Food Gifts - The easiest pumpkin spice cake in the world

This recipe is accidentally vegan. An elderly woman at the grocery store gave it to my mom as a "thank you" for helping her get a product off of the shelves. Since then it's been my favorite pumpkin spice cake and I make it about 47 times every year between the months on October and January. Because it's so pretty, tasty and festive, this cake makes a fantastic present as well. Do you know what the best part is, though?

 

It has 2 ingredients.

Spice cake mix (most are vegan, just check the ingredients)

1 can of pumpkin puree (or equal amounts of homemade puree)

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and beat the two ingredients together in a large bowl.

Pour (or actually scoop, it's a pretty thick batter) into whatever pans you are using and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  

I used these adorable mini loaf pans I found. With the extra batter I made some muffins to snack on. The mini loaves baked for just over 30 minutes and the muffins took exactly 20 minutes to bake.

You can also bake the cake in a bundt pan and garnish with little stars made from homemade apple leather. Just spread some applesauce out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees until it's solid and fairly dry. Then use a knife or cookie cutters to make shapes.

This is seriously the easiest holiday present you'll give this year, I promise you.

 

Food Gifts: Roasted Veggie Pasta Sauce

Yet another roasted food gift.
I guess warm, roasted foods just feel good this time of year (even when you're in Florida and the weather is barely discernible from summer).

My favorite thing about giving pasta sauce as a present is that pretty much everyone likes it and if you include an artisan pasta or a homemade pasta, you've basically given an entire delicious meal. Feel free to take it a step further with a bottle of wine and some bread dip mix (just mix some salt, pepper and high quality Italian herbs. They just add olive oil). Last year I made pastas myself. It takes a while, but if you have a pasta machine and the time, it's definitely worth it.

This sauce is so easy to make and was a huge hit last year.

This is all you'll need:

Tomatoes (get a variety of whatever looks good at the store or farmer's market)
An onion
Garlic
Any other veggies that you can find fresh and think will go well. I used carrots, bell peppers and an artichoke to experiment with.
Salt
Canned whole tomatoes (These help if the sauce is too dry when you blend it up)
Olive oil 
Basil
Red wine (optional)
Jars

  

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Peel any veggies that need to be peeled, then cut them up into large pieces and put them in a baking dish drizzled with olive oil. Sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Put them in the oven for a couple of hours. When they all start to get soft and brown just a little, bring the temperature up to 350 and roast everything for another 20 to 30 minutes. Parts of the veggies should be nice and browned.

Add all of the veggies to your blender or food processor. If you don't have a really big blender or food processor you might need to do this in batches. I ended up not using the artichoke. It was too pretty to blend up anyways.

 

Add in the basil and the wine if you're using it. I just put in a couple splashes. Then blend it all up.

Once it's blended add in the canned whole tomatoes. Don't blend it completely smooth, a little bit of texture works really well for this sauce.

Now you can jar it up. On the tag, write that the sauce should be simmered about ten minutes before serving, just to heat it all through.

Food Gifts: Balsamic Roasted Garlic

Since I have to get all of my Christmas presents done early this year (we'll be out of town the week before), I thought it might be a good idea to share with you guys some of the gifts I'll be making. Hopefully these ideas and how-to's help you with your gift-giving this year.

I'm a big advocate of the homemade present, and particularly the edible homemade present. I always try to incorporate handmade edibles into all of my gift giving and I change it up each year. One year I did giant cupcakes decorated as ornaments and I gifted them in adorable, festive boxes. That same year I also made mini ornament cupcakes for parties and large groups I was bringing gifts for. I've also done cookies of all kinds and one year I made a couple of weeks worth of frozen meals for my parents. They were all designed to just defrost and throw in the oven so that my family could have a home cooked meal even when they were busy. The options are endless.

This will be a series of posts and I'll also include ideas for labeling and wrapping the food gifts as well.

This year, one of the gifts I'm giving is balsamic roasted garlic. It seems a little odd, but it's useful and fun little present for any chefs and garlic lovers in your life. The plus, this stuff lasts a really long time if it's sealed and in the fridge so you can make it a little ways ahead of time.

 

All you need to make this is:

Aluminum foil

Lots of heads of garlic (depending on how much you want to give)

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Kosher or sea salt

Jars (I used a couple of sizes of mason jars. Use whatever you like but make sure it's pretty and seals fairly well)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Then, chop the very tops off of the heads of garlic, so a little bit of each clove is exposed.

Line a baking pan of some kind (I used glass) with foil and drizzle a little olive oil over the foil. Then arrange the heads of garlic cut side up.

Drizzle them with a little more olive oil and some balsamic, then sprinkle them with a little salt.

 

It should look a little like this. 

Now, cover the pans with foil and toss them in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour.

When they come out, let them cool a little and remove each of the cloves from their skin. It shouldn't be too hard now that they are cooked.

Put the cloves back into the foil, drizzle them with more olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then wrap the foil around them to make a little pouch.

Toss them back into the oven for another 15 minutes or so. Take them out of the oven, stir them up, and roast them for another 15 minutes. They should be golden, smell delicious, and be a bit soft.

Now you can package them up.

Roasted garlic has a ton of uses, and it might be a good idea to include a little gift tag with ideas. It's great spread on toast and it a wonderful addition to virtually any pasta sauce. You can also spread it on crackers or even eat it on it's own.