Two Spoonfuls: Pumpkin Season!

One day, Ginny said to Jenn: "Let's do a cooking blog post." A flurry of emails later, Two Spoonfuls was born!

We are two creative gals who became friends through our mutual love of fabric and sewing. Now, we're bringing our energy and style into the kitchen, trying new recipes, re-vamping old favorites and sharing them with you.

We'll use familiar ingredients to create dishes that are flavorful and easy to prepare, while adding our own helpful tips, bits of kitchen wisdom, and a little food history too. The recipes we share will be practical, with easy gourmet touches.

Look for Two Spoonfuls recipe recommendations: always in time for a weekend, to share with your family and friends.

For the first installment of Two Spoonfuls we're going to make some yummy pumpkin recipes...I made a Spiced Pumpkin Cake.

You know those cool cake pans you can get that look like something? I mean something other than a traditional cake, something cool like a giant cupcake or a beehive? Yeah, well I love those fancy cake pans. A few years ago, before I moved to the UK, I bought The Great Pumpkin Pan from Williams Sonoma. They don't carry it any more, but you can buy it direct from Nordic Ware. Did you know that Nordic Ware invented the Bundt Pan in 1950? That's so cool - I love Bundt pans too (I've got this one)!

The Great Pumpkin Pan is cast-aluminum and it's fantastic. Cast-Aluminum pans are said to distribute the heat evenly and this one is also nonstick. The cakes just fell right out, amazing!


I decided that I'd try out the recipe that came with the pan, you can download it here. I like to get all of my ingredients out and measured before I begin following the steps of a recipe. This one has a ton of ingredients but I think it was worth the effort. Even Nick loves this cake and he says he's not a huge pumpkin fan (though, secretly I think he is).


I found the directions pretty easy to follow, even though I'm a novice mixer operator. I made a huge effort to distribute my batter evenly in each side of the pan, but there was still some trimming required. The best thing about the trimming: we were able to give the cake a taste test before I take it with us to visit friends today. hehe

There were 3 photos of the cake along with the recipe and none of them impressed me as far as decoration goes. I decided in the end that with a cake this sugary and dense, I don't need frosting. I just sifted a little snow (powdered sugar) on top and added a few leaves from the tree in front of my house. I'm so glad I finally got a chance to make a cake with my fancy pumpkin pan. I'm sure it'll be a hit with our friends, it's delicious.

Ginny's Notes:
1. It took me all afternoon to make this recipe, mostly because of the number of ingredients. This isn't a last minute cake and you might have to do a bit of shopping to make it.

2. I over floured the pan and ended up with some unsightly edges on the pumpkin halves. Generously grease, lightly flour.

3. The recipe calls for walnuts. I left the nuts out because Nick's allergic and I'm opposed to nuts "in things". If you want to try something other than nuts, I recommend chocolate chips. They'd be delicious with this rich cake.

4. If you don't have a fancy pan, try making this cake as a Bundt. If you have some batter leftover, make a few cupcakes too. They'd make a nice addition to a packed lunch.

Now, lets stop in at Jenn's to sample her pumpkin bread pudding!

And the Winner Is....

Thanks so much for stopping by to see the Virtual Home Show the past few days everyone. It was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoyed it too. And now I'd like to tell you who the lucky winner is...

Cascade! That's Cascade Lemonade to you folks. Thanks a bunch for playing everyone. I'll be contacting the winner so she can choose one of these three monkeys to have as her own.

Have a great holiday season!

Virtual Home Show

I'd like to welcome you to the

Some friends and I have gathered together to show you some great handmade gift ideas to get the holiday ball rolling. I'd like to invite you to our two-day event, showcasing some lovely items from these talented ladies:

Sue Bleiweiss has some beautiful handmade notebooks to show you.

Felicia Haywood has been making the cutest toys around.

Lisa Jordan makes the sweetest felted treasures.

Jenn Maruska's sewing gifts are just the best!

Julie Thomas has some gorgeous pottery to show you.

Karen Wittkop will help you wrap things up with her adorable gift tags!

Stop in and check out the beautiful things these girls are working on, there will be prizes and lots of great holiday shopping ideas.

As for me, it's all about monkeys! Yep. It's monkey season so I decided to tell you a bit about how it all started...
Early in 2007, while on a trip to California (I was living in the UK at the time), Nick and I paid a visit to some friends of ours who live near Yosemite National Park. (These friends recently hosted our wedding at their home...I had to mention that.) Anyway, I'd just made the first ever official Gadget Monkey, seen above. His name is Randy and he was promptly adopted by Jim & Julie. We took Randy along on a trip into Yosemite and that's when we all came up with the idea for the Monkey Travel Club Flickr Group and shop. At first, I sold my monkeys out of my orginal Etsy shop, iSew, but later the monkeys took over and demanded their own space. So, on January 1st of this year, Monkey Travel Club opened it's virtual doors. And the rest, as they say, is history. At this point I've made over 430 monkeys!

When I started, the Gadget Monkey was the only style. Now there are pencil cups, coffee sleeves and whole lot more.

Anyone for a pumpkin spiced latte? I always get a smile when I bring a monkey along for a cup of coffee.

Isn't that sweet? Mick got Esther an iPod for Christmas. And Woody finally got the little brother he's been asking for.

I've just started working on some new Christmas monkeys for the shop. These 3 say they want to stay here, but I'm not sure I can put up with them. Leave a comment (by midnight on Tuesday night Nov. 4) and pick some names for them and maybe you'll win one! I'll announce a winner on Wednesday.

Now I'd like you to swing by and see my friend Felicia and her adorable little friends. Enjoy the home show!

Handmade and Homemade

For a while, I've been thinking about making myself some new recipe cards. The inside of my recipe box is a complete mess. There are folded sheets of paper, random cards, pages ripped from magazines and who knows what else. So, I went over to Paper Source and got myself some blank cards, whipped up some artwork, and voila! What do you think?

I used the A2 size flat cards with a scalloped border. They are the palest shade of pink with a little bit of texture too. Perfect for my particular recipe box.

Here's the little cupcake I created for the corner. Are you surprised I went with a cupcake?

Now that I've got all these cards, I need to rewrite all the messy recipes. I suppose I'll get to that after Christmas. Baby steps, right?

p.s. Sorry about the bad photos. It's been raining here for a few days and it's practically dark in the day time!