if you are diabetic and shouldn’t be eating it.

The other thing I baked for that weekend was an event at work. With the release of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, we held a release party, with a story time reading of the book, and decorated cupcakes like “wild things”. This one was my creation! The kids were so cute, and made some really awesome looking wild things! I almost feel bad for sugaring up the kids with tons of Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes, and a ton of candy to put on top and then sending them on their way! Almost. I’m just glad they’re not my kids. (Sorry to all the parents!)

October is the start of the new year for Iron Cupcake Earth, which I love being a part of! Each month we’re given an ingredient or a theme to create a fantastic cupcake out of. This month’s challenge is music, so I baked a cupcake based on the song “Walk Away” by Christina Aguilera—a Chocolate Stout and Irish Cream cupcake. Oh. My. God. These were so good. It’s a recipe from Timmura of Mara Bakes, who I met at the first cupcake camp. I literally ate about 10 of these in 2 days before I forced myself to take them to work to share. They’re that good. Definitely cupcakes you can’t “Walk Away” from.

The 4th weekend was our Halloween event at work. We invited little kids to come dressed in their costumes for a Halloween story time, go trick or treating throughout the store, and decorate Halloween themed cupcakes. I made Vanilla, Chocolate, and Pumpkin flavored cupcakes, with a wide selection of yummy Halloween candy to put on top! The little kids were so incredibly adorable in their little costumes. I loved the girl dressed as Little Bo Peep, with her little sister dressed up as a sheep. So cute!

The last week of October, one of The Girls, Dani, came to visit from Texas again. Instead of making cheesecake again, this time she requested brownies. Totally gooey and fudgy. Just how I like them. Mmm. Glad I took these to The Girls to share, because I would have eaten the entire plate.

It was an insanely busy baking month, but I had so much fun! And now I can’t wait for November and December and all the holiday baking I’ll be doing then!