Random Recipe: Squash-kin Cupcakes

It's fall. It's October!! So it's the time of year when you make, eat & drink pumpkin everything, right!?  So I had it in my head I was going to make some pumpkin muffins.  Well, that's where the idea started, and then grew into something different.  

I've had this package of Betty Crocker white cake mix in my cupboard for what seems like forever.  I had even opened the cupboard once because I thought about making it, but didn't.  So I though, ok, I can make some pumpkin spice cupcakes. It'll be tasty, and easy! The easy part is what sold me! 

I grabbed some cute little cupcake liners from the dollar store and got to it.  I knew I had some pumpkin puree in the freezer from last year, so I had what I needed, and needed to use it up anyway.  Well, that's when it went a little off track.  Turns out the puree was from TWO years ago.  Ooops!! I probably could have used it and it would have been fine, but it smelled a little more like freezer than pumpkin.  I was about to scrap it until I could go out for the canned variety, when I remembered, we had one lonely little squash from our garden this year.  And I do mean little! 

As you can see, not real big.

I had heard once that you could use a butternut squash to make pumpkin pie.  They're very similar in taste, all you needed was the spices (which would be used with the pumpkin anyway). So I peeled and cut up the squash and boiled it up, pureed it, and got back on track.  

The recipe was still easy.  I just followed the directions on the box, but instead of 1 1/4 cup of water, I put all the puree I had, (which was about 3/4 cup), and topped the rest up with water.  Then the 1/3 cup oil, 3 eggs as listed.  The only other deviation was I added about 2 1/2 tsp of pumpkin spice. Cook for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.

For the frosting, I found a great (and again easy) vanilla frosting recipe at food.com.

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine ingredients and beat on medium speed until smooth and fluffy.

If you've checked out my other posts, you see where I'm constantly trying to incorporate vegetables into foods for my daughter, since she's a picky little one.  I think I've succeeded once again, because she loved these (even without frosting).

Do you have any go to recipes, where you include veggies without anyone noticing?

Enjoy :)

Jo