Easy Pumpkin Crumble Cake

Greetings, friends! About a week ago I was busy making this pumpkin crumble cake to have for Thanksgiving dessert with my family the next day. The adjective easy is incredibly accurate for this dessert. Talk about simple! This recipe was just what I was looking for - no fuss ingredients, takes very little time, and delicious, of course! Delicious is always a requirement.

This recipe is from the tried and true, always yummy blog, Our Best Bites (I've mentioned this one a few times before). The original recipe can be found here but I've written it below for you as well. Note: part of what makes this so easy is that it uses yellow cake mix. Although I do love making things from scratch, you also know that I love a shortcut from time to time (as evidenced by my beloved cake mix cookies here, here, and here!).

Ingredients:

-1 box yellow or white cake mix (I used an 18.25 oz. box of yellow)

-1 to 2 sticks of butter (see notes in instructions)

-1 can pumpkin (15 oz.)

-2 eggs

-1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)

-1 tsp. cinnamon

-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

-1/4 tsp. ginger

-1/8 tsp. cloves

-1/8 tsp. nutmeg

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/3 cup chopped pecans

-1/2 tsp. additional cinnamon for topping

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 2 cups of the cake mix in a bowl. Cut in 3 Tbsp. of chilled butter. I used my fingers (as the original recipe suggests) to crumble the butter into small pieces. Place this cake mix and butter mixture in the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan (I greased mine even though the recipe didn't specify) and press flat with your hands/fingers.

Mix the pumpkin, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and spices until smooth. Pour on top of the cake mixture in the pan. Take the rest of the dry cake mix and mix in 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Sprinkle it all over top of the pumpkin mixture. Before you put the remaining cake mix in the pan though, measure it so you know how much you have, and here's why: for every cup of cake mix, you'll need about 3 Tbsp. of melted butter. Since cake mixes vary in size (they're not all 18.25 oz.!), you may have a different amount of cake mix left than the next person after you use the first 2 cups of it for the bottom layer.

After sprinkling the cake mix and cinnamon mixture on top of the pumpkin layer, sprinkle the pecans evenly over top. Then, depending on how much cake mix you sprinkled on, melt the appropriate amount of butter and then drizzle the butter evenly over top of everything. That's it!

SPICES. :) I used more than what the recipe listed.

Bake for about 40 minutes or so, or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. Serve it warm, chilled, or room temp - whatever you prefer! I served it room temp on Thanksgiving. I also served it with cool whip, but you could definitely make your own whipped topping or serve it with classic vanilla ice cream or any other yummy ice cream flavor. Options options!!

Now, I have to confess that I somehow forgot to add the salt. Whoops! But, as far as the various ingredients go, that was a good one to forget since the lack of salt wouldn't affect the taste as much as say, a lack of pumpkin would. ;) Also, I didn't have pumpkin pie spice so I just added a little extra of everything (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg).

Super simple and super tasty. It was a nice change from the more traditional pumpkin pie (even though I love that too!!).

I made this the day before Thanksgiving which worked out well since I didn't take up any space in the kitchen or need to use any dishes on Thanksgiving day. I stayed out of my mom's way as she was cooking. :)

Easy as pie! ;)

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies

Greetings friends! Okay, so I have one more pumpkin recipe for you this week... So far this week I've given you a breakfast recipe of pumpkin pancakes, a dinner recipe of pumpkin mac n' cheese, an "anytime" recipe of pumpkin biscuits, and now I present to you a dessert recipe of pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies! In my opinion, I've saved the best 'til last. These cookies were AMAZING. And they're easy too! I used my shortcut of the cake mix cookie trick. ;-)

Please note that there is an asterisk by the oil... I'm updating this recipe as of October 2013 to say that it's recommended that you mix the cake mix, egg, and pumpkin first and see if the mixture sticks together and is moist enough without being too sticky. If so, you may not need to add the oil at all. Please use your best judgment with this. Everyone's kitchen and ingredients differ slightly. Thanks. :)

Ingredients:

-1 box (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix

-1 egg

-1/2 cup canned pumpkin

*-1/4 to 1/3 cup vegetable oil (*see note above about oil)

-3 Tbsp. sugar

-1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and grease two large cookie sheets. In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients (cake mix through vegetable oil). Start with about 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, but if the mixture doesn't feel like it's sticking together well or isn't quite moist enough, continue adding a bit more vegetable oil until it comes together nicely. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Form the cookie dough into 1-inch balls, and then roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture until it's well coated. Place on prepared cookie sheets, and bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until the cookie springs back if you touch it with your finger. Let sit for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.

For some reason I didn't think of this until after the fact, but you could definitely add cinnamon to the actual cookie dough too if you wanted to make them have even more cinnamon flavor. I'd say a teaspoon or so should do it!

