Paula Deen and Pumpkin

I would just like to say that I LOVE Paula Deen (who wouldn't love someone with such a great southern accent)! Everything I have made from her recipes has been super yummy!

 

 I recently purchased this magazine and immediately began craving the Pumpkin Cake! It looks so delicious in the magazine and super easy to make. So, as you know, I made it on Sunday. I had to freeze the cake and store the icing and mousse in the fridge until Tuesday but I finally was able to finish. It was fabulous!! It probably would have been a little better if I had been able to assemble it as soon as I finished baking, cooling, and mixing but I couldn't... It was still super yummy! Definitely recommend to anyone who loves pumpkin!

Pumpkin Cake With Cranberry Mousse Filling And Cinnamon Buttercream    Icing

Ingredients for Pumpkin Cake:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk

Ingredients for Cranberry Mousse Filling:

8 oz Cool Whip
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 (14 oz) can whole berry cranberry sauce

Ingredients for Cinnamon Buttercream Icing:

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp cinnamon
5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions for cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Grease 3 9-inch cake pans.

2. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin.

3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour into prepared pans.

4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a tester comes clean. Cool 10 minutes on wire racks, remove from pans and cool completely.

Directions for mousse:

1. In a medium bowl beat whipped topping and butter until smooth. (Note: you want to be sure that the Cool Whip is thawed and not too cold. Otherwise it will cause the butter to form cold little beads.)

2. Add cranberry sauce and beat until combined.

Directions for icing:

1. Beat butter and cinnamon until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until smooth. Add cream and beat until smooth.

Directions for assembly:

1. Spread cranberry mousse between cake layers.
2. Spread icing on top and sides of cake.
3. Garnish with cranberries sprinkled with granulated sugar, if you like.

Mondaaaaay...

      So today is Monday. Yesterday was Sunday. The day before that was Saturday. Lets start there. Saturday was supossed to be a day of laundry, baking, and grading since Joe was going to be hunting, napping, and hunting some more. What it actually entailed was sleeping in, grocery shopping, furniture shopping, and a planning trip to The Home Depot...

    

 What had happend was, I went into one of the antique malls I like to frequent and happend upon a dresser. Not just any dresser mind you, but THE DRESSER. The dresser that we have needed but couldn't find for our bedroom. We've been using, much to my husbands distress and mortification, totes to keep our clothes in since my last yard sale. The yard sale in which I sold all of the furniture. : ) Anyways, the dresser was the perfect fit for our bedroom and also the perfect price-$69! I took a picture and sent it to Joey then went to the grocery store while I waited for his reply. After I got the groceries home and unpacked, my least favorite part, Joey said we could go get the dresser. Yay!

    Now that we had the dresser we decided we needed a mirror and something decorative to put on the dresser. So off to Hobby Lobby and the mall we went. Hobby Lobby supplied us with the new hardware for the drawers, Kirklands provided the mirror, and the accesories will have to wait for another day. At the end of the day I was ok that the original plans I had for the day fell through.

    

 Sunday started with an early phone call from Joey's brother asking him to come preach that evening in Ozark, Ar. I decided I should do my baking that afternoon and share with Tim and Lauren in Ozark that night. After church, I started in on the pumpkin cake with cranberry mousse filling and cinnamon buttercream icing. I baked the cakes and had them on the cooling rack, made the mousse and icing, and was ready to finish but ran out of time and had to get ready to head to Ozark.

I took a little extra time getting ready (shocking) putting us about 15 min behind schedule. We hurried out the door and about 5 miles down the road. That's when the tire blew... right there on I40. having left our handy dandy tire jack at home we were forced to call on a friend to run us home and get Joey's work truck. We were off again... and when I say off I mean FLYING! We managed to pull into the church parking lot one hour and ten minutes after leaving North Little Rock. The trip usually takes about 2 hours...

Monday , my dear friend and co-worker, Erica, picked me up for work since my car was still on the side of I40 with a flat. We had a cheery ride to school sipping our coffee and catching up. We pull in the school parking lot and it hits me that I have left my keys on the kitchen table. The keys that have my time card attached to them. The keys that have my desk key attached to them... uuuugggghhh!!!! I call my slightly grouchy, sleeping husband and request the delivery of the forgotten keys.

That's all. That was my weekend and monday in a nutshell. A kinda big nutshell...

All good things must come to an end... But first they must begin.

Here I am. Starting a blog. I have been inspired by a friend to start typing out the most mundane and nitty-gritty details of my busy, everyday life for all of my friends and family to enjoy. Probably my mother will be the only one who actually cares but she is enough. (Love you Mom!) So anyways, hope you enjoy!