Boo!

Hey you crazy kids!

Halloween just ended, so I guess I'm a little late on the festivities, but I'm busy ok.

I made 48 mini pumpkin muffins for a party this weekend, and I thought I'd share with you.

{And to be quite honest, I'm not really one for festivities}

{Uh... Except the winter holidays.... Too soon?}

But anyway, what's good?

I know what's good. These mini cupcakes I made.

Doggone delicious.

So let's get to it, then.

For any good pumpkin recipe, you need pumpkin! 

Yay! 

So take your pumpkin, sugar, and eggs, and mix them together.

I really hate the smell of pumpkin. It was so gross mixing the batter for these, serious.

But when they came out of the oven, my kitchen smelled like heaven.

Funny how that works out.

So uh where were  we?

Oh right.

Sift your dry ingredients. (Except the sugar. You did that already.)

I added a little pinch of nutmeg.

And a teaspoon of this fancy stuff I found in the grocery store.

Man, it's like they took all the delicious things you need for your pumpkin spice deliciousness, and put it in this nice little package, making your life so much easier.

Thank you, McCormick spice company. You are a beautiful thing.

So there you go, your dry ingredients. 

The recipe doesn't say to sift it, so I guess you don't have to, but I like to because it ensures there won't be any clumps of flour. 

And if you read about my blueberry muffins, I'm pretty afraid of flour clumps.

I had a couple bad pancake experiences with flour clumps. Yeah.

So, pour that in your wet ingredients.

I added half of the dry ingredients, let it combine, then added the second half.

{If that's not a good action shot, then I don't know what is.}

So this is the time that I now introduce you to your new best friend.

Ziploc bag, my readers. Readers, Ziploc bag.

So basically what you do is turn it almost all the way inside out and keep just the corner in the palm of your hand, then take a rubber spatula and scoop your batter into the bag.

Cut off a little bit of the corner, and you have a professional mini-cupcake batter distributor.

[Uh... Did I spell that right?]

It just makes your life better.

Like a pastry bag, except cheaper and better.

You don't have to worry about your batter running away from the top, because you can seal it closed.

Even though you shouldn't fill a pastry bag all the way, but whatever.

Cheaper.

I think I forgot to show these off. 

Spider mini-muffin liners.

Beautiful and adorable and perfect.

So, now pop these in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I made 48 mini-cupcakes, and then some.

This is the "and then some", the next morning.

No. Joke.

And this wasn't the work of the dogs.

So... Do you want to know the secret to my cream cheese frosting?

Okay cool., this will be a long post. YAY

So, first of all, I HATE cream cheese frosting.

I don't like cream cheese, I don't like the weird taste that's all oily and stuff in my mouth after.

I just hate it. All-around.

So I found this recipe, when I made a cake for homecoming.

It was a red velvet cake, with a cheesecake in the middle.

I made it twice.

Anyway, when my friend Alyssa (Who helped me make soup) [Her Twitter] ate it, she stopped eating the cake altogether and just scraped the frosting off. 

That. Good.

So first you have your cream cheese.

Blend that up until it's smooth, then add your sugar and your vanilla (or whatever extract you choose)

[I put in a bit of chocolate extract in for my red velvet cake, but for these pumpkin cupcakes I just left the vanilla.]

Then, here comes the magic.

Whipping cream.

I love whipping cream.

This is why the frosting's so good.

Add that in until its a firm consistency and can hold a stiff peak.

Just like that.

I put some of this on those cupcakes, sprinkled them with a little bit of cinnamon, then topped them off with candy corn.

Try and tell me it's not the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Pumpkin Cake Recipe

Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour one glass 9 x 13 inch pan, or 24 line 24 muffin cups

In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; add to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.Spread into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 20 to 30 minutes.

Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting

From here

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 cups heavy cream

Directions:

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and mix on medium speed until smooth. While the mixture is still whipping, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl a couple of times while you continue whipping until the cream can hold a stiff peak.