TWD: Chocolate- Chocolate Cake

On Tuesdays, as well as TWD, I have Wilton Cake Decorating, for which I need to bring a cake for. That's why instead of cupcakes here, you see a cake. I added 1 tsp of espresso powder to the recipe to amp up the chocolate flavor.
Sorry for being late- I've been baking non-stop for a bakesale on Friday that supports my ceramics teacher.

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

I'm back. After three long weeks of barely any baking and absolutely no time to participate in Tuesdays with Dorie, I finally cracked down and made these muffins. It was well worth it. This was a recipe I had wanted to make on my first flip-through of the book, and thanks to Kelly from Sounding My Barbaric Gulp! I finally had all the motivation I needed to make them.
The sunflower seeds on top added an interesting crunch and flavor to the muffins. The muffins themselves didn't come out as orange as I expected, but that's not such a big deal. When I started getting out all the ingredients I found out that we have no nuts in the house except for hazelnuts, and those sounded wrong in these muffins. I left out the nuts and only added golden raisins. I used the large Oxo cookie scoop to fill the muffin cups because I read on the Q&A that you could fill these all the way and not have a problem with overflow. I also took most of the TWDer's advice on the baking time, taking out the muffins at 18 minutes instead of Dorie's recommended 25.
I don't know if this tops my mom's recipe for pumpkin muffins, but I will most likely make these again.

Cranberry-Orange Scones

I made these scones for my family's open sukkah today. Sukkot is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the fall harvest, and our temple selects families to welcome new and old members of the community into their sukkah. We have done this for the past couple of years, but I was in charge of the baking this time.
The recipe is from Simply Scones by Leslie Weiner and Barbara Albright and were the first scones I have ever made. They turned out really well, usually scones are too dry but these were the perfect balance of crumble and slight moistness. They're aesthetically pleasing too with their bright red flecks of cranberry and pale yellow crumb.

Wilton Class: Fondant & Gumpaste

TWD: absent

I'm so sorry I didn't make either the Creme Brulee or the Brownie Cake. School has gotten really busy with college applications and whatnot...those biscotti are mine next week!

Make sure to check out everyone else on TWD's blogroll for some delicious looking treats.