Pumpkin Passion

Name: Pumpkin Pie Bars
Purchased At: Creative Cakery
Price: I forgot but it doesn’t matter because you should buy them at any price!
Availability: Seasonal

I can describe the pumpkin bars from Creative Cakery in 2 words, “THE BOMB!” Kick your pumpkin-pie-making granny out of the kitchen NOW and head over to Creative Cakery to get these instead. They are soo freaking yummy.

I went in for a one-biter tray to take over to a friend’s house (Hi Annie) and saw the sign for the pumpkin bars. Joy of all joys! Creative Cakery had something pumpkin! Woot! Woot! Everything I’ve ever tried from this place has been delicious. However, it looked fairly boring so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Creative Cakery is small shop with just a few steps from the door to the counter. This is a buy-here-but-take-it-home-to-enjoy kinda place. While we were purchasing our items a woman was standing around eating a pumpkin bar right out of the plastic carton. She said that she couldn’t wait until she got home to eat it. She couldn’t stop raving about it and stuffing it into her mouth.

One this particular day I’d made quite a few pumpkin purchases which were mostly mediocre. I left this one uneaten until the next day. It was love at first bite! The pumpkin was perfect. It was very similar to a good pumpkin pie. The texture was creamy and the spices weren’t overpowering…just the way a good pumpkin pie should taste.

What really pushed this into the superb category was the crust. It was a gramcracker crust with lots of crushed walnuts. Clearly it was made with mass amounts of salted butter but the salty flavor worked really well. The saltiness of the crust blended perfectly with the sweetness of the pumpkin pie as did the crunchy with the creamy.

It was a really well thought out recipe. Kudos to Creative Cakery!!!

Rating: +5 out of 5

To all the many small privately-owed cupcake store owners who are out there making a pumpkin-flavored cupcake this holiday season, I have a few words for you:

“PUMPKIN CUPCAKES ARE NOT CARROT CAKE CUPCAKES WITHOUT THE CARROTS, RAISINS AND WALNUTS!” Seriously people!

I just don’t get why it is so freakin’ difficult to make a decent pumpkin cupcake? There are some excellent pumpkin cakes, loafs, and muffins that cupcake store owners could find inspiration from and improve their mediocre ode to the fall holiday season.

I think the biggest problem is the cream cheese frosting they insist on using. Pumpkin does not have a strong flavor, even with the pumpkin spices it’s a fairly delicate flavor. The cream cheese frosting has that sour/tangy flavor that is just too overpowering for pumpkin cupcakes. Carrot cake can take a tangy frosting like cream cheese because of the chunks of nuts, raisins, and pieces of carrot. Cream cheese doesn’t overpower carrot cake but it certainly does to pumpkin.

Keep it simple people. Why not put a light whipped cream frosting, which would improve the taste and be somewhat more reminiscent of pumpkin pie. Give it a try cupcake store owners!

Since no pumpkin cupcakes have been particularly noteworthy, they’ve gone unblogged until now. Here are your 3 reviews in 1 blog posting–quick and dirty:

Name: Pumpkin Cupcake
Purchased At: Cake & Art
on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood
Price: $3.25
Availability: Seasonal

I found this place by accident on a search for some pumpkin frozen yogurt that was never found. At first I ordered their pumpkin cream cheese cookie but they were out and when I asked if they had anything else pumpkin he said that there were some pumpkin cupcakes in the back just waiting to be decorated. We continued the search for pumpkin frozen yogurt and then came back a few minutes later to find the pumpkin cupcake all freshly decorated.

The picture of the cupcake is not so great but then again the cupcake was not so great. The cake didn’t taste like pumpkin. I kept expecting to bite into a raisin or walnut. Yes, they played into the whole “let them eat carrot cake but without the carrots, raisins or walnuts,” which included the cream cheese frosting. Even without the frosting, the cake didn’t taste much like pumpkin.

