{ Happy Halloween! }

Happy Halloween everyone!

This is just a little cake I whipped up for my fam. Nothing fancy, just webs piped from white chocolate with spiders (by Wilton) and bones (by Wilton) and sprinkled with black sanding sugar and white jimmies.

I hope your day is blessed with fun, happiness, and most importantly... chocolate!

Happy Hauntings!

{ Caramel Iced Pumpkin Drop Cookies }

It's family tradition here, as I'm sure it is in many, many homes across the country, to watch "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".

Last year, even though Bean was 18 at the time, I started a new tradition for "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving". I gathered up all the foods the kids ate for Thanksgiving and served it as we watched.
(You can read more about this & other Holiday Tradition ideas here.)

I wanted to do something fun for Great Pumpkin as well, so I decided to make some pumpkin cookies to munch on while we watched last night.

These cookies are an easy recipe. They are a no fuss drop cookie. They bake up light, fluffy, and cakey, and sport a caramel icing. What could be better?

Lightly pumpkiny, lightly spicy, all yummy.

Great for any fall festivity or any day of the year.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Drop Cookies
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers
Makes approx 24 cookies

Pumpkin Cookies:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg`
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 cups flour

Caramel Icing:
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tablespoons milk
splash of vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar (sifted is best to break up any clumps)

For the cookies:
Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment or leave ungreased.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Sit aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together with mixer until they are light and fluffy. Blend in egg. Then add pumpkin and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture to sugar mixture. When well blended, drop cookies by tablespoons full 2" apart onto baking sheet.

Bake 9-11 minutes until edges are golden. They will be puffy and light.

Allow to cool on wire racks before icing.

For icing:
Melt butter, then add in brown sugar. Stirring constantly, bring mixture to a boil. Allow to boil one minute, remove from heat, and add in milk. Whisk in powdered sugar until glossy with no lumps.

Working quickly, dip cookies into warm icing, or spread on using a pastry brush. This icing will harden quite fast. Either leave on lowest setting while working, or return to stove if it hardens and allow it to warm to a spreadable consistency again.


Recipe adapted from Food.com 

{ Easy Halloween Planter Craft }

Oh. My. Goodness! It is October! My favorite, favorite, favorite month of the year! I LOVE Autumn. Fall is everything that is good and wonderful rolled up into one season. I mean, if we want to be technical about it, even nearly all of the Christmas season is in Fall!

In the wise words of Anne of Green Gables:

Now, honestly, I am not much of a Halloween decorator. I AM a Fall decorator though. I love things that will work from late September through Thanksgiving (I'll get to that at the end of this post). I have had the idea to make this planter for quite a few months now, and so, here it is.

This is everything you'll need:

2 Jack o Lantern Trick or Treat buckets
1 can of plastic adhering spray paint- your choice of color
dry sand or gravel
Mum or other fall flower

Remove the handle from the buckets and throw away. This is optional, You can leave the handles if you like them.

Paint buckets and allow to fully dry (a few hours) before proceeding.

Fill the bottom bucket with gravel or sand. This will keep your buckets sturdy, otherwise, once you add your flower, it will become top heavy.

Hot glue around the bottom rim of your top bucket (no photos, sorry, hot glue is hot). Stack buckets together. Glue around the outer rim once you have them together. Spray paint over exposed glue, or you can put a ribbon over this part if the exposed glue line bothers you.

Plant your flower!

*You CAN drill holes in the bottom of each bucket to allow for draining, but I didn't I just plan not to over water ;)

That's it, folks!

This is about a $15 project max  ($1/each for pumpkins, gravel/rocks or $2-$3 for play sand, $6 for spray paint, & about $5 for a mum).

Now, for the late Sept-Thanksgiving decoration that I mentioned, just turn this around and place the faces toward a wall and you'll have something you can use for months!

Happy Crafting!

Tina








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