Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

HaPpY hAlLoWeEn (AgAiN) !!!!

        Since today is Halloween and everyone is wondering how to make tonight's dinner more special (okay, so the little ones don't need anything more to make today special, but I think adults might like a treat that is more substantial than the candy they snitch from the loot bags). Here's a treat you'll never forget, and it's so much easier than making a pie (that phrase "easy as pie" never really made sense to me because pie is quite challenging to make). In my previous post I mentioned that the cookies lacked the strong pumpkin flavour I was craving, so off I went to find a recipe that would include pumpkin and satisfy my desire. I love Crème Brûlée (especially my brother's Christmas Crème Brûlée), so why not Pumpkin flavoured? I've sampled Bailey's, Cranberry, Rhubarb, Vanilla, and Strawberry versions, so pumpkin seemed like a logical direction to go. This one is delicious, it really tastes just like a pumpkin pie, but without the crust.

Here's what you need:

The Players

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream (I used half-and-half)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt
Boiled water
1/2 cup white sugar (reserved)





1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. and boil the kettle.




2. Whisk egg yolks and brown sugar together in a bowl.






3. Stir in heavy cream, pumpkin puree, spices and salt.





4. Divide pumpkin mixture between six ramekins, leaving about a 1/2 inch at the top. (Depending on the depth and size of your ramekins you might need to use more.)


5. Place the ramekins in a baking dish (I use my roasting pan), and fill the baking dish with the hot boiled water until it reaches about half way up the sides of the ramekins.



6. Bake in your preheated oven for about 30 to 35 minutes, until set. Remove the ramekins (put some elastics on the end of your tongs).










7. Refrigerate until completely cool, at least 2 hours.






8. Once cool, sprinkle about 1 tbsp of sugar onto each Crème Brûlée and spread it around until the top is entirely covered. Melt the sugar with a chef's torch until the sugar melts and is crisp and brown (about 1 to 2 minutes).




9. Allow to cool slightly, and serve. Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream if you wish.





      I can sense you asking some questions. Let me field some of them to help you out.

Q. What do you mean set?
    A. When a custard is set, it means it is cooked.

Q. How do I know when my Crème Brûlée is set?
    A. This one is a little tricky, but in general Crème Brûlée custard doesn't usually set during cooking, it sets as it cools. Refrigeration is typically required to get it to completely set.

Q. My oven is a little wonky with its temperature, how can I tell if they are ready to come out?
    A. The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book states that "to test the custards for doneness, insert the top of a table knife into the center of each custard. The knife will come out clean if the custards are fully cooked." I did not use this method, but I wish I had known about it when I made this recipe.

Q. There is a lot of liquid that seems to have separated out of the custard, what does that mean?
    A. It means that you over baked it.

Q. When I dig into my Crème Brûlée, I notice it's not smooth, why is that?
    A. I don't believe this one is supposed to be smooth. Pumpkin is clumpy and stringy, so I think it is supposed to be the consistency of cooked pumpkin pie filling.

Q. I don't have a chef's torch to make the sugar topping, should I skip that step?
    A. NO. It just won't be a Crème Brûlée without the crunchy sugary topping.

Q. What can I use to get the caramelized topping if I don't have a chef's torch?
    A. If you don't have a torch, simply put the sugar on the ramekins as instructed and place them on a baking sheet. Make sure the rack in the oven is all the way to the top closest to the broiler and turn on the broiler. Once the oven is preheated, put the baking sheet with the ramekins in on the top rack. Keep checking on the ramekins to see when they will be done, it is okay to continuously open the oven. Remove baking sheet and let it cool in the fridge before serving as the ramekins will be hot and Crème Brûlée is typically served cold.

          This is a good recipe because you can make it the day before (if you to make sure you plastic wrap the ramekins) and finalize it with the caramelized sugar just before serving.



                                                                                                                Enjoy!
                                                                                                                   Mel

Pumpkin Roll-Out Cookies

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

       To celebrate the season, today is going to be a double post. We'll start off with some fun pumpkin cookies. What better way to get into the Halloween spirit then to make some ghoulishly delicious cookies? Now, In my own opinion, they were not pumpkin-y enough and tasted a little doughy, but I received rave reviews from many others for them, so despite my reservations I have decided to share the recipe. I will also include some tips that I think would make them a little tastier.

Here's what you'll need:

3/4 cup unsalted butter (always use unsalted butter when baking)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon orange zest (I only had lemon, so that's what I used)

1/2 cup solid pack pumpkin puree (I used pure pumpkin, from the can)

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (Next time I would double this)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (Next time I would double this)

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I wouldn't double this, but I would add 1/4 ground allspice as well)

1 pinch salt (just a pinch is all you'll need)

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and orange zest. 

