It seems like we always have a birthday to celebrate at work. Last week it was Bethany’s turn to celebrate. I decided to try some fun decorating ideas instead of coming up with a new recipe. I have seen several versions of marshmallow flowers, and thought that the flowers would be the perfect way to decorate some birthday cupcakes. I had so much fun creating them, and they were so easy to make. Bethany loved the Flower Power Cupcakes! Just in case you were curious, the cupcakes were pumpkin spice flavored.

To make the marshmallow flowers:

1. Use scissors to cut large marshmallows into 4 pieces/petals.
2. Dip one side of each petal into colored sugar of your choice.
3. Arrange petals on top of cupcakes.
4. Put a medium sized dot of frosting in the middle of each flower.
5. Using small spoon, sprinkle yellow colored sugar on frosting in center of the flower.

Don’t forget to get your Pumpkins For Pink e-book…..even a 1 cent donation for the fight against breast cancer will get you a recipe book full of delicious pumpkin recipes.

It is finally here! I received so many wonderful pumpkin recipes to be included in the book, and I can’t wait for you all to see them. The Pumpkins for Pink E-Book contains 45 pages of pumpkin recipes including Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, Thai Curry Pumpkin Soup, and Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn. I know there are many pumpkin lovers out there that will love this book. To receive your own personal copy of the Pumpkins for Pink E-Book, all you have to do is make a donation of ANY size…big or small…to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. I am so excited to see how much money we can raise to fight breast cancer! Let’s shoot for $500! I know we can do it! Enjoy all the pumpkin recipes.

How to receive your copy of  the Pumpkins for Pink E-Book:

1. CLICK HERE TO DONATE

2. Fill out the informational form making sure to leave your e-mail address. (Your e-mail address will not be visible or shared and you can opt not to have your donation amount displayed.)

3. A copy of the Pumpkins for Pink E-Book will be sent to the e-mail address provided within 24 hours.

CONGRATS TO THE WINNER!!

Madeliene: I love dangly earrings so picking a fave was hard!  I really like the hammered silver oval earrings.  Thanks for the giveaway! Yummy!

Jewelry and delicious icing….two things that can definitely bring a smile to a girl’s face. This fun giveaway offers both! I mentioned Janie’s Cakes Cinnamon Butterceam Icing in the Chai Apple Cider Spice Cakes post. The lucky winner of this giveaway wins a jar of this sinful goodness.

In addition to the icing, the winner will get their choice of one of these wonderful pieces of jewelry from kd beadery. If you have not visited this Etsy shop, it is time to head over and check out the beautiful necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that Kathy makes. I already have several pieces of jewelery picked out as Christmas gifts for family and friends.

For your chance to win your choice of the jewelry pictured above and a jar of Janie’s Cakes Cinnamon Buttercream Icing:

• Visit the kdbeadery shop and leave a comment telling me what piece of jewelry you would want the most.
  
• Earn an extra entry if you are a new or existing subscriber to Megan’s Munchies, and leave me a comment letting me know.
• Earn another additional entry by linking back to this giveaway on your blog, and leaving a comment letting me know.
• Earn one more entry by mentioning the giveaway on Twitter and leaving a comment letting me know.

Entries will be accepted until Sunday, November 8, at midnight.

I am so glad you all enjoyed visiting Tablespoon.com. I loved reading about which recipes you all wanted to try! Not surprisingly, many of you gravitated towards the pumpkin recipes.

Congrats to the winner:

Kelly- Oooh…Of course, I went straight to the “brownies and bars” section. I would try the chocolate caramel layer bars…can’t go wrong with that combo!

Stay tuned!!! Three more giveaways coming to Megan’s Munchies soon. One might just include the yummy icing that topped my Chai Apple Cider Spice Cakes.

Who can resist a pretzel topped with chocolate, coconut, and caramel? I sure can’t! Soft pretzels are one of my favorite indulgences, and I have been craving them since I had a Texas size pretzel at the State Fair. When I saw these Soft Pretzel Samoas @ Big Red Kitchen, my soft pretzel cravings quadrupled! These ooey gooey pretzels are amazingly quick and easy to make. Visit Big Red Kitchen for the details on how to create these tempting treats for yourself.

It is so fun to see how food brings people together to enjoy good times. We had a Halloween Potluck at work yesterday, and we all had so much fun coming together and sharing our food creations. Everyone brought such delicious and fun food, and I had to share with all of you. All my co-workers know me well. They made sure I got all my pictures before digging in. I brought my Black Bean Pumpkin Polenta Chili. I topped the chili with a ghost shaped tortilla chip made my friend Katie.

Katie used cookie cutters to make Halloween shapes out of flour tortillas. She then sprayed them with olive oil cooking spray and baked them in the oven.

Katie also made Seven Layer Dip with a sour cream spider web on top.

Bethany provided the Texas Caviar, which was full of flavor and definitely colorful.

Bridgette brought a savory salad that had the added crunch of pecans.

June added to the food fest with a variety of pinwheels.

