My Favorite Fall Treats

We have been eating lots of fun fall treats this month. Most of them are already posted on this site, so I thought I would just give you some links to some of my favorites in case you are looking for some dessert ideas. I'm hoping that next week I'll get my favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe posted.  Let me know if you try something you like.

* Pumpkin Bars

* Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

* Awesome Sugar Cookies

* Crockpot Peach Pie

Buttercream Frosting

I've been searching for a homemade frosting recipe that tasted great but also had a good consistency to use in a decorating bag. Found!!! This stuff is fabulous and pretty versatile. I used it on a cake a few weeks ago and then again on sugar cookies today. Delicious. If you make it just like the recipe says it's quite firm and easy to decorate with, but it thins out easily so it's more spreadable, too.

(I used Wilton's Sky Blue food coloring and bought that edible Tangled graphic on Amazon. It's not perfect, but my 4 year old loved it.)

Wilton's Buttercream Frosting

1/2 c butter
1/2 c shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract (I use almond extract...amazing)
4 c powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk

Mix all ingredients with a mixer. To thin, add milk 1 tbsp at a time to desired consistency.

Eleanor's Bake Shop

You guys! Today I discovered that I live less than 5 miles from an amazing, 100% gluten-free bakery and I never knew it. How is that even possible? I almost had a complete melt-down when I found out. I don't want any other Utah readers to be deprived of this fabulous place for another second, so I wanted to tell you all about it. Eleanor's Bake Shop is a family-run store that serves soups, sandwiches, pizza, and treats of all kinds. They gave me a free cake-pop (because I was a 1st timer) and that thing was down-right amazing. Life changing. Seriously. Between my little family of 4 we tried a cinnamon roll, brownie, and frosted sugar cookie. It was all fantastic. I can't wait to get back there and try the lunch food as well as more treats. On their website I found a "Daily Menu" tab that tells you what flavors of each thing they are offering for the day. I love that feature. A friend of mine told me about this place today and said she's bought their Birthday cakes and they were incredible. Delicious as well as nicely decorated. Did I tell you they do wedding cakes? How about that there's a little play area for kids? Isn't this amazing information?! Go try it. Let me know what you think!

Pumpkin Pancakes

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I love all things made of pumpkin. When they turn out right. I’ve been looking for the right pumpkin pancake recipe and I think I finally found it! I made them for my family a few days ago and I instantly loved them. Imagine my disappointment when I asked my husband what he thought and his response was, “They’re…different.” Good-different? “It’s just like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast.” Umm, exactly. Some people don’t like dessert for breakfast. I am not those people. Whatever time of day you want to make them, they are fabulous. I got the original recipe at Baking Bites and converted it to gluten-free, so if you’re a gluten-eater, just use the original from their site. Happy Fall!

Pumpkin Pancakes
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3/4-1 cup milk
1 tbsp oil (I used beans, of course)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. In a medium bowl mix all wet ingredients until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into dry mixture and whisk until well-combined.  Heat a non-stick skillet to medium-high. Pour dallops of batter onto pan. Reduce heat to medium. Cook until golden and flip to cook the other side until golden. They may turn a little darker than regular pancakes, especially because they are kind of thick and need to cook a little bit longer. Serve with maple syrup.
I stored the leftover in ziplocks in the fridge for a few days. They heated up well in the toaster and they were a great snack straight from the fridge. I hope you love them!

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

October is my very favorite month. I love the whole thing. We celebrated it’s arrival this week with our first new fall recipe and boy, was it a good one! I love pumpkin but I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of a pumpkin chocolate cake. I’m a definite believer now. I originally found this recipe on Gluten Free Mommy, but I changed it a little to use the ingredients I prefer.  I used to always just use store-bought all-purpose gluten-free flours in baked goods, mostly because recipes with lists of several flours was so intimidating to me. It worked okay. This year I’ve made a much more solid effort to branch out and try new things. I strongly suggest doing that if you haven’t already. For one thing, the store-bought all-purpose mixes are so expensive. For another, using other flours sometimes gives you much better texture. For example, I have fallen absolutely in love with sorghum flour. I don’t know all the science behind gf flours, but I can tell you that my cakes, breads, etc are so much better with sorghum flour. I’m so glad I finally tried that. Gluten-free baking isn’t nearly as scary as I always thought. Okay, lecture over, on to baking:

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

2/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup butter, softened (I used pureed black beans….worked great)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside. In your mixer, beat the butter (or beans) until fluffy. Add the sugars and mix well. Add the vanilla, then eggs, one at a time.  Add the pumpkin and milk. Mix well. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Pour batter into two greased 9 in cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 min (mine was done in 30). Remove from oven and cool ten minutes. Invert pans onto cooling rack and wait until completely cool to frost.
Oh, the frosting. It’s fantastic. But if you don’t have everything on hand, I think this one would be great, too.


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

4-5 cups powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp orange juice
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
Place all ingredients in mixer and beat to combine, but don’t overbeat.

I only frosted half, then froze the other half and the left-over frosting so we can eat again next week. Can’t wait.