Harvest Pumpkin Goodness

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels...except cupcakes.  They taste pretty darn good:)

     One of my very favorite things in the world to do is bake!  I like to bake cakes, cookies, pies, breads, but mostly, I love to make cupcakes.
     What's not to love about a cupcake?  They fit in your hand, it's just the right amount without feeling guilty, you don't have to dirty a plate or fork to eat them.  They're just a tiny piece of heaven.  Yummm...
     So, when I started nagging my husband for a Kitchen Aid Mixer about three years ago, I thought the day would never come.
     I make cupcakes for everything!  I've made them for weddings, anniversary party's, birthdays, baby showers...all the while, using my little hand held, cuisinart mixer that I paid 0.25 at the Christian Quarter Store in Fordland.  I have to admit, it was a good one.  But it wasn't a Kitchen Aid.

Wedding

Applie Pie Filled
Wedding Shower

 
   Ladies, I hate to rub it in, but I probably have about the best husband in the world!  Last February, for Valentine's Day, he did it!  I got my mixer!!!
     This thing is my pride and joy.  When nothing seems right in my

   world.  When I've had a horrible day.  When all of my dishes are
dirty, the laundry's piled four feet high, the kids are covered in spaghetti and meatballs, and I haven't had a shower for five days, I just go to my safe place.  My little butchers block in the kitchen where my mixer sits all bright and shiny.  Sigh.....All is well.

250 cupcakes for a
60th Anniversary Party

     My mixer and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary in three months.  In those nine months I've made a lot of old recipes and I've discovered a lot of new ones.

     When I "perfect" a cupcake, I usually don't like to share the recipe.  But this one is too yummy not to share.  In fact, it's so yummy, that I had these for breakfast, and lunch yesterday...then a sensible dinner, of course.
     So, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I want to share this easy, Harvest Pumpkin Cupcake recipe.  It's a great alternative for the kids that may not like pumpkin pie.  They are so easy and delicious!

HARVEST PUMPKIN CUPCAKES
4 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 c. vegetable oil
2 c. sugar
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. corn starch
4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt

CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
1/2 c. butter or margarine
12 oz. cream cheese
2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Add rest of ingredients.  Mix on medium for about two minutes.  Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.  Baker 17-20 minutes.

Frosting:  Cream together butter and cream cheese in mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar beating until smooth.  Stir in cinnamon and vanilla.

ENJOY!!!

   

   
   

So good they'll make your tongue slap your brains out!

 

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

     I recently started quite a controversy on Facebook.  That wasn't my intentions but that's what it turned into. Which, in part is why I started this blog.  I thought, it's my blog, I can say what I want.  If you don't like it, don't read it!  Easy enough, right?!

     The question I posed was this:  If you were trying a new dessert recipe and right in the middle of it, you realized you were out of milk, you had everything else in the bowl already but lacked milk. But you do have breast milk in the freezer. Would you a) use the breast milk. You're home alone and who's gonna know. Right? or b) scrap all the ingredients and try the recipe another time?

     Keep in mind, borrowing from a neighbor or putting the ingredients in the fridge and going to the store weren't options, it was the end of the week and there was no money in the bank.  What would you do?

     I got several different kinds of responses. Anywhere from: "scrap that" to "use the breast milk, it's natural" to "seriously Jenny? your sick"  

     Let me remind you.  This was a hypothetical situation ;)

     I posted this question early in the morning and noticed when I logged into my Facebook page around bedtime that evening that there were close to 80 comments on the post. I had started a war!  It went from, what I intended to be funny and entertaining to a, let's see who can make whom the maddest.

     One person said it's "disgusting!" That it "carries all kinds of germs and will give you an infection."  How ever do our babies survive?  Another said, "it's natural and a beautiful thing" and it's a "God given right."

     Apparently these people didn't listen to my question. I didn't ask how they felt about breast feeding. I ask how they felt about substituting breast milk for store bought milk. Good grief!

     In the end, I re-posted that yes, I used the breast milk, no, it wasn't mine, ( it was my sister-in-laws) that I didn't really care what anybody else thought. I only ask because it made for a good conversation. 

     Daymond, my oldest, mentioned that those were possibly "the best cupcakes I'd ever made!" Devin said he would never eat another one unless he watched me put everything in them. And Curtis looked a little green when he found out that I put his sisters bodily fluids in our food.

     At the end of the day, this may or may not have hurt my chances of starting that Cup Cakery that I dream of owning and operating one day.  But what it did do was, give my family something sweet to eat after their dinner, give me a great Facebook topic and conversation starter, and I got to make a lot of people laugh! Those are my favorite things to do.
     Since then I've had several people ask me if I'd used any "special ingredients" in my recipes lately.  I just tell them, "what they don't know, won't hurt them."

     

     

     

     

     
Recipe:
Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes
Cupcakes:
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c peanut butter
1 1/4 c milk (of choice:)
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
Makes 24 cupcakes
1.  Heat oven to 350.  Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full.  Bake approximately 17-20 minutes.  Let cool.  Core centers and fill with grape jelly/jam.  Top with peanut butter frosting. (recipe below)
Peanut Butter Frosting
3 c powdered sugar
1/3 c peanut butter
1/4 milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla 
1.  Mix powdered sugar and peanut butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 TBS of milk at a time.
2.  Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable.  If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time.  If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.

Tip:  If you substitute ingredients, keep it to yourself, people get all weird about it :)
ENJOY!!!