Pumpkin Recipes, With and Without Spice

Click image if you're basic.

I'd have my Basic White Girl card taken away if there weren't at least a dozen pumpkin recipes on the blog. No chance of that happening, as there are eighteen recipes (so far) using pumpkin as a main ingredient. Most of the recipes are sweet, of course, but a couple are savory. Pumpkin is a vegetable, after all. I am rather surprised that I don't have a recipe for pumpkin hummus here somewhere--a situation that will be rectified very soon. I recently found a yummy-sounding one on the Interwebs but haven't had a chance to whip it up. 

I've made more variations on pumpkin cheesecake (3) than anything else. There are also muffins, cake, cupcakes, breakfast items, plus soup and risotto. One thing I noticed while searching for pumpkin recipes: the older posts have some pretty horrible photography! Going from small digital camera to iPhone camera has made a big difference in the quality of my images. Good lighting makes an impact as well. So this post is recipe-heavy and photo-light. 

Curried Pumpkin Soup This recipe is stupid-simple. 

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chai Muffins This is clearly one of my more recent recipes, as I eat mostly gluten-free these days. Plus I'm hoping that the term will attract new followers to the blog....

mini pumpkin cheesecakes

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes Specialty pan alert! You need two 4-inch springform pans for this recipe. I suppose one 6" pan will do, but the cheesecake will need to bake for a bit more time. Don't ask how long. It's in your hands now.

Pumpkin Bread Just to be different, I added a bit of curry powder. 

Pumpkin Butter Don't spend $5 on a jar of pre-made pumpkin butter! Make it yourself for much less.

Pumpkin Cheesecake This is for a full-sized cheesecake to serve to family and friends. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies Rather than the usual cream cheese-swirled brownie, these are topped with a thick layer of pumpkin cheesecake. 

Pumpkin Cornbread There's actually no good reason to add pumpkin to cornbread. But I did it anyway.

Pumpkin Cupcakes Rich and moist, these cupcakes taste better after a day or two.

Pumpkin Fruitcake Don't be afraid--this is more pumpkin bread with dried fruits and nuts than actual fruitcake. Real fruit, not those awful red and green plasticized cherries.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle is a great dish for the upcoming Winter holidays. Make it easy on yourself and use boxed gingerbread and pudding mixes.

Pumpkin Oatmeal sure is cozy on a fall morning!

Pumpkin Pancakes are too!

"pumpkin" pie made with squash

"Pumpkin" Pie There are quotes around the word "pumpkin" because this recipe calls for fresh squash. Pretty much all canned pumpkin is actually butternut squash, and it can be substituted for the other squashes in this recipe. 

Pumpkin Risotto There are no "pumpkin spice" spices in this recipe!

Pumpkin Seed Brittle only uses the seeds, not the flesh. My late Dad said it was "like heaven" in his mouth. 

Pumpkin Spice Cake This is like a blondie, only pumpkin-spicier.

Pumpkin Waffles with Apple Compote Do make the compote! 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Curry Cupcakes

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on March 22, 2011.

Back in October of 2010, I posted some teaser photos of a batch of cupcakes that I baked up to test a recipe for the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest. I didn't win, so now it's safe to share.

The Chocolate Adventure Contest requires participants to use one or more somewhat-esoteric "adventure ingredients," which this year included stout, ricotta, buttermilk, saffron, coconut milk, molasses, adzuki beans, fresh beets, chiles, bee pollen, Meyer lemon, almond flour, and Sumatra coffee beans. I liked the idea of using saffron, coconut milk, and almond flour in the cupcakes themselves, and thought curry powder would be a nice accent for the saffron. The cake itself was ridiculously moist and the entire concoction was quite rich. And delicious! The curry flavoring was very subtle - I used Penzey's Sweet Curry, which has more sweet spices, especially fenugreek, one of the flavor components of "maple-flavored" syrups like Log Cabin. Taste-testers were hard-pressed to guess that the caramel and frosting were indeed flavored with curry.

Without further ado, I give you White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling and Curry Buttercream Frosting. (You'll probably notice that I used basically the same base in my pistachio cupcakes. It's so good, I don't see any reason to use any other recipe.)

