Finnish Cinnamon S's

I haven't been baking much as I always seem to be sick with one thing or the other. Now that I'm better I've done a bit of baking but haven't remembered to take pictures. Oh well. My son's grandmother used to make these cookies at Christmas but she hasn't made them for a few years (as far as I know). So I looked for a recipe and found one for these Cinnamon Cookies that are usually called Cinnamon S's in Finland.

Halloween Eyeball Cupcakes

They are only just starting to sell Halloween stuff here - mostly children's costumes and some decorations, so there aren't any Halloween themed or coloured food items in the stores.

I've made muffins before but I don't remember if I've ever made iced cupcakes. Sweet and Simple Bakes' October challenge was to make Halloween cupcakes. I adapted their recipe to make it eggless and found a milkless frosting to cover them with. I used margarine in the frosting, so it turned out yellowy. I used a black liquorice candy for the pupil and puréed a few strawberries through a strainer and mixed in some icing sugar for the red lines. They certainly look homemade but that didn't stop us eating them all!

Apple Cake

I found another food blog that seems interesting. They post a monthly recipe and participants bake it and post about it. I decided to take part in the September bake at Sweet and Simple Bakes' when I noticed it was to do with apples. Seeing that we are trying to go eggless I used baking powder and vinegar instead of the eggs. I didn't have any vanilla so I left that out. I also used a larger cake pan so it came out flatter. I especially liked the cinnamon and sugar topping!

White Cake

I had some guests for dinner last week and I wanted to make a cake but as I'm trying to be eggless the recipe couldn't have eggs in it. I used a basic white cake recipe but with less corn starch and ½ water, ½ orange juice. When I took the cake tins out of the oven the middles of both of them fell. After I let them cool 10 minutes, I turned them out onto a cooling rack and the middle of the bottom of one of them was still quite moist so I put it back in the oven. I didn't have time to make new ones so I decided to serve them anyway. I used the whipped cocoa cream from this recipe for the icing (we could probably eat it without any cake!). Everyone took a second slice and seemed to enjoy it. I'll use the recipe again.