Fall

I love fall.  Even more now that I've hired someone to rake the leaves that start falling in August and end in January! 

I love all the fun things to cook in fall.  The flavors of fall cooking just speak to me.  The pumpkin, the cranberries, pies and stuffing....yum! 

I found a great recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies that I made for the kids classes at school.  How can you go wrong with pumpkin and chocolate? 

I was also 'hired' to make some cakes for a stake primary training meeting.  The only instructions I was given were that they needed 2 cakes, one had to be chocolate, and they both had to look better than a vanilla wafer!  both cakes were the same on the inside--devils food marbled with a french vanilla cake and a raspberry filling.  Chocolate buttercream was used to ice the cakes.

 I made all the decorations out of marshmallow fondant.  I really love this cake, I think it might be one of my all-time favorites.

The chocolate has chocolate shavings on the side.  This was my first time doing it and next time I would use dark chocolate to get a better effect...but it tasted good!  My dad came over to babysit for me to go to the meeting and liked the cake so much that I made him another one for his birthday a couple of days later.

Now I'm thinking of Thanksgiving...pies and dishes that I love to make.  I asked all the kids what their favorite pie was so I could make it:

• Carter:  Pumpkin
• Caroline:  Apple or Chocolate Pudding
• Alex:  Pumpkin (his usual answer is whatever Carter has answered!)

Next I asked the kids what one thing they really wanted to eat at Thanksgiving.

• Caroline & Alex:  Suffing
• Carter:  Turkey

I told them they would for sure have those to eat!

Interrupting my baking is my ever growing list of gifts to make for Christmas...that is creeping up faster than I would like and while I have a great list, unfortunately I have not made a single thing on the list!