Hmmm, okay. I can do that (drat, I thought, no chocolate). I mused about it for a bit...and wondered, to myself, if he would notice if I added some of the last bits of the frozen acorn squash I had sitting in the freezer. (I have 2 packages left). It's hitting the 6 month mark of freezer life and I like to rotate things out by then if possible. So, I found a few pumpkin spice cake recipes that looked good - it has a lot more than just cinnamon for spice, of course, but I think he'll like this with a basic cream cheese frosting with a bit of cinnamon sprinkled in. Sounds like a plan! I'm not putting squash in the title in case he sees the blog title on Facebook...wouldn't want him to think he was actually eating a vegetable....or technically, I guess, a fruit. Nah, he'd consider it a vegetable. Anyway, he won't read the blog...but he'd see the title :-)
CINNAMON SPICE CUPCAKES
By Debbi Hook - based on various online recipes for pumpkin cake
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup Unbleached White Whole Wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter, softened but not melted
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/8 cup brown sugar - packed
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup Half and Half
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup squeezed and drained roasted acorn squash** puree (or canned pumpkin puree)
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 3 cups confectioner's sugar - sifted
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
METHOD:
Whisk together the flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, allspice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
Measure dry ingredients in separate bowl |
Whisk dry ingredients to thoroughly blend and remove any lumps |
Prepared batter ready to scoop into muffin pan |
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups with a large cookie dough scoop for even distribution. It made exactly 24 cupcakes.
Bake in preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 23-25 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine took 24 minutes exactly and a turned them at the halfway point to ensure even baking.
Beautiful lcupcakes...I can see spot that I bet is a bit of squash :-) |
Cooling on a rack helps keep them from having soggy bottoms |
** I roasted and froze the acorn squash in October. See this post for how I did it. Today, I thawed the bag that looked like it had about 1 cup of squash...turns out to have been 1 1/3 cup..and that was perfect because I drained and squished out about 1/3 cup of liquid. Last time, I used a colander and paper towels and my hands...it was very messy. This time, I pureed it first in the small bowl of my food processor, and set it to drain in a sieve.
squash puree draining over the measuring cup I used to see how much I had |
After it drained off about 1/8 cup of liquid, I used a clean cotton kitchen cloth to wrap the puree and twisted and squeezed to drain it thoroughly.
After squeezing the squash...perfect for baking |
OK - they are out of the oven and I just ate a warm one for a little quality assurance...and I must say they are beyond delicious. If I was without a teen in the house, I would just leave them unfrosted. They are fabulous warm and would be a terrific morning muffin due to the squash creating a more dense crumb. Yummmmmm...
OK - I admit - I ate two warm from the oven. These are delicious! |
The last 4 (because I had already eaten 2) got a "star" in the middle instead of a mountain of frosting. Quite frankly, since I had to try one of those as well (hey, it's been 4 hours since the last cupcake)... I found the "star" to be just the right amount of sweetness. The teen will likely like the ones fully crowned with frosting...but for me, just a tad bit of frosting was the perfect topping!
Just a taste of frosting - my favorites! |
BON APPETIT, Y'ALL!!!
Update 4/2/2011
I linked this post to a great little blog Sweet as Sugar Cookies. She does a Sweets for a Saturday post and all of these bloggers link their goodies of the week. I saw some awesome goodies that I MUST try!
ALSO SHARED WITH SWEET TREAT THURSDAY ON 6/2/2011
I love cinnamon in desserts! These look delicious! I'd like to invite you to share your recipe on A Well-Seasoned Life's Sweet Indulgences Sunday.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wellseasonedlife.com/2011/06/sweet-indulgences-sunday-7.html