Pumpkin Cupcakes with Rich Cream Cheese Frosting

Creative:

Pumpkin season is in full swing. And I love it! In fact, I love everything about this time of year! I recently came across this recipe from Cooking Classy for Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. Her photos were beautiful and I'm a fan of good-looking food. I feel that if the food looks good, it has a positive effect on those eating it...like maybe it tastes just as good! Works for me anyway :)

This blog was originally created as a means to show ways that the recipes and creations we do can serve and benefit others - the "compassionate" portion of the title. I feel I have not focused enough on that as of late so I am now making a change for the better! Each post will feature how the recipe (or whatever I'm displaying) helped another person or group. And if applicable, will also include why it makes me and/or others "happy". 

Compassionate:

On the last Saturday of September, we had our semi-annual General Women's Broadcast for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We always have refreshments after the broadcast so I signed up to bring cupcakes, naturally. I think they were a big hit!

Happy:

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a great talk. I haven't re-read it yet, but the notes I took were based off of the things I found pertinent and important for me: 

He told the story of a young girl and her Great Aunt Rose. The takeaway message from the story is as follows: God created us to have joy. If we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, happy things. The best things in life take time and work. FAITH turned Great Aunt Rose's life around. Faith led to hope. Faith and hope give confidence that through the Savior, all things will be made right. You can hang your head and feel sorry for yourself, or have faith. Now is part of eternity. "Forever" is composed of "nows". Fill your life with meaningful things. Pure love of Christ is the heart of the gospel. When we love God, we want to serve Him.

I used Cooking Classy's exact recipe for the Pumpkin Cupcakes and they turned out perfect! I always worry about the consistency of the batter with pumpkin products, but these were great.

I did, however, modify a recipe from Our Best Bites for the Cream Cheese Frosting. This full recipe made more than enough for this batch of cupcakes. So you could either halve the recipe, or even make a second dessert that requires cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2 (8-oz) pck. cream cheese, at almost room temperature
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, at almost room temperature
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 c. powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. Whip cream cheese, butter, salt, and vanilla together until light and fluffy.
2. Add in the powdered sugar and whip until smooth and fully incorporated. Refrigerate any leftovers (or anything you've frosted that doesn't get eaten immediately).

These look just as beautiful as they taste. In fact, V-man actually put the finishing touches on by placing one candy pumpkin onto each individual cupcake. Nice job, bud!

DIY BYU Shirts/Onesies

Football season was in full swing when I realized that the kiddos didn't have any BYU shirts! That had to change. Since there is clearly no BYU merchandise being sold around here and I am too cheap and inpatient for online apparel, I decided to take a wack at a DIY project.

And I think they turned out darling :)

I started off by printing off a "Y" logo from the internet and cutting out fabric to match the shapes. I then sewed felt to the back of the circle part before zig-zag-stitching it onto the respective shirts. 

Then I zig-zag-stitched the Y on top of each circle and that was it! Done and done. 

They have a homemade look, but I think that makes them unique. After all, they are kid clothes - they're supposed to have that cutesie look, right?

Let's just say, V-man asked to wear his new Buy-U Tooder shirt two days in a row! 

They are now true zoobies in the making :) Mission accomplished. Go Cougs!

Fall Pumpkin-witches

E was in charge of treats for her lab meeting last week. She made these simple sandwich cookies and everyone marveled over them!

The filling is remarkable. Super fluffy, yet it holds its own inside the pumpkin spice cookie.

Click here for a printable recipe.

For the Cookies:

Ingredients:

• 1 box carrot or spice cake mix
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 c. oil

Mix together the ingredients and roll into tablespoon-sized balls. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes or until they spring back when you touch them. Allow to cool completely before moving on to the filling step.

For the Filling:

Ingredients:

• 1 box pudding mix (E used cheesecake flavor for this recipe)
• 1 c. milk
• 1 container whipped topping (lite or fat free is fine too)

Whisk the pudding and milk until the begins to thicken, then fold in the whipped topping. This can be made the night before and placed in the refrigerator if you'd like. Just be careful not to eat it all before you fill the cookies!

To make the pumpkin-witches, layer a cookie, filling, and a second cookie on top. Top with a sprinkling or two of powdered sugar for looks. They can be frozen as well.

We hope you enjoy these as much as the food science lab did!

Lightning McQueen Birthday Cake

Little V-man absolutely loves "Cars" the movie and all things Lightning McQueen. For his birthday this year, I took it upon myself to attempt to make fondant and put together a little McQueen cake.

I knew it was a success when I finished and V-man saw it and screamed "Lightning McQueen CAKE!" Those are always happy moments, as he was the biggest critic in this case.

I made a simple cake using my classic Chocolate Cake recipe. Then filled it and frosted it with Almond Buttercream Frosting prior to applying the fondant. This helped the fondant to seal into place and stay put.  

I used a recipe for Marshmallow Fondant that I found on allrecipes. One of the comments, however, mentioned using marshmallow cream instead of melting the marshmallows. That is what I ended up doing, leaving out the water in the recipe and adding the food-coloring into the marshmallow cream. After kneading it all together with shortening-coated hands and freezing for about 1/2 hour, the fondant was ready to use!

Since I'm not an avid cake-decorator (I prefer cupcakes), I totally just placed V-man's Lightning McQueen car on the top to make it authentic. That worked for us!

This is a REALLY easy cake decorating idea if you're just starting out with fondant. Try it out sometime!