The best thing about this cupcake was that it had a whipped cream filling…kinda like a dingdong does. If only they had used that filling for the frosting it might have saved this mediocre cupcake.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Name: Pumpkin Cupcake
Purchased At: Bristol Farms
Price: I forget
Availability: Seasonal

While buying deli-sliced chicken at Bristol Farms, I overheard a couple of women talking about the pumpkin cupcakes. The woman behind the counter said the frosting was SOO AMAZING. The woman at the cash register said that the frosting was SOOO AMAZING. I started to get worried that no one was commenting on the cake.

This was one of the best pumpkin cupcakes I’ve ever had…but that’s not saying much. The cake was too light on any pumpkin flavor but it was a moist and yummy cake. The frosting was really good. It was a cream cheese frosting but it wasn’t too strong. I love the chocolate leaf on top, very fall festive.

This is the only one I would purchase again.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Name: Pumpkin Cupcake/ Pumpkin Seed Cupcake
Purchased At: Yummy Cupcakes in Santa Monica
Price: $2.50
Availability: Year Round…I think

Ugh! I didn’t like it. When I first checked out their website I could swear they called it a “pumpkin cupcake” but when I got to the store they were calling it a “pumpkin seed” cupcake.

The only difference between this pumpkin seed cupcake and a plain vanilla cupcake was a little bit of nutmeg and some pumpkin seeds mixed into the cake. The frosting was really sour because of the cream cheese, so much so that it upset my stomach. Having the seeds in the cake was a little disconcerting when you bit down on one…it was chew smooth, smooth, chew, smooth , smooth, crunch.

Their other cupcakes were so great that I’m not sure why this one was so off. During November they have a pumpkin pie cupcake described as “pumpkin cupcake centered with fresh whipped cream, topped with pumpkin cream cheese.” It sounds good…maybe I can get there before they go out of season.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Don’t forget the pumpkin cupcake at Sprinkles reviewed here.

***If anyone has had a really good pumpkin cupcake PLEASE let me know where, especially if it’s in California.

Name: Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake Mix
Purchased At: Williams-Sonoma
Price: $19.00
Availability: Seasonal

An interpretive dance! This stuff is SOOO amazingly good that a coworker spontaneous preformed and interpretive dance inspired by the yumminess of Williams-Sonoma’s Pumpkin-Spice Bundt Cake Mix after having eaten a small piece. I’m totally serious! It’s that dang good.

The cake was moist and flavorful with just the right amount of pumpkin flavor. Lots of cinnamon and nutmeg are jammed into this cake. They got it right!!!

That was the build up and now here is the tear down: this stuff is freaking $19.00 and I still have to do a ton of work to make it! I realize it’s Williams-Sonoma, where SUPER CUTE spatulas that have raw wooden handles will cost you ten bucks, but come on! Here’s the description on their website:

A celebration of the autumn harvest, our all-natural mix yields a moist, spicy Bundt cake with minimal preparation. The pumpkin-spice cake is laced with a buttery streusel filling made from brown sugar and premium California-grown walnuts. It’s a delicious complement to the cake, which includes American-grown pumpkin, pure Madagascar bourbon vanilla, cinnamon and allspice. Created for use with Williams-Sonoma Bundt pans, this mix makes it easy to bake a cake that tastes as luscious as it looks. A sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar or a simple glaze is embellishment enough.

…Ummm, “minimal preparation” ?!?!?! The recipes calls for you to add “cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch (12 mm) pieces;” 4 eggs, water, milk, zest of an orange, minced fresh ginger, sugar and brandy. However, the last four ingredients listed are “optional” but a “simple glaze” it ain’t. Also, the instructions read “To make the cake, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater….” I have NO idea what a flat beater is but I’m pretty sure my $15.00 Target mixer doesn’t have one. Lastly, “Created for use with Williams-Sonoma Bundt pans…” the cheapest bundt pan they have is $32 but it IS IN THE SHAPE OF A FREAKING OCTOPUS, which is sooo cool that I want to SCREAM in pure joy (umm…anyone want to get me an awesome Christmas present?) but why must they try to sell me their own pan in the middle of a recipe.

I feel like they gave me the flour and some spices in a bag and now they’re asking me for all the other ingredients…that’s not a MIX. Of course it’s going to be better than any other MIX because you’re adding almost a dozen ingredients and you’re making a streusel, a cake, and a glaze.