I will say that these cookies were not super pumpkin-y, but the flavor was definitely there. The soft and chewy texture of these cookies is my favorite quality of them. Cake mix cookies come out great every time I make them!! And this new recipe is no exception. Next time you need a quick dessert, give these a try. You can whip up a batch in no time at all! And they'll be devoured in no time at all too. :)

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pies. They seem to be quite trendy right now and rightfully so. Who wouldn't want to eat not one but TWO cookies sandwiched around a delicious, sweet filling? It's like two desserts in one, and if you don't think too much about the fact that you're eating two cookies, you won't feel too guilty, I promise. ;-)

I made these carrot cake whoopie pies in my mom's kitchen last weekend when I was home in upstate NY. On Saturday night, my boyfriend and I were attending a potluck get-together, hosted by one of my good college friends and her fiancé, and I obviously signed up to bring a dessert! I decided to make something simple that wouldn't require me to transport too many ingredients from Boston to NY. I immediately thought of making a cake mix cookie of some sort, and thanks to inspiration from a delicious, recent post over at Eats Well With Others for carrot cake cookies with a cream cheese filling, I had the idea to make carrot cake cookies (with cake mix to keep it simple) into whoopie pies by adding a delicious cream cheese filling. You could easily just conceptualize these as the cookie form of a classic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (kind of like my Easter cupcakes this year!). :) 

Ingredients:

Cookies

-1 box (18.25 oz.) carrot cake cake mix

-2 eggs

-1/4 to 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Cream Cheese Filling (from Eats Well With Others)

-8 oz. cream cheese

-5 Tbsp. butter (I used unsalted)

-2 tsp. vanilla extract

-2 and 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

-1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Start out by making the filling since it should sit in the fridge for 30 minutes or so before using it. Combine the cream cheese and butter (both of mine were softened before I used them) in a large bowl and beat well with an electric mixer, about 2 - 3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla, and then gradually add in the confectioners' sugar until it's well incorporated and smooth. Lastly, add in the lemon juice and beat well. Let refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease cookie sheets. For the cookies, combine the cake mix, eggs, and oil in a large bowl, and mix well with a spoon or spatula. Drop by spoonfuls of desired size onto cookie sheets and bake for 9 - 11 minutes.

To make the whoopie pies, try to choose two cookies of similar size for each "pie," and spread about one heaping tablespoonful of cream cheese filling on one cookie and then top with its matched cookie. Voilà! You've got yourself a carrot cake whoopie pie.

This particular recipe made 24 cookies overall, which resulted in 12 whoopie pies (aren't my math skills awesome??). My ratio of cookies to filling was slightly off, so I had some leftover filling (there are worse things of which to have left over though ;-)). And by the way, I checked; there are no laws against eating cream cheese filling by itself with a spoon. Just sayin'...

If I had more time while making these cookies, perhaps I would have also added some shredded carrot to enhance the carrot flavor and change the texture of the cookie a bit. You could probably also add raisins or walnuts or whatever else you might typically add to carrot cake when you make it. As is though, these cookies were still great! The tasty cream cheese filling is really what made them awesome though, let's be serious. 

Pretzel M & M Cake Mix Cookies

Greetings yet again from the Barbershop! I wish I could post on my blog every day. Sadly though, I don't have nearly enough time to cook and bake a recipe that's worth posting every day...and in reality, I really don't have time to blog every day either even if I did have worthy recipes! But, I really love writing about my goodies and I do hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in the kitchen too. :)

Now, onto another sweet treat for you! You know how I love my cake mix cookies. When this girl's short on time and needs to make a quick batch of cookies, I often choose to use the tried and true cake mix trick. This recipe is another example of how creative you can be with cake mix cookies! 

I had purchased some pretzel m & m's, and although they are quite yummy to snack on by themselves, I had the urge to bake with them. I also had some Snyder's pretzels on hand and thought, hmmmm, why not put the two together in a cookie? :)

(Aren't those cute little bowls? My friend Steph sent them to me as an awesome thank you when I sent her some Pillsbury bake-off bars. Thanks, Steph! Love these dishes :)).

Ingredients:

-1 box yellow cake mix (this recipe would also be super yummy with a chocolate cake mix!)

-2 large eggs

-1/4 to 1/3 cup vegetable oil

-1 cup pretzel m & m's

-1 cup pretzels, crushed

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Mix cake mix, eggs, and oil with a spoon until well-incorporated. Mix in m & m's and crushed pretzels until they're evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets, about 1.5 to 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until the tops are very slightly browned. Let sit for 1 - 2 minutes before removing to cool completely on cooling racks.

