My neighbor and sister had me bake them cupcakes for Halloween parties. I made them chocolate cupcakes with a little cinnamon (couldn't really taste it) and then for frosting, I did vanilla with 1 Tbsp of MEXICAN vanilla. If you haven't had Mexican vanilla, its a lot stronger than regular like.. McCormick. And has a cinnamony taste to it. But gah! It was tasty. I dyed the buttercream orange and yellow and got some pumpkin candies and decorations and made the cupcakes into pumpkin patches complete with pathetic vines. I need to work on my decorating skills x_x'
In anycase. Stressfull week is relieved by none other than cupcakes. And I was on a bit of a pumpkin kick after carving out a pumpkin! No pictures of that as it didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted.
Nor did my cream cheese frosting for these cupcakes, for that matter. Thus! The cupcakes got filled. Or sorta. The one in this particular picture didn't get a whole lot. Booo. This also taught me the lesson of actually measure out the vanilla instead of trying to eyeball it (attempting this I dropped too much vanilla in and couldn't get my frosting thick enough again).
But in any case. These cupcakes were damn tasty!
In any case, here we go!
Cream Cheese Cinnamon and Ginger frosting/filling
(Originally Paula Dean's cream cheese frosting)
1 lb (or 2 8oz packs) of cream cheese
2 sticks of butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups sifted confectioners/powder sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1.) Beat together the cream cheese and butter.
2.) Blend in the vanilla
3.) Slowly add the sugar. If you go too fast, this goes EVERYWHERE.
4.) Add in your cinnamon and ginger.
Pumpkin Cupcakes
(Originally from Cupcake Bakeshop)
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
15 oz pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1.) Preheat to 350°
2.) Whisk together your dry ingredients in a medium bowl: flour, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Set aside.
3.) Cream together your butter and sugar.
4.) Add in egg yolks to the butter and sugar, one at a time, beating for roughly 30 seconds in between. Set your egg whites to the side.
5.) Add in dry ingredients slowly to your wet and then add in your pumpkin. Mix until well combined.
6.) Whip your egg whites until stiff and fold in to your batter.
7.) Fill the cupcakes 3/4 of the way and bake for roughly 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8.) Once cupcakes are cooled, you can fill them either doing one of two methods. Cut a small cone out of your cupcake, spoon in or using a pastry bag, fill in the cavity with cream cheese and cover, then frost. Or, the method I used, jab your poor cupcake with a pastry bag of your cream cheese and inject the cupcake with cream cheese. Don't do it too roughly or else you'll blow the bottom out of your cupcake. Then you'll have to come up with a new name!
Notes: MEASURE YOUR VANILLA! Particularly with cream cheese frosting. Surprised I didn't have the issue with butter cream. Pumpkin turns out such a pretty color.
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