Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Unfortunately I have no kitchen at all at the moment, so cooking isn't a possibility. See what I mean:

But I did get into the spirit. I was Vincent Van Gogh and Stella was a sunflower. Isn't she cute when she's perturbed?!

My Pantry

We are still working on the kitchen, but my pantry is (nearly) finished! I thought I'd share my two favorite fun touches. Look at all that candy and chocolate all neatly put away in mason jars.

And my favorite thing: a cork board for my cookie cutters. I think I need more cookie cutters now...

Birthday Cake with Kahlua Ganache

I made this ages ago. Seriously it's been a couple of years, but I didn't really have the blog going then so I didn't post it. It's just too good not to post here, so here goes. This was magnolia bakery white cake, filled with layers of chocolate ganache flavored with plenty of kahlua. The cake was decorated with vanilla buttercream and a couple of roses--gumpaste and modeling chocolate. I wish I'd done a thicker coating of buttercream (you can see the ganache layers through the buttercream) but I was running low on it and I wanted to practice my piping skills. Ah well, it was still delicious and my aunt (it was for her birthday) loved it!

Almost-Healthy Breakfast Sandwich

I like breakfast for dinner--waffles, pancakes, french toast, etc. But of course one can't (or rather shouldn't) eat those things for dinner very often. So this is breakfast for dinner in a healthier fashion.

This is toasted Pullman bread with Dijon mustard and Parmesan spread (I made that), some crumbled cheddar (because you can't have too much cheese), crispy bacon, egg, and spinach. By the way, I fried the egg and, just before it was done, I broke the yoke so that it was still soft but not runny. It wasn't really as filling as it could have been for dinner, but I'd definitely do this for lunch in the future.

Pumpkin Bundt

See?! I'm really on a pumpkin kick. This pumpkin bundt was so insanely moist. And the glaze was very simple. Just warm cream cheese, powdered sugar, and a healthy dose of vanilla extract. That's it. Simple and yummy. (I promise I'll write more one of these days, but things are so hectic right now I'm happy I'm just getting photos on here.)