2. Stir in the pumpkin. 

3. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. 

4. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt then stir it into the pumpkin mixture. 

5. Remove the dough from the bowl and roll into a log, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. Chill dough for about 1 hour. (If you skip this step you'll be peeling dough off your counter, you need to chill the butter to make it pliable.)

6. Do all the dishes and scrub the surface you will be rolling the dough out on.

7. Preheat oven to 375°F.

8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. When you are rolling it do a few pushes of the rolling pin, then give your dough a quarter turn and continue rolling. Continue doing this until your dough is the desired thickness.(Mine were about 1/8 inch thick, but I wish I had done them a little thicker).

9. Using your cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes and place onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

10.Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. 

11. When you remove them from the oven let them cool about 2 minutes on the sheet, then move to a drying rack.

              Once the cookies are COMPLETELY cooled, you may ice them. You could use this recipe for Royal Icing, or this one for decorator's icing.

2 cups icing sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tbsp + 1 tsp milk

1. Combine sugar, milk and vanilla and mix until smooth (add extra milk or icing sugar until the consistency you want is obtained)

2. Separate and add a couple drops of food colouring to tint your icing. 

3. Ice as desired.

Here are my iced cookies, I know, I know, I need to practice my icing skills.  The leaf cookie on the top left was a trial, which didn't quite work as planned as the different colours didn't fuse well when rolled together. However, all that I did was I separated some dough and dyed the it different colours before rolling it out and cutting it. 

Here's how I iced the rest:

The ghost and mummy are cream cheese frosted with gel detail for eyes. 

The pumpkin, skeletons and Frankenstein's monster are iced using only the tinted decorator's icing.

The eyeball has a base of cream cheese frosting, with red tinted decorator's icing drizzled over top. I then used a toothpick to drag the red around to make the veins. The iris is decorator's icing and the pupil is gel.

Finally, the spiderweb has a decorator's icing base and the gel is in 2 rings (outer and inner), then I used a toothpick to pull the gel from the inner ring out passed the outer ring.

I  only had Christmas cookie cutters, so for the ghost, I just pressed the legs together. The leaf was a traced paper and the dough was cut out using a knife.

Good Luck! Happy Halloween!

                                                                                                                              Enjoy!

                                                                                                                                  Mel

Lasagna Rolls

         Who wouldn't agree that food is more fun rolled up? Maybe a square.... but probably not.  Everyone loves burritos with all their meaty and cheesy goodness rolled into a tortilla. Kids love those sweet 'fruit' roll up snacks, although we all question how much 'fruit' is actually in them. Momma O and my aunts used to make jello roll ups, with, marshmallows and, you guessed it, jello! And, there are a tonne of different appetizers that are rolled up in tortillas or pastry dough. Rolling up your food just makes it scream, "I'm fun! Eat me!" What makes it even better is when it's healthy! Youpii!

       Today we'll be making Lasagna Roll. Now, just  a bit of a warning, these are meat-less, but I swear to you, no one will ever know. Mr. Pepper asked me multiple times if I was sure that there was no meat in them (really, I made them, I am positive!). These are good for all ages, and easily adaptable to your own likes-dislikes and dietary restrictions.

Here's what you need:

9 Lasagna noodles
10 oz (1 package) frozen chopped spinach
15 oz (1 tub) fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
32 oz tomato sauce
9 tbsp. partially skimmed mozzarella cheese, shredded


1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Boil water in the kettle.


2. Layer your uncooked lasagna noodles on a baking sheet or in a 9" x 12" baking dish. Pour boiling water over top of the noodles, making sure all noodles are fully submerged. Set aside. (This is by far the easiest way to cook lasagna noodles, ever!)








3. Combine spinach (now, I only added half of the spinach as I misplaced the rest, only finding it once the entire dish was in the oven, and it still tasted great), Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.





4. Ladle about 1 cup of sauce (I had Ragu kicking around the fridge, so I used that) on the bottom of a 9" x 9" baking dish.

5. Remove your cooked lasagna noodles from hot water in the baking dish and pat dry.





6. Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out all of the cooked lasagna noodles. Take about 1/3 cup of the ricotta-spinach mixture and spread evenly over each noodle, leave about 1cm at one end.





7. Once you are out of mixture, and all your noodles have some spread over it, roll them each up carefully towards the end where you left some space. Place them each seam side down into the baking dish.








8. Ladle the remaining sauce over the rolled noodles in the baking dish and top each roll with 1 tbsp. of mozzarella cheese.









