Treat or Treat!

Over the years I've had the privilege of working with some amazing individuals. These ladies go above and beyond and give so much of themselves and it's all done selflessly. To be fair, I learned a great deal in college. For the most part I enjoyed many of my courses and felt they were preparing me for my future as a teacher. Upon graduation, I thought I knew it all and could take the world on ~

yea, I was young!

Reality is, that what I have really learned has been through life experience. Hands on and peer modeling has made me the {proud} teacher I am today.

Each Wednesday a group of us meet for coffee at Starbucks. I'm the youngest of the bunch and feel so lucky to be included. After {more than I'm willing to share} years of teaching, I still feel like a sponge around these ladies soaking up their knowledge. Meeting with them is a wicked early start to the day but I look forward to it each and every week.

We don't all work in the same building any longer so this is the only time we have together to just "chat."

Being creative individuals, we are always bringing little surprises and treats along to share.

Since Halloween is just around the corner, I made these little paper mache pumpkins filled with homemade truffles for my friends.

Once a month we have a birthday celebration in my school for teachers and staff. We all sign up at the beginning of the school year for this yummy event. I signed up to bake for the October birthdays. I made my tried and true Pumpkin Torte.

Not only is it amazingly easy {I'm almost embarrassed to give you the recipe}, it's sinfully delicious ~ if only it were calorie free!

It's perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday if you're in need of a dessert.

I'll warn you though, it doesn't travel well. I almost rear ended a little car because I was so worried about the torte tipping over.

Thankfully, no one {car or torte} was harmed during the delivery.

I'm not sure how I would have explained that one to my husband.

Pumpkin Torte

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 toasted pecans ~ divided

1 package yellow butter cake

1can (15 ounces) pumpkin ~ not pumpkin pie mix

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

10 ounces cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

16 ounces whipping cream

1. In a small pan, melt the first three ingredients. Add 1/4 cup of the pecans. Pour this equally into two greased cake pans.

2. Mix the cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, and spices.

3. Pour mixture on top of brown sugar mixture in pans.

4. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden.

5. Let them cool completely ~ this is very important.

6. Beat the whipping cream until firm peaks form ~ set aside in frig.

7. Mix cream cheese, powered sugar and remaining pumpkin.

8. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

9. Cut each cake into twos horizontally.

10. Layer the cake with mixture in between.

11. On the top layer add the remaining toasted pecans.

12. If desired {as shown in photo} make a little extra caramel by combining butter, brown sugar and vanilla. Let it cool completely before drizzling it over the top.

Enjoy!

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