Celebrating Ellen's Little Pumpkin

My dear friend Ellen is expecting a baby and I got to travel to Dallas a couple weeks ago to celebrate  her "little pumpkin."  Here are a few pictures from the shower (which was organized by 13 hostesses!).

My contributions were "little pumpkin" muffins and the flowers, which were truly a Dow-Waldrep effort : )

It was such a fun day and such a joy to be able to celebrate this happy occasion with Ellen.  Can't wait for the arrival of Baby Peeps in February!

Little Pumpkin Muffins
*My friend Chaiss posted this recipe on her blog a while back.  It's been my go to pumpkin bread ever since*

2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In a standing mixer, combine pumpkin, oil, water and sugar.  Mix well.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.  Slowly add the dry ingredients.  Mix until just combined.  Fold in pecans.  Pour into loaf pans and bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Make 3 loaves.

This time, I poured the bread into mini-muffin tins and baked for 12-15 minutes.  In addition to adding pecans to the batter, I also chopped up some smaller pieces for sprinkling on top.