Lillipop Ghost Cupcakes

I love the Food Network Magazine! I got the October 2011 issue in the mail and decided to make these Lollipop Ghost Cupcakes. All you have to do is: 1. Bake a batch of your favorite cupcakes (I used a vanilla bean recipe and added some sprinkles to make them look like Funfetti) 2. When they are cool, frost them (I used a chocolate ganache frosting). 3. Then unwrap a lollipop and stick it in the middle of the cupcake (I used Tootsie pops and had to trim the sticks shorter, but I think if I had uses Dum Dums I wouldn't have needed to). 4. Cover the lollipop with a fondant circle and crinkle it to make it look like a ghost 5. Paint on some eyes (coloring gel and a drop of vodka). They were so simple to make and they were a huge hit!

Pumpkin Cookies

I have read a lot about "flooding" sugar cookies with royal icing but have only tried it once or twice. I armed myself with the tools and started to work making 5 dozen pumpkin cookies.

I made these pumpkin sugar cookies for a school faculty meeting and they were a big hit. They were really tasty and not at all difficult to make. They were more time consuming than I thought because you have to let each layer dry completely before adding the next. I also felt like counter space was limited until I started stacking them on stackable cooking racks. The end result was something that I could be proud of!