MSCC | Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

This month, the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club decided to bake the Pumpkin Patch cupcake recipe. My favorite thing about this recipe... it calls for Autumn spices!!! I of course sampled the batter before adding the pumpkin and I loved the flavor! The cupcakes were extremely moist and fluffy. The recipe makes 32... so I had Tyler take the majority of the cupcakes to school with him. Let's just say that the teachers at his school may be a little spoiled this year :)

I was torn on the decoration of these cupcakes... my girlfriend and I wanted to have a dark vintage themed Halloween dinner party, so I didn't want to decorate these cupcakes with anything Halloween related. Finally I decided to frost my cupcakes with my usual swirl of my cream cheese frosting and then I added royal icing decorations. I've seen this royal icing technique used multiple times on cooking shows, so I thought I would try it out myself. First, I had to decide what I wanted to trace. I could have gone online and found a pumpkin or two, but it was midnight when I did these so I went with what I had. I took my mini pumpkin cookie cutter and traced it with a ultra fine point sharpie on a piece of regular white printer paper.


Then I mixed up some royal icing and added orange food coloring gel. I put the royal icing in a small piping bag with a #2 tip. Next, I placed a piece of parchment paper over the piece of white printer paper. Then with the piping bag, I traced the lines of the pumpkin and added some definition lines in the middle.


I let the royal icing dry overnight because I don't decorate the cupcakes until the next morning right before Tyler left for work. I like when the frosting is freshly whipped and piped on the cupcake! Once the royal icing was dry, the pumpkins slid easily off of the parchment paper and I stuck a pumpkin in each cupcake.


You can try this technique with pretty much any pattern... you'll be seeing it again in a posting coming up. Until next time, happy baking!

~Danielle

Zucchini Spice Cupcakes

In September, the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club (MSCC) baked Zucchini Spice Cupcakes (or muffins), unfortunately I was unable to participate at the time (our kitchen was non-existent). So, even though our October recipe is due next week, I still wanted to try this recipe. I'm normally not one for vegetable and fruit cakes, but I love zucchini. I was very interested to see if I would like this recipe. I made half the recipe and topped it with my cream cheese frosting recipe (once you find your recipe, you don't deviate) and little flowers I punched out from the leftover zucchini.

All I gotta say is.. you can't even taste the zucchini. It just tastes like a spice cupcake (or muffin). I love spice cupcakes (or muffins), so I definitely like this recipe!

I have noticed on other MSCC member's blogs that there is a small debate as to whether or not we can call this recipe a cupcake recipe and I have to agree. To me, it reminded me of a muffin, right down to the flavor, the density and the texture. Tyler on the other hand says if you close your eyes it tastes like a cupcake. We brought this discussion to dinner with our friends and each person had their different opinions of what defines a cupcake and a muffin. After talking, we decided to make a hybrid name. From now on I am going to call muffin and cupcakes that blur the lines "muffcakes" or "cupkins."

Stayed tuned, a lot of baking is going down in the next week... MSCC October recipe and engagement party desserts. Plus, I'm trying to find the best chocolate cake recipe and may have just found it!