Schedule the pumpkin scone intervention!

I have an addiction

The good news is that unlike the people on the A&E show 'Intervention', no one will get hurt from it

It is the Starbucks pumpkin scone and I blame the lovely and talented Alexandra Meikleham for this addiction. She introduced me to this tasty treat and contributed to the downfall of this blogger's waistline (I'm joking... ish)

And because of the seasonal nature of pumpkin scone, and the fact that I'm still getting used to this having a kid thing, I thought I should ferret out the recipe myself.
Fortunately for me, someone else has already done that.

I made a few small adjustments to the recipe, and let me tell you, my loved ones are seriously going to have to con me into a 'documentary' about scones and then tell me how my scone addiction has affected their lives negatively. Also they're going to need to get one of those slings that they transport whales in to get me out of the house one day.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all purpose flour
7 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda (it was supposed to be baking powder, but I made a mistake, and it worked out)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons milk
1 large egg
6 tablespoons cold butter

Plain Glaze
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Spiced Icing
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Also, a little tip, if you brew your coffee and throw about 1/2 a tsp of pumpkin pie spice in the basket, it's a tasty almost gingerbready flavoured coffee result.


So here goes... ready?
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, and 1/4 teaspoon ginger in a large bowl.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, and eggs.
Cut butter into cubes then add it to the dry ingredients. Use a pastry knife or a fork to combine butter with dry ingredients. Continue mixing until no chunks of butter are visible. You can also use a food processor: Pulse butter into dry ingredients until it is the texture of cornmeal or coarse sand. Or until your arm gets tired (if not using a food processor) or until you get fed up.

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1 inch thick rectangle that is about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide. Use a large knife or a pizza wheel to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. That's what the original recipe said, and it's fine, but if you're like me and need at least 1 scone per day, you might want to make them half the size so that you get 12 smaller ones.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes on a baking sheet that has been lightly oiled. Scones should begin to turn light brown. If you're making 12 smaller ones, start with 9 minutes and then put them in longer if they aren't done yet -- every oven is different...

While scones cool, prepare plain glaze by combining ingredients in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed (actually a fork works too). Mix until smooth. When scones are cool, use a brush to paint a coating of the glaze over the top of each scone.

As that white glaze firms up, prepare spiced icing by combining ingredients in another medium bowl with an electric mixer (or fork) on medium speed (doesn't your fork have a medium speed? *scoff*). Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

And if you can't wait for the scones to cool, skip the plain glaze, just make the spiced one and dip your scones into the bowl as you scarf down the whole batch.
(what? no one else does this?)

And I'll end this post with a picture of the creature -- because I need to prove that there really is a kid, and that I didn't just totally slack on the blog posts because I'm a lazy bum. There she is with Miss Olive - the patron saint of this blog (Saint Olive? that'll be the day)

Okay kids, thank you for joining our cheeseandolive drum circle, come back soon
xo
-Candace.

p.s. Alex, please don't be mad that I linked to your castingcallpro.com profile, it's free publicity :)

Cupcake Camp and the Smoked Fruit

Yellow everyone,
Back again!
This time to talk about the 2nd annual Cupcake Camp Montreal. I was at last year's and while it was very successful, nothing could have prepared me for this year's success. I cautiously agreed to participate this year because it took place November 21st, 6 days before my due date, thankfully the kid didn't come early and I was able to honour my commitment. Although I REALLY REALLY wanted to help out and be part of the organization, I thought it would be smarter if I waited until next year. So hit me up for any kind of help you need next year guys! I WILL be bugging you... but this year I stuck to baking only. My submission was Smoked Apple Cupcakes with Maple Cardamom Buttercream. So here goes, the recipe....

The cupcake recipe is partially pilfered from... um... well, uh *sigh* Martha Stewart. 
I'm sorry, I know, I know she's built of pure evil, but I'm sure she had nothing to do with it!!! I know A LOT of good people who went on to work for her. It's okay right?

