Mmmm Pumpkin!

Who doesn't love pumpkin?!? I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin bars, and pumpkin bread so I figured pumpkin cupcakes had to be good too! Dang was I right! The pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting were sooo good. The cupcake recipe was from Taste of Home and the frosting recipe was from one of my favorite blogs, Oh, Just Put A Cupcake In It.

The cupcakes were soft and moist with just the right amount of spice. And this could quit possibly be the best cream cheese frosting I have ever tasted. It had the perfect proportion of cream cheese and powder sugar. Pair the two together and it was like taking a bite of heaven!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup white and 1 cup light brown sugar)
3/4 cup oil
1 15 oz can pumpkin (not pie mix)
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350. In small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. In large mixing bowl, combine sugar, oil, pumpkin, and eggs. Mix on medium until well combined. Mix in dry ingredients and beat until well mixed. Fill muffin cup up 2/3 full, bake 18-22 minutes.


Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz softened cream cheese
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
6 cups sifted powdered sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
splash cream

Cream together cream cheese and butter, add sugar, vanilla and salt and beat until creamy. Check your consistency...if you want it thinner, add a splash of cream and beat well to combine.

Frosted "4th" Treats

What can I say? Working holidays is no fun! So... I decided to try to bring a little holiday spirit to the "office" over the 4th of July. I have never met a nurse who didn't like a sweet, tasty treat... Yes, the pics are just being posted... I was having some technical difficulties. I tried two new recipes. Both were very well received by my coworkers who thought I was crazy to have worked a 12 hour shift and then baked not one, but two new cupcakes. To, them... yes, I am crazy. But I love to bake and when the urge hits, I go all out. Watch out come Christmas time.

So, first I made some from a recipe on http://www.foodnetwork.com/. Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

I have never had red velvet anything before but have always heard good things about it. Jess will tell you her and her siblings all requested it as the birthday cake that their mom prepared on their special day. So I gave it a go. The thought of the dark red cake was a little creepy it me but I had heard some great things about red velvet and liked how festive it would be on the 4th. They were really easy to make and I think I had just about all the ingredients in may pantry already...what could be better?!?! My husband loved them!!! He thought I was crazy since I decided that they "weren't my favorite". I feared that I had messed up the recipe somehow but velvet cake lovers out there assured me that it tasted just as it was supposed to. I guess I just met a cake I didn't like...never saw that coming. The frosting on the other hand....yum! Who doesn't love some good cream cheese frosting. There was some leftover and I will tell you that it was quite delicious on the strawberries I had in my fridge. One of my fellow coworkers went gaga for it and was ready for me to bring in the leftover for her to eat. We talked about spreading it on banana bread but she probably would have just eaten it with a spoon. Yes, it was that good.

Ok, so cupcake number 2. Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Yum! Have you ever known that a recipe was going to be good just because the dough/batter tasted so good? This is a prime example. The finished product was soooo tasty. I can't wait to use the recipe for my nephew's birthday cake this next week. To make it festive, I divided the batter into three bowls. I added blue and red food coloring to two of the bowls. Then I just placed the batter in the muffin cups in any old way I desired . The cupcakes were beautiful.... the colors vibrant. Each one unique and delicious!!!! And so easy to change up for any holiday.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

These cupcakes were absolutely amazing! They were light, fluffy, and refreshing. They were so light that they just melted in your mouth! I brought some in to work and they got rave reviews. The strawberry cupcake and butter cream recipe were from the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook. Definitely a keeper!! Still have a little work to do on learning how to master to frosting swirl. Guess I just have do some more baking so I can practice :)

Our First Baking Experience!

For our first baking experience, Michele and I thought we would rely on the wonderful recipes of Martha Stewart. We chose to try the one-bowl chocolate cupcakes topped with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. The frosting was absolutely amazing, but the cupcake on the other hand was a little disappointing. They just didn't have the intense chocolate flavor we were expecting. The frosting recipe has been filed in the "keep folder" but we are still on the quest for a knock-out chocolate cupcake recipe!

How it all began...

Michele, Anne, and I are all nurses on a medical/surgical/oncology floor at a hospital in the Twin Cities. A few weeks ago the three of us attended a meeting regarding our union contract and possible strike. After the meeting we were all extremely frustrated with the situation and started talking about how we wish we had a hobby that was our passion and could be made into career. Somehow we got onto the track of baking and within minutes this snow-balled into cake decorating classes and opening a bakery! Ever since then the three of us have been searching the internet for recipes, checking out cookbooks at the library, and baking like crazy! Our family, friends, and co-workers are sure loving this bakery idea because they get to be the lucky ones to taste test all of our baking creations! We are hoping this will be our Sweet Escape from nursing!

how sweet!

Jess, I bet you have been thinking about this blog all day at work....dreaming of your sweet escape. Can't wait for our next baking adventure on friday!! It sure will be a fun one!! ;)