White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-oz white chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.

Place the saffron in a small bowl with boiling water and soak for 15 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute at 50% power. Stir chocolate and if it does not melt completely, microwave for another 30 seconds at 50% power. Repeat at 15-second intervals until the chocolate is smooth when stirred.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the melted white chocolate and vanilla extract. Alternate stirring in flour mixture and coconut milk, ending with flour. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, but do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

Bake at 325F for 20-23 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling

1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
1 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons salted butter, diced
1 ounce Scharffen Berger milk chocolate
1/8 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry, if you can get it. It's sweeter and less cumin-y than grocery store curry powder.)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium saucepan set over low heat, stir sugar, 1/4 cup water, and corn syrup until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high. Boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber, occasionally brushing down pan sides with wet pastry brush, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cream, which will cause sugar to bubble furiously, then whisk in butter and chocolate.

Add sour cream, curry powder, and salt. Cool completely before using.

Curry Buttercream Frosting

1.5 sticks of  room temperature butter
7 ounces marshmallow fluff
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry)

Combine the butter and marshmallow in a bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat on medium until completely smooth. Reduce speed to low and add confectioners sugar, vanilla, salt, and curry powder. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy.

To assemble cupcakes:

Using a paring knife, cut a small divot out of the top of each cupcake, about 1" deep x 1 1/4" wide (the little plugs are Cook's Treat!). Fill hole with some of the cooled caramel sauce. Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large plain round or French tip and pipe in a spiral onto the tops of each cupcake, making sure to cover the caramel. Garnish with chopped pistachios or sliced almonds, if desired.

Store in refrigerator to keep frosting from getting too soft. Bring to room temperature before eating.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Nando's Peri Peri

Several months back I was invited to try one of the new Maryland branches of Nando's Peri-Peri, an international chain specializing in hot-pepper-marinated chicken. The location was a bit out of my way, so I declined. But then another one popped up near work, and I was able to check out their wares on one of the "mock service" days prior to the grand opening.

My date for lunch was my Dad, and he selected the flame-grilled chicken breast with sides of cole slaw and corn on the cob. I was briefly tempted by wings but didn't feel like smelling like chicken for the rest of the day. I instead opted for the butternut squash and couscous salad with sliced peri-peri chicken and grilled halloumi cheese.

Dad enjoyed his meal. The chicken was tender and the corn was yellow. Yay for yellow corn! (I am not a fan of white.) The slaw was a bit...hmm...not bland. It just needed a little kick. It's mayo-based, but on the tart side, and if you're used to sweet slaw, it might be a disappointment.

I loved my salad. The base was baby spinach that was topped with red onion, green and black olives, grilled corn, and couscous, plus big chunks of roasted butternut squash. The vinaigrette was slightly sweet and had a bit of heat. The chicken was a sliced version of Dad's, and the slabs of halloumi (which looked just like the chicken) had been grilled. Really tasty.

The chicken comes in a range of heat levels, from "plain-ish" to "extra hot." Our food was ordered "plain-ish," and had a very mild chili kick. We tasted the lemon & herb and medium sauces as well; the former was mild and had a nice herby flavor and the latter was not particularly hot to my palate.

There are a handful of choices for dessert at Nando's, and of those we chose to sample the peanut butter cupcakes. At $3.25 each, they're a bit pricier than found elsewhere - and smaller - but the chocolate cake was moist and the peanut butter frosting was rich and creamy and full of peanut butter goodness.

While we enjoyed the food, it seemed a bit spendy, at least for lunch. For instance, that chicken breast - supposedly a whole butterflied and deboned breast, a tad larger than the size of my palm - is $8.95 all by its lonesome. One side raises the price to $10.95, and with two sides the chicken costs $12.85. A half chicken, bones included, is more of a bargain at $9.45. My salad was $7.95, not including the chicken. That was an additional $2.95. The halloumi was an extra $2.25, for a grand total of $13.15. I suppose I've been spoiled by food trucks, but I don't normally spend anywhere near that amount for lunch. But, it was good, and I'm still tempted to try their wings.

