Surprise Pumpkin Cupcakes

This year at work we had a potluck on Halloween (along with a costume contest. I went as a baker - original, right?). It didn't take me long to narrow down my choices as I already knew the flavor and type: pumpkin (duh!) and cupcakes. For the cupcakes I had gotten two Halloween-themed cupcake liners at Target just in case the opportunity came up.

I decided to show some love to my hard copy recipes this time. I finally decided on a pumpkin cupcake recipe in one of the Taste of Home special issues. They have a surprise cheesecake layer of cheesecake in them. Other than top them with powdered sugar, as the recipe suggests, I decided to use store-bought frosting (these are, after all, cupcakes. Plus, it was a school night and my track record with frosting is ... not great) and sprinkles.

Torcettis

My family's been stopping at the Cle Elum Bakery while going between Seattle and eastern Washington since before I can remember. Maybe even before I was born. I always look forward to it: everything is made fresh there and they have several items that you can't find anywhere else. Like chocolate maple bars (my favorite). And torcetti (sometimes spelled "torchetti").

For a while I've been wanting to make them myself so a few months ago I finally decided to search for a recipe. What I thought was a popular Italian cookie is really something that's, for the most part, strictly sold in Cle Elum (well, that's what it seemed like. Although, I did find one version of the recipe that's made by a confectioner in Italy, via Chowhound). One common ingredient I noticed is active dry yeast: it's used as a leavener instead of baking soda and/or baking powder. So when I had a free Saturday (as I usually do) I decided to make these to bring into work. Because I only had one packet of yeast, I stuck with a recipe from Unicorn Love.