9. Put foil over the baking dish and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an addition 10 minutes, or until melted cheese on top is bubbly. Let sit a few minutes before serving.






        Here's where it gets interesting! This recipe comes with nutritional information! I wish I could do this for all of my recipes, but alas, I don't know how.
6 WW+ points      224.9 Calories      5.1g fat      3.4g fibre      13.0g protein      31.5 carbohydrates

        You could make this recipe full fat by not using the partially skimmed and low fat cheeses, and you can even take out some of the carbs by using zucchini strips instead of noodles (make sure you salt the strips to draw out the moisture and then pat them dry before adding the ricotta-spinach mixture). You could even make it meat lover friendly by adding sausage, pepperoni, or ground beef/chicken/pork. Have fun with it!

                                                                                                       Enjoy!
                                                                                                            Mel

Chocolate Chip Cookies

      My apologies friends, it has been a while since I posted last. I have eaten a tremendous amount of fantastic food over the last week, but alas, I don't always remember to take pictures (I often remember when I am part way through, or after I have finished eating it).

      Today, I will share Mr. Pepper's favourite cookie of all time. It's not his favourite recipe, but I am not releasing my mother's recipe online. I have a feeling she won't give it to me now that I've started blogging.

The players

     Here's what you need:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups chocolate chips (I use a combination of toffee bits, dark chocolate and milk chocolate, leftover Easter chocolates work well too)

Mmm... Cookie Dough

1. Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. A hand or stand mixer makes this step super easy.

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition.

3. Add vanilla and beat until smooth.

4. In a separate bowl combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.

5. Turn your mixer to speed 1 (or low speed). Add half of the dry mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well until no dry flour remains. Add the remaining dry mixture and mix until no dry flour remains.

6. Add chocolate chips. Mix well. Depending on your mixer, you might need to do this using a spoon.

Before the Oven

7. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop using 1 1/2 tbsp of dough for each cookie. Space them 2 inches apart (this gives them room to spread). If you are making a large cookie, drop them closer together, but make sure you leave a little bit of space in between each drop so it cooks all the way through. A solid sheet of dough doesn't always cook well.

In the Oven

8. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10-15 minutes (until golden brown). Let them stand for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to racks to cool.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

                                                                                                  Enjoy!
                                                                                                      Mel

Cookie Time!

Chocolate Ice Cream

         We've already gone through the basics of vanilla ice cream, now, to move on to the more challenging chocolate ice cream. Maybe chocolate ice cream isn't more difficult to make, actually, my chocolate recipe is easier to make than my vanilla. This recipe makes a super smooth and chocolate-y dessert, but without the cloying sweetness found in grocery store ice cream.

          Start by prepping your ice cream maker. My Kitchenaid ice cream maker needs to be frozen solid before you turn the mixture into ice cream, so I just pop it into the freezer the day before I start making the delicious mixture.

           Now that your ice cream bowl is on its way to be frozen, it's time to start the good stuff. Here's what you'll need:

2 cups half & half
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 oz semisweet chocolate squares
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

Cocoa powder and half & half

Here's what you'll need to do:



1.  Gradually whisk half & half and cocoa powder until it's a smooth paste.

Yolks

Yolks and Sugar

2. In stainless steel bowl whisk yolks and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Set this mixture aside.








3. Over medium-high heat, heat chocolate milk mixture to scalding or 82 °C (milk begins to foam), stirring occasionally and remove.

Melted Chocolate

4. Add chocolate squares to heated chocolate milk mixture and stir until melted and smooth.

Chocolate Mixture

5. Pour the hot chocolate milk mixture into the yolk-sugar mixture whisking constantly.

6. Place bowl over simmering water, stir it constantly until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.







7. Remove from heat and continue stirring. Add vanilla.

Mixing up some ice cream

8. Cover and refrigerate overnight.



9. Make ice cream according to your ice cream maker's instructions








                                                                                                              Enjoy!
                                                                                                                  Mel

Canada's Baking and Sweets Show

      A couple of weeks ago Miss McCormack and I went to Canada's Baking and Sweets Show out at the International Centre in Mississauga. We both love to bake, so we were very excited to check it out. We weren't too sure what it was going to be like, or what kinds of booths were going to be there, but we decided to give it a shot.

          After our adventure to get there (make sure you get on the correct bus and have the correct fare as it's double fare to get out there) and finally finding the correct hall (we walked around the entire exterior) we skipped the line (we bought our tickets online) and entered to the sweet smell of sweets.

