Tasty Recipe Review: Pumpkin Cupcakes

Pumpkin is back and it's scary hehe! This week I'm reviewing a recipe by My Kitchen Addiction Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream. That sounded wonderful to me, I just needed to try them. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to make the Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream but it sounds absolutely delightful I will have to try it one day, that's for sure!

The cupcakes were incredibly easy to make. I did add a few things to the recipe, more pumpkin, a bit more spices, honey and some orange zest, because I think orange zest goes great with pumpkin. And I was right!

These cupcakes were not only easy to make but they were delicious! I loved how all the flavors came together and created a wonderfully complete and balanced taste. The orange zest really gave this recipe a nice twist and brought out the pumpkin at the end. I truly enjoyed these cupcakes and found them very light with great texture.


To make these delicious cupcakes you will need:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened

(For my variation add 1 tablespoon honey, 1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ginger and orange zest to taste.) 

Combine all of the ingredients (yes, I said all of the ingredients) in the bowl of your stand mixer (or just a large mixing bowl if you are brave and have a hand mixer). Beat on medium speed for 20 minutes (that’s why I said you must be brave… or at least energetic). (I found that there is no need to beat the mixture for this long)

While the mixer is doing all of the work, preheat the oven to 350°F, line two standard muffin pans with cupcake papers (for 24 cupcakes). 

Once the batter is smooth, fill each of the cupcake liners about 2/3 full with batter.  Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool the cupcakes in the pans for a few minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 cups powdered sugar (varies based on temperature/humidity)
• 3 tablespoons half and half (varies based on temperature/humidity)

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and shortening. Whip together with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy.  Add the brown sugar and cinnamon and whisk until well combined.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. Alternately add the half and half, whipping the icing on medium-high speed after each addition, until the desired consistency is reached.



Till next time, I hope you enjoyed this review and remember, if you have a Tasty Recipe that you would like to share, or if there's a recipe that you have been wanting to try and just haven't been able to, let me know about it. I'll give you a Tasty Review!

It wasn't me

Ok so maybe it was, but I couldn't help it, they looked so good!

Last week I posted about the effects of a banana cupcake that had no baking soda. You can check out my post HERE.

Well, I decided to make some of my banana cupcakes yesterday and share the recipe so that you could see what I meant.

Come on, tell me they don't look good???

Here's the recipe for you to enjoy

Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) butter or margarine at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
1/4 cup of wheat bran ( if you can find it with honey even better)
2 - 3 tablespoons honey ( I like to use 3 depends on your taste )
5 ripe bananas
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place paper liners into muffin tin.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add 3 bananas. With the mixer on low add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape the bowl and add the milk and vanilla. (The mixture will look curdled.) Add the dry ingredients mixing  until just combined. Add the remaining bananas and honey mixing on low speed until bananas are just broken down but you still have some medium sized pieces.

Pour into tins filling 2/3 of the way. I like using the 1/4 cup measurement for this. Bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Winnie The Pooh

How cute is Winnie The Pooh?

I was asked to make a Winnie the Pooh cake along with 12 cupcakes for a girl's birthday. Freaking out here! How am I going to make Winnie the Pooh???

I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to get him looking right, but it turns out the didn't come out that bad after all!

Here, why don't you be the judge:

Kinda cute right?

Here's a closer shot

 

 

Ok ok, I know he's not perfect and doesn't look exactly like Winnie the Pooh and looks like he's been eating a little too much of that "hunny" but hey, he still looks pretty good to me! 

The cake inside was three different colors, red, orange and yellow, it looked very cool! 

And take a look at the matching bee cupcakes:

How cute!!!

Princess cake

How cute is this cake?? This is a Princess cake I had to make for this saturday along with 100 cupcakes! That's right 100!

The cake is vanilla with a Nutella Mousse filling and the cupcakes were Red Velvet with Butter Cream. YUM!!

Now, you will never guess what the cake looks like inside though, so here's a picture...







COLORS!!! Yes, the cake was all different colors inside, it was so cute!





And here we have a picture of the cupcakes, also very cute.









This is what the cake with the cupcakes ultimately ended up looking like set up at the party, I know it's not the best picture but it looked good.

An apple a day... may make me a winner!!

Apple, cinammon, wine! Hmmm, sounds good right? I thought so, so I decided to bake these cupcakes for the Iron Cupcake:Earth challenge for this month in which the ingredient was... yes you guessed it... apples! Nooo! WINE, how's that for a shocker? Cupcakes and wine? What the *//&*$%%# bleeeep??? Don't get me wrong, I like wine, I do, I even enjoy getting drunk on the stuff once (read often) in a while. I just didn't know how to incorporate (fancy bakers word) it in a cupcake recipe and have it be fantastic! Hey, maybe I need more experience, I'm sure Martha Stewart could do it with her eyes closed, who knows.

Anyhoo... I racked my brain thinking what cupcake am I going to bake with wine that is worthy of winning this challenge and what wine, red, white, frizzy, bubbly, cheap, expensive ... jeez! Make a girl think why don't you?

Sooo, to make a long story short (too late huh?) I decide to bake these sweet wonderful cakes that I love and mix up the recipe a bit with booze!!

I would like to apologize for any bad pictures, lighting, framing, bluriness and everything else that could go wrong with a picture. I am not a professional photographer and do not have one of those fancy cameras that cost like a gizillion bucks and take amazing pictures all by themselves.

And finally... the recipe, with pictures yay! If you want to skip the recipe and amazing professional photography that's fine but please keep reading afterwards to check out the prizes I'm going to win, um, offered and how you can help me win... yes!!!

To make these tasty delights you will need:

*1/2 cup of water

*1/2 cup of red wine (I used Port or Oporto which is sweet)

2 cups sugar

2 cups grated apples

2 cups raisins

2 sticks butter

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 1/2 cups flour

Place water, wine, sugar, apples, raisins, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a saucepan.

This is how it's going to look, can you see the wine? mmmm...boozie

Bring to boil. I'm not going to show that picture cause it doesn't look that great. Cool completely.

This is what the cooked ingredients will look like.

Stir nuts and baking soda into the flour. No picture for that one, I was too engrossed cooking and forgot! Add to the cooked and cooled mixture.

Here is the complete mix. Looks pretty yummy eh? (eh??? wtf?) Anyways, I can taste the already.

Fill your muffin or cupcake tins till about 3/4 full and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you want to make these absolutely fantastic like mine, combine about 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 water and simmer until a syrup is formed and then add about 1/2 tablespoon of wine and with a pastry brush, brush these puppies as soon as they come out of the oven. This makes them incredibly moist and delicious!

Now for the important part, getting me to win!! Please go over to No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner and vote for me!! Yep, that's it, you can do it come on!

Check out the fantastic prices:

When I win, I mean, the winner will receive this amazing ETSY PRIZE-PACK from artists:
DOGBONE ART

cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES
CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for the winner each month until further notice - sweet!

As an added bonus for January, SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in another treat as well.

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget the corporate prize providers:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS,
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson,
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
CUPCAKE COURIER
TASTE OF HOME books.

BEGINNING IN JANUARY; UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM will be providing the winner with one of their cute cupcake attitude t's!
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.


Who decides the winner of Iron Cupcake:Earth?
You will. You and the entire blogosphere.

During the 5-days following the baking period, a summary of all cupcakes, their photo, and links to their blog post will be live on No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. In the right hand column of the page there will be a button to vote for the 3 favorite cupcake, based on appearance and summary of each recipe.