Nando's Peri-Peri
421 West Baltimore St
Baltimore, MD 21201


Posted on Minxeats.com.

HarBowl Feasting

Baltimore's big day has come and gone, with spectacular results.

THE RAVENS WON THE SUPER BOWL!

While watching the game, Mr Minx and I dined on mini cheeseburgers topped with either havarti or horseradish cheddar, with optional garnishes that included roasted poblano peppers, sautéed mushrooms, and purple onion relish.

How'd we get the relish so purple? With the help of McCormick's* neon food coloring. A few drops of blue and a few drops of purple in the already somewhat-purplish melange of onion, brown sugar, and balsamic vinegar made for a festive condiment. Also festive was the lavender mayo, also colored with the McCormick dyes. I tried to make purple ketchup, but only succeeded in making a bluish-black mess. I took photos of a burger with purple onions and lavender mayo; trust me when I say it wasn't that pretty. But kids would have loved it.

For dessert, we had much prettier Black Velvet cupcakes topped with purple marshmallow buttercream and sprinkled with purple sanding sugar.

Black Velvet Cupcakes

1 cup AP flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon (or more) McCormick Black food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Stir in the butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add half the water and beat for about half a minute. Repeat with the rest of the water. Stir in the food coloring, adding more if needed, until the batter is as black as you'd like.

Divide batter evenly among 12 paper-lined cupcake cups. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cupcakes to a rack and cool completely before frosting.

Purple Frosting

1.5 sticks of room temperature butter
7 ounces marshmallow fluff
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 drops purple McCormick NEON! Food Colors and Egg Dye
6 drops blue McCormick NEON! Food Colors and Egg Dye

Combine the butter and marshmallow in a bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat on medium until completely smooth. Reduce speed to low and add confectioners sugar, vanilla, salt, and food coloring. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy. 

Frost cupcakes when completely cool.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Paint the Kitchen Purple and Black

The Super Bowl is just around the corner and happy Baltimoreans who are watching the big game at home will no doubt be looking for ways to create purple and black food for the occasion. Well, maybe not so much black food...but definitely purple! There aren't all that many naturally purple foods - potatoes, cooked blueberries, some varieties of carrot and asparagus come to mind. Not exactly easy produce to find in late January/early February.

Mr Minx requested that we have slider-sized cheeseburgers to eat during the game. I figured I'd make some red onion relish and pretend it was purple, but then I realized I could dye the onions with food coloring. I could probably also make purple ketchup and mayo that way, too. Maybe black ketchup? Maybe not.

McCormick makes neon colored food dyes in both blue and purple, which can be mixed together to achieve that perfect Ravens purple. (The color is actually violet; purple has more red in it.) And they're excited about the Super Bowl, too, as they've put up recipes for purple and black treats on their Web site. I think the purple cupcakes with purple and black swirled frosting are perfect (I wish we were entertaining for the occasion!) And definitely purple beer. As much as I like beer already, I think that purple beer looks more flavorful somehow.

What are your plans for Super Bowl snacks? Will you attempt to make purple and/or black food? I'll post my concoctions after the game.

GO RAVENS!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Hurricane Cupcakes

So what's a girl to do when there's a hurricane barreling up the coast? Do some baking while the power's still on, that's what! We have a gas stove, so a power outage wouldn't really keep us from cooking, however, I'm not all that thrilled with the idea of manually lighting the oven as it fills with gas. Right. Anyhoo, I decided that we would need baked goods to munch while we played cards in the dark, so I whipped up a batch of cupcakes. I used my standard cupcake recipe, omitting the melted chocolate component and adding a bit of sweet spices. Not enough to make spice cake, mind you, just a bit to add a hint of flavor.

Fellow food blogger Nakiya, of Taste of Baltimore, had challenged me to make something with the Biscoff Spread I found at the new ShopRite in Timonium. Biscoff Spread, made from crushed Biscoff cookies, is predominately cinnamon flavored, so I thought it would make a great addition to the frosting for my lightly spiced cupcakes.

I suppose I should call these "Nakiya Cupcakes," even though it's probably not fair that she won't taste one. Not from this batch at least...the few that are left are quite stale. Next time!

