Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

I can't believe I waited this long to share a cupcake recipe with you. I love cupcakes (see exhibit A) and I especially love baking homemade cupcakes. Decorating is the best part. Sometimes I like to use fondant, but sometimes I just use candy or other food to top my cupcakes. For these pumpkin cupcakes, I kept it simple by adding pumpkin candies on top. You could also use candy corn or your favorite Halloween candy. These pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes are good on their own, but I love the addition of cream cheese frosting on top. Pumpkin and Cream Cheese are a great combination.  There is even a slight hint of pumpkin in the frosting- yum! 

Despite the threat of rain, we finally got to go apple picking this past weekend. We were a little disappointed by the number of apples on the trees though. Maybe we need to go earlier in the apple season? That being said, I did come home with two bags of apples and am ready to start baking some apple treats. Stay tuned for apple recipes coming up soon!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe from the Boston Globe- October 26, 2011

Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup chocolate chips

Pumpkin candies for decoration

Frosting:

1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tbsp pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

For the Cupcakes:

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.

In a electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for about 1 minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding in the milk and the pumpkin. Mix until fully combined.

Set the mixer to the lowest speed and add in the flour mixture slowly. Once fully combined, stop the mixer and stir in the chocolate chips by hand. 

Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. 

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

For the Frosting:

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in the pumpkin and vanilla and beat until fully combined. Slowly add in the sugar until mixture is smooth and creamy. 

Stop the mixer and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour before use.

Frost cooled cupcakes and add pumpkin candies for decoration.

Enjoy :)

Maple Pecan Monkey Muffins

Happy Friday! After an entire week of rain, the sun is finally out this morning! The only good thing about this week's rain is that baking is the perfect activity for a rainy afternoon. So baking is what I did and I made you these Maple Pecan Monkey Muffins. Have you guys ever had Monkey Bread? Small, sticky pieces of dough covered in brown sugar and cinnamon, baked together in a bundt pan. Sounds good right? Well these muffins are individual sized versions of the popular recipe but still just as good. 

These honestly might be the easiest muffins I have ever made. The recipe calls for refrigerated biscuit dough, which is cut up into small pieces and dipped into a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. The best part is the ooey gooey maple syrup butter on the bottom of each muffin. Feel free to add more maple syrup to the top of each muffin if you like.

Do you guys have any fun plans for this weekend? My boyfriend and I planned to go Apple Picking on Sunday, but it looks like it is supposed to rain again all weekend. Bummer. Hopefully we get a little bit of sun at some point. All of this rain is also messing up the 5K training I am supposed to be doing. If you know anything about me, you know that I am not a runner. And all of this rain is just one more excuse not to run, which is not good with my race just about one month away. Yikes! Maybe I will go for a run now while it is nice out...or maybe I will just go have another muffin :) 

Maple Pecan Monkey Muffins

Recipe from Very Culinary

1 can of refrigerated Grands Biscuits

3 tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup pecans, chopped

1 tsp cinnamon

Melt maple syrup and butter in the microwave. Pour mixture into each cavity of the muffin pan, distributing evenly throughout each. 

In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon until combined. 

Cut each biscuit into eight small pieces of equal size. Place each piece into the brown sugar and pecan mixture, making such that they are evenly coated with the mixture. 

Place five coated biscuit pieces into each cavity of the muffin pan. 

Sprinkle any remaining brown sugar and pecan mixture on the top of each muffin.

Bake for 18 minutes or until muffins are golden brown in color.

Enjoy :)

Chocolate Cookies with Candy Corn M&Ms and Butterscotch Chips

October means that Halloween will be here before we know it. Do you have a costume picked out yet? Every year I always have so many costume ideas, but then I can never find exactly what I had in mind. I never use any of my good ideas and my list continues to grow! I still have a few more weeks to find the perfect costume for this year though. 

Even though I don't have a Halloween costume picked out yet, I already planned out all of the Halloween desserts I want to make throughout the month. Baking with Halloween decorations and all of the seasonal ingredients is so much fun. I wanted to start things off with these chocolate cookies with candy corn M&Ms and butterscotch chips. Have you seen the white chocolate candy corn M&Ms yet? I found them in Target a few weeks ago and they really do taste like candy corn. So much fun!

These cookies are soft and fudgy. Did I mention that they are packed full of M&Ms and butterscotch chips? I cut one open so you could see all of the white chocolate and butterscotch goodness inside. The yellow and orange M&Ms make these the perfect cookies for Halloween! Feel free to use plain M&Ms  instead if you can't find the candy corn ones :)

Chocolate Cookies with Candy Corn M&Ms and Butterscotch Chips

Adapted from Picky Palate

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup candy corn M&Ms

1 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Using an electric or stand mixer, beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. 

