Pumkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Last week at school, we had 2 days of parent-teacher conferences. The first day is a long one, 11 in the morning until 8 at night - yikes! These are always days I don't really look forward to, so I decided we needed a little pick-me-up for the beginning of the 1st day. I found these amazing muffins on Pinterest, originally from Annie's Eats {oh my gosh, so many great ideas over there!} and I knew these would be the perfect treat on a long day of conferences.

Since these muffins have a cream cheese filling, there are a few more steps than usual. I, of course, didn't read through the whole recipe before starting, so I didn't realize how much time it would all take. But I am passing these words of wisdom along to you - the filling needs 2 hours to freeze, so make it ahead of time!

Once the filling is made, it's a pretty easy process of mixing up the batter and slicing up the filling to put it in the middle of each muffin. Just fill the cups part way, add a blob of the cream cheese mixture, and cover it all up. Add a little bit of cinnamon sugar topping, and pop them in the oven!

When you take them out of the oven, you will want to eat them right away, but be patient and let them cool completely - the cream cheese filling is hot! Once they've cooled, enjoy your tasty treats.

{They were delicious!}

For the original recipe (with complete directions) visit Annie's Eats!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Every year around this time, my aunt and I go to this little restaurant called The Red Apple to get pumpkin pancakes. We don't go at all during the rest of the year, but when Fall comes around, we have to go. This year, I got the craving a little early, so I decided to make some of my own pumpkin pancakes. I went searching for a recipe and found this one at allrecipes.com

Since it was just me eating these, I decided to cut the recipe in half so I wouldn't be tempted to eat the whole batch! Also, I had a slight problem because the milk in my fridge was expired...oops. Luckily I had some evaporated milk left over from making pumpkin bars, so I threw that in and hoped for the best!

Here's how they turned out...

 

They were so good that they didn't even really need syrup, just a little butter and cinnamon sugar.

Mmmm...tastes like Fall!

Pumpkin Muffins

It's Fall! That means the return of my favorite drink, "Fall in a Cup", aka Pumpkin Spice Latte, and other pumpkin treats, like these pumpkin muffins with spiced cream cheese frosting.

Somehow even after the slightly disastrous chocolate cherry brownies, I decided to try another recipe using a mix and a can of fruit filling. Why? I don't know, maybe because it's a super easy way to bake and I was feeling lazy. Or maybe because I just wanted something pumpkin-y to celebrate fall and this is what I thought of first.

This recipe included a box of vanilla cake mix and a can of pumpkin. I also added in a little cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to get the pumpkin pie flavor.

I guess I should have learned from my last attempt with fruit filling (is pumpkin a fruit?), because these muffins didn't turn out exactly as planned either. When I took them out of the oven, the tops were very jagged and had little peaks, like mountains. They tasted pretty great, super moist and pumpkin-y, but they looked pretty bad.

To hide the mountain peaks, I decided they needed a little frosting. I whipped up a little batch of my favorite spiced cream cheese frosting, and globbed it on with a spoon. Since the muffins weren't flat, the frosting wouldn't be smooth either, so the globbing technique worked out pretty well!

Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting:

Blend together the following ingredients...

8 oz. cream cheese (softened), 1/4 cup butter (softened), 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract, 1/8 tsp. cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Hope you're all enjoying fall and pumpkin treats as much as I am!

The One with My New Favorite Thing

In honor of Oprah's Favorite Things Show (hilarious reactions, if you haven't seen it), I would like to introduce you to one of my new favorite things: A Mini Cheesecake Pan! (Sorry to say you won't all be getting one at the end of this blog, but if you love it as much as I do, you can buy your own here). It makes the cutest little cheesecakes (and I love cute little things, which might explain part of why I love this pan so much)!
To fully appreciate the genius of the mini cheesecake pan, you need to see the pan before anything is baked in it. The pan is kind of like a cupcake pan - you can bake 12 at a time - but the bottoms are different. There is a hole in the bottom of each cup, like this...

Before baking, you put a little disk over the top of each hole...

Next step is making the crust - basically just graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and a little brown sugar mixed together. Put a heaping tablespoon in each cup, then moosh it down so that some of the crumbs spread up the sides. (I used a mini tupperware cup, which worked really well). It should look like this...

Then, pick your filling. I made 2 different kinds - one pumpkin, the other chocolate peanut butter. Use all of the batter to fill up the cups - they will be super full, but don't worry, they kind of shrink down as they cool when they come out of the oven.


Filled up with batter and ready to bake.



After they are baked, ready to cool.

The great thing about these mini cheesecakes is that they aren't complicated to bake, like a full size cheesecake, where you have to have a springform pan, a roasting pan to put it in, and then leave it sitting in the oven forever!
The only tricky part comes after baking, when you have to get them out of the pan. This is where the holes in the bottom come in handy. After they cool for about 20 minutes in the pan, you take your finger and poke it up through the hole in the bottom to push the cheesecake out.

