Blogland Creations - An Autumn Coffee Party

It's OCTOBER!

Time to grab your favorite sweater 

and start feelin' cozy!

Celebration season is upon us

and all those summer salads have us

out of practice for feasting.

So, come on!

Grab a caramel apple and start snacking...

Those pumpkin pies won't eat themselves!

Like the many bears that are wandering through our town right now, come Fall I feel the need to start eating.  Unlike the bears, I won't be melting off my fall fluff during a long winter's nap; come Spring, much like Winnie the Pooh, I will need to commit to some "stoutness exercises" to wear off my winter weight if I indulge myself in Fall yummies the way I'd like to.  With this in mind, I decided that I would share the wealth, so to speak, and host a coffee party so that I could make all the lovely Fall recipes I wanted without the danger of eating them all myself!

As you've probably noticed, there are some delectable looking Fall treats making the rounds of the blog hops and link parties!  Everything's coming up apples and pumpkin, maple and spice!  It was difficult to narrow my choices, but in the end I finalized my menu, featuring three absolutely scrumptious recipes from Blogland:

Pumpkin Ribbon Bread 

(by Colleen of And Baby Makes Five for Making the World Cuter)

Maple Leaf Cookies

and

Sweet Potato Cookies 

(both by Dawn of Beat Until Fluffy)

Tea Biscuits

Jam

Coffee

Assorted Teas

 There is always a bit of risk involved with planning a menu almost entirely out of new recipes.  However, these particular recipes looked so delicious that I just had to try them!  And, they were awesome.  

I knew as soon as I saw the picture of the Pumpkin Ribbon Bread that I would have to make it, and soon!  The ribbon of cream cheese running through the loaf was irresistible.   This recipe met with lots of compliments; the loaf was perfectly moist, the spices ideal, and the cream cheese was heavenly.  I have been following Tiffany Hewlett's blog Making the World Cuter for quite some time (don't you just love that title?!) and I particularly love her Monday hop Making the World Cuter Monday.  Tiffany has been on maternity leave, but while she's away she has arranged for a series of guest bloggers.  The guest blogger on September 22 was Colleen of And Baby Makes Five with her post Fresh Baked Fall Favorites, which included the recipe for Pumpkin Ribbon Bread.

One of my favorite blogs is Beat Until Fluffy. The blog's author, Dawn, is an incredible baker who blogs about her creations. I am always happy to see a new Beat Until Fluffy post pop up in my reader; they cheer me up and make me want to get baking!  I strongly suggest that you hop out of your reader and actually visit Dawn's blog; it's absolutely beautiful and features incredible photography of her creations.  You will feel your blood pressure drop (even as your tummy growls) while visiting this lovely blog! 

Dawn's recipes cooked up like a dream!  The Sweet Potato Cookies were the lightest, fluffiest little things, and they smelled and tasted wonderful!  And hey, they have veggies in them, so they're practically diet food, right?  I was disappointed that I couldn't find a leaf shaped cookie cutter for the Maple Leaf Cookies, but I was able to locate a pumpkin cutter so I improvised and make pumpkins instead.  These cookies were the hands down favorite with the kids who came to my coffee party...they were so bright and colourful and irresistibly sweet.  The red pumpkins disappeared quickly so there are none in my pictures, but they were cute.  I used Wilton gel food colouring, and, when mixed with the maple frosting, they created very cute country style shades, almost like milk paint.

My coffee party was a great success and everyone had a lovely time and lots to eat.  Of course, I made too much (I always do, I have a great fear of running out of food at a party!) but we had lots of tasty snacks to offer for the next few days.  

Thanks so much to Dawn, Tiffany, and Colleen for sharing their wonderful recipes and ideas on their respective blogs, and for making Blogland such a cool place to hang out! 

  

Today I'm linking to the following: