Sweetness on Spookday! Pumpkin Spice Spiderweb Cupcakes

Who's ready for some spooky Halloween Cupcakes?? :D
Halloween is my favorite holiday!! My whole house is decorated, my whole front yard is looking good and spooky, the creepy music and fog are cued up for trick-or-treaters...last step is to make these yummy cupcakes to make my whole house smell like spice and pumpkin!

Pumpkin Spice Spiderweb Cupcakes

Line cupcake pan with 12 (halloween!) liners. Preheat oven to 325○

For the cupcake:
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumkin puree
2 large eggs

~In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
~Place butter in a small bowl and melt in microwave until just melted. Let cool a little. In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, pumpkin puree and eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed until mixture is smooth.
~On low speed, mix flour mixture into pumpkin mixture. Batter should be smooth and fairly thick.
~Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full. Bake 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.

For the Frosting and Webs:
1 stick unsalted butter - room temperature
6 ounces cream cheese
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/2 powdered sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp milk

~Mix butter, vanilla, and cream cheese in a medium bowl. Slowly add powdered sugar until smooth. Frosting should be spreading consistency. Add a tiny bit of milk if too thick, add a little extra powdered sugar if too thin. Frost each cupcake as smooth as possible.
~Put 1/4 cup of frosting in a small bowl. Mix in cinnamon and milk. This should make a thick but pourable icing.
~Spoon cinnamon icing into zip-lock baggie. Carefully cut off just a tiny bit of the tip. Just a small stream should come out when you squeeze the bag. For each cupcake, make a dot in the center and two rings. Drag a toothpick straight outward from the dot, through the rings, to the edge of the cupcake. Repeat all the way around cupcake until it makes a "spiderweb"! Easy! :D

Hope you make and enjoy these!
Every have a Happy & Safe Halloween!!

Sweetness on Sunday - Mini Malt Ball Cupcakes!

Who likes Whoppers Malt Balls?? I do, I do! :D
So if you're with me on that one, I've got a great little cupcake for you this week!
I make this in mini-cupcake size for two reasons,...they are very rich and chocolatey, so the tiny size is the perfect portion, and two, because I like the malt ball garnish to be nice and big on top! :)

I've seen this one around, variations in books, on the internet. Everyone seemed to credit someone different, and when I baked them I made a few changes as I went along to suit my tastes, so I'm not sure who to credit for these! They were quite wonderful though!

Enjoy!

Mini Malted Milk Ball Cupcakes
makes 48 cute little mini cupcakes! (or 24 regular size cupcakes)

For the cupcakes:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 cup of malted milk balls, coarsely crushed
1/2 cup instant malted milk powder
1-1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs

For the frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened a bit
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons of instant malted milk powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup whipped milk chocolate frosting (like Betty Crocker-this is optional, I added it mainly because I didn't like how the light in color the frosting was, but it also gave it a little more chocolate flavor!)

Get Baking!
~Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper cupcake liners in each cup of your cupcake tin.
~In a large bowl, mix cake mix, crushed malt balls, and malted milk powder.
~Add the water, oil, and the eggs. Beat with a mixer on low for 2 minutes.
~Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
~Bake for 15 minutes. (This time is for mini cupcakes. Bake about 20 minutes for regular cupcakes. Insert a toothpick, when it comes out clean, they are done!
~Cool completely on cooling rack.

Make the frosting!
~Beat all ingredients together on medium speed until it's smooth. I suggest starting off with 2 tablespoons of milk and adding milk as needed until you get the desired consistency for your frosting.

To garnish: I simply cut malt balls in half and put them on top of each cupcake. I've seen other variations where your leave the malt ball whole, or sprinkle with crushed malt balls. Up to you!

Hope they put a smile on your face! :)

Sweetness on Sunday

Ok, I am hoping "Sweetness on Sunday" will be a semi-regular weekly post here on my blog. I did promise a few sweeties with the stories, didn't I? Sunday my family and I get together for dinner, and I am often Dessert Girl. :) So it's the perfect day for me to share what lovlies I have cookin' up. Not always cupcakes, of course, though they are my favorite. Sometimes I make up my own recipes, sometimes I cook from one of my huge collection of cookbooks. So here we go!

This week I made Peach Vanilla Bean Cupcakes. They turned out quite lovely, I love the way you can see little flecks of vanilla bean in the light fluffy frosting (though you can't see them in the photo! bummer...)Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with liners for 12-15 cupcakes.

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Whisk these three ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.

1 cup sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temp.
1 egg and 1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1 cup diced fresh or canned peaches, well drained

In a larger bowl, mix the sugar and butter with an electic mixer on med-high speed until fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Mix in egg, egg white and vanilla one at a time.

Add in dry ingredients then milk, alternately adding half at a time of these. Mix on low speed just until flour is all mixed in. Carefully fold in diced peaches until spread evenly though batter.

Spoon out batter into prepared cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes. Test with toothpick, it should come out clean when they are done. Place cupcakes on a cooling rack for an hour.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting:

3 egg whites at room temp
3/4 sugar
dash of salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
vanilla bean
Place egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Place on top of a saucepan of simmering water (the bowl should not be touching the water). Whisk the sugar and egg continuously until dissolved- about 2 minutes.
Remove the bowl from the heat, and with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the mixture until it is fluffy and holds stiff peaks, 6-7 minutes.
Turn the mixer down to med-low speed and add butter a small amounts at a time. Add the salt.
Slice the vanilla bean length-wise and fold it open. Scrape out the insides of the bean and add to frosting mixture. Mix on medium speed until fluffy.

Frost the cupcakes when they are cooled and enjoy!! :)