Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you guys had as much fun as we've been having here. The kids have been costumed twice now, since last week: once for school and once for going door to door. They had a blast and of course, so did I! I just love making their costumes and also, baking up goodies.
I made these Pumpkin Carrot Cupcakes using an Anna Olson recipe from the Food Network and they turned out great. I made a Cream Cheese Frosting to go along and decorated with a pumpkin shaped candy. Aren't they cute! Of course, it's not as if the kids are going to need any extra sugar in their diets any time soon, but the cupcakes might just stop me from digging inside the kids' goody bags for a while. Maybe...
For the cupcake recipe click here. The only changes I made to the recipe was using butternut squash puree instead of pumpkin because that's what I had!
Cream Cheese Frosting
This frosting is perfect if you want to pipe it on thickly onto the cupcakes.
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract, until well blended. Then, a little at a time, blend in the confectioners sugar, until the frosting is thick, creamy and luscious. Pipe it or spread it onto your cupcakes and dig in!
Our host for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie is the lovely Clara of I Heart Food 4 Thought. I have only one thing to say to Clara this week: Thank you, sweetie! Clara even suggested that we decorate our Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes for Halloween and I thought that was a great idea.
After reading the FAQ on the TWD site, I was afraid that the recipe might yield dry cupcakes though. So instead of using a whole egg and a yolk, I used two whole eggs. And baked the cupcakes a little less than what was specified. That seemed to do the trick as these cupcakes were anything but dry!
I made 24 minis and 9 regular sized cupcakes out of the recipe and although they didn't need the extra icing, I went ahead anyways and drizzled them in colorful, Halloween appropriate icing. Nothing more than a little icing sugar, butter and milk and a few drops of food coloring. Easy and fun!
The ganache that tops these little guys is really luscious and although Dorie suggests to serve these to adults as they can better appreciate the dark chocolate, my little ones loved these! Perhaps the yellow, orange and green drizzles had something to do with it?
You still have a little time before Halloween to whip up a batch of these delightful little guys so go on over to Clara's blog for the recipe. And for more creative decorating ideas, check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll, you won't be disappointed!
