Pumpkin Muffins

Well, I had left over cream cheese frosting from the red velvet cake that I did not know what to do with. I decided I was going to bake pumpkin cupcakes and frost them with the rest of the cream cheese frosting. I didn't know it would be so hard to find pumpkin in the store! I couldn't find any pumpkin, so I had to settle for a pumpkin bread mix. I really wanted to make my pumpkin cupcake recipe, but sadly I had to settle for this. They turned out okay though. I did add a little bit of my own touch to them - some golden raisins and the frosting with a sprinkle of cinnamon!

Pentecost Wind Chime Project

Pentecost is almost here! This is the project I am putting together for my 2nd grade catechism class to do this coming Sunday. Last year we made wind chimes so that every time we heard them blowing in the wind we would remember God. They colored a flame for the "fiery tongue" and a dove for the Holy Spirit. They pasted these onto a cross made of red, yellow, or orange foam.

This year, I decided to do the same project, but with some modifications. Instead of using chimes, I bought bells. I used the same foam crosses as I did last year. I attached the bells to a string and strung the string with 12 red beads to represent the 12 apostles and the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit. Instead of having the kids color, cut, and paste (this took way too long last year), I made stickers. I made flames with the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit and a sticker of a dove for the Holy Spirit. I think this change will make the project go a lot quicker this year.

The top two photos are the front and back of the wind chime we will be making this year. The bottom two photos are of the wind chimes we made last year.

Since I am new at this blogging thing, I do not know how to post my templates. I would be happy to e-mail them to you if you would like them though.

I have a few more things I am working on for Pentecost that I will post later.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

My sister was the inspiration for this baking project. She loves cheesecake and loves red velvet cake. I made her a New York style cheesecake one time just for fun and she reminded me of that the other day. I decided that I would attempt to make a new cheesecake for her and surprise her with this. I really had no idea how this was going to turn out since I sort of made the recipe up. I took a recipe that I have for a berry cheesecake and I decided to add my own ingredients to make it a red velvet cheesecake. I used Oreo cookies to make the crust instead of the traditional graham cracker crust. I then used a cream cheese frosting recipe that I have from a very good friend to top off the cake. I think it turned out okay for a first attempt, especially considering I made it up on the spot. I still need to make a few slight changes to make it better.

Cream Puffs

My best friend from college, Dorothy, and I used to have what we called "Iron Chef" nights at my apartment during our college years at UC Davis. We would stay up until 3AM or later baking with our "secret ingredient" (mostly it was lemon). Those nights were some of my favorite and best memories from college. We used to make cream puffs all the time. I had not made them since I left Davis almost 4 years ago. I decided that I would try to re-create those magical little desserts a few nights ago. Although it was not the same without Dorothy here to bake with me, I think they turned out okay.

New at this

I decided to start this blog as a way to share my two passions - GOD and baking - with anyone who is interested. I hope that some of my projects inspire you to create them for yourself, family, friends, students, etc. Enjoy!