Well, there certainly is laundry to be done around here but I will spare you that photograph.  I will, however, share with you these happy little gingerbread men that I made for our cookie exchange last week.  I found the recipe in Romantic Cakes by Peggy Porschen.  It worked wonderfully and tasted amazing!  All my little gingerbread men found homes in someone else’s freezer and they’ve never looked happier about it!  Do pick up Peggy’s book, it’s fantastic!

In other news poor Hooch has had his “snip snip” this week.  After jumping over my fence and spending a night out on the town (getting into trouble, I’m sure) he earned himself his delightful little surgery that I couldn’t have been more happy to schedule.  Mr. Cupcake couldn’t even argue with me about it this time! Ha!

So needless to say – Hooch has been a poor pathetic mess all week long.  Knocking things over with his cone and refusing to eat or drink unless spoon fed.  What a baby.  Although, maybe I should cut him some slack – I’m sure he had grown very attached to his “jingle janglies”.  (Tough luck, buddy!)

And to top it all off – our house is Christmas central this year!  I am hugely excited (and hugely stressed).  Part in parcel because nothing says Christmas spirit like re-painting your kitchen!  I had leaned toward doing a blue kitchen but was immeadiately vito’d by Mr. Cupcake who wanted something more masculine.  Oh Foo!

Well – I should always stop worrying when Mr. Cupcake and color come together.  He always seems to pick great colors that I’ve never even considered.  Check out our “Earthenware” back splash and “Shortbread” cupboards.  Yes… It’s a big work in progress.  Especially when there is a one year old involved.  (Notice the lack of fresh paint on the bottom cupboards!)  Mr. Cupcake is determined that we could just leave the bottom cupboards to be done until later… but I do believe it is my turn to vito.  This job is getting done.  Today.  Nuff Said. 

Another Halloween past.  Another Successful party!  Everyone had a great time last night at the Haunted Housewarming (even recovering Baby Cupcake who trick-or-treated for the first time!)  Once again – there was way too much food.  To think that I even had a worry!  Check out these photos!

It is Monday.  Housewarming is Friday.  OMG… really…. that is not a lot of time.  I’m starting to feel the crunch that every hostess feels about this time.  The co-ordination crunch.  Do I have this, when should I make that, supplies check, costume check… what am I missing – etc.

As soon as I am done this post I am off to do baking for the party.  I thought that maybe this would be a good time to share with you some of the treats I am thinking of making for the big PAR-TAY.

Of course, I have to give credit to my fellow bloggers who shared all their great Halloween ideas recently and totally inspired my menu!

First is:

Vampire Cupcakes by Baking Bites 

Vanilla Cupcakes with Cherry Filling for the blood!

 Second:

Bakerella’s  Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies With Maple Brown Butter Frosting (what a mouthful!)

These look to die for! Can’t wait to try them!

Third:

Cake truffles and Candied apples like the ones featured here by Williams Sonoma

And what about that Halloween tree??  Well I couldn’t really find any hardcore inspiration on the web for one… Halloween tree’s just aren’t that popular… yet.  I’ll push the movement   But I did find an all right one over at Better Homes and Gardens

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today… Actually that isn’t true. I woke up, saw that it was raining and decided that I didn’t feel like getting out of bed today. My little cupcake had other plans for me for a few hours but when she took her nap I tucked myself back in as well. It was a good way to waste a morning, I suppose. Except for the fact that the dishes, laundry, and dirty bathroom were still there when I woke up. Sigh.

When I finally did get everything thing done I took a moment to check my blogroll and there was the most inspiring post on Sweet Pea Cakes:
“When things go wrong in life, or get hard or don’t seem to be going “our” way, we begin to doubt, to over analyze, to second guess and to proceed with caution. Throwing caution to the wind, giving our faith and trust into God (insert whatever best suits you if God is not right for you) and walking forward in life with confidence and self assurance doesn’t happen. …” Click here for the rest of the article

And then after being inspired I got to thinking about chocolate cookies and birthdays… much like the ones posted on Do Better on sunday:
“The cookies we made were fabulous (or so we thought at the time). Since then we’ve refined our baking a bit. In honor of her birthday, here’s the recipe for my…
Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies (Thanks Stacey!)”

I too have a friend’s birthday coming up to celebrate… but not the time to or energy for a big cake. Which made me very sad. So I took the idea of birthday chocolate chip cookies and decided to run with it. I came up with these ridiculously titled cookies:

Jenn’s Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Amaretto Cookies

• 1/2 Cup of Margarine or Butter
• 3/4 Cups of Brown Sugar Packed
• 2 tbls of Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 2 tsp Amaretto… or more… (hehe)
• 1 1/4 Cups Flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 small package (226g) White Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Line baking sheet with parchment.
2. Cream margerine or butter together with brown sugar, sugar, egg.
3. Add flavouring
4. In small bowl combine dry ingredients
5. Slowly incorporate into wet mixture
6. Add baking chips
7. Make dough into balls about 1 heaping tbls.
8. Press down slightly before baking
9. 9-11 minutes in the oven or until toothpick come out dough free.

• 1 Cup Unsalted Soft Butter
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1 Egg (lightly beaten)
• 2 Cups flour plus for dusting
• Flavour of your choice (I used 1 tsp vanilla and 1/4 tsp Almond)
• For Chocolate cookies replace a 1/4 cup cocoa from the flour

Cream butter, sugar and flavour until creamy – but don’t overwork.

Beat in the egg until well combined. Sift in flour on low speed until dough forms. Make into ball, cover with cling wrap – chill at least one hour.

Knead dough and roll to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut. Return cut pieces to fridge for 30min. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350*F.

Royal Icing

• 4 room temp egg whites
• 1 kg of icing sugar
• Lemon juice (to correct consistency)
• Water (to correct consistency)

(Originally the recipe just called for a squeeze of lemon… but I added almost a 1/4 cup of water to my squeeze of lemon before my icing sugar came together as frosting) Lesson: Add small amounts at a time until you reach desired consistency.

Place sugar in a bowl and three quarters of the lightly beaten egg and your squeeze of lemon… add no water yet. Start mixing on low.

Once well combined, check consistency. If icing still looks dry and crumbly, add more egg mixture until icing looks smooth but not wet. (Like I said… I had to add water to this recipe)

Mix for 4-5 minutes until you have stiff consistency icing. Thin with small amounts of water until you have desired consistency. Keep covered in an airtight container – and refrigerate if not being used (because of the raw eggs).