Guest Post: Pumpkin Pound Cake

Today we're continuing on with our tour of guest posts!  I'm excited to introduce you to Amy of Sing for Your Supper today.  

As you can probably guess from the title, Amy is the author of a fabulous cooking blog!  I stumbled upon her doggie frozen yogurt bites recipe early this year and have been in love with her blog ever since!  My favorite thing about her blog is the organization of the recipes.  She makes it so easy to navigate so you can easily use your favorite recipes again and again!  But that's enough from me.  Amy, take it away! :)

Howdy! It's Amy of Sing For Your Supper and I'm thrilled and honored to be guest posting here at Crafty Critique! I'm an opera singing food enthusiast from Dallas who loves cooking, baking and all things gooey and chocolaty! I'm super lucky to be able to cook for my husband, Joel, who is the world's least picky eater! He always loves everything I make and even gets in on the cooking action sometimes as well! Our Schnauzer/Terrier furbaby and Sing For Your Supper mascot, Izzy keeps us on our toes and puts a constant smile on our faces! My food blog is just a simply gathering of recipes, photos and stories rich in warmth and memories. I love being able to share my recipes with family and friends and hope you'll enjoy! I chose to share my recipe for Pumpkin Pound Cake with you today because it's so perfect for this time of year. The weather is cool and crisp and I absolutely LOVE getting in my kitchen and baking up lots of sweet, pumpkin-y things! The cake is moist, a little dense and full of warm fall spices- plus, it's a real crowd pleaser! The perfect end to a dinner party or with a cup of coffee in the morning. I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we do!

Pumpkin Pound Cake

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup canola oil

3 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, cloves and pudding mix; add to egg mixture alternately with pumpkin, beating well after each addition.

Transfer to a greased bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Remove from pan and cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serves 12-16.

Savory Spice Shop (Picture and Text Heavy)

Last week this little thing followed me home and proceeded to live in my bathroom for two days until we found him a new home.

One of my friends over in St. Petersburg took him.  So, naturally, after my boyfriend and I dropped kitten off to his new home we had to stop and look at the little shops by the marina.  And that's how we came across this boutique called Savory Spice Shop.

It. Blew. Our. Minds.

The entire store is just walls and walls of spices.  Spices you've never even heard of.  They had big barrels just filled with cinnamon sticks and more varieties of salt than I even knew existed.  They also had all kinds of cocoa and sugar. 

You could buy your own small jar of spices, or you could fill these cute little muslin bags with different amounts of spice.  It definitely gave me some great ideas for  homemade Christmas gifts that I'm sure I'll share with you later this year!

 Each different kind of spice had suggestions on the label for how to use it.  They also had gift sets of various spices that they've paired for specific purposes.  Since it was just before Father's Day, I found the perfect gift set of coffee spices to give to my dad.  (He's replaced alcohol with coffee since he quit drinking.  Lol.)

What's cute about the gift sets, too, is that they separate each spice with Bay leaves and cinnamon sticks that can actually be used.  They also garnished the gift set with whole nutmeg, chili pepper and [insert something fancy that I forgot what it's called here] that can be used, too.

I wrapped it up and mailed it to him.  I also sent off a handmade card, but it was so ugly I couldn't bring myself to share it with you!  (P.S. The reason I'm just now sharing this post is because I didn't want to give away the secret before my dad opened his gift!)

Boy, was this a bugger to wrap!

And of course we had to get something for ourselves.  I picked out a chai mix.  They pre-selected all the different ingredients for you and put them in a bag with a recipe for you to follow.  Mmmm.

And Tyler, who loves baking chocolate chip cookies with lots of cinnamon, got this Ceylon "True" Cinnamon.  Did you know the usual store bought cinnamon isn't actually real cinnamon?  It actually comes from the cassia tree.  We bought this real cinnamon and haven't had a chance to use it yet, but it smells different (and more delicious!) than the kind of cinnamon we usually buy.

I was in heaven, and when I went home my fingertips smelled like spices.  My boyfriend and I rambled about how great the store was for about 15 miles on the interstate on our way back home.  I can't wait to visit again!

Hope you've been crafting up a storm while I've been off rescuing kittens and galvanizing in spice shops!

--CC


Note:  This post was not commissioned or prompted by Savory Spice Shop.  I actually loved it that much! :)

Friday Night Chocolate Chip Cookies

Friday night I decided I really wanted some warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I had a specific type of cookie in mind.  I wanted those tall, plump chocolate chip cookies with just a hint of salt.  You know...the ones that look like these:

Photo from Sing for Your Supper

I didn't have a recipe for said cookies, so I googled "tall, plump cookies," clicked on images and came up with this recipe from a blog called Sing for Your Supper.  I looked around and it's a fun little blog!  I especially want to dig deeper into some of the For Dogs Only recipes. :)

Anyway, at 10:30pm I got baking! (P.S. These pictures are terrible because they were taken at 10:30 at night in my poorly lit kitchen.  My apologies!)

The recipe called for melted butter (as opposed to softened), an extra egg yolk and a full tablespoon of vanilla to make the cookies bake tall and plump instead of spreading out.  Once your ingredients are all mixed up, you put a full 1/4 cup of dough per cookie onto your baking sheet.  Since my 1/4 measuring cup is permanently located in the cat food to make sure my fat cat doesn't get any fatter, I decided to use an ice cream scoop.  It worked great!

What didn't work so well?  The cookies didn't stay plump.  They spread out.

Way out.

I don't quite know what went wrong.  I don't think I can really blame it on the recipe since theirs turned out just beautifully.  I think it may be one of two things.

1. I added an extra little bit of salty to get that salty-sweet taste I was dreaming of.  
2. I didn't have any pure vanilla extract on hand and, since it was 10:30 at night, I had to use the imitation vanilla I found in the cabinet.  

Or I guess it could have been any number of things that I didn't think of!  Lol.  Any of you have an opinion?  I'd love to try the recipe again and see if I can get them to stay plump if you have any ideas!

Nonetheless, the cookies were delicious.  Chewy in the middle, crispy around the edges.  Warm and melty.  Mmmm.

So I enjoyed one (okay, five) with a glass of milk as a delicious midnight snack.

Hope your weekend was splendid and you've enjoyed some lovely craft time!

--CC

St. Patrick's Day Tutorial Roundup

St. Patrick's Day is just one week away now, but in case you're still searching for last-minute decorating or school party ideas, I've put together a list of great St. Patrick's Day craft tutorials for you!  Click on any image to be linked to the tutorial.

Of course, I've already shared my Shamrock Flag and Kirstikoo's St. Patrick's Day Garland with you, but Kirstikoo also has a great Shamrock Canvas Art tutorial you could display along with your garland.

St. Patrick's Day Garland from Kirstikoo

Going for a more natural look?  Try the Shamrock Grapevine Wreath from Mega Crafty or the Lucky Burlap Banner from Lemon Squeezy Home.
 

 Or try joining in the festivities with one of these great tutorials.

Lucky Bunting Wreath from Miss Lovie

Pot o' Gold Party Favor from It Is What It Is

Plaid Cookies from The Decorated Cookie

Shamrock Barrette from Holiday Crafts and Creations

Don't have much time to decorate for St. Patrick's Day?  Try these free printables!

Note that there are a lot of other great tutorials on that last link to The Tomkat Studio! :)

That's all I've got for you on the crafting front for now.  I'll be on a plane to California for a week this Saturday, so I'll craft with you again when I get back.  Enjoy these tutorials and have a happy St. Patrick's Day in the meantime!