Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

A few years ago my dear friend, Trish, gave me this recipe for pumpkin cake (I think she had gotten it from a parent of one of her students). She just raved about how incredible it was, and insisted I make it... and oh my goodness am I glad I did. This is a "To Die For" recipe. Since then I have made it countless times and always get amazing reviews.. Today some of the reactions were "soooooooo good, OMG, amazing and someone even said they were orgasmic". Clearly this one is a keeper! *This recipe is just wonderful as cake or cupcakes.

Pumpkin Cake-
makes 24 cupcakes or 1 cake using (2 square or round pans)

Ingredients
cake
4 eggs or equivalent of egg substitute
2 c sugar
1 c oil
1 medium (15oz) can of pure pumpkin
2 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp (heaping) cinnamon






Frosting-
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c butter
2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & cinnamon.. set aside. In another bowl combine egg, sugar and oil. Beat till smooth, add pumpkin. Add in flour mixture in 3 parts. For cupcakes, bake for 20 minutes or until springy. For cake, bake in pan at 350 for 40-45 minutes. I would recommend two square pans or one big cake pan. If you do 2 small square do 350 for 35 minutes and regular cake pan for 40 minutes. Let it cool completely before you frost. For the frosting combine cream cheese, vanilla and butter.. cream together until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar... "ice" away and enjoy!

Lemoncakes

I am a pretty laid back girl, but the one thing that really bugs me is when I "bomb" a recipe. Even tho there were many other bakers with issues on the last TWD, I was still not happy with the fact that it didn't turn out. And darn it, I don't like to be defeated! So as I was browsing FoodGawker yesterday (at work.. yes I know I really was working hard....oppps) I stumbled upon something that looked yummy, and I wanted to try. Just so happens I had all the ingredients on hand, and I was bored last night. So I halved the recipe and got my needed success. These lemon cakes were light, very moist and just delightful. The lemon glaze was mouth watering. I actually made them Gluten Free (by using Pamelas GF Baking Mix). *It dawned on me that this is a very similar recipe to the "Glazed Lemon Buttermilk Cake" cake I made last Easter out of "The Best of Cooking Light 9". A great recipe by the way, and was a huge hit. I served it with Raspberry Sorbet.

At any rate.. here is the recipe. Was a great little treat ( I made them as minis). Sorry I didn't take too many pictures. But thought it was worth sharing & phew... I feel better now. :) Many thanks to Emily for the recipe & inspiration. Check out her site... It is great!

Glazed Lemon Cakes
From Everyday Food: Great Food Fast from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour (I used Pamela's GF Mix)
2 tsp. baking powder (if using Pamelas only add 1/2 tsp of BP)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk or plain low-fat yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, plus 2 tbsp. of lemon juice for the glaze
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs ( I used egg substitute)
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Spray cooking spray on muffin tin, or use paper cups.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
In a small bowl whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Set aside.
With an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk mixture.
Divide evenly among the muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then cool completely on a wire rack. Mix confectioners sugar and 3tbsp of lemon juice for glaze.. pour over muffins. Wait 30 minutes for glaze to settle before serving.

TWD- Chocolate-Chocolate Cupakes

This weeks "Tuesdays with Dorie" recipe was chosen by Clara from Iheartfood4thought. She went with Dorie's Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes. When I saw the choice I was pretty excited, as I really do heart cupcakes (as you may have already guessed). I followed the recipe to the"T", the batter was uber yummy, and I decided to go the mini route (by the way.. Clara requested a Halloween theme).I hate admitting it, but I was entirely disappointed in the cupcakes. They were incredibly dry... I didn't even bake them for the fully allotted time. Thankfully, I read thru the other bakers comments & a large majority had the same issue. Phew... at least I know it was not a complete bakers error on my part.. because that would upset me. ;) I think the error could have been in 2 parts. 1. I have found using butter in cake/cupcakes recipes sometimes results in dryness. Next time I would probably use oil instead... or add some yogurt to moisten it up??? 2. I did not weigh the flour, I just used my trusty measuring cup instead... I have been reading a lot lately that it is very important to weigh the flour instead. Lesson learned!The glaze however was great, and fun to work with. I used the "dipping" method, which was fun, to ice them. Sadly these little babies did not make it into my office. I have a reputation to uphold here (ha!) they went to (as my cousin Lynne calls it) the little cupcake heaven in the sky.. aka. the trashcan (gasp!) . Check out some of the other TWD bakers results here...

Sprinkles Cupcake Mix from Williams Sonoma

In 1980 the musical "Barnum" debuted on Broadway, it was a fabulous show and was based on the infamous P.T Barnum. The song that is playing in my head this morning is from "Barnum", "There Is a Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute" (forgive me... I have Broadway on the brain as I saw two shows in NYC last week ). And yes, indeed I am a sucker ...argh! Darn you Williams Sonoma...I saw this Sprinkles Cupcake Mix and got suckered in.I have heard such rave reviews about "Sprinkles" cupcakes and have been simply dying to try them. Unfortunately, a visit to CA is not in my near future, so this is as close as I will get. The canister comes with the "cupcake mix" that you add eggs, butter and milk too... as well as instructions for the icing.
The cupcake itself was wonderful. Very moist and rich with that famous Madagascar bourbon vanilla taste that "Sprinkles" boasts about. However, I was incredibly disappointed in the icing. I am a big fan of creamy, melt in your mouth icing... sadly this was a bit thicker and just not to my liking. I have no doubt that real thing is way better. After all was just the take home mix, and my guess was there was some "user error" on my part. ;)

*on a side note... I did walk by a Magnolia Bakery in NYC last week. Of course I had to stop. That was just the opposite experience. Their cupcakes were dry and nothing really to write home about. But their icing, oh my ...was out of this world. If only I could have combined the sprinkles cake and the Magnolia icing, I would have been in heaven!