Week 9: Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes

Last night was pretty crazy, I had a lot of "pots in the fire", isn't that the way the saying goes? Something like that. Let me just show you-- all of this was happening in my kitchen last night:



From L to R: Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes getting ready to be mixed for 20 min; Chicken Alfredo Pizza (with broccoli) that we had for supper; back burner- chicken being cooked in preparation for the Buffalo Chicken Dip I made for snack today; front burner- chocolate chip blondies waiting to cool before being topped with peanut butter frosting! That was just in my kitchen! Off to the side at my table, my friends made puppy chow and two key lime pies! Quite the evening!!

The recipe for this week was Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes and they were topped with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream. Sound delightful? You're right- they are great! Pretty easy to make with other stuff going on at the same time. You dump all the ingredients in the mixer bowl.





And then let 'em mix for 20 min. YES! TWENTY entire minutes! I was shocked as well.





I made a half batch, so it made 12 cupcakes. They're baked for about 20 min. These didn't rise much, but I think it's probably due to the fact that they are pound cupcakes. So naturally they're more dense. They weren't much to look at and most of them didn't even reach the top of the cupcake liner.



But then I made the frosting. Wow! It was delicious. I also halved that recipe and it was just enough to cover all the cupcakes nicely.



I just made some swirls with my largest round tip. I didn't use my 1M tip since I didn't think there would be enough frosting to make it across all of the cupcakes with it.

The results? Even though they weren't much to look at, I really enjoyed them! The density of the pound cake is great. It works with the pumpkin flavor well. I've already gotten a couple of reviews and people have said they're great, good, and amazing! Those are all things I like to hear. I think another thing going for them is that they are pretty small, so they are a nice snack size dessert! You get enough of your sweet tooth craving satisfied, but you're not overloaded. I really did love the frosting. The addition of brown sugar, cinnamon, and half and half just put them over the top for me. Probably a frosting I will use for other pumpkin and/or spice cake related baked goods. Try it out and see for yourself!



To life... full of thankfulness for my kitchen-aid mixer so I didn't have to mix by hand for 20 minutes!