Nakiya Cupcakes

1 cup flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk (can use regular or soy milk)

Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla extract. Alternate stirring in flour mixture and almond milk, ending with flour. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, but do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

Bake at 325F for 20-23 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Biscoff Frosting

1 stick of room temperature butter
1/4 cup Biscoff spread
7 ounces marshmallow fluff
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine the butter, Biscoff spread, and marshmallow in a bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat on medium until completely smooth. Reduce speed to low and add confectioners sugar, vanilla, and salt. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy. Distribute evenly among cupcakes using a pastry bag or, as I did, with a knife and spoon (was feeling lazy).

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Satisfying a Need

I don't know what turned me into a cupcake baking fool all of a sudden, but here I am. Every once in a while, I get an uncontrollable urge that must be satisfied. The other day, I needed some chocolate cupcakes. I also needed fresh cherries, but my allergy to fruits in the genus Prunus prevents me from eating them raw. So I chopped some up and added them to chocolate cake batter. In case that wasn't cherry enough, I added some cherry preserves to a batch of cream cheese frosting, which turned it a lovely shade of pink that went beautifully with the dark brown of the cupcakes.

About the frosting: I'm not a huge fan of the chalky flavor of confectioner's sugar, which is why I won't make the standard butter + sugar style of buttercream frosting. But frosting needs a certain amount of sugar to achieve that perfect, fluffy, pipe-able texture, even if doing so makes the result too sweet. After adding one cup of powdered sugar to a box of cream cheese and declaring it sweet enough, I decided to boost the texture by adding some of the Ultra Tex 3 that I had received in my box of samples from National Starch. It worked like a charm without affecting the flavor one bit.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon instant coffee
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup pitted fresh cherries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin pans with 12 cupcake liners.

Stir together sugar, eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients, and beat with wooden spoon until incorporated. Add boiling water and beat until blended. The mixture will be very thin. Stir in cherries.

Spoon into lined muffin pans. Bake for 22-25 minutes until tops spring back when pressed lightly (a toothpick test won't be accurate because of the cherries). Remove to wire racks and cool. Frost with Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-oz package of cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons softened butter
1 heaping tablespoon cherry preserves
2 cups powdered sugars OR 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon Ultra Tex 3

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, and preserves. Beat in powdered sugar, or sugar and Ultra Tex. Spoon into piping bag and frost cooled cupcakes.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Curry Cupcakes

Back in October of 2010, I posted some teaser photos of a batch of cupcakes that I baked up to test a recipe for the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest. I didn't win, so now it's safe to share.

The Chocolate Adventure Contest requires participants to use one or more somewhat-esoteric "adventure ingredients," which this year included stout, ricotta, buttermilk, saffron, coconut milk, molasses, adzuki beans, fresh beets, chiles, bee pollen, Meyer lemon, almond flour, and Sumatra coffee beans. I liked the idea of using saffron, coconut milk, and almond flour in the cupcakes themselves, and thought curry powder would be a nice accent for the saffron. The cake itself was ridiculously moist and the entire concoction was quite rich. And delicious! The curry flavoring was very subtle - I used Penzey's Sweet Curry, which has more sweet spices, especially fenugreek, one of the flavor components of "maple-flavored" syrups like Log Cabin. Taste-testers were hard-pressed to guess that the caramel and frosting were indeed flavored with curry.

Without further ado, I give you White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling and Curry Buttercream Frosting. (You'll probably notice that I used basically the same base in my pistachio cupcakes. It's so good, I don't see any reason to use any other recipe.)

White Chocolate Saffron Cupcakes

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-oz white chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.

Place the saffron in a small bowl with boiling water and soak for 15 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute at 50% power. Stir chocolate and if it does not melt completely, microwave for another 30 seconds at 50% power. Repeat at 15-second intervals until the chocolate is smooth when stirred.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the melted white chocolate and vanilla extract. Alternate stirring in flour mixture and coconut milk, ending with flour. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, but do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

Bake at 325F for 20-23 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Milk Chocolate Curry Caramel Filling

1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
1 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons salted butter, diced
1 ounce Scharffen Berger milk chocolate
1/8 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry, if you can get it. It's sweeter and less cumin-y than grocery store curry powder.)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium saucepan set over low heat, stir sugar, 1/4 cup water, and corn syrup until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high. Boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber, occasionally brushing down pan sides with wet pastry brush, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cream, which will cause sugar to bubble furiously, then whisk in butter and chocolate.