          We made a beeline for the Celebrity stage to get good seats to see the stars of TLC's DC Cupcakes. Miss McCormack is a huge fan of them, and once Katherine Kallinis and Sophie Kallinis La Montagne, the owners and proprietors of Georgetown Cupcake, arrived, the crowd erupted in cheers. When the cheering subsided, they chose a volunteer from the audience, a young girl with a homemade cupcake shirt, a clear fan.  Together, they demonstrated how to make Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes, even finishing off with their custom icing swirl. They were scheduled for 2 hours, but they had pretty much wrapped up in about 45 minutes. They decided to do a Q & A session, and after a few questions Miss McCormack and I headed back to the showroom to explore the various booths.

       Despite the exuberant number of booths, it is interesting to note that the show lacked booth variety. Most of the booths were selling cupcakes. Now, some had unique flavours such as pink lemonade and hot pepper and mojito, but most had your regular-plain-jane vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet. There were other booths selling cookies and chocolates, but most were cupcake. A few of the really interesting booths were: Golda's Kitchen, Red Path's Acts of Sweetness, Girl Guides of Canada, and Robin Hood Flour. Golda's Kitchen was very crowded, but had a very wide variety of pans, tools, piping bags, and many other baking utensils. Red Path had a large booth, as they are the lead sponsor, where they gave baking demonstrations. My former baking professor from George Brown College, Chef Christophe Meeson was there to do a Crepe Suzette demonstration! Unfortunately, we missed it. Girl Guides were there selling cookies. This doesn't seem too special, except it's mint cookie season, and they were selling the good old chocolate and vanilla ones. Robin Hood Flour had another large booth. They had a children's cupcake decorating area and 2 large areas with elaborate cakes. One was a Christmas themed display, and the other was a wedding cake display. I wish I had taken pictures, they were amazing!

        Like I said before, we were unsure of what to expect when we arrived at the Canada's Baking and Sweets Show, but I definitely wasn't expecting it to be mostly vendors selling their baked products. I was hoping for more demonstration booths, and booths for non-professionals. One benefit to the show was the samples. There were so many samples, mostly sweet cupcake, so we were quite happy to find a booth that was giving out samples of spanikopita and a David's Tea booth.

          All in all, I would recommend checking out Canada's Baking and Sweets Show next year. Cupcakes are the "thing" right now. Who knows what next year's "thing" will be?


                                                                                                Enjoy,
                                                                                                   Mel


P.S. Here are a few pictures that I did take.

A beautifully decorated cake

The cake Chris wanted

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

             It's Thanksgiving Day (for us here in Canada) and what better way to celebrate with copious amounts of food? This year I  hosted (although Momma O and Mum P help out quite a bit), and despite all efforts, my little brother was working away at the restaurant as we feasted on the turkey goodness, so it was be just the 6 of us this time. Our menu doesn't include anything too crazy or strange, but it's all homemade. 

Here is our menu: 

• Turkey - What's Thanksgiving without a turkey? Nothing. That's what! Most grocery stores have them on sale for a few weeks before Thanksgiving, so we picked ours up and stuck it in the freezer. If you're using a frozen turkey, you'll need to thaw it before tossing it in the oven. Remove the turkey from the freezer and place it on a cookie pan in the refrigerator, keeping it in it's wrappings. Let it stand for about 24 hours per each 5 pounds of turkey. Let large turkeys stand a maximum of 5 days in the refrigerator. The giblets and neck are customarily packed in the neck and body cavities of frozen turkeys. They may be removed from the cavity near the end of the thawing period to speed up the complete thawing of the bird. Here are some Turkey cooking FAQs.
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes - Melt butter in a small frying pan and add as much crushed garlic as you'd like. Cook this garlicy goodness in the butter, but remove before the garlic turns brown. Add this to your potatoes as you mash them. Careful not to overcook your potatoes, last thing you want is goopy, sticky mashed potatoes.
• Mashed Turnips - This is a classic Pepper Thanksgiving dish. It's got just the right amount of bite and sweetness.
• Stuffing - Momma O spends days preparing her homemade stuffing (probably). It is so good, and it is such a secret recipe that she won't even let me watch her prepare it (either that, or I don't want to get up at 5am to help her).
• Brussels Sprouts - Okay, we're cheating on these this year. I bought Green Giant Frozen Brussels sprouts in butter, but that's just because my brother is working, and he was going to do Brussels sprouts and bacon.
• Corn - Fine, we also use frozen corn niblets, but these seem to retain their moisture when cooked and when you add them to your mashed potato volcano (yes, you're never to old to do that), it's just divine!
• Wine - Really, what's Thanksgiving dinner without a little vino?
• Buns – You caught me, these weren’t from scratch, but I baked them from the Pilsbury canisters. Nothing beats fresh buns to mop up that delicious gravy.
• Gravy - Homemade, of course. Don't forget to save your turkey drippings and potato water for this!
• Cranberry Sauce - As I said earlier, you'll never ever use that canned jelly junk again! It also freezes well to use for leftovers

Mmmmmm, was dinner ever delicious. Then we topped off the dinner with more wine, an ice cream cake and apple pie (recipes to come soon).

