There is always a small bag of raw pumpkin seeds in my freezer. They are there for when I make granola or to toast a small handful for a salad. But they are there for another reason, and that is for this Pumpkin Seed Brittle, a delicious confection made of toasted pumpkin seeds encased in [...]

One cake I particularly enjoy is this honey colored Pumpkin Cake with its shiny chocolate glaze. This cake is full of flavor and keeps fresh for days, thanks to the pumpkin puree and canola oil. The chocolate glaze is a delicious mixture of semi sweet chocolate with enough butter, corn syrup, and brandy to make [...]

Halloween Cheesecakes are cute little New York style cheesecakes with chocolate crumb crusts that are dressed up for Halloween with cobwebs of chocolate. These cheesecakes would make a nice ending to a Fall dinner party where an unexpected surprise is always appreciated. You can serve these alone or else with a strawberry or raspberry sauce, [...]

Halloween Cookies take sweet and buttery flavored sugar cookies and covers them with a royal icing. I started making these cookies when my children were very young as they loved their flavor and I, in turn, loved watching them hum and haw over whether they wanted a ghost, a witch, a bat, or a black [...]

Meringue
Ghosts are haphazard mounds of sweetened meringue studded with cute little candy eyes. Although it is obvious that children enjoy the look and taste of these ghosts, I find that adults are not immune to their charms. I love how the outside of the meringue ghosts are so light and crisp that they immediately dissolve [...]

In the past, whenever I made Chocolate Coconut Macaroons, I thought these lumpy and bumpy cookies reminded me of spiders. So when I wanted to make something special for a children’s Halloween party I immediately thought about turning these cookies into cute-looking chocolate spiders. This is really easy to do. While the cookies are [...]

Raisin Shortbreads had been in my head for months, ever since I saw a recipe in Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Fruit Cookbook. The thought of soft and chewy raisins sandwiched between two layers of tender and crumbly shortbread sounded too good to pass by. So when a cool and rainy day happened along (perfect day [...]

October is the season of fresh apples, pears, corn, and pumpkins. It is also the season of ghosts and goblins and candy corn. Now candy corn is uniquely American, invented over a hundred years ago by George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company. This white, orange, and yellow striped confection is shaped to resemble a [...]

An Apple Cake is the perfect Fall dessert, with its chunks of apples, pecans and raisins, all wrapped in a cinnamon-laced batter. This cake is best served warm from the oven with a dollop of softly whipped cream, a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, or with a little heavy cream poured over the top. [...]

A Chocolate Cheesecake is a real showstopper that combines three delicious layers of chocolate. The first layer is a sandy textured chocolate crust made with crushed chocolate wafers mixed with a little melted butter. The middle layer is a chocolate cheesecake made with a knock-out combination of melted chocolate, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and sour [...]

Raisin Cookies are very popular with kids probably because of their soft and chewy texture and buttery sweet flavor. These homey raisin-packed, old fashioned drop cookies are a busy mother’s friend as the batter is quickly made and then all you do is drop small spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. The cookies are baked until [...]

Ginger Cookies are aptly named, as they are both ginger colored and ginger flavored. They have a sugar coated crackly surface, and when you bite into one you will find the texture soft and chewy with a flavor that is buttery and spicy. Although this cookie is ideal any time of the year it does [...]

This is the Banana Bread that I love to have sitting on the counter, so I can enjoy a slice whenever my sweet tooth beckons. The combination of flavors, sweet bananas paired with vanilla and cinnamon, is sure to please and this quick bread is not only good with your morning coffee but is also [...]