It’s yummy and it’s almost worth it but I think you could get the same results if you made it from scratch and it would cost you less…since you have to go to the store to get all the ingredients anyway you might as well.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Here are some other pumpkin treats you can find at Williams-Sonoma this year:

Halloween Truffles $15.00

Pumpkin Potholders (set of 2) $24.00

Pumpkin Patch Plaque $32.00

Sprinkles Cupcake Mix, Pumpkin $14.00

Name: Pumpkin Bagel with Pumpkin Cream Cheese
Purchased At: Einstein Brothers Bagels in Las Vegas, NV
Price: $2.29
Availability: Seasonal

I love pumpkin surprises. You know, when you just walk into a place and you don’t even hope that there will be something pumpkin but there it is, a special pumpkin treat, looking extra yummy. The pumpkin bagel was just sitting there all shiny, fluffy, and orange (but not too orange) looking. Then as I began ordering it, I noticed that they also had pumpkin cream cheese. Score!

At the register they had a flyer announcing all their new fall flavors. One of the things listed was an iced pumpkin cookie but when I asked about it they said that they’d never received the cookies. Bummer! it sounded good and now that I’m back in Los Angeles there aren’t any Einstein Bros. near me.

Back to the bagel, at first bite I was overwhelmed with pumpkin deliciousness. Yummy yum yum! On the second bite I began to wonder if it was the bagel or the cream cheese or the combination that held such an intense flavor. I broke off a piece of bagel from the bottom where there was no cream cheese and found that the bagel was fairly blah. I tried another piece and I couldn’t really taste any flavor.

The pumpkin cream cheese is defiantly where the flavor lives in this combination.

Rating: Pumpkin Cream Cheese, 4 out of 5
Rating: Pumpkin Bagel, 2 out of 5

Name: Pumpkin Empanada
Purchased At: Starbucks
Price: It was a gift. Thanks!
Availability: Seasonal

There’s not much new in the way of pumpkin treats over at Starbucks this season. Yawn! There’s the pumpkin latte, a pumpkin muffin, a pumpkin loaf, and my favorite a pumpkin scone.

The only new item I’ve seen is the pumpkin empanada. At first glance into the bakery case you won’t know that it was pumpkin. It looks like one of those Hostess Fruit Pies but much larger.

There’s a nice amount of cinnamon and sugar on the top crust of the empanada. The crust is quite yummy. Inside……well, it’s a little disappointing. There’s plenty of pumpkin goodness but not too much like there was with Francoise’s Pumpkin Bread. The flavor is reminiscent of pumpkin pie but there’s something else. It tastes sour! Someone else I spoke with about the pumpkin empanada said the same thing. It’s kind of a strong lemonish taste that’s a little overwhelming.

I tried this a few weeks ago and I’ve thought about getting it again but at 400 calories and a sour aftertaste I just can’t do it.

Rating: 2 out of 5

P.S. Ugh! The picture is just BAD but I didn’t like it enough to buy another one and retake the photo.

Name: Pumpkin Cranberry Scones
Made By: Sticky Fingers
Purchased at: It was a gift. Thanks Kat!
Price: $5.95 on their website
Availability: Year Round?

I’ve had this mix for a while now…maybe for a couple of months. It’s been sitting on top of my refrigerator just waiting for a proper occasion to have the water added and the dough baked. This Sunday was just that occasion. What better way to celebrate your best friend’s completion of a yoga instructor’s training course than to invite everyone over for a Sunday brunch complete with 2 quiches, roasted potatoes, lemon green beans, a mound of bacon, a bucket of sangria, and pumpkin cranberry scones? She may just be the last yoga instructor who actually still eats bacon but I applaud her for it.

Back to the scones…It’s an easy mix to make, just add water and plop them on a baking sheet. They came out nice and fluffy with a texture more like a muffin than a regular scone. I like my scones somewhat dryer and more hearty. The taste is somewhat pumpkinish but if I made them again I would add some pumpkin spice or pumpkin butter to the mix. The addition of the cranberries was a nice touch. The flavors go very well together and I LOVE me some cranberries.