Right?

Initially, I smoked the apples whole, but then I realized that peeling them was hell. So, word of advice, peel, core and cut your apples into 8ths or 6ths. It's much easier than trying to peel a smoked apple.


•2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
•2 teaspoons baking soda
•1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
•1 cups sugar
•1/2 cup demerara sugar
•1/4 cup demerara sugar
•2 large eggs
•1 inch vanilla bean scraped to death
•8 apples (4 yellow delicious, 4 MacIntosh, if possible) peeled, cored, and cut

Start off by putting your apples in a disposable pie pan (or 2) and sprinkle the 1/4 cup of demerara sugar on top. Smoke for 1.5 hours at about 220 degrees. It's best if you do it a few days before because some liquid leaches out of the apples and has a very strong smoky sweet flavour. When you first take the apples out of the smoker, a lot of the smoky flavour is caught in the sugar residue that you won't be able to get into the batter. The apple juices that leach out sort of wash the sugar off the pie plate and you get a smokier flavour in your batter.

(pssst. these are Martha's instructions slightly adapted)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Put butter and both sugars (1/2 cup demerara, 1 cup regular white) into a bowl and mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Coarsely chop apples in a food processo and mix in apples to the wet mixture. Add flour mixture; mix, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until just combined.

Divide batter among lined cups, filling halfway; bake until tops are springy to the touch, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins; transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely. (makes 24)

For the icing, I will try to give you the recipe but I really winged it

•1 cup room temperature unsalted butter
•2 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar
•1/4 cup + 2 tbsp REAL maple syrup
•1 tbsp ground cardamom

Whip up the butter with an electric mixer pouring in the maple syrup slowly.  It will be clumpy and weird looking. As you sift in the sugar (I did it 1/2  a cup at a time because my hand was getting tired) it will become smoother.

About halfway through, I added the cardamom, mixing on medium speed. Once all your sugar is in and you're satisfied with the consistency, then you can ice your cupcakes.

If you want a stiffer icing, simply add more icing sugar.

Also, something that I will share with you.... I made a test batch... and I didn't find them smoky enough, so I added 1 or 2 dashes of liquid smoke to the icing.  It was only for the test batch, but I feel guilty divulging that fact. Anyways, if you need it, liquid smoke will help you out and won't ask for anything in return.

So here's the picture of my finished cakes. Next year I think I'll spend more time on the beauty aspect.  But they were tasty : )

So once these were iced and packed up, we brought them downtown to Cupcake Camp Montreal 2010!!
And even though I had a panic attack there, I take that as a good sign. THERE WERE TOO MANY PEOPLE -- bad for sensitive wimps like me, good for the organizers and the charities (Kids Help Phone and La Tablée des Chefs). This year they raised $34,500!!!!

Kyle and I got some phenomenal cupakes, there was the Double Chocolate with sugar cookie on top from Macchi Inc. (Make sure you read The Mrs Macchi Blog and follow her on twitter), there was the Double Cupcake: Mini chocolate on the top, vanilla on the bottom with a lovely snowflake detail from Montreal Confections (who incidentally did our wedding cake last year and she's super nice).  There was the ridiculously poufy and decadent Oreo cupcake with some sort of cream cheese icing covered in oreo dust from RawSugr. And unfortunately we don't know where the other three came from: another Oreo creation, Cookie Dough cupcake with a wee cookie on top, and a caramel fleur de sel. 

Oh right, the one in the middle. That was the raspberry truffle ice cream cupcake from Bilboquet. That one didn't make it home - partially because it was awesome and partially because of the melt factor.  Here's a bad picture of a 'cross section' (AKA after we bit into it) of the ice cream one :)

So that was Cupcake Camp Montreal 2010. Now my next task is to spit out a person.  She's supposed to arrive this saturday, but you never know what can happen. I guess that's all for now. Thanks again for taking the time to browse the aisles of the Cheese and Olive Superstore. 

xoxo

-Candace