Sister's Crafts

For my birthday my step-mother and sister bought me this pan from Williams Sonoma (you can find the link to their website here):
Super cute, huh? And it's supposed to make a cake that looks like this:

Again, super cute. Anyway, during priesthood session my sister and I got together to make this cake and also a craft. Before we started, however, we started to talk about jeans and how Old Navy was having a sale. We decided we would take a "quick" trip to Old Navy and check it out. That "quick" trip turned in to an hour and a half. We had a fun time talking and although neither of us bought jeans, I did find a sweater I really like.

When we got back to my apartment we had to hurry and get the cake in the oven. Luckily, when they gave me the pans they also gave me the ingredients to make a pumpkin chocolate chip cake with cream cheese frosting. All the ingredients were measured out for me. All I had to do was put them in my kitchen aid and pour the batter in the pan.

The recipe asks that you cook the cake for 35-40 minutes. It assumed your using a 9x13 cake pan and not a deep pumpkin shaped pan. My cake needed to cook an hour before it was done. By that time the husbands were hungry and tired. Angie and I let the cake cool for about 10 minutes and then decided to put it together. This was not the best idea. The bottom part of the pumpkin started to give below the weight of the top part. Once we put the frosting on top it looked like a big gooey mess. It tasted delicious though! Here's a picture:

Doesn't really look like a pumpkin, does it? That's okay. I'll be making it again. And maybe next time I'll just bake the cake without the frosting because the cake itself was delicious, moist and rich. The frosting made it a little too rich for my tastes. Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup solid pack canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Garnish:
2 tbsp mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 tbsp finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and butter; beat until creamy. Beat in eggs and pumpkin. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with milk. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Pour into greased and floured 9x13 baking pan. Bake ad 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack. :)

While baking, combine cream cheese, b utter and vanilla extract, beating until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar; beat well. Frost cake. Sprinkle with garnish.



Now, while the cake was baking we made some treat jars. The jars were purchased at Target for about $8 and the vinyl was purchased at The Quilted Bear for about $3. Pretty cute, huh? Oh, and we definitely gobbled the cake until we couldn't wobble anymore!

We were going to make another craft too but we ran out of time. All in all it was a very fun time and a great family tradition!