Add sour cream, curry powder, and salt. Cool completely before using.

Curry Buttercream Frosting

1.5 sticks of  room temperature butter
7 ounces marshmallow fluff
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (Penzey's Sweet Curry)

Combine the butter and marshmallow in a bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat on medium until completely smooth. Reduce speed to low and add confectioners sugar, vanilla, salt, and curry powder. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy.

To assemble cupcakes:

Using a paring knife, cut a small divot out of the top of each cupcake, about 1" deep x 1 1/4" wide (the little plugs are Cook's Treat!). Fill hole with some of the cooled caramel sauce. Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large plain round or French tip and pipe in a spiral onto the tops of each cupcake, making sure to cover the caramel. Garnish with chopped pistachios or sliced almonds, if desired.

Store in refrigerator to keep frosting from getting too soft. Bring to room temperature before eating.


Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Wearin' o' the Green

My cupcakes are, not me.

I'm not Irish, and have never seen the point of celebrating a holiday that seems to exist for the sole reason of getting drunk and eating corned beef and cabbage, a dish that is not even authentically Irish. Some years back a friend of mine married a man of Irish heritage; his behavior over the years caused him to become My Most Hated Human Ever and definitely did not score any points for other people who shared his ethnic background.

Now he's out of the picture and I'm feeling a little more friendly towards all things Irish - even U2. I even made some green cupcakes.

Well, they're not really green, but they are flavored with pistachio paste left over from the Mardi Gras King Cake. I altered my favorite cupcake recipe to include it, and they turned out delectably moist and subtly perfumed with pistachio. I'm sure I could have amped up the flavor a bit with some almond extract, but almonds and green food coloring are not pistachios, no matter what ice cream manufacturers try to make us believe.

Pistachio Cupcakes

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup almond flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 ounces white chocolate

4 ounces pistachio paste

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute at 50% power. Stir chocolate and if it does not melt completely, microwave for another 30 seconds at 50% power. Repeat at 15-second intervals until the chocolate is smooth when stirred. Add pistachio paste to the warm melted chocolate and stir well to blend.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the pistachio mixture and vanilla extract. Alternate stirring in flour mixture and milk, ending with flour. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, but do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

Bake at 325F for 20-23 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Pistachio Buttercream Frosting

1.5 sticks of room-temperature butter

7 ounces marshmallow fluff

2 heaping tablespoons of pistachio paste

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine the butter and marshmallow in a bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat on medium until completely smooth. Reduce speed to low and add confectioners sugar, vanilla, and salt. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy. Frost cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with coarse green sugar, if desired.

Icedgems Cupcakes

There's yet another food truck visiting the UMB area, this one serving up several different flavors of cupcakes. Icedgems Creations, with a brick-and-mortar bakery at 213 Main Street in Reisterstown, is now cruising the streets of Baltimore in a pink-dotted refrigerated truck chock-full of sweet treats.

Find out where they'll be next by following them on Twitter or liking them on Facebook.

Chocolate Hazelnut and Key West cupcakes

Both cupcakes I tried were good, but I have to say I preferred the vanilla cupcake with the zesty lime buttercream.

Birthday Cupcakes

I always take off work for my birthday because going in would be like adding insult to injury. This year, with my free day-time, I decided to try out yet another cupcake recipe with the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest in mind.

Because I like pumpkin, and we had a small amount of purée in the fridge, I thought to make pumpkin cupcakes. But of course Scharffen Berger is a chocolate company, so I had to find a way to work chocolate into the recipe. There are lots of recipes that combine those two flavors, but honestly, that's not a mix I particularly enjoy. So I challenged myself to come up with a combo that I did like.

