Butternut Spice Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream & Glazed Walnuts

For the Lake to Lake Girls Cupcake challenge the winner was a suggestion for a butternut squash cupcakes and walnuts, "Can you make a hearty and sweet butternut or acorn squash cupcake?  I bet walnuts would be good inside or walnut flavored frosting?!"Keep reading for pictures and the recipe!

For the Butternut Spice cake I basically took the recipe that I've used for the pumpkin spice cake and substituted the pumpkin with the squash. You can certainly roast your own squash and mash it up, but to save time I used canned butternut squash. I found this variety in the organic section of Wegmans.

I also used festive Martha Stewart cupcake liners.

The recipes for the cakes & the frosting were inspired from the pumpkin spice cupcake & maple buttercream frosting found in The Sweet Little Book of Cupcakes by Nicholas Peruzzi with Courtney Forrester of Sweet Cupcakes, Inc.

Recipe

Butternut Spice Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting & Glazed Walnuts

Yields enough for 12 cupcakes & frosting

Butternut Spice Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

14 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch (1/8 tsp) ground cloves

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 large egg

1/3 cup, plus 1 tbs whole milk

2/3 cup butternut squash

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit & line muffin tin with 12 cupcake papers
2. Beat the butter until light & fluffy in an electric mixer (approx 3-5 minutes)
3. Once butter is light & fluffy, gradually add the brown sugar and mix well
4. Beat in the egg until well mixed
5. Add milk to the butter & egg mixture and blend well until smooth
6. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and cloves. Once incorporated, add the flour mixture slowly to the wet mixture, and mix until just incorporated
7. Add the butternut squash & mix until smooth
8. Fill the cupcake papers until 2/3 full
9. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the tin, and bake for 17 more minutes. Insert a toothpick or thin knife blade into the center of cupcake, they are done when it comes out clean. 
10. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting, approx 30 minutes.

Maple Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (such as Crisco)
2 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp maple flavor

1.  Beat the butter & vegetable shortening until creamy and well incorporated
2. Slowly add the confectioners sugar to the butter & vegetable shortening on low speed until it is well mixed
3. Add the vanilla & maple extract and beat on medium to high speed until fully incorporated
4. Use a ribbon tip to generously frost the cooled cupcakes & top with a glazed walnut

I used store-bought glazed walnuts to help save time but a quick Google search comes up with plenty of recipes that take only 5 minutes to make your own. If you love walnuts, try chopping them up and adding them to the cupcake batter and or sprinkle on top of the frosting.

I'm excited to use these Halloween themed papers & candy knives. Oh the possibilities! A shout to Terri for the treats! Xo

Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

Remember that time I made some epic heart-attack inducing cupcakes and then completely forgot to post it on my blog? Yeah. Last Thursday I was asked to make some bacon chocolate cupcakes and I'm not one to say no to a challenge. I searched the annals of Pinterest and came up with this recipe.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and Salted Caramel Drizzle

I have been itching to make a delicious fall-themed cupcake, and I satisfied that itch with this cupcake. I promise I'm not exaggerating, this is probably my favorite cupcake out of the all the one's I've made over the past few months. I was inspired to make this cupcake by the ever-reliable Pinterest, but I could not find the recipe for the picture that I had originally pinned. I had to use my resources for this one. The pumpkin spice cupcake and cream cheese recipes come from The Sweet Little Book of Cupcakes. I simply added the cinnamon in for the frosting. Then a quick Google search led me to this recipe for the salted caramel sauce. The next time I make the salted caramel sauce I would recommend using white cane sugar instead of brown sugar to help achieve that amber golden caramel color, however the taste is still phenomenal. Now here are some pictures for drooling and gurgling worthy of Homer Simpson.

 

The First Day of Fall

Hello loverlies,

Happy Autumn!! Welcome northern hemisphere to my absolute favorite season of the year, despite the fact that winter follows (I may need to do something about that, hmmm). These few days where we get these gorgeous sun-filled days minus the humidity of the past few months, are worth waiting for. Plus I get to start wearing my cute jackets, boots and scarves again.

I brought in autumn with the Color Me Rad 5K in Albany. Our wave was at the exact start of autumn too at 10 am! The Color Me Rad run is a super laid back and fun race. It's not even timed. You are color bombed with dyed cornstarch and sprayed along the way. It has a young and energetic vibe to it.

Then after a thorough scrubbing, we headed out to Saratoga County for some festive fall activities, such as apple cider cinnamon sugar donuts made right in front of you!

Anniversary cupcakes! These make beautiful wedding or bridal shower treats as well.

Labor Day S'more Cupcakes

It has officially been way too long since I've made a cupcake, so what better way to celebrate the last major weekend of the summer than with s'more cupcakes? I made these cupcakes using this recipe I found in the annals of Pinterest.

Creating the graham cracker base.

The batter for the chocolate cupcake.

I did not take any pictures of the frosting making process because -I can't even sugar coat this- was a huge pain in the ass to make. And I burnt my hand in the process. But ta da! Here is the finished product.

The original recipe calls for a kitchen torch to create the chard marshmallow effect, but what's a girl to do that doesn't exactly have a  kitchen torch just lying around? You use the broiler. I set it on high stuck 2 or 3 frosted cupcakes on a cookie sheet and placed it directly under heat until it started to smoke. Keep your eye on it because it will burn in a second!