Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

 

I can’t believe it is almost the end of October and I haven’t shared any pumpkin recipes! But I will change that right now.

Today also happens to be the 5^th week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. It is so insane to think that Christmas is that close!

So back to all things pumpkin: I always buy several cans of pumpkin puree because of all the ideas I have to use it with. And how any of those ideas are executed? Only a small fraction, which is sad because fall is the best time of all to bake. If it were acceptable to make things with pumpkin, maple, and molasses all year round I would be a very happy girl.

So for the 5^th week of Christmas Treats I’m sharing these lovely pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting (two seasonal flavors wrapped into one!

 

 

I wasn’t too excited about these cupcakes when I took my first bite, but that all changed the second day. I think the flavors just needed time to soak in and deepen. The cupcake because super moist and perfectly spiced. One of my favorite things about nutmeg is the little specks is leaves in the batter it is added to. It promises and delivers great things every time.

The frosting was so creamy. I love a good cream cheese frosting; if I were only allowed to have one type of frosting for the rest of my life, it would be of the cream cheese variety. Although with this recipe I think I should have added a tad more powdered sugar to stiffen it up a bit and a little more maple syrup to make it taste more mapley.

Once again, thank you Brenda for hosting such a wonderful bloghop.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Slightly adapted from Diethood

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

1 cup sugar

½ cup canola oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Frosting

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp. pure maple syrup

¼ pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a standard 12 cup cupcake tray with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil until smooth. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Mix in the pumpkin puree and stir until combined. Stir in the vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold the batter until just combined.

Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared cupcake tray. Bake on the center rack for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting: beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gently add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla until completely incorporated. Frost cupcakes as desired.

Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes

Hi. I haven't updated this blog in a while, but again I will put all the blame on school. I don't want to be a Debby Downer so I'll just leave it at that.

I made these cupcakes for the first time in mid-December. I was with my cousin and she wanted me to bake her something, so I texted her a few pictures so she could decide what she wanted.

My cousin, along with my aunt and basically her entire family, so not cook, like at all. I had to keep asking my cousin if she had measuring cups and spoons and if she had sugar and eggs. She had no idea about anything, so not only did we end up buying every single ingredient called for in the recipe, but a few of the measuring essentials too.

As I was making these cupcakes my cousin just kept looking on in astonishment. I felt kind of bad since she’s all like “Why do you have to do that?” and “Why can’t I just use the glass thing to measure the flour?” It was kind of bad, so I got her to crush the Oreos and so a little of the folding too. By the way, my cousin in six months older than I am, so if I’m portraying her as a little kid, I’m not. It shocks me every time I make something so simple and my aunt and her family are beyond impressed.

Anyways, these are some freaking fantastic cupcakes. I decided to make them again for my roommates to try and one roommate accused me of putting crack in them because she kept going back for more.

The cake part is really delicate, until you bit into the Oreo base and get a good chunk of Oreo in the bite, then these are just heavenly. The only part I kept having trouble with is the frosting. It’s dang good frosting, but it’s so…loose! The pictures make it look like this is an Oreo cheesecake, but it’s not. Besides the frosting being so limp, it’s great and soft and delicious.

Cookies ‘n Cream Cupcakes

From Indigo Scones

Makes 8 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

4 whole Oreos

¾ cup (90 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ + 1/8 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup (96 g) sugar

1 egg white, room temperature

¾ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup buttermilk

5 whole Oreos, coarsely chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 1/3 oz. cream cheese, chilled

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 whole Oreos, pulverized into crumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners. Twist the 4 Oreos so you have 8 cookies in total. Place one Oreo cookie, cream side up, in the paper liner.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set the bowl aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg white. Mix on medium speed until foamy and voluminous. Stir in the vanilla. Mix in half of the dry ingredients until combined. Add all of the buttermilk and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold in chopped Oreos.

Distribute batter among the prepared liners. Bake cupcakes for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

As the cupcakes cool, make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl on medium speed until smooth. Blend in vanilla. Slow the speed down and gradually add the powdered sugar. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Increase the speed and whip for 4 minutes. Frost cupcakes as desired (remember, the frosting will be really goopy). Sprinkle tops with Oreo cookie crumbs. 

Molasses Cookies with Ginger Cream Cheese Filling

I wanted to share this with you on Monday, but after reading so many posts about the victims of Newtown, Connecticut, I didn’t think I could. I was going to make a post saying how my heart goes out to the friends and families of the victims as well as the community of the city, but I couldn’t talk about such tragedy with something happy such as sandwich cookies. I know I’m kind of doing that now, but I feel I should say at least something. So make sure to hug your loved ones just a little longer and harder this holiday season.