Be careful, because as the cheesecake starts to pop out, it also starts to tip over, so be ready with your other hand to grab it!

 The finished cheesecakes are adorable - and I think they will be even cuter with a little whipped cream on top when we eat them later tonight!

Happy Thanksgiving!

More Scones!

I still haven't had enough pumpkin treats yet, so after making pumpkin cupcakes, pancakes, and cakeballs, I decided to make some pumpkin scones (stay tuned for mini pumpkin cheesecakes, too). I went searching for a recipe and found one that claimed to be better than Starbucks. I've never had pumpkin scones from Starbucks, but I thought they sounded good.

I got the recipe from Food.com and I mostly followed it, except for a few minor details...1. I used whole wheat white flour, 2. Instead of half-and-half, I used skim milk 3. I kept adding more milk because the dough was so crumbly.

They turned out pretty tasty, and I think they look kind of pretty on the baking rack.

I made 2 different kinds of glaze to go on them. One just powdered sugar and milk with some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. The other molasses, milk, and powdered sugar. They were both pretty tasty!

The One With All the Pumpkin!

A few weeks ago when I was making all the cake balls, I had some leftover pumpkin in the fridge from making pumpkin pancakes. I thought, how great would pumpkin cake balls be?! So I went in search of a good recipe. I found this super easy, super good one at Bake at 360. All you do is get a cake mix (hopefully one with 2 box tops like the one I got, so then you can give them to me, so my class can win!) Mix that together with...

1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice (I didn't have any, but I don't think it made a difference)
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs (Actually, I only used 3 and it turned out fine)

Bake the cake, then crumble it up and mix it with cream cheese frosting (I used a can, with box tops, since it was just for cake balls). Roll them, freeze them, dip them (see more detailed instructions here), and you have...

Pumpkin Cake Balls!

These were so good, (and I also really liked the way the cake tasted all by itself), that I decided to make some pumpkin cupcakes using the same recipe. This time instead of using canned frosting, I made some spiced cream cheese frosting to go on top (so much better than canned). I also wanted to make frosting because, the last time I was at Whole Foods, I discovered fair trade powdered sugar and it was ON SALE!

So not only did these cupcakes taste great, they also helped out the sugar makers farmers producers.

I added a candy corn on top to finish it off, but I kind of like this picutre with the little pumpkin in the background (look close, you'll see it!) Happy Fall!

Happy Birthday Aunt Sal (Part 2)

I have had this pumpkin butter sitting in my pantry for kind of a long time. 

Many times, I have thought Hmmm....what can I make with this? But since I have never really had pumpkin butter, I had no great ideas. (The recipe idea on the jar said to make pumpkin soup, but that doesn't really sound like my idea of a good soup).

I have also been wanting to use my fair trade baking cocoa (bought from the fabulous Greenheart shop):

As I was wondering what kind of real birthday cupcakes to make for Aunt Sal (as opposed to the "fake" ones for the kids at school), suddenly a fantastic combination idea popped into my head - chocolate cupcakes with pumpkin butter filling and cream cheese frosting. (Wow, I felt like a real baker - being inspired by ingredients and just making up recipes on the spot!)

Since I am not a real baker, however, I did have to look up some recipes. I found this one for chocolate cupcakes. And while I was searching for cupcake recipes, I found a really good spiced cream cheese frosting recipe. It was so good, I think you will all want to make it, so instead of just the link, here's the actual recipe (from pinchmysalt.com):

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 C. unsalted butter, softened

2 C. powdered sugar

1/4. t. vanilla extract

1/8 t. ground cinnamon

1/8 t. fresh ground nutmeg

Basically all you do is mix all of the ingredients together. Yum! (I did not save the leftovers of this to eat like fudge later, but I may or may not have squirted some of it directly into my mouth from the frosting gun (after frosting the cupcakes of course!)

Instead of using my normal weird orange coring thing to scoop out the middle, then fill the cupcakes, I decided to try something new. The frosting gun has a skinny, pointy tip, like this...

So I put the pumpkin butter in the gun, then poked it into the cupcake and smooshed some out. It was kind of tricky because I couldn't see how much went into the middle of each cupcake, but when the top of the cake started to bubble and break open, I figured there was enough inside!

Then I frosted them, which by the way, if you are frosting cupcakes, I found out it is a BAD idea to leave them in the tins, because afterwards, you will have to take them out and you might mess up the frosting. Just a little tip for you!  Next I put a candy corn on the ones with pumpkin butter inside. Some I left unfilled, just in case they didn't turn out quite as tasty as I thought they would be!   



We took them to Cracker Barrel to celebrate Aunt Sal's birthday, and I think they were a success! Here is the birthday girl, enjoying her cupcake...

Happy Birthday!