Thursday, November 6, 2008

Perfectly Chocolately Pumpkiny Cupcakes

Posted by Erin / 3 comments » / cake, pumpkin


Mmmmm… I’m a lil late on posting this, but who cares.  I decided WAAAAY back when I bought my first bag of Pumpkin Spice Kisses, that I would make chocolate cupcakes with pumpkin spice kisses inside & pumpkin cream cheese frosting for Halloween.  I bought the bag of kisses right before Labor Day.  So, needless to say I had developed much anticipation for these cupcakes.  I had decided on Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake for the cake recipe, and Peabody’s Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting.

When it came time to make them, luckily I had the foresight to do a test batch.  I wanted to see how much the kiss would melt, and if I should add it at the beginning or halfway through, or what.  Well, the oddest thing happened.  The kisses turned rock hard!  I think the orange outer later melted away, but the white creamy center definitely did not!  Bummer.  And I had all those kisses just for that purpose!  I went ahead and just made them without the kisses.
I was a little wary of the cake & frosting combo, but they ended up tasting REALLY REALLY good!  Plus they were a lot of fun to decorate.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the cake part, let me just tell you, it was SO moist and SOOOO yummy!  Make these!

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake: from Hershey's
Frosting: from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
About 30 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

CAKE:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

FROSTING:
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 TBSP finely grated orange zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 - 4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

CAKE:
Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely.

FROSTING:
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin puree on medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Add the spices, zest and vanilla extract and mix well. Gradually add the sugar and beat until desired consistency. Refrigerate for 1 hour, Remove from refriferator 5-10 minutes before using. Spread on the tops of the completely cooled cupcakes.



Posted by Erin on November 6, 2008
3 Comments »
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3 Responses to “Perfectly Chocolately Pumpkiny Cupcakes”

  1. 1
    KMAYS — November 7, 2008 @ 12:02 pm

    I’m so impressed by the decorations. Did you share these or just eat them all? :-)

  2. 2
    Lesley — November 7, 2008 @ 12:17 pm

    Hi Erin–I’m getting caught up on your blog and I get the distinct impression that you like pumpkin. :) I’ve got pumpkin risotto on the to-do list soon. Maybe Saturday. Fingers crossed…I’ve never made risotto from scratch.

  3. 3
    Peabody — November 10, 2008 @ 2:32 am

    Those turned out cute!

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