Coconut Flour Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

While on a mission to find a healthy treat that is gluten free for my grandson I came across a recipe for pumpkin bars. I decided to try and make it gluten free and this is what I came up with.

Coconut Flour Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 C coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

1/3 C butter milk

1/3 C honey or another sweetener (maple syrup, agave syrup)

2 1/2 table spoons butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 C pumpkin puree 

1/3 C Chocolate Chips

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 deg. Spray a 9x9 baking dish. 

Mix Coconut flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and chocolate chips together in a medium bowl.

Blend eggs, butter milk, sweetener, butter, vanilla and pumpkin together then add to dry ingredients. Mix well. press into baking dish. Bake 20-25 minutes until the bars spring back when touched. It has a definite coconut flavor. 

Hope you enjoy. What kind of bake goods do you like to snack on during the winter season?

Happy Halloween!

Our Little Pirate!

Unfortunately we did not go trick-or-treating. Our village canceled the event because of the bad weather. We made the best of it and carved a pumpkin.

I was having so much fun helping Little Bug carving our pumpkin. I forgot to tell the little guy that the inside was going to be gooey and sticky. His expression tells you what he thought about the insides. Little Bugs bad hair day can be blamed on Hurricane Sandy's humidity! These photos are from my phone so sorry about the blurry photos. They are priceless non the less. 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

DIY: Decorating A Pumpkin Cake

Around this time every year I like to make a pumpkin cake for my son's birthday. This has become a tradition in our home. The cake you see here was made by myself, my daughter in law and my daughter.

Today I had to make my son's birthday cake on my own. I used the same technique as the above cake with just a little difference in the final touches.

First pour the cake batter into two stainless steal bowls (Pyrex glass bowls can be used) of the same size.

Once the cakes cool stack them together. Using icing between them to secure the cakes together.

Now apply a thin crumb layer of icing over the cake. At this point I laid foil (wax paper would also work) on the cake stand up against the bottom edge of the cake to catch the drips from the icing. This makes it easier to clean up the cake stand after icing.

The following step is my technique for getting smooth icing on a round cake. If you are using canned or homemade icing you will need to heat the icing in the microwave for a few seconds. You can also heat the icing on the stove in a double boiler. I heat it only to pouring consistency. Using a measuring cup pour the icing over the cake.

Once you have finished covering the cake you can spoon icing onto the lower half of the cake. This is where I changed my cake up this year. I used my cake spatula and pulled the icing up over the cake in single strokes. It made a textured pattern some what like a pumpkin.
Making the stem is very simple. I used a chunk of cake and spooned warm icing over the piece. Then lifted it onto the cake with a spatula.

This is my favorit part of making the cake. Decorate the cake with fall leaves. Using a piping tip and leaf tip decorate your cake with vines and leaves. Or just use fall leaves from a craft store.

Both cakes were easy and fun to make. It is nice to be able to make a cake with out buying a special pan. I have also made this same cake using a bunt cake pan. I did not like the results as much as I do using a mixing bowl. Do you have a cake decorating technique you would like to share? I would love to share your ideas with my readers. 

Wordless Wednesday

You had to know these were coming! Happy Wednesday!!! 

Pooh Bear and New brother.

To quote Pooh Bear "This is my baby"

Little Bug! Driveway stone is much better to dig than the sand! 

Pumpkin and Sweet Pea showing off a birthday gift.