HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

From all of us at The Peppered Pantry!!!

Monster Mummy Munch

This is a really quick, easy and addicting snack!!

Did anyone else see this recipe over at Picky Palate?

It was a must try for me.

I made a few changes to the original recipe to suit our tastes,

but there are so many different ways you could change up this recipe!

Here is the original recipe.

Here is mine:)

I used Autumn mix peanut butter M&M's

candy corn

mini marshmallows

chocolate chips

almond bark

2 c. chex cereal

2 c. honey nut cheerios

I really couldn't decide weather to stick to the original name-Mummy Munch

or to come up with something different. I had been calling Monster Munch the whole time and later realized she called it Mummy...so I decided on Monster-Mummy!

Mmmm-waiting for the almond bark:)

Almost ready to go into the treat bags...

Viola!!

I also wanted to update you all on this Munch:

for Maxs' birthday on Monday I made it for the party favor bags using the pretzel M&Ms and peanut butter M&Ms with only the chex cereal and mini pretzels and the autumn mix candy corn-soooo yummy!!

Printable Recipe

Princess Cake with Marshmallow Fondant

My niece had her golden birthday, the theme being a Princess Ball at the beginning of October and I was asked to make her a princess cake. So of course I said "oh I can totally do that!" and immediately asked Michelle if she wanted to help:)

It called for us to use fondant-which neither of us has ever worked with let alone made!

Yikes...thankfully while we were in Jo-Ann Fabrics a lady in the aisle advised us NOT to buy, but to make it. She gave us a bunch of tips that really helped us out-Thank You fondant lady from the Jo-Ann Fabrics aisle;)

So here she is!!

She also wanted to have some cupcakes for the other princesses.

So here is a little breakdown of how we made the fondant.

 I'm using "we" rather loosely cuz Michelle basically did that part herself!;)

We got our basic instructions from this blog.

You will need these 4 ingredients:

1 2lb bag powdered sugar

1 large mini marshmallows

shortening

2 to 4 T. water

She says use only name brand of the above ingredients but we made a mistake and all we had left was some store brand powdered sugar. That batch turned out awesome...so I'm not totally convinced of the name brand thing!

First you put down a generous layer of shortening.

Sift 1 2lb bag of powdered sugar into a mound and make a well in it.

Place marshmallows in a large bowl.

Microwave for 2 1/2 to 3 mins-watch it carefully-we had a run over!

Cover your hands well with shortening!

Pour melted marshmallows into the well.

Start folding the powdered sugar.

Folding, folding, folding...

Now its starting to take shape.

Almost there.

Next, roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness.

Roll onto rolling pin in order to make laying it over the cake easier.

Then lay it out evenly over prepared cake.

Smooth it out to the cake's shape, careful not to get wrinkles.

Detail work on our princess cake: Diamond pattern using a ruler for straight edge and sharp knife. At each point we added a edible pearl.

We made large fondant pearls for borders on each tier.

We added some sprinkles and a crown to top off this pretty "little" princess

cake!

The birthday girl requested chocolate and strawberry as the flavors.

Ta DA!

Here is the cake all set up at the ball:)

Printable Recipe

Caramel-Apple Bread Pudding

Bread pudding with the flavors of a caramel apple....Mmmmyum!

This recipe was so easy and cinnamony-delish, even better to be topped off with the caramel-nut sauce! The recipe is another from my go to baking cookbook Better Homes and Gardens

Old-Fashioned Home Baking. Which was the very first cookbook I ever purchased, from my Uncle Joe's store, when I was 14!;)

So this looks yummy right?!

I made it for my hubby's birthday breakfast-

he marked it with stars saying he wanted to try it!

How easy was that for me right!

Here is the ingredient list:

4 eggs,

2/14 c. milk

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. vanilla

1/8 t. ground nutmeg

2 c. bread cubed

1 6-oz pkg. dried apples

I used fresh-one whole apple

Caramel-Nut Sauce

Caramel Nut Sauce

In a small saucepan melt 1/4 c. butter. Stir in 1/2 c. packed brown sugar and 1 T. light corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil. Stir in 1/4 c. whipping cream. Return to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in chopped pecans. Serve warm-makes about 1 cup.

The rest of the details will be included in the printable recipe.

Have a delicious morning!!

Enjoy!!!

Printable Recipe

Pumpkin Crumb Coffee Cake

Do you need another reason to love fall?? :) This coffee cake is a good one!!

It goes great with your favorite coffee, moist with a yummy crumb topping!

Hmm.... still warm!!!

Make the topping first... stir together flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.

Add the butter!

Use a fork or your fingertips to mix in the butter into the dry ingredients until your mixture is crumbly. Refrigerate while making the cake!


Prepare your pan by buttering and flouring the bottom and sides.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg!

In a separate large bowl, whisk together oil, applesauce (great way to use some of our homemade applesauce!!), pumpkin, vanilla, sugar and brown sugar until well mixed.

Whisk in eggs.

Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and stir until just combined!

Do not overmix!!

Pour batter into cake pan.

Spread batter out evenly!!

Sprinkle with your reserved topping mix!

Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is the hard part... cool on a wire rack for at least twenty minutes.

The smell wafting from the oven was divine!!!

It was hard to wait.... :)

Finally, Enjoy!!!

Printable Recipe

**Recipe adapted from All You Magazine

Taco Casserole

Hope you all had an awesome weekend! We had a pretty good one here-Starbucks with my sisters, a little shopping and getting ready for Halloween and the Harvest party.

So this recipe is for those busy, busy fun-filled family weekends:)

Quick, easy and yummalicious!!

First tear the tortillas up and layer in the bottom of pan.

Then brown up hamb. and add Mexican style tomatoes, tomato sauce, taco seasoning, chili and green chilies.

Then layer half of meat mixture over the tortillas.

Top with half of the cheese and then more tortillas.

Pour on the remaining meat mixture.

Top meat mixture with cheese.

More tortillas:)

More cheese!

Some black olives.

Bake @ 350 degrees for 30 mins.

Top with fresh cilantro and sour cream if you like.

Enjoy!!

Printable Recipe