Pumpkin Cupcakes

I think I might be a little late jumping on the pumpkin bandwagon this fall, but at last I do have a pumpkin recipe to share... just in time for Halloween! And this one is totally worth wait.

It had been a while since I'd brought goodies to work, and my coworkers were beginning to wonder if my oven was broken... so last week on my switch over night I whipped these little guys together. As much as I wanted to make something sweet I also wanted to make something seasonal, so pumpkin seemed like a no-brainer. Plus, who can pass up a cupcake?

Well, needless to say, these were a huge hit. The pumpkin really gave these an amazingly moist texture and wonderfully sweet flavor... it reminded me more pumpkin pie than of cake! At first I decorated a few of them with a pastry bag and a lot of frosting, but I found that I liked them better with a light smearing instead, so that the cake took center stage rather than the topping. (You can always, of course, frost them however you like.) But however you choose decorate, just make sure you put them on your Halloween party menu! As easy and delicious as these are, there's really no good reason to pass these up. Trust me, your guests (and your taste buds) will thank you!

Bronco Cupcakes

While Boise may be the home of Bronco Nation, most of BSU's hardcore fans are in Las Vegas tonight. Boise State's football team has had a crazy season this year... undefeated and looking toward the Rose Bowl (if not the National Championship) until that fateful game in Nevada in late November. Once ranked happily at #4 in the BCS standings, my beloved Broncos found themselves ranked #10 and playing #19 Utah in the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl this evening... an appreciated and well-played game, but a bitter disappointment in comparison to the golden dream that was once on the horizon.

Prestigious or not, we're still proud of our Broncos and of a well-fought win in the Las Vegas Bowl. We do live in the home of the "Smurf turf," afterall. Dane and I invited some people over for the big game... we ordered a giant sandwich from Subway, bought a few bags of chips and some cheap soda and beer... and I decided to make blue cupcakes in honor of our beloved team. :)

As you can see, the cupcakes came out more green than the true blue I was hoping for. But I put them in blue baking cups, topped with white frosting, and sprinkled some blue and orange nonpareils, and no one cared. They were tasty, and the sentiment was appreciated... and none were left by the end of the night, so I'd say they were a success. 

 For the cake, I chose to use a white cake recipe, thinking that it would be a better base for dyeing than something like, say, red velvet cake (which I considered using, substituting blue for the red food coloring). Whether it was the cake recipe, the type of food coloring I used, or the amount, my cupcakes turned out a weird teal color, so if I do these again I'll have to do some experimenting to figure out how to get a better blue. I had fully intended from the beginning to use blue and orange sprinkles, so I went with a good white frosting as a base... for which I chose a creamy frosting recipe. 

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