            As for the leftovers, layer them in aluminum pans: turkey, turnip, stuffing, corn, gravy, mashed potatoes, and freeze. Delicious Thanksgiving dinner at your fingertips whenever you want. Just make sure you freeze a little cranberry to go with it.

Our Fabulous Spread

Happy Turkey Day!

                                                                                        Enjoy!

                                                                                            Mel

Cranberry Sauce

           It's almost Thanksgiving (for us here in Canada) and what better way to celebrate with copious amounts of food? This year I am hosting (although Momma O and Mum P help out quite a bit), and despite all efforts, my little brother will be working away at the restaurant as we feast on the turkey goodness, so it will be just the 6 of us this time. Our menu doesn't include anything too crazy or strange, but it's all homemade.

          Today's feature will be what, I feel, makes or breaks your turkey dinner. The turkey? Important, yes. Mashed Potatoes? Also important. But these items we typically make fresh on the day of. What is the one item that most people buy in a can that retains the shape the can when it's removed from it? That's right, cranberry sauce. So, today we're going to make this necessary addition to every turkey dinner. After you taste this, I promise you will never ever buy that canned jelly stuff again.

Kristopher's Homemade Cranberry Sauce
1 cup sugar (I use demerara, but you can use white or brown too)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apple juice/orange juice
1 cinnamon stick
1 large peel of lemon/orange
2-3 cloves
1 bag cranberries
    salt to taste

1. Bring water, juice and sugar to a boil in a medium pot. Allow to boil for 5-8 minutes.








2. Add cinnamon stick, press cloves into the peel and add to pot. Allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.

3. Add cranberries and stir occasionally cooking until cranberries are "mush".





4. Transfer to a heat-safe bowl, cover with plastic and refrigerate.


5. Remove from fridge just before serving with your turkey.





TIP: When making any sauce that you will be refrigerating, cover it completely with plastic wrap. Make sure you let the plastic wrap touch the sauce/gravy all the way to the sides. This will prevent your sauce/gravy from developing a film.





                                                                               Enjoy!
                                                                                                                                                      Mel

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

            No, these aren't just plain old Carrot Muffins, and for good reason, they are delicious!

            So, what's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?

           This is a common question people ask every day, and now, I know the answer (not just the BS one).

           Over the weekend, Miss McCormack and I visited Canada's Baking and Sweet Show (post on this to come later), and we watched a presentation by the girls at Georgetown Cupcakes, who are also the stars of TLC's DC Cupcakes. They did a cupcake demonstration, and then did a Q & A afterwards. One of the questions someone asked was, "What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?" And, the answer is actually quite simple. When you make muffins, you mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, and you mix the dry ingredients in another bowl, and then you mix the contents of both bowls together. To make cupcakes, the first step is to cream together the sugar and the fat, this is what gives you the silky smooth and rich flavour cupcakes are supposed to have. Then you add your wet and dry ingredients.

           Now, let's put what we've learned into practice!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes (or Cake, it depends on what kind of baking dish you have on hand)

Grated Carrots

4 Eggs
3/4 cups oil
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans or raisins (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line your cupcake tin with paper liners (or grease and flour a 9"x13" pan).

2. Grate your carrots. TIP: Use a food processor, save your little fingers from the monstrous cheese grater.


3. Beat your eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla.  (See we're beating the fat and the sugar together here).

4. Sift together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

5. Carefully and slowly mix your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients.




6. Stir in your carrots and pecans/raisins - If you have a fussy eater, you can grate these with the carrots


7. Pour into prepared cups (or pan).

8. Bake for 21 minutes (or 40-50 minutes for a cake)




Cupcake/Muffin TIP: If you have extra spots in your pan, fill those spots with water. This will help those spots from darkening or getting scorched.





Decadent Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup softened butter (just leave it out on the counter until it's soft)
8 oz softened cream cheese (just leave one of those rectangular blocks on the counter for a bit)
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (option, although just a sprinkle on top would make a good garnish)


1. Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla.

2. Slowly and carefully add the sugar 1 cup at a time and beat until smooth.

3. Stir in pecans (if desired) and frost cooled cupcakes. I used piping tip 804.



                                                                           Enjoy!
                                                                                Mel