I have so many baking ideas for this holiday season, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do it all. I’ve even bought eggnog (something I have yet to try, but love the smell of so far) and I don’t even have a recipe for anything with eggnog!

One thing that I can cross off my holiday baking list is gingerbread. I did not make traditional gingerbread men; instead I made gingerbread sandwich cookies! These things are truly amazing. I think I had five (or was it six?) the day I made these. I was a bad girl, but they just kept getting better and better!

The cookie is so soft and bakes up super big and puffy! The gingerbread flavor is really out of this world. Last year I made traditional gingerbread men, but I didn’t really like them because the cookies were crunchy, and if you’re new to this blog, you’ll need to know I had flat and crunchy cookies. Flat and crunchy have no purpose when it comes to cookies.

The ginger cream cheese frosting is the most amazing thing ever. I think cream cheese frosting is my favorite frosting ever because it’s never too sweet, like I find buttercream frosting to be. I couldn’t really detect the ginger in the frosting, but you can see the ginger flecks, and that looks real pretty.

These cookies are actually the first sandwich cookie recipe I have made. There is something so calming about sitting in front of a row of cookies and a bowl of frosting.

Molasses Cookies with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

From The Pastry Affair

Makes 16 sandwich cookies

Ingredients

Molasses Cookies

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking power

¾ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. ground cloves

½ cup dark brown sugar

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

2 eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup unsulfured molasses

Ginger Cream Cheese Filling

2 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

½ tsp. ginger

Pinch of salt

1 cup powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

To make the cookies: Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. Set the bowl aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Pour in the molasses. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed; the mixture will look a little curdled. Decrease the mixer’s speed to low and gradually add 1/3 of the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Repeat until all the flour has been incorporated. Take a medium-small cookie scoop (I used one that’s about 1 ¼-1 ½ inches in diameter) and portion out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Space the dough about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes (mine were perfect at 7:55 minutes). Cool the cookies on the tray for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. Allow the cookies to cool completely before filling.

To make the filling: beat the cream cheese and butter until completely incorporated. Add the ginger and salt. Gradually add the sugar. By that I mean at a tbsp. or two at a time. Powdered sugar is a pain to clean when it flies everywhere. Refrigerate the filling for 5-10 minutes. Pile a tsp. or two onto the flat bottoms of half the cooled cookies. Place the remaining unfrosted cookies on top of the frosting. Keep cookies in the fridge in a sealed container.

Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispie Treats

From October to December time seems to fly by so quickly. I looked at the calendar the other day and was shocked to find that half the month had already passed. Where did that first part of October go? I don’t know, but now I feel the pressure to get more things done.

Today, I’m sharing something very fun. I’m sharing cinnamon roll rice krispie treats. I have had the recipe saved on my computer for a while now, and when a pumpkin spice rice krispie recipe fell through the cracks I quickly came back to these as an alternative, and I’m very glad I did.

The rice krispie part is so pretty with the specks of cinnamon scattered throughout the treat. I was actually mesmerized when I added the cinnamon to the melted marshmallow in the pot . The component that really makes these like cinnamon rolls is the cream cheese frosting. It’s not too sweet, but it’s also not too cream cheesey either. I think frosting is slowly starting to make its way into my heart.

And thank you Brenda for hosting this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. This post marks 4 weeks into the celebration. 

Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispie Treats

Slightly adapted from Cooking Classy

Makes 16 squares

Cinnamon Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

dash salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

5 oz. mini marshmallows

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 cups rice krispie cereal

Directions

Line a 9-inch square pan with tin foil. Grease the foil with cooking spray; set aside.

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Toss in the salt and cinnamon and stir. Add in the mini marshmallows. Stir constantly until the marshmallows have melted completely. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla. Add the cold cereal to the hot marshmallow mixture.

Pour the hot cereal and marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly across the pan with a greased rubber spatula. Gently press down to compact the treats. Set the pan in the refrigerator to cool as you make the cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, soft

2 oz. cream cheese, soft

¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

ground cinnamon (optional)

Directions

Beat the cream cheese and butter until well combined. Stir in the vanilla. Gently beat the powdered sugar in three stages so as not to make the sugar go flying.

Take the pan out of the fridge and cut into squares. Use a butter knife to spread the cream cheese frosting over the rice krispie treat. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon if desired.