For a “just add water” mix it was quite good but you’re sacrificing easy for flavor. For those of us who are not morning people, this is occasionally a sacrifice we are willing to make.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Name: Pumpkin Bread
Purchased At: Francoise
Price: $1.00
Availability: Year Round

There’s a little deli near my work that sells really good sandwiches (although they are WAY over priced), frozen yogurt, and bakery items. I was waiting for my turkey and brie sandwich on some amazing walnut bread when I started looking at the shelves of bakery items. Here it is a warm June day and I can still find some things PUMPKIN!

As far as I can tell, Francois is a Korean Bakery with at least two locations in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. I was at the 3540 Wilshire Blvd. but there is also one near the intersection of Harvard and Olympic. Their baked goods include breads, rice cakes, cookies and some breakfast rolls similar to the pumpkin bread shown above.

This is probably the most beautiful pumpkin bread I’ve ever seen but would the taste live up to the appearance? Well it’s NOT your typical pumpkin bread: it’s not sweet; there’ve been no pumpkin related spices incorporated into the mixture; the “bread” is not pumpkin flavored; and it’s not even bread-like. It’s more like a jelly Danish but, the filling is anything but jelly like. A thin danish-like bread covers a large portion of pumpkin that’s similar in taste and texture to red bean (they even have these with red bean instead of pumpkin). The filling has got to be just straight-up 100% pure pumpkin that’s been boiled and then strained of most of its moisture.

There’s a LOT of this pumpkin filling and not much bread. Once I squished out some of the pumpkin, I enjoyed it much more. Like I said, it’s not your typical American pumpkin pie flavor but there’s lots of pumpkin. Mostly it’s just a nice breakfast treat to have with a cup of coffee that doesn’t cause you to go into an early morning sugar shock.

Rating: 6 out of 10

P.S. If you look at the photo in the larger size and notice some black specs on the surface….I purchased two and ate the first one right away but waited too long to take the picture of the other. Consequently, there was a little moldiness going on, OPPS!

I had NO idea! Absolutely NO idea!!! Did you know that some people will stand in line for over 40 minutes to get themselves a CUPCAKE? Yeah, I said cupcake!

It all started on a Southwest flight from LAX to Nashville. For some strange reason . . . . . actually it’s probably out of boredom . . . . . I enjoy reading their in-flight magazine “Spirit.” During this particular trip, I think it was sometime in either February or March of last year, they did an article on cupcake bakeries. It all just seemed so cute, fluffy little pieces of cake in paper wrappers can’t help but remind me of childhood birthday parties at school. I noticed that one of them was in Los Angeles, so I tore the article out (it’s okay to do that right?) and saved it.

On a particularly BORING day I looked up the website, which is super cute, and saw that they have pumpkin cupcakes on Wednesdays and Fridays all year round! During lunch on a quiet Friday, I headed over to Sprinkles Cupcakes, located at 9635 Little Santa Monica Blvd, in Beverly Hills.

While I knew that I might be a few minutes late getting back to work, I was not at all prepared to take a 2 hour lunch break. The line to get purchase a cupcake spilled out the door and down the street. I felt foolish and embarrassed to be standing in line for a cupcake. People stared and then they realized what we were in line for and they cracked jokes and laughed! In an effort to bring you the most up-to-date information on pumpkin products I continued to wait over a half an hour until it was my turn. However, my resentment turned into heightened expectations. These had better be some DAMN good cupcakes.

I even waited until I was home to eat them so that I could take pictures of these cutie patootie cupcakes. FINNALY it was time to taste them! I took a bite and slowly words start coming to mind: pumpkinlicious, tasty, moist, good . . . . . and familiar. Somehow they tasted familiar. I asked my friends to taste the pumpkin cupcake. They agreed that the frosting was great (it’s not pumpkin flavored frosting—more of a vanilla) and the cake was good. I took another bite and then it struck me. It tastes exactly like your everyday pumpkin muffin, just with more frosting! It had some good pumpkin and pumpkin spice flavoring but it wasn’t particularly impressive. It certainly didn’t stand out.

