Day 15: Facing your fears & Pumpkin bread

Fire week began today. It's all about waking up the spirit, so you need to move your body too. Today's assignment feels too personal to share. I'm not ready to list my fears for the whole world to see. Eeek! But it's scary to sit down and write down your fears. I know I do have a fear of failure--I think that's the wannabe perfectionist in me.

Sometimes I get this great craft/art project in my mind. It slowly simmers in my head. I go through the supply list, the steps and techniques needed to make it. All in my head. But that's as far as I get. If I can't get it out of my head, I'll write it all out in my sketchbook. I might even buy or gather the supplies. Yet I never get started. It's that flaw of mine: perfectionism. What if it won't come out the way I imagined it? Or worse yet, I start making it and I'm not very good at it. I don't know why I let these things drive me beserk!

Very in tune with fire week, Sophia and I baked spiced pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum! It's a recipe from Everyday Food, which coincidentally was featured in today's episode of the PBS show of the same name. Meant to be ? It's also a great magazine. The recipes in it are simple and perfect for a busy mom.

So after we walked to the grocery store to buy more flour and some yummy clementines. This baked while we ate lunch.
While it cooled, of course we had to make the honey cream cheese icing. There was a request for pink frosting and I had no reason to deny Sophia's small pleasure.


We frosted the cake when she woke up from her nap. Who cares if there's frosting all over the plate edges and the cake? It was moist and perfect for the blustery gray day! It went perfectly with my cranberry tea. I love fall flavors. It's so comforting when we are deep in autumn, winding our way into winter.