October's Over

And I think we all truly enjoyed this month.  It was a very busy one.  We had two family birthdays, a lot of Hallowe'en preparation, and finally Hallowe'en itself.  In our neighborhood, there are only really any trick-or-treaters up on Main St., so the kids ran off with dad and left me alone with an entire plate of pumpkin rice krispie treats staring me in the face.  My mission was to pass out candy to any possible trick-or-treaters, but we didn't have a single one while they were gone.

 If you don't know me very well, you may be wondering how one makes pumpkin rice krispie treats.  Well, I'm not entirely sure either, but somehow or another, I played with my marshmallow recipe in such a way that I ended up making marshmallows from actual pumpkin pulp.  I used all the traditional pumpkin pie spices, so it really was like a pumpkin pie with the texture of a fresh marshmallow.  After a weenie roast and a few pumpkin marshmallow chai lattes, I had just enough marshmallows remaining for a batch of rice krispies.  Seemed appropriate for the occasion.

Like I said before, October is a busy month.  Below, my mother's birthday cake this year...

I did this one much like a cake from a year ago.  It's a basic yellow cake with a crumb coating of buttercream and a poured coating of dark chocolate ganache.  I studded the top with gold, orange, and red roses.  This was my first effort at roses in such a long time.  I get out of practice, unfortunately.  Mom seemed very pleased with her cake, though.  I had long wanted to do this for her.  After all my life, every year a wonderful birthday cake made by mom, now this.  Me returning the favor.

Continuing along that same line, I made a lovely, though much simpler birthday cake the following week for my mother-in-law.  The main artistry in this cake lies in the extraordinarily lemony pound cake, made from scratch and filled with a layer of lemon curd.  I then sprinkled the top with powdered sugar and a handful of raspberries.  I think all the motherly figures in my life were pleased by their birthday cakes this year.  October is full of challenges, but I rose to them this year.  Including the insanity of carving four pumpkins.  What was I thinking?  Well, Michael and Bryce did help on some of this...