Pumpkin Cupcakes for a Cause

Pumpkin Cupcakes for a Cause—

Feeding Friends to Avoid Eating a Ridiculous Number of Treats

 Alex here, and thank you for reading my first blog entry for Foodies and Fatties!

Thursday night, I hosted a few friends for a pumpkin carving at my Brooklyn abode. I have to say; the inspiration for holding a pumpkin carving at my house didn’t originate from seeing a cool Jack-o-lantern or a wealth of pumpkins being shipped in to my local supermarket. No, I, like many of my fellow fatties, thought of food first–I saw a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes. The solution might have been to bake the cupcakes for the household (my fiancé and I), but knowing that I’d devour half of them in two or three days, the only logical solution was to host a gathering where I could have the thrill of making treats and serving them to my nearest and dearest. I get to bake, my friends get to eat—win-win!

Let it be known now, that although I would love to be able to demolish several cupcakes a day, there are a few problems to discuss. One, if I didn’t monitor my baked-goods intake, the only thing that would stop my ravenous rampage would be a stomachache. Two, my waistline would not appreciate this phenomenon.

I had read a few times during my typical food blog musings that you could mix 100% pure pumpkin puree into boxed cake mix as a substitute for oil/butter and eggs. I had never tried this because I was wary of the faint pumpkin taste I might encounter, which I didn’t want in my vanilla cupcake. Here, though, the whole point was to have a pumpkin cupcake, so I decided to give it a whirl. Different spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger, helped bring out the mighty pumpkin’s flavor. One cup of water to the mix, and shazaam! We have lift off!

For the icing, I mixed a boatload*** of powdered sugar with two tablespoons of milk and butter. I couldn’t have plain vanilla icing for pumpkin cupcakes though, could I? Ok, that would still be delicious, but to spice things up, I added maple syrup and cinnamon.

The resulting cupcake was moist and had just the right amount of flavor. I’m happy to report that my friends devoured quite a lot of cupcakes, but low and behold, my fiancé and I were still left with about seven or eight. Fortunately, he devoured an undisclosed number yesterday while I was out of the apartment. I picked a good one!

Cake Recipe adapted from Skinnytaste and Allrecipes

Cake: 1 box yellow cake mix

            1 cup 100% pure pumpkin

            1 cup of water

            1 tsp of ground cinnamon

            1/4 tsp of ground ginger

            1/4 tsp of nutmeg

            1/8 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350°. Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Mix all ingredients and fill liners with batter. Bake according to directions on box of mix.

Frosting:

            2 cups confectioners’ sugar***

            2 tbsp milk

            2 tbsp melted butter

            pinch of salt

            pinch of cinnamon

            2 tbsp (I think, I eyeballed the amount) maple syrup

Melt butter in microwave safe dish. Add to powdered sugar. Mix all other ingredients into butter/sugar mixture. Whip until desired consistency.