Today, to give me a break for Thanksgiving, my BFF Nichole brings you a delicious holiday post! Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Last week, when I arrived at work, a couple of my coworkers were flipping through the November 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray talking about recipes that looked good. One of them, Christine, mentioned having tried one of the recipes for Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes (“Ace In The Hole” by Sylvia Nardone, p. 130). And she said they turned out awfully! It wasn’t until our other coworker pointed out something in the recipe that the one that Christine had missed—the inclusion of the oil. So I told them I’d see what I could make of them.
Well—I made them. And they were good!
So here’s a play-by-play of the cupcake-making!
I broke out my beloved blueberry apron and plugged in the iPod and got to work.
Had to mix the filling first.
Then the dry ingredients.
And, finally, the cake batter.
Well, some green tea was definitely in order. (A loose leaf tea with strawberries I found at my local grocery store. It’s very good! Ask Meg!) I had it with some agave nectar from Trader Joe’s. Yum!
After putting the ingredients together, it was time to fill the cupcakes. I forgot to get a snapshot of the filling going in, but I’m pretty sure you guys will figure out how they work.
And then they were off into the oven.
*hums the Jeopardy theme*
Due to the magic of blogging, I present to you the finished product!
This is my dog, Skooter, and he thinks I should share the cupcakes with him. I told him that he was thinking wrong.
While the cupcakes sat in the fridge to cool (because I’m CRAZY impatient), I got to work on the cream cheese frosting. (Got the recipe from AllRecipes.com.) The RRay recipe came with a recipe for a fluffy white frosting. However, the idea of making frosting out of four egg whites and three-quarters of a pound of butter was not appealing to me—or my coworkers—at all, really.
Well, once that was done, I had to give that whole use-a-ziplock-for-a-piping-bag trick a try.
THEN—it was time to frost one and give it a try!
Oh, holy CRAP! These are AMAZING! Christine obviously got these wrong! And honestly, I know it probably looks like these were a lot of work, but they weren’t at all. They are really rich, though, so it doesn’t take much frosting. They would likely be perfectly fantastic without the frosting! Here’s a look at the remainder of my efforts, sprinkled with pumpkin pie spice for a pretty effect.
You can find this recipe, and try them for yourself, here.
Happy baking!
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