Halloween Cupcakes: 2008 Edition

Farmer’s Daughter Bean here. I know it’s been awhile…but it’s too hot to bake during the summers in LA, so I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen. But now, with the harvest season in full swing, I figured it was time to make some goodies, and since my husband likes to say that Halloween wouldn’t be complete without my cupcakes…cupcakes it was!

First, I looked up some tasty recipes in one of my favorite cookbooks, Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans and came upon the Spiced Pumpkin recipe. Once I saw the pictures inside, I knew that I had to try these out! The batter looked so good I was dying to try some, but in my current state, I wisely resisted the temptation.

Tomás and my sister-in-law Laura — who were playing “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” all night while I baked — said the batter on the beaters was “delish”, so, I kept baking. Trust me, it took a lot of willpower to wait for the final product with Cream Cheese Frosting and cinnamon frosting spiderwebs, but it was definitely worth the wait.

The cake was very light and had just the perfect amount of pumpkin spice. I did switch it up a bit by omitting the crystallized ginger from the recipe, partly because I didn’t have any on hand, but mostly because I just kind of needed immediate satisfaction at that point. But the cupcakes still tasted great.

The other cupcakes I made that night didn’t turn out as cute. For that batch I used the Butter Cupcake recipe and the Cream Cheese Frosting from Cupcakes! again. They were supposed to look like little pumpkins, but the Tootsie Roll stems didn’t really turn out as well as I had envisioned them.

They still tasted good though, but Tomás and Laura (and later Ryan!) raved about the pumpkin spice…so, I’ll definitely make those again.

For those of you who have never baked from scratch, you must try it. And with the holidays approaching, there is no better time to crack open your favorite cookbook and give it a whirl. It takes a little longer, but if you like to bake, the results are totally worth it. Just ask the nerdy gamers in my living room!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Obama-Biden magnetic bumper stickers!

By this time next week the race for President of the United States will be almost over and Christine and I will be either dancing in the streets at midnight or moving to Canada. But whatever happens, we’ll always have the rocking Obama-Biden magnetic bumper sticker that arrived in our mailbox today!

Our neighbor turned us onto these cool magnetic bumper stickers months ago — back when they just said Obama — and we finally ordered one for ourselves last week. The coolest thing about these guys is that they don’t stick at all, which means no gross sticker goo on your car. Yay!

And as you can see, even our tiny Obama — still winded from his last-minute campaign jaunt up the coast — is excited about our new bumper sticker. Seriously, he was up all night trying to get Christine and I to drive him to Nevada to help secure votes. Man…that dude is persistent.

So though we don’t have the time to road trip it to Nevada like some of our friends, you can rest assured that we will be driving the hell out of our car this week to show this bad boy off. And if we change the hearts and minds of a few die-hard McCain supporters along the way…all the better!

Go, Obama!