After all that, I wouldn’t go back for them again—even if there was no line and even if it didn’t cost $3.25 each. It just wasn’t anything to write home about; jeez, it’s barely something to blog about!

Word of Warning!!! Those cute colorful dots on top of the cupcake should be taken off and thrown in the trash! I’m not entirely sure if they were supposed to be eaten but I ate them anyway. They have the consistency and taste of a thin piece of plastic. I thought they would taste like Necco Wafers but NOPE.

I also purchased a red velvet and chai latte cupcake. The red velvet was almost worth the wait!

Rating: 7 out of 10

Name: Pumpkin Loaf
Purchased At: Peet’s Coffee & Tea
Price: appx $3.99
Availability: Year Round

A while back I had an unexpected pumpkin day. I started the day in Sacramento, drove to Berkeley for a meeting and then drove back to Sacramento to catch a plane home.

While I was in Berkeley, we went for lunch at the Thai Noodle House. Someone ordered the red curry and when it came she couldn’t identify a vegetable buried within the sauce. She asked the waitress what the vegetable was and it turns out it was PUMPKIN. I didn’t taste it, so I’ll have to go back and try it later.

This started a conversation about pumpkin and someone gave me the heads up on a pumpkin loaf at Peet’s Coffee & Tea that she said was particularly good. On my way back to Sacramento, I spotted a Peet’s along I-80 in a town I didn’t, and still don’t, know exists. This picture is a little overexposed because it was taken in my rental car, which was a convertible, and I needed light so I put the top down. People that walked by looked terrified. Maybe they thought I was crazy or a health inspector, or someone out to do an expose on rotten bakery items but I needed pictures!

Anyway, she was right! This loaf is really good. The creamcheese swirls mixes up the texture: one bite is cream creamy and the next is a little firmer. There is a good pumpkin flavor that seems naturally light with a few spices added to give it a mild ZING. The size is fairly large and it might be a little too much for an afternoon snack but as a quick breakfast it would keep you full until lunch. I enjoyed it and I can even enjoy it all year long.

Thanks Peet’s Coffee & Tea for getting it right!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Name: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin
Purchased At: Starbucks
Price: $3.00 approx.
Availability: Seasonal

I have a confession . . . . . Currently, when the “Availability” says “Seasonal” I’ve written the posts either months ago during Pumpkin-Eaten Season (the start of October through the end of December) or I’m writing them after-the-fact from hurriedly written phrases found on pieces of scrap paper with words like “strong pump taste,” “artificial,” “yuck,” or “spicy.” Now that the blog is up and running and when Pumpkin-Eaten Season starts again, I’ll be timelier about getting these posts up. This post, however, is written mostly from memory.

Starbucks’ Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin was the first pumpkin product I saw in 2005. During the last week of September, I walked to the Starbucks by my work because I had once again woken up MUCH TOO LATE to make myself some breakfast. The temperature was climbing from moderately warm to hot. I was thrilled to see something pumpkin in their pastry case, not only because I love pumpkin, but also because it was a reminder that the Fall season would soon arrive and the heat would soon dissipate, at least by a little. Kudos to Starbucks! My San Francisco hippie friends will surely kick my ass for that last comment but too bad. Yes, I think their coffee sucks but their pastries are always pretty damn good.

Anyway, the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin was new this year. Last year they only had the Pumpkin Scone, which occasionally made sporadic appearances this season too (review to come later). I loved this muffin: it was yummy, it was spicy, it was always moist, and the pumpkin seeds on top were a nice crunchy addition. I hope they bring this back next season.

If it does return, I have some ideas on how to make it even better. First, I was looking on the internet for the official name of the muffin and I came across a website that lists the nutritional value. OH MY GOD, the thing has 470 calories and 220 of these are from fat. Maybe it’s a really good thing that it’s only seasonal. Second, the cream cheese-like blob on top tastes artificial/chemically. The muffin is amazing enough on its own, even without creamy blobs of stuff, and it may save on the calorie/fat content if they got rid of it. It’s just a thought.

All in all, it’s amazing but a little too sinful for my liking.

Rating: 8 out of 10