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

Tuesday's time out to... Organize!! Cupcake Liner Storage

Organize!

An easy way to store your cupcake liners.  

Just put them in a mason jar! They will keep their shape, and always be together, and not in several different packages randomly roaming your baking cupboard. 

Tree Birthday cake

Do you know someone who loves trees?

How about a doing a birthday cake in a tree theme. I did this for my daughters 1st birthday.  I admit, I'm the one who loves trees, but I also designed her room with a tree theme, so it seemed like a good idea.  :)
I decided to go with 2 different sized cupcakes for those at the party who might want to control the portions, or for any little kids who couldn't handle an entire cupcake. It ended up adding to the overall design, which was an added bonus.
As for the decoration, you'll see in the picture, I started with chocolate cake for the cupcakes.  For icing I used 2 different shades of green to add to the detail of the leaf part of the tree. Chocolate frosting for brown trunk and branches. I just went over top of the already frosted green cupcakes for the branches.  Then I used a lighter brown color for some lines in the trunk for detail.  I also used some lighter shade green to make grass at the bottom of the tree.

Finding a circular platter to put it on was "the icing on the cake" (hahaha, sorry for the bad pun) because I find it framed the whole thing well. 

Overall, it was pretty easy to make, and turned out really nice, at least I think so. So now you can make a tree birthday cake too (or any occasion you might need it for) 

:)

Jo