Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes - the Yeti of cupcakes

I just completed the marathon cupcake-a-thon in my kitchen.   A total of 4 dozen, baked, frosted, embellished with sugar crystals, and prettily packed away in boxes for gift giving at dh's work.  And then, I realized I never have posted about these cupcakes.   These are like the BEST holiday fall/winter cupcakes EVER. 

I can't believe I have never posted the recipe for my world famous pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes before.   They are like the Yeti of cupcakes - seriously.  My husband has a bake sale at work to benefit a charity that buys coats for kids, and people get in bidding wars over these cupcakes.  Days before the bake sale, rumors begin to swirl about the elusive pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes.  It's crazy!

These are an amalgam of various pumpkin cupcake recipes I've used over the years with my own little cheesecake twist.  My secret weapon for these is two fold -- it involves extra pumpkin and ninja cheesecake hiding out in the middle.  The combination of these two things makes this cupcake so "magically delicious" it can't be contained.  Then, top it off with a cream cheese buttercream frosting, and you are in heaven. As proof to how amazing these are I give you my husband, who oddly enough does not like sweets yet will eat an entire batch of these if I let him. 

So try them out yourself. Here are the recipes:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

Yields 24 cupcakes

Cheesecake Batter:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat all ingredients together until smooth.  Set aside.

Pumpkin Batter: 
2 eggs + 1 egg  yolk (leftover yolk from cheesecake batter)
1/2 cup oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
15 oz can pumpkin puree
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 heaping tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt

In separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.  Set aside.  In mixing bowl combine eggs, oil, both sugars, vanilla, and pumpkin.  Combine until well mixed.  Gradually add in dry ingredients and mix until smooth. 

In cupcake liners layer pumpkin batter, then cheesecake batter, then pumpkin batter. Then, I jiggle them a teensy bit to smooth out the layers. Bake 15 minutes.**  Let cool and frost. 

**Because there is cheesecake in the middle, you can't insert a toothpick into the cupcakes to see if they are done.  When I cook them, they are always done in about 15-16 minutes.  Just make sure the top layer of pumpkin batter looks "done."

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), slightly softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients until combined.  Then, beat for another 1 minute until fluffy.  This is enough to frost 24 cupcakes nicely. 

Tip - I have three sizes of scoops from Pampered Chef.  I've found if I use the medium scoop for the pumpkin batter and the smallest scoop for the cheesecake, it hides the cheesecake perfectly in the center of the cupcake. 

Craftsy is having a SALE!

Happy Black Friday!  I can't believe it, but I already finished one of my three kidlets Xmas gifts (Thank you, Amazon.com!).  I'm halfway done with the second one, and by Sunday, the baby's Xmas will be done too!  I've never this fast.

But, this sale would be the perfect gift for your somebody who is "crafty." For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I just found out Craftsy is having a sale!  All their classes are $19.99 and under through Monday, even the ones that are usually $39.99! There are just so many to choose from.  I'm really wanting to try the make your own monster class.  So cute!!

I've recently signed up for the class The Art of Cloth of Dyeing.  I can't wait to get started!  I love to dye things, and I'm hoping the advanced techniques will be new things I can learn.  I have to finish a few crafty things for an upcoming craft fair before I can get started, but I just can't wait.  I'll definitely be blogging my projects in the near future. 

If you're interested in finding out more about the classes, just click this link --  Online Sewing Classes .  It will take you to the entire list of classes they offer.  And, it's not just sewing and crafty things.   Gosh, there is so much I want to take...breadmaking, cheese making, cake decorating....the list just goes on and on.

Now I'm off to the kitchen because I'm starving after thinking about bread and cheese. 

Jumbo Ombre Cupcakes

 

My son is still talking about the rainbow cupcakes I made from a few months ago, so I thought I'd try this ombre thing everyone is doing.  I could not get a decent picture, but they sure look cool in real life.  

It's super easy if you haven't done it before.  I was a bit worried they'd bake weird. 

I made 6 jumbo cup cakes.  Here is what I did:

1 box white cake mix

3 egg whites (no yolks to prevent yellowing of the batter)

1 1/4 cups water

1/3 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Separate batter into 4 bowls. 

1 bowl: white

1 bowl: 3-4 drops food coloring

1 bowl 6 drops of food coloring

1 bowl 10 drops of food coloring

 Then I layered the cupcakes.  I used a regular ol' flatware spoon and but 2 spoonfuls of each color batter starting with dark, then medium, then light, then white.  I filled these up about 3/4 full as I wanted big tops.  This yielded 6 jumbo cupcakes (which is probably about the same as about 18  regular cupcakes only filled 2/3 full of batter. )

Bake for 20 minutes.  

And Voila! Ombre cupcakes. 

I also made a cream cheese butter cream frosting

6 oz cream cheese

3-4 tbs butter

3-4 cups of powdered sugar

Allow cream cheese and butter to sit until close to room temperature.  Then beat together until smooth.  Gradually add powdered sugar until the frosting makes stiff peaks.  

I used a large star tip and swirled it on the cupcakes.  Then, I dusted them with pink sugar crystals. 

Enjoy!!

I'm totally famous, y'all!

Every time I go to Walmart, Miss Em and I run over to the bakery to take pictures from the plethora of cake wrecks.  There are just so many that we try to be rather covert about taking the pictures so no one figures out what we're doing.  I'm not sure who they have decorating cakes, but there is a very high chance you'll find some crazy stuff over at my local Walmart bakery.

I was just checking the blogs I read every day and what do I see?  This picture I sent into Cake Wrecks a few months ago.  I'm like totally famous now ;)

I thought maybe they didn't like my pictures or maybe my idea of a cake wreck wasn't the same as theirs or maybe I wasn't cool enough.  Cuz, I've sent in quite a few and have never seen a single one of mine posted, and I read their blog every day.  Then, I find this today!  Now, I've been validated for all my hard work in search of hideous cake wrecks.  (And, I think at any moment now I'm going to end up writing a huge run-on sentence.)