Autumn Cupcakes

I am planning a large amount of Christmasy recipes for the next two months, so I thought I should do one more Autumn themed one.
I bought a set of owl themed cupcake decorations a couple of weeks ago and have been longing to use them, I know I wanted to make pumpkin cupcakes before Fall was completely over, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone.

Can we take a moment to look at how adorable these are? Just look at the swirl! I actually spent time and effort to decorate these and I may be slightly proud of them.

Cupcakes:

1 Cup flour

1 Teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg

1 Teaspoon baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon

15oz (one small can)  Pumpkin Puree

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, packed

1/2 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

2 Eggs

In a large bowl mix together flour, spices, baking powder, and baking soda.
in a medium sized bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, sugar, vegetable oil and eggs.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together at a medium speed for about a minute, so its all combine but not over mixed.
Line muffin tin with whatever liners you have on hand.
Fill muffin cup 2/3 full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool completely before decorating.

Frosting:

8oz Cream Cheese

1/2 Cup Butter

1/2 Cup Shortening

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

4-6 Cups Powdered Sugar

In a large mixing bowl mix together the butter and shortening, add the cream cheese and vanilla, mix until well combined.
Slowly add the powdered sugar, and mix it in a little at a time( try not to over beat it because it can get a little gummy)
If it isn't a good texture for the kind of decorating you have in mind you can add a little milk or more powdered sugar depending on what you need.

I had so much fun making these! The cake its self was a little different then I was expecting, less pumpkiny and more like a spice cake, but it was still really yummy.
What is your favorite Autumn treat?
Am I the only one who thinks these owls are adorable?
Anna.

Mother's Day Cupcakes

It seems like every time there has been a holiday recently I have made cupcakes, I don't quite know why. Maybe it's because they travel better than a cake or maybe just because they have a charm about them that no other treat has.
What makes these Mother's Day cupcakes? You might be asking about now, and the answer is, nothing but the fact that I'm making them for my Mom, my Grandmom and my Grammie.   

For Cupcakes:

11/4 Cups Cake Flour 

11/4 Teaspoons Baking Powder 

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda 

2 Eggs

3/4 Cups Sugar

11/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract 

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 Cup Buttermilk

For Frosting:

4 Cups Powdered Sugar

2 Sticks Softened Butter

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2-3 Tablespoons Milk

Red Food Coloring

What To Do:

Preheat oven to 350f

 Step1# 
In a large mixing bowl fluff together the flour, the baking powder and the baking soda with a whisk.
Step2#
In another large mixing bowl beat together the eggs and the sugar until the eggs are completely combined. Then add the buttermilk, vanilla and the vegetable oil.
Step3#
Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, and beat on a medium speed for about two minutes.
Step4#
Line your cupcake pan with your choice of liners, I prefer to use foil ones because I find the condensation doesn't effect them as much as the paper ones.
Step5# 
Fill the liners about 3/4 full of the batter. I found that my ice cream scoop is just the
 Step6#
Bake the cupcakes for 10-13 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden and a tooth pick comes out clean.
Step7#
Place the cupcakes on a cooling rack, and let them cool completely before decorating.
right size to fill the cups.

Frosting

Step1#

In a large mixing bowl beat the softened butter until it is a smooth creamy

consistency.
Step3#
Add the powdered sugar to the butter and mix on a medium speed until the powdered sugar is completely mixed in. I would highly recommend covering your mixer with a dish towel or some such thing to prevent the sugar from going everywhere.

 Step4#
 Add the vanilla and the milk. You may need a bit more milk if the frosting is to thick.
Step5# 
Once you have the frosting the way you want it add 2-4 drops of the red food coloring, just enough so that the frosting is a light pastel pink.
Step 6# 
 Once the cupcakes are cool you can begin to decorate them. I used Dean Jacob's Hearts & Flowers sprinkles, and the Bows are made by Willton.

 I hope you have a very happy Mother's Day!
And a wonderful weekend.
Anna.

Oreo Valentines Cupcakes

Hello Everybody,
So, as you probably have noticed Valentines Day is almost upon us. And I wanted to get into the spirit of the thing. Valentines Day is probably my favorite holiday to bake for, I mean, reds, pinks and chocolate, how much more fun could it get.
First of, I should tell you the reason behind these cupcakes. I LOVE Oreos, there really isn't much more to say about that. This is a loosely translated version of the recipe I used for my Oreo birthday cake. I will leave you the link to the oraiganl recipes the cake and the frosting at the end of the post.
This is not going to be like my other cooking posts. I'm not going to list out all the ingredienc, or all the direction. But instead, I'm going to take you on a little journey, through my figuring out how to make this wonderful cupcakes.

 I got these adorable liners at TJ-Max, I also got some mini liners, but I haven't had a chance to use them yet:(

 I saw that you can put Oreos in the bottom of the cupcakes on Pinterest, and of course I had to try it. I have to say, it work a lot better then the time I tried Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies.
Soooo, after I made the cake batter( I used my favorite cake recipe, link below. Probably just about any one will work) I placed the Oreos in the cupcake liners, it looks soooo cool. In all honesty, I had way to much fun through this whole process. As I'm sure my mom could tell you. I think it's because I had been sick for a while, and hadn't done any cooking.
Any ways, I filled the cups about 3/4 full of cake batter, and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.
While I was waiting for the timer to go off I decided to crunch up some of the Oreos for a toping. I would highly recommend getting two packages of Oreos, I only bough one and I didn't have enough for all the cupcakes:(

 I thought it was funny how the cupcake without Oreos in the bottom rose so much more, I'm not quite sure why that is. If you know please let me know:)

 I had a bit of a hard time deciding what frosting recipe to use, so I looked high and low till I found one that sounded like Oreo stuffing, and I didn't really follow it that closely, sorry...
I will leave the link to that recipe bellow as well.

 I doubled the frosting recipe and used heavy cream to make it easer to spread.
It's so Fluffy!

 Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the decoration process, but I sort of got caught up in the moment.
You can really decorate them in any way you want, that's one of the great things about cupcakes, they are like little canvas on which you can sprinkle the sprinkles, Wow! I think that is one of the worst analogue I have ever heard. But you get my point.
I used the crushed Oreos, and some Valentines sprinkles I found at TJ-Max.(Hmmm I'm beginning to see a pattern)
The Oreo in the bottom came out better then I excpected. Yay!

I have to worn you, if you do use the same cake recipe I did, it does make four dozen, so be prepared. By the way, These got eight thumbs up from the Royal Canadian Air Force.


I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. I think I will have to do this kind of post more often.  Let me know if that's a good idea.
What's you're favorite Valentines Day treat?
Do you love Oreos as much as I do?
Let me know, I love you're feedback.
Have a Wonderful Day,
Anna.

Chocolate Cake.
http://bakerbynature.com/chocolate-cake-with-fudge-frosting/
Frosting.
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/12/17/homemade-oreos/