I had fun snapping some pictures of these. :)

As with all cake mix cookies, they have a cake-like texture to them (no surprise there ;-)). Every time I make cake mix cookies, they're a huge hit, no matter what the combination of cake flavor and ingredients I add. Love love love these! The sweet and salty combo in this particular cookie was great, as was the fact that it had both soft and crunchy textures to it as well. A winner in my book (cookbook that is). 

See you soon!

Colorburst Cupcakes with Lemon Pudding Frosting

Cupcakes! I've heard that they're becoming less trendy than they have been in recent years (what?!), yet everyone in my world still loves them. So, I'll keep on making them. :)

I made these colorburst cupcakes about a month ago in mid-April (took me a while to blog about them, oops). I think they're the perfect springtime treat! Yellow, green, and blue are super springy colors, wouldn't you agree? They sure do brighten a dreary, rainy day like we're having here today in Boston...

These cupcakes are a brilliant creation of Our Best Bites, a great blog I've mentioned before. If you click on this link, you'll see some pictures of the bold, bright colors used in their cupcakes. They're so pretty! As you can see, I made my version of these cupcakes with yellow, green, and blue food coloring. I actually wanted to use red but I was all out of red food coloring! Oh well. Next time.

The process of making these is rather simple, but it is more time consuming than many other cupcake recipes. You could probably make several different colors if you wanted to, but I chose to just do three.

These cupcakes are great because they're fun and creative, but they're also great because they're delicious too! I probably could have used any number of vanilla cupcake recipes, but I chose to follow the one Our Best Bites used for their colorburst cupcakes. It's nice n' easy too because it uses cake mix (but it's doctored up a bit!). I used the Betty Crocker Spring Party Chip mix pictured below.

Cupcake Recipe:

-1 white cake mix

-2 eggs

-1 cup yogurt or sour cream (I used light, vanilla yogurt)

-1/2 cup milk (I used skim)

-1/3 cup vegetable oil

 Prepare cupcake pan by lining with cupcake liners of your choice. Combine all five ingredients and mix with electric mixer until incorporated (about 30 seconds). Scrape sides of bowl and beat on medium-high for about 2 minutes. Divide batter into separate containers according to how many colors you are making. Use food coloring to create batters of desired colors.

Put a spoonful of each colored batter into the pan one at a time, layering in whichever order you desire. I probably put about one generous tablespoon-full of each color into each cupcake in a regular sized cupcake pan. I also made some mini cupcakes, and I probably put just about a teaspoon or so of each color in those. After spooning out each color, you may want to spread the batter to the outsides of each cup since the batter is pretty thick and won't spread as well on its own. A good tip, offered by Our Best Bites, is to wet the tip of your finger and spread the batter that way.

Bake the cupcakes according to the instructions on the package, and cool completely before frosting.

I systematically layered the three colors in these 12 regular cupcakes cups so that each of the three colors would appear on the bottom, middle, and top layers four times each. :) It was a little bit tricky to keep track of what I was doing along the way! 

These cupcakes really puffed up! I love how fluffy they are (they tasted light and fluffy too!).

Pretty!

I put together a last-minute frosting for these cupcakes because I messed up the original frosting I made. :(  Tragedy in the kitchen = quick-thinking Colleen. I didn't have the time, nor the ingredients, to make a second batch of the frosting I originally intended to make. So what did I do? I looked at the ingredients in my cupboards and came up with a backup plan!

I ended up making a super simple lemon pudding cool whip frosting. It was a big hit with my coworkers, thankfully!

Frosting Recipe:

-1 package (3.9 oz.) instant pudding mix (I used lemon; you could use any flavor!)

-1 cup cold milk (I used skim)

-1/4 cup powdered sugar

-1 tub (8 oz.) cool whip whipped topping, thawed

Stir together the pudding mix, milk, and powdered sugar with a whisk for two minutes or until smooth. Mix in the cool whip with a spoon or spatula. Spread onto cupcakes immediately or store in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Once the cupcakes are frosted, they should also be stored in the fridge in an airtight container.

I made these the evening before they were consumed by myself and some coworkers... As you can see in the above picture, as the cupcakes sat overnight in the fridge, the colored sprinkles "ran" into the frosting! It ended up looking kinda cool though, don't you think?

I was sad when I finished my cupcake. :(  It was so yummy! I loved the light, airy texture of the cupcake itself, and the impromptu cool whip frosting ended up being the perfect topping for these cupcakes. It was very flavorful and refreshing - a nice change from other typical frostings!

These colorburst cupcakes would be fun to make for a birthday party (for kids or adults :)), or for a sports team in its team colors, or for any themed party or occasion really (pink and blue for a baby shower; red, white, and blue for Memorial Day or the 4th of July; etc., etc., etc.!). Lots of options and color combinations, friends!