Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Hello friends!

I am back! There is nothing more boring than reading in full description why a blogger was absent for forever, so I won’t apologize too profusely. But I will say that I do finally have a new computer and am more excited than ever to start blogging again! This puppy ain't no Mac, that’s for sure…but it will do for now! My life is quite different this year than it was last, I am no longer a full time student…I have a full time job! I am taking one class at the university still…just because, but it’s really (really) lax. All these big changes have come about because of my decision to go to culinary school! I think about it every single day. However, I need a little more than the will to go to get there. That’s why I’m working! I have a few ideas of where I would love to go, but I find myself flip flopping constantly - I am sure you will soon become aware of this, so I won’t name any places quite yet! Anyways, I hope you are all as excited to see me back on here as I am…here’s a recipe for some cupcakes!

Oh yes, and I decided to come back to blogspot. I missed the comments, the communication, the love! I really did. I think this will be a great switch back.

After Thanksgiving, there was an extra can of pumpkin sitting in the cupboard, just tempting me to make some sort of pumpkin laced dessert... I finally decided on something a little plain jane, but nonetheless delicious. Cupcakes with a good ol' dab of cream cheese icing! These little gems did not rise up to normal "cupcake" form, and therefore ended up looking more like muffins...however, once you take a peek at the amounts of sugar in this recipe, you will see that these are no muffins.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white granulated sugar

1 cup soft butter

4 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 (15 ounce) can pure pumpkin puree

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pop muffin tin liners into your pan or pans!

Beat together the sugars, butter and eggs until well combined.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and soda, and spices in the measuring cup or a medium sized bowl.

Add the combined dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and combine!

Whisk in the pumpkin puree.

Pour batter into the liners about 3/4 full.

Bake cupcakes for about 20-25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out of the center of the fattest cupcakes squeaky clean!

For the icing, I simply beat together a brick of plain cream cheese, a dash of almond milk, and a truck load of icing sugar. It was extremely sweet, hence the heart shaped icing (so you didn't get a full cupcake top's worth of the stuff). To do this, I just loaded my icing into a big zip lock bag, snipped a corner of it, and iced away!

These cupcakes were so moist! I brought them to work and they were all gone by noon, a good sign I'd say!

Enjoy!

xoxo

Mariel

Weekend Highlights Round Two

Hey guys. I had a little free time and thought I might as well spend it blogging about everything I ate on the weekend that I didn't have time to blog about!

I'll start off with friday evening, where I had a lovely stuffed pork tenderloin with some simple steamed beans and carrots for dinner (mother made).

It was so tender!

Saturday night the entire Flanagan household got lazy and we got take-out Chinese! We ordered this feast from the most bizarre place ever...Panda Hut Express (on 23rd Ave). Okay...I guess it's not that bizarre, but I had never ordered Chinese food from an old Burger King (or whatever it was) before. The play place was still securely located in the corner of the restaurant.

However, I must admit: play place and all...Panda Hut produces some pretty tasty take-out.

So here it is, my greasy saturday night meal in all it's glory:

After dinner Ashley came over and the two of us whipped up (literally...I think it took us an hour, clean-up included...impressive, I know) a double batch of cupcakes for our friend Alex's birthday!

They definitely were not the most aesthetically pleasing cupcakes that have ever come out of this house, but they did the trick!

Basic White Cake

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoon milk (I used almond milk)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Line a muffin pan with paper liners

Cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs (one at a time), and add the vanilla.

Mix in the flour and milk, be sure not to over beat!

Spoon batter into the prepared pans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Basic Butter Icing

1/2 cup butter

4 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon corn syrup

3-4 tablespoons milk (or almond milk)

Beat all ingredients together.

Note: I kind of just threw this icing together without measuring, however I think these measurements should work pretty well! Play with the amounts until you've got a great icing consistency, just make sure to use enough icing sugar so you don't get that awful "straight butter" taste!

And that's my weekend in food finally re-told on wednesday! Happy baking!

xoxo

Mariel