I concocted a brownie batter (with the help of my new Fat Witch Brownie Cookbook, courtesy of my brother), put a tablespoon of it in the bottom of each cupcake liner and baked it for 7 minutes until it started to set. Then I topped it with the pumpkin batter and baked it an additional 25 minutes.

Leftover bacon grease ended up as a substitute for some of the butter in my new favorite frosting recipe. I also added some cocoa powder and spices, to pick up similar flavors in the cupcake. And I made a brittle with hazelnuts and bacon chunks, with the help of my new candy thermometer.

Cupcakes, unadorned.

Bacon hazelnut brittle. Oh yes, I said "bacon."

Cupcakes, frosted, garnished, and Photoshopped.

The verdict? The concoction needs a whole lot of tweaking. The brownie wasn't chocolate-y enough, and the texture was too similar to the pumpkin part. The bacon frosting also didn't deliver the chocolate flavor I needed, and I realized that the tips on my decorating set are just too damn small for cupcake icing (which I have remedied by ordering bigger tips) so the overall look was quite...sloppy. As for my first attempt at brittle? It was ok, maybe a little more burnt-tasting than I like my brittles but I think that was due to the base recipe I used. And it could have used a lot more nuts. The pumpkin part of the equation, however, was delicious - super rich and moist, nicely spicy and pumpkin-y, despite the relatively small amount of vegetable used. And the longer the cupcakes sat in the fridge (and I mean days) the better they got. Actually, the frosting got more flavorful, too.

I would make them again, with a simple cinnamon-flavored buttercream.

Pumpkin Cupcakes  

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin purée
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with liners.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom.

Stir in the eggs, pumpkin, ricotta, sugars, and oils. Mix until well combined.

Divide batter among prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely.

Makes 10

Cupcakes

Oddly enough, I've never made cupcakes before. Muffins, sure, but not cupcakes. You might ask, "what's the difference?"

Frosting.

I'm not a big fan of frosting. I don't like the tooth-aching sweetness of most varieties, and I am especially offended by the gritty texture of confectioner's sugar against my teeth. I do, however, like a good French or Italian buttercream but the thought of making a meringue and sugar syrup is extremely intimidating. I am not, after all, a pastry chef (nor any other kind of chef for that matter, although in the privacy of my own tiny kitchen, I like to pretend that I am).

And then I read Wendi's post about buttercream frosting made with marshmallow fluff and a relatively tiny amount of confectioner's sugar. Suddenly the "no cupcakes" restriction in my brain was lifted and replaced by motivation to enter the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest again this year.

I can't reveal the recipe here, not at this time, but I will say these quite unusual cupcakes turned out better than I imagined. They don't look like much, but they were bursting with exotic flavors in not only the cake but also the filling and the frosting. Yes, I used Marshmallow Fluff - we just so happened to have about seven ounces hanging around the house - and it produced something remarkably akin to a fussier frosting made with egg whites.

But much, much easier.

My brain is now virtually bursting with cupcake recipes. I even dreamed about them over the weekend. Looks like Marshmallow Fluff is going to become a really good friend over the next several months.

Cupcake Wars

Did anyone watch the "sneak peek" of Cupcake Wars on Sunday night at 10pm after Next Food Network Star? We did. It reminded me a lot of Chopped, but with cupcakes and less-bitchy judges.

I'm not all that into the competitive baking shows. For the most part, they seem like manufactured drama. Like the part on those Food Network Challenges when the teetering 4' high cake has to be moved 6 feet from the work table to a presentation table. Seems like the height requirement and the moving is all done so we can see some cake-on-floor action. We even got to see some cupcake-on-floor action in the preview episode. And you know there's gonna be tears in the future. Personally, I'd like to see a food fight - cupcakes make the perfect projectiles.

The show premieres tonight at 9/8c. Will you be watching? I'm on the fence.

Cupcake insanity!

Kim Kardashian Cupcakes

Apparently Kim Kardashian has a cupcake mix now, sold by Famous Cupcakes in California. Yes, even you, lowly non-celebrity-for-no-reason, can bake cupcakes just like the ones that Kim Kardashian eats, for a mere $13!

Can't you just hear her Spanx screaming?