About a month ago I was on Pinterest (my husband calls me a Pinaholic) browsing through the wonderfully picturesque food recipes when I stumbled across a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Mini Donuts from baking bloggers Blue Eyed Bakers. They looked and sounded delicious! I HAD to make them. After searching for a mini donut pan, I settled for a mini muffin pan (assuming that I would get more use out of it). I followed the recipe exactly, taking the different baking times for muffins versus donuts into consideration. They came out of the pan perfectly after 13 minutes and they looked amazing! The hubby waited not-so-patiently for them to cool enough to swallow (chewing for him is overrated).

Finally we were able to taste this long-awaited recipe and…I was tremendously disappointed. They didn’t taste quite like I expected I guess. They had been baked perfectly and were moist…but not nearly pumpkiny enough! I wanted it to taste like a harvest-scented candle in my mouth! So even though this blog post was long overdue (sorry Ash), I decided to tweak the recipe to make it all I could hope for…like a pumpkin pie muffin. So please enjoy my creation!

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Like I’ve said before (and I know I sound like a broken record, but whatever), two of my fave things about Fall are boots and Pumpkin Spice Latte’s. I haven’t actually taken my boots out of hibernation yet, but now that it’s October (what?!), it’s probably time. I do, however, seem to be spending my entire salary on Pumpkin Spice Latte’s. I try to resist, but they are just so damn good addicting. My car just drives itself right to Starbucks. Weird.

But now I need to think about trading my PSL fund for a Christmas fund …only 84 days left! So this is an economical recipe decision. And it’s been a while since I’ve baked, so I’m easing myself back into it with this very simple, very delicious, very versatile recipe.

There are a lot of pumpkin spice syrup recipes in the blogosphere. Mine’s not that much different, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth sharing! The syrup is incredibly easy to make, and you probably already have most of the ingredients. Plus, it can be used on anything. I’m using it to make a latte, but I imagine it would be amazing on pancakes or oatmeal. Or in ice cream or yogurt. Or in a martini. Or straight out of the jar (with some whipped cream, of course). So, yeah, pretty much anything.

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I’ve been majorly slacking with the baking lately. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, you know? But when your husbands coworker asks if we’re having marital problems because I haven’t sent him to work with any treats lately, then I guess it’s time to get back in the kitchen! And since Jake’s coworker’s favorite baked good is flourless chocolate cake, that’s what I made. With a typical me twist: almond.

I haven’t made this cake in a while. I used to have an amazing family recipe that was written on a post-it. I had it memorized, but somewhere over the years, the physical (and mental) recipe got lost. And it was GOOD. And EASY. So I haven’t made one since, hoping that the recipe would one day come back to be. But it hasn’t, so I started with what I remember being the closest thing – a recipe from Williams-Sonoma. I also used a mixture of Mast Brothers chocolate, a local company  based out of the Bronx. Mainly because I couldn’t resist their pretty packaging…not that you taste the packaging in the cake, but quality chocolate definitely makes it better!

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{ Our usual blog swap with the ladies at A Good Hostess will be taking on a new spin from time to time. If there’s one good thing about the time Lena and I spend together, it’s all the bitching that gets done. But bitching, while incredibly therapeutic, isn’t that productive. So while we bitch, we will bake. }

M: So I suppose it’s safe to assume a good hostess should be able to prepare a homemade dessert and not serve chocolate bars as I have been known to do. Ash was nice enough to walk me through a super easy recipe. I, of course, only helped by providing one ingredient: the alcohol. Typical. I may have stood to the side lines for our first try and let you run the show. I have a feeling next time my baking coach is going to be rougher on me.

Ash: I thought this exercise would be a bit more hands on and not as much of a spectator sport. But that’s ok. The goal was to show you that baking something from scratch is not that difficult. And we started with something that looks harder than it is: biscotti. The thing about baking is that you just need to follow instructions.

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I’m not Irish. Not even on St. Patty’s Day. Maybe it’s because I’ve never developed a taste for Guinness. (Although Baileys is a totally different story.) But Guinness in my cupcakes? That I like. And by like I mean love. I made these Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream Frosting for the first time last year and I have to say, they were pretty amazing. And even though they would be good to eat year round, I waited an entire year before making them again. And in that year built up super high expectations. But I’m happy to report that these are still my favorite cupcakes. Ever. And I eat a lot of cupcakes.

As usual, I’ve totally slacked and meant to post this recipe last week. But like I said, they would be good year round! Even though the name makes them sound dense and rich, they are actually light and moist (sorry, I hate that word, but it’s true) and you can totally eat half a dozen without feeling gross. (Which I may or may not know from experience…)

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