Pop of Sunshine

OBSESSED with this bright yellow! I've been coveting a Rebecca Minkoff mini MAC, but I can't choose a color! They're all too cute!

Sage advice from Dad

I turn to my dad in the middle of a rough few weeks of school:

Behind the Scenes: Pumpkin Fails and Prevails

Well it’s that time again! My department is having the annual holiday party. Everyone makes something and brings it for everyone to enjoy. Last year I showed up with break-and-bake cookies only to be ridiculed by my peers with their overzealous homemade cheesecakes and nanaimo bars. This year, I decided to step up my game. PUMPKIN BREAD. Who doesn’t love a good pumpkin loaf this time of year? I KNOW I DO. 

I got the idea from my roommate, who suddenly had a craving for it back in October and after looking up a recipe online, started working magic in the kitchen. It was a success! She ended up making it a few more times, and I figured the recipe looked easy enough for me to have a go at. 

I decided to make the bread whilst I was on a four-way phone call with my college roommates. My already limited attention span was thinly divided between my friends and my culinary adventure. Somewhere between the salt and the vanilla extract, I became so engrossed in the conversation that I managed to put ONE TABLESPOON of baking powder instead of ONE FOURTH TEASPOON. OOPS!  I frantically interrupted the roommate conversation for advice, but if anyone did offer any suggestions, it was completely drowned out by the roaring laughter. Thanks, guys. 

Thus, I turned to my trusted mentor: Google. Apparently, the extra baking powder might result in a slightly off tasting loaf. Ok, no problem! I’ll add more cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice! Nailed it! OH JUST KIDDING-- upon second consideration, it seems that I originally added only a TEASPOON of baking powder, not a TABLESPOON as I had originally thought. It was still four times the amount I was supposed to, but now a much smaller scale issue. The issue? I have already doused my batter in spice thinking I was compensating for way more than I actually was. Well, I’m sure it will be fine. Who doesn’t love a little extra kick of flavor? I KNOW I DO. 

Alright, let’s get over that already. I was eager to put the pumpkin in. The recipe called for three cups of fresh, shredded pumpkin. As a busy grad student, I chose canned. My roommate only used one 15 oz. can of pureed pumpkin. I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO HER. One of the commenters on the recipe website said they used 2 cups of pureed pumpkin (a little over a can) and I had bought two cans anyway, so I thought the tad extra pumpkin would make the bread moist and delicious.

I add. I stir. I pour into the pan. Screw this bread, let’s put it in the oven. Yes, I preheated the oven, and yes, I set the timer. Fast forward an hour and fifteen minutes. I go get the pumpkin bread from the oven. It was HUGE and man was it HEAVY. I put it on the stove to let it cool, and IT TIPS OVER ONTO THE STOVE AND OVERFLOWS ITS LIQUIDY DISASTROUSNESS EVERYWHERE. WHAT?!

Mess

The outside was DELICIOUS, but the inside was like lava! FINE. I let the top part that fell off ooze on the stovetop and put the pan back in the oven. At least now that the top is off, it might cook through. 

Pumpkin lava

I checked on it every 10 minutes after that. It seemed to be cooking ok! The problem? IT LOOKS TERRIBLE. The beauty of a loaf is the smooth rounded top, and my loaf? MESS. The kicker? It tasted pretty good! 

Delicious Imperfection

Not too bad from this angle, ay? 

So what did I do? I cut it into slices. THEY WERE GOING TO DO THAT ANYWAY. I brought it. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Granted, I did some pretty heavy advertising, and I may or may not have guilted half of the faculty and all of my friends into eating it, but it was all gone by the end! 

Success-ish!

All gone!

To anyone in my department who has come across this: if you didn’t taste it, you missed out.

Regarding the original recipe, I think everything might have been ok if I had just let it cook for way longer than the recipe called for. Or at least added less pumpkin puree since that was probably adding some serious liquid to the situation. I have an old oven, so maybe things we a little off. Either way, it's too bad I pulled it out in the middle and spilled half of it. 

Moral of the story: Where there’s a will, there’s a way Save yourself the drama and just get the ready-to-bake cookies.