Of course, we had to have some cornbread to go with the chili. Meg provided some delicious cornbread for us.

Jeanne got creative and made some spooky chocolate dipped strawberries!

Jeanne also brought some cute ghostly pudding parfaits.

Lindsay made some adorable Candy Sushi! I love the Swedish Fish.

Happy Halloween to everyone! Stay safe and have fun!!!

My friends at MyBlogSpark introduced me to a new recipe site called Tablespoon.com.

When you visit Tablespoon.com, you can:

• View more than 25,000 of the best recipes on the web
• Share recipes easily on places like Facebook and Twitter

When you join Tablespoon.com, you can:

• Add your own recipe creations
• Create your own version of existing recipes that suit your taste.
• Save up to $80 every month with printable coupons from brands you love Rate, comment, and save the recipes you try

Bonus! And if that wasn’t enough, if you add your recipes to Tablespoon, your recipe and profile could be featured in a Tablespoon newsletter, which is sent to thousands of subscribers! The Tablespoon team will select some of the highest rated member submitted recipes to be featured in the weekly newsletter. If your recipe is highly rated, it could even be the main feature! I know you all have some fantastic recipes that you could submit.

To celebrate the new site, MyBlogSpark sent me a “Pass the Inspiration” prize pack. One lucky winner will also win a prize pack containing a set of measuring spoons, a measuring cup, and two terry cloth pot holders.

For your chance to win:

• Visit Tablespoon.com and browse the recipes. Leave me comment telling me what recipe you found that you want to try.
• Get a second entry by tweeting about this giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Saturday, October 31 at midnight.

When Fall rolls around I always crave pumpkin, but I also crave spices….nutmeg, cinnamon, anise, allspice, cardamom, ginger. When I saw the chai spiced cider while walking through Whole Foods, my mind started churning with possibilities for a spicy and sweet creation. The idea for a spiced apple cider cupcake came to me, and then magically, the perfect icing for my treats appeared on the shelf before my eyes….cinnamon buttercream icing from Janie’s Cakes. I wish I could have these cupcakes in the oven for the remainder of the year, because the scent that fills the air when they are baking is amazing. It is hard to stop at just one of these spiced cakes, they are extremely moist and full of sweet and spicy flavors. I have a feeling I will be making these a traditional Fall treat!

I used up all the icing, but luckily I have lots of the cider left. I might just have to use it in my oatmeal in the morning! After watching all the Quaker Challenge videos and voting for one of our favorite blogging friends, I have been wanting to try some more creative oatmeal creations.

Chai Apple Cider Spice Cakes

Ingredients:

1 box spice cake mix

1 1/3 cups Chai Apple Cider

3 eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

1 jar Janie’s Cakes Cinnamon Buttercream Icing

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cake mix, eggs, cider, and canola oil until well blended.
3. Fill cupcakes liners 2/3 full with batter.
4. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
5. Cool completely and top with icing. Enjoy!

I have seen versions of candy corn cupcakes in magazines and on several recipe sites. In my first attempt to make some candy corn cupcakes, I used a cake mix and poured the colored batters into a dark nonstick cupcake pan. Unfortunately, they baked faster than I expected, and they were a nice golden brown on the outside rather than yellow and orange. I didn’t feel like running back out to the store, but I was determined to make some candy corn cupcakes. I found a basic cupcake recipe on cooks.com, and started mixing up the ingredients. Then came the next roadblock…no vanilla extract. I did some research for vanilla extract substitutes, and decided to substitute an equal amount of maple syrup. Guess what? It worked, and gave the cupcakes a nice flavor. I also used cupcake liners the second time around, and no browning occurred…the candy corn colors were nice and bright. The time required in the kitchen to make these colorful cupcakes is not long, unless you are learning lessons along the way like I did!

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 box of white or yellow cake mix prepared according to directions on the box or your favorite basic cupcake recipe prepared
• red food coloring
• yellow food coloring
• your favorite white icing recipe or store bought icing

Directions:

1. Prepare cake mix.
2. Divide cake mix evenly between two bowls.
3. Add drops of yellow food coloring to one bowl of batter, and mix until desired shade of yellow is reached.
4. Add red and yellow food coloring to the other bowl of batter, and mix until desired shade of orange is reached.
5. Fill cupcake liners 1/4 full with yellow batter.
6. Top yellow batter with orange batter, filling an additional 1/4 full.
7. Bake cupcakes according to directions from the box or recipe.
8. Cool, and then top with icing and desired candy or other Halloween decorations.

I am so excited about the wonderful response to this giveaway! There sure are a lot of popcorn lovers out there. The lucky winner who gets to sample 9 decadent flavors of popcorn from Utah Kernels and Colorado Kernels is:

Kristen – Yummy! I would love to try Mile High Pecan Pie. I think it would be fitting for the fall and all the flavors that come around during this time….pecans being one for me. Looks great.

Congratulations! Come back later today for some Candy Corn Cupcakes and don’t forget to send me your pumpkin recipes for the e-book to support the fight against breast cancer!