Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Happy Halloween!

How's everyone doing on the east coast? This hurricane sandy was just crazy! But I just didn't want to let this hurricane keep me away from my baking. While I still have power, I wanted to bake up some very yummy Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes. Just in time for Halloween too! I wanted to incorporate some pumpkin into my chocolate cupcakes, so I found this wonderful recipe on I am Baker. This is the most moist cupcakes I've ever tasted!

For the Cinnamon Buttercream, I found this recipe on My Kitchen Addiction. I minus the brown sugar in this recipe because I didn't want it overly too sweet. This frosting is so darn good! I love the added cinnamon in this frosting, gives it a kick. Combine together makes the most delicious cupcakes, I've tried!

I also love these cute Halloween baking cups I bought from Tops. I think I'm going to go back and get some more for next year! ^_~

 For the finishing touch I drizzle some Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce on these babies! This caramel sauce is so so good! I drizzle this sauce on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! I love drizzling this on top of ice cream. Oh man...I think I'll have some when I'm done with this blog post...lol I will post this recipe soon!

This is a wonderful treat for Halloween. If your going to have a party, make them. If you have kids, make them, and if you don't and it's just you...make them!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tablespoon vanilla

3/4 cups softened butter

4 Eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cups cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350

In a small bowl combine buttermilk and pumpkin. Just mix together until incorporated.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a mixer, beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated.

Alternating, add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the sugar mixture. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Mix for 1 minute on low until fully combined. Using an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup, place batter in prepared cupcake pan.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. Cupcakes are done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Source: I am Baker

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed (I excluded this ingredient)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups powdered sugar (varies based on temperature/humidity)
3 tablespoons half and half (varies based on temperature/humidity)

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and shortening. Whip together with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy. 

Add the brown sugar and cinnamon and whisk until well combined.

Gradually add the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. Alternately add the half and half, whipping the icing on medium-high speed after each addition, until the desired consistency is reached.

Fill a pastry bag with the icing and pipe the icing onto the cupcakes. Top the cupcakes with Halloween candy and a sprinkle of cinnamon, if desired.

Source: My Kitchen Addiction

Homemade Halloween Oreo Cookies

I've been looking at food blogs a lot and came a cross this easy to follow recipe. Made it last night and thought they were really yummy. There such cute cookies specially if you have kids or are going to any Halloween parties. This would be a great recipe for that!

To make them even more prefect for Halloween I divided the cream filling and added green and orange food coloring. You can add any other colors you may like for instances purple or red would be great too. Any thing that screams Halloween! Or you don't even need to add any coloring to the filling. You can leave it just plain white to give it that Oreo effect!

Recipe below!

 

Enjoy!

Homemade Halloween Oreo Cookies

Ingredients:
For the cookies: 

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened or Dutch process cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (Use 1 cup for a truer-to-original Oreo wafer or more sugar for a sweeter chocolate cookie) 

10 tbsp (1 stick + 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg 

For the cream filling (white): 

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 tsp vanilla extract Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.  Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

In a food processor or the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Mix briefly to combine.  Add the butter to the bowl and pulse or mix briefly to incorporate.  Add in the egg and mix until the dough forms a cohesive mass.

Scoop between 2 tsp to a scant tbsp of batter (depending on how large you want them) onto the baking sheet.  Continue scooping, spacing the dough balls a couple of inches apart.  With moistened fingers, gently press down on the dough balls to flatten slightly.  Bake for 9-11 minutes (closer to 9 minutes for smaller cookies), rotating the pans halfway through baking.  Transfer the baking sheets to a wire rack and let cool completely until the cookies are firm and set.  Be sure the cookies are completely cooled before filling.

To make the filling, combine the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until smooth.  Add the confectioners’ sugar to the bowl and mix on low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the vanilla extract.

To assemble the cookies, pair them up by size.  Use a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip to pipe a swirl of filling onto the flat side of one cookie of each pair.  Sandwich together with the remaining cookie and press down so that the filling reaches the edges. Yield: 20 to 30 sandwich cookies, depending on the size

Source: Retro Desserts by Wayne Bachman