Pumpkin Tart with a Chocolate Crust

When I bought some tart pans a few months ago, I searched Pinterest for a few good tart recipes. Sadly, most of the recipes I came across were "fall" recipes (pumpkin, maple, etc.) After several months of waiting, I'm finally able to make use of my tart pans. The first recipe I wanted to try was this pumpkin tart with a chocolate crust (from the Martha Stewart website.)

Sadly, I discovered that I had a lot to learn about tarts! First, I found this dough to be a bit troublesome; it seemed far too dry when I first mixes it (though once the butter "melted" it did form a nice dough.) However, that was not my biggest problem. When I baked the dough and removed it from the oven, I removed the hot pan holding the bottom piece of the tart pan. This caused the sides to slide away from the pan and land on my forearm. The hot pan burned my arm and caused me to drop the crust (which shattered into hundreds of pieces!

After making a second crust (and baking it with a cookie sheet underneath), I finally made the pumpkin filling and finished baking my tart. When it finished cooling, I added the decorative spider web. Although it was a bit of work (especially since I had to make two crust), I am quite happy with the final product - hopefully it will taste as good as it looks and smells!

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Chocolate Tart Crust

1 c. all-purpose flour
¼ c. plus 1 T. sugar
¼ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
½ t. salt
½ t. cinnamon
½ c. (1 stick) cold butter
1 egg
4 oz. semisweet chocolate

Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and cinnamon. Divide butter into small pieces and cut into dry mixture until butter pieces are the size of peas. Add the egg and mix until it forms dough. Roll the dough to approximately 1/8 inch on a well-floured surface. Press the rolled dough into a 10-inch tart pan (with a removable bottom.) Use a fork to prick the crust bottom, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F. Carefully remove from oven and add finely chopped chocolate over the warm crust. Spread with a spatula until completely melted and smooth.


Pumpkin Filling
1 can (15 oz) Pumpkin (not pie filling)
¾ c. light brown sugar
8 oz. sour cream
3 large eggs
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ground ginger
¼ t. nutmeg
¼ t. salt
2 oz. semisweet chocolate (optional)

Combine all ingredients except for chocolate and stir until smooth. (Pass mixture through a sieve if large chunks remain.) Pour into chocolate crust and bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes. Let cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes. Melt chocolate in a double boiler until the chocolate is smooth and creamy. Pour into a plastic bag with a small hole cut in a bottom corner. Pipe a spider web design on the top of the cooled pumpkin. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (up to 1 day.)

Le Poisson D'avril

These fish cupcakes were featured in Cupcakes, Cookies & Pies, Oh, My! and I've been wanting to try them for some time. Since today is poisson d'avril - or April Fish (our April Fool's Day), I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use my fish.

I used a simple Devil's Food box mix (with a few added ingredients to improve the taste. For the decorating, I used buttercream frosting tinted with either orange or green to make the fish. I had originally planned to make twelve fish, but I ate a few too many M&Ms the day before...so I only had enough for eight. Fortunately, the cupcakes didn't pose much of a challenge. I added the M&Ms to make the scales, and then flattened gumdrops for the fins. (I was rather surprised at how easy it was to flatten the gumdrops - though I did have to use toothpicks to support the rear fin.) Sadly, I felt my fish were a little lacking when compared to those in the book - though I'm assuming the authors are slightly more professional than me.)

Easter Chicks

With Easter just around the corner, I wanted to take a spring-themed treat for my co-workers. Although I was hoping to make these cute lamb cookies, I had to settle for these chick cupcakes since I could not find a lamb cookie cutter. (However, the chick cupcakes were something I'd seen on Pinterest long ago - so I had wanted to make them.

Fortunately, the original online posting actually gave very detailed directions on how to make these (even including the tip numbers used to make the feet, beaks, and wings.) I started with a simple layer of yellow buttercream frosting, which I then dipped in yellow sugar. After adding two chocolate chips for the eyes, I used tip #102 to make the wings. Sadly, the buttercream frosting didn't stick well to the sugar-coated topping. If I was making these cupcakes over again, I would definitely add the wings before coating the cupcake in sugar! After adding the wings, I made some orange frosting and added the beak and feet with tip #2 (though they too had trouble sticking to the sugar.)

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Although I have ventured away from cakes (in favor of cookies and bars), I had to try this recipe when I was flipping through one of my old Betty Crocker cookbooks. Although I have never made a chiffon (or angel food) cake from scratch, it seemed to be a relatively easy process. The only challenging thing was zesting the lemons (since I don't have a zester - and the online recommendation of using a potato peeler didn't work that well.) I look forward to cutting into my cake tomorrow to see if it tastes as good as it looks!

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Lemon Chiffon Cake

2 c. all-purpose flour or 2¼ c. cake flour

1½ c. sugar

3 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

¾ c. cold water

½ c. vegetable oil

2 t. vanilla

1 T. grated lemon peel

7 large egg yolks (with all-purpose flour) or 5 large egg yolks (with cake flour)

1 c. large egg whites(about 8)

½ t. cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325°. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Beat in water, oil, vanilla, lemon peel, and egg yolk on low speed until smooth. With clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually mix egg yolk mixture over beaten eggs, folding into the egg whites. Bake in an ungreased 10 in. tube pan for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Let hang upside down for about 2 hours (or until completely cooled.)

Vanilla Glaze

1/3 c. butter

2 c. powdered sugar

1½ t. vanilla

2 to 4 T. hot water

Melt butter. Remove from heat and mix in sugar and vanilla. Add hot water one tablespoon at a time until smooth and consistency of thick syrup. Spoon onto the top of cake, allowing glaze to drip down cake's sides.