Pumpkin Bread & Cinnamon Honey Butter

I love fall...I love everything about it...the smell, the weather, the leaves, and of course the food.  The boys and I went to discovery time at the library where we learned about apples and pumpkins.  Since it was the first day of fall, we embraced the theme.

• 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 t baking soda
• 1 1/2 t salt
• splash of vanilla
• 1/4 t pumpkin pie spice
• 1 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t cloves
• 1/4 t ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour three 7x3 bread pans.  (I used my bundt pan and had enough leftover for a few muffins.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar until well blended.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.  Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.  Pour into prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I usually put milk chocolate chips in my pumpkin bread...but the Mr is watching what he eats so I decided to make something more indulgent I could put on top.  Heaven forbid I eat it just plain...however, I did, and it's still delish.  In this case I added cinnamon honey butter.

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 t ground cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.  This is also delish on toast, bagels, muffins, pancakes, waffles, whatever your little heart desires.  :-)

Rainbow Cupcakes

(recipe from Mindika Moments)

These are my new favorite cupcakes.  I love how vibrant the colors turn out!  Brandon loves how moist (I know I hate that word as well) they always turn out.  And anything that starts with a cake mix, you know I'm game.

CREAM CHEESE VANILLA CUPCAKES
8 ounces cream cheese (about 1 cup), softened
2 egg whites
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 box white cake mix
1 cup water
1 t. vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12 count muffin tins with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, egg whites and vegetable oil. Using a hand mixer, beat the ingredients until combined and creamy.
3. Add the cake mix, water and vanilla and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes.
4. Fill the muffin cups to just below the rim and bake until puffed and golden, about 18 to 20 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven, let cool slightly in the tin then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack.
6. When cook, frost with vanilla butter cream frosting (recipe below) or your favorite frosting.

If you want to do the fun colors.  After making the cake mix, separate the batter into as many bowls as you want colors.  If you want the colors to be vibrant, you can't use just regular food coloring.  Go get some of the Wilton icing color that comes in the little containers.  It's really thick, almost like a paste.  Add the paste to the batter until you get the desired color, repeat with remaining colors.  Pour each color of the cake mix into either a pastry bag or ziploc bag with end snipped off.  Squeeze one color into a corner of the cupcake liner, go through and do that one color throughout the other liners.  Then grab your next color and squirt into another area of the liners.  Continue with other colors.

VANILLA BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

1 C. butter softened (2 sticks)

2 lb. powdered sugar

1/4 + C. milk

1-2 t. vanilla

1. In a mixing bowl combine the butter, vanilla and powdered sugar. Mix, starting slow, until somewhat combined.

2. Start by adding 1/4 C. milk and mix. Slowly add more milk, one or two tablespoons at a time, until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.

 

I personally like to use my cream cheese frosting on these cupcakes...but that's just because I love it so.  There are so many fun things you can use these for, holiday colors, school colors, kids favorite colors, wedding colors....so many possibilities.  Have fun!

Cupcakes

I make a lot of cupcakes these days...in the past week I've made around 300 of these mini cucpakes; I might get rheumatoid arthritis from piping, but they've been for church activities, so I figure I'm ok right?  Sometimes, I don't have time to make batter from scratch, and sometimes the recipes from scratch don't turn out as well as the ones from the mix.  There is nothing more frustrating to me than trying a new recipe, only to look in the oven to see that the cupcakes have sunk.  Therefore, I often use a cake mix....shh don't tell.

When using a cake mix I do change a few things.

Add:

1 cup buttermilk in place of water

Vegetable Oil (the amount called for on box)

4 large eggs (in place of the number of eggs the box calls for)

It always has fabulous results, and no surprises.

Today I just made chocolate with cream cheese frosting and yellow with chocolate frosting (my husbands favorite).  Mmm both of these frostings I could, and do, eat straight from the bowl.  They are my favorite.  I wonder how long I can use the excuse "I just had a baby" for my 'pouch' that is more so a result of my love for sweets than from birthing my little guy.  

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c. butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
4 1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract
milk

Using your mixer, cream the butter.  In a separate bowl whisk together cocoa and powdered sugar until well combined.  Slowly add to butter.  Add vanilla.  Add milk a dash at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick of butter (room temp)

8 oz cream cheese (room temp)

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese.  Add powdered sugar then vanilla.  Beat until fluffy.

Enjoy!