Yummy Halloween Cupcakes

Its a lazy Saturday afternoon. Nothing to do, other than watch college football. So, we decided to make cupcakes, lest you think, after that last post, that I'm super-duper healthy (I really only eat all that veggie soup, so I can justify dessert). Only, I didn't have a cake mix in the pantry. Luckily, allrecipes.com has always been a good stand-by for easy recipes. I picked this Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe - the very first one that came up with a search. I'm not much of a baker, but this one seemed pretty simple. The girls and I pulled out the mixer, and went to work - each girl adding ingredients one at a time (we have to take turns). I even had a healthy supply of Halloween cupcake wrappers from last year. Perfect.


The girls love to help dump the ingredients in (this is a very easy recipe). They also love to lick the bowl - maybe too much. Check out Bryn's eyes - those are CRAZY eyes! No doubt, made crazier by an overdose of sugar and chocolate. I hope this wasn't a mistake . . .

Also, notice how matchy/matchy my girl are. This was a total accident. I promise ;-)

The cupcakes go into the oven, and I had to cook them a couple minutes longer than the recipe called for. I don't know if that is because of the recipe itself, or just high altitude (I usually forget to adjust for this).

While the cupcakes are baking, I mixed up some cream cheese icing, dyed orange of course. I don't really have a recipe for this either (are you sensing a pattern yet??) But, its basically a bar of cream cheese (fat free of course), 1/2 a stick of real butter, a cap-full of vanilla, and powdered sugar. Oh, and food coloring of course. Of course.

Now its time to decorate! This is serious business. Notice the lack of CRAZY eyes?

The girls' cupcakes turned out very unique, and covered in candy. Ew. We'll be sharing the ones that mommy made (see top of page) because I can't be sure these are safe.

Note to self: orange frosting looks a little on the peachy side. Next time, more food coloring!

Pumpkin Patch

My mom and I took the girls to a local pumpkin patch, and then did Halloween mani/pedis. What else is there to say?

My favorite time of year

This morning when I woke up, the air was cold and crisp – the thermostat on the car said 42 degrees, and I had to dig out jackets for the girls to wear. There was a fine dusting of snow on the peaks of the mountains. My beautiful purple-robed honey locust tree is just starting to show the faintest hint of yellow. On the way to work, I saw a flock of geese headed south. There’s no denying it – summer is over – and I couldn’t be happier about it. I love the change of seasons, but most especially the change from summer to fall. I’m really not a warm weather person. I much prefer sweater and soup weather to shorts and snowcones. In fact, sometimes I think I have seasonal affective disorder in the summer, because nothing makes me more depressed than day upon day of clear, blue skies and hot, sunny weather (something we have an abundance of here – I know that I’m crazy). I actually get cheery when it’s gloomy and gray outside.

I think that my girls are catching on too. G right now is obsessed with the weather and seasons, and can hardly wait for the snow to fall (I think part of that is her excitement for a new, pink, fur-lined parka that I bought her at the end of last season). We really need to find a way this weekend to go for a drive in the mountains before the leaves are all gone, because once it really snows up there, the leaves will be gone for good.

There’s no way I could live somewhere that doesn’t have seasons. How boring would that be?