Add the egg and vanilla, mixing until well combined. 

Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until fully incorporated. 

Add M&Ms and chips, mixing for another 30 seconds or so.

Use a medium scoop to scoop cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Cookies should be about 1 inch apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes until cookies are baked all the way through.

Allow cookies to cool on pan before transferring to a cooling rack. 

Enjoy :) 

Baked Maple French Toast Donuts

Good morning October! How did you get here so fast? Last night was the first night I really had to bundle up under the blankets, but I am not complaining. I love the cooler nights and everything else about fall. As long as December doesn't come around too quickly, I will be happy.

In honor of the cooler weather, I made some maple french toast donuts for you to enjoy this morning. These lightly spiced buttermilk donuts are simple to make. Just combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix, mix, mix until combined. They only need to bake for about seven minutes or so. Cover these babies with a sweet maple glaze and extra powdered sugar and you have yourself the perfect little treat.

I have been on a major donut kick lately. After making these pumpkin spice donuts a few weeks ago and buttermilk donuts earlier in the summer, I can't stop pulling out my donut pan to bake. French Toast is one of my favorite breakfasts so I was especially eager to try it out in donut form.

After all of my praise for these donuts, I have to admit that they almost didn't happen yesterday afternoon. When I got back from the grocery store, I realized that we didn't have any buttermilk. Don't you hate when that happens? Anyways, I really didn't want to go back out in the pouring rain but I'm glad that I finally did. Otherwise you probably would have been stuck with another pumpkin recipe today :)

Baked Maple French Toast Donuts

Recipe from Bakingdom

Struesel Topping:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter, cut into smaller chunks

Donuts:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs

2 tbsp butter, melted

Maple Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Butter donut pan(s) and set aside.

Streusel Topping:

Whisk together the sugars, flour, cinnamon and salt until combined. Add the cold butter chunks and combine with your fingers. Freeze the streusel topping mixture until ready for use.

Donuts: 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices until combined. Add in the buttermilk, eggs and melted butter and stir for about 30 seconds. Make sure you do not over-mix the batter. Fill each cavity of the donut pan about 3/4 full. Remove the streusel topping from the freezer and sprinkle on top. 

Bake for about 7 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Transfer donuts to a cooling rack. 

Maple Glaze:

While donuts are cooling, combine powdered sugar, maple syrup, milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Stir with a spoon until combined. When donuts are fully cooled, drizzle the maple glaze on top. Also sprinkle powdered sugar on top of donuts as desired.

Enjoy :)

California Cupcakes

One of my favorite things about traveling is getting the opportunity to try the destination's best bakeries and sweet spots. I am especially always looking to find the best cupcake. This past summer, my boyfriend and I took a trip to southern California. We started our trip off in Los Angeles and then made our way down to San Diego. Throughout our trip, we had our fair share of cupcakes and I thought it would be fun to share some of the highlights. 

I had tried Sprinkles Cupcakes once before and had been dying to get back there again. We didn't waste any time as this was our very first meal in California. There is nothing wrong with cupcakes for breakfast, right? We loved the banana and cinnamon sugar cupcakes- the perfect breakfast treats! 

Sprinkles now has a cupcake ATM at their Beverly Hills location too. How cool is that? Sprinkles 24/7- I need one of these to open in Boston. I don't know how many times I have had a late night cupcake craving when all of the stores were already closed. This is perfect!

Say hello to my favorite cupcake! This is the black and white cupcake at Sprinkles. A moist chocolate cake with creamy vanilla frosting. You need to try this one!

Another place I really wanted to check out was Casey's Cupcakes. Does anyone else remember Casey from Laguna Beach? I found out she opened a cupcake store after she won an episode of Cupcake Wars on the FOOD Network.

The entire store was pink and girly. The cupcakes themselves were delicious and I can see why she was a winner on Cupcake Wars.

Isn't this storefront cute? This was Frosted Robin Cupcakes in San Diego. They offered a ton of fun cupcake flavors such as bubblegum and cinnamon bun. 

These cupcakes were good, but not my favorite.  I did enjoy looking around this cute shop and the entire Seaport District though.

We also tried Cupcakes Squared during our stay in San Diego. Like their name suggests, all of the cupcakes are square shaped. Cute, right? I definitely enjoyed my chocolate walnut cupcake.

We might have gone back to Sprinkles Cupcakes a few more times during the trip too. I had to enjoy as much as I could before heading back to Boston. This was the dark chocolate cupcake with marshmallow creme I got at the La Jolla location. So good!

What are your favorite cupcake spots in southern California? Did I miss anything good? I also wanted to try Kara's Cupcakes, but those are only located in northern California. I guess that means I need to go back for more taste testing soon!