Lovin' From the Oven

Day 10: Pumpkin Dream Cupcakes

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Day 10 of my 12 days of cookies: Okay, I should really just call this the 12 days of desserts (if I even finish in time!). Just trust me that these pumpkin dream cupcakes are just that… dreamy. 

I love that these have cream cheese frosting. I’ll pick cream cheese frosting over buttercream any day. 

You can bake this into a cake instead of cupcakes, but I made them for a dinner event so I figured cupcakes were easier to serve than a cake. 

They were moist, full of flavor, and the frosting was pretty sweet. Take it easy on the frosting.. you don’t need that much for this cake! Recipe from The Novice Chef.

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Pumpkin Dream Cupcakes

Ingredients

    For the cake:
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup milk
    • For the frosting:
  • 12 oz (1 1/2 packages) cream cheese, softened
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 6 cups powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Line muffin tin with two dozen cupcake liners.
  2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time.
  3. Stir in vanilla, pumpkin and vegetable oil.
  4. Beat in the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Pour in the milk while the mixer is on.
  5. Fill cupcake liners just over 3/4 of the way full. You'll have some batter leftover and can make a mini loaf pan as well. Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes. The loaf pan will need at least 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
    6. For the frosting:
  6. Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in maple syrup, vanilla and cinnamon. Add confectioners' sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high until frosting is smooth.
https://lovintheoven.com/day-10-pumpkin-dream-cupcakes/

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Simply Chocolate Cupcakes

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Can I tell you how much better the holidays are when you have kids? Or in my case, a kid? I’m SO excited to dress Ellie up for her first Halloween, eat tons of food for her first Thanksgiving, and wrap presents to leave under the tree for her first Christmas! I know she’s not even one yet so she won’t remember any of these events, but I’m going to go all out anyway.

Let’s start with Halloween. I bought Ellie her costume before she was born (hellooooo 80% off-after-Halloween-sale! How could I resist?). She’s a little too young to help me in the kitchen right now, but I’m counting down the days until she can wear a mini apron and stand beside me watching cupcakes rise through the oven glass door. img_5053
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When that day comes, I’ll have Pillsbury’s Purely Simple mixes to help me out. With a toddler on hand, it’ll be difficult to bake things truly from scratch. I’ll need a little help to get me started and that’s where these mixes come in. It makes everything a little homemade, while giving me more time to spend with family.

Plus, there is so much you can do with these mixes! I love using them in the kitchen. For these simply chocolate cupcakes, I doctored up the normal recipe by adding a couple of my finishing touches. From there, I used Halloween candy to dress up the tops.

Kids will love choosing their favorite Halloween candy to put on top of their very own dessert. Cupcakes are the perfect size for tiny hands to hold and devour. I played it safe with chocolate and peanut butter based candies, but you can be adventurous with taffy, gummies, or even hard candies.
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I like using Pillsbury’s Purely Simple mixes because they’re free of preservatives and they don’t use any bleached flour. It’s easy to make them at home and it tastes like every ingredient was thoughtfully mixed in, one by one. img_5117

You can always use the recipe on the back of the box, but if you have a little extra time, you can use this recipe to make it even more personal.
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I made the buttercream exactly as listed on the package. Believe it or not, you only need to add butter and water to the mix. That’s it! Just two ingredients that are almost always readily available in your refrigerator.img_5135 img_5146 fullsizeoutput_3ee7

The result is this deliciously moist, fluffy, and tasteful cupcake. It took me less than half an hour total to make these cupcakes. Yes, that even includes the baking time! That’s faster than doing a load of laundry, going grocery shopping, or running the dishwasher.

Use up that leftover Halloween candy and turn it into gold!

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Simply Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 package Pillsbury Purely Simple Chocolate Cake Mix
  • 1 package (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
  • 2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 cup half and half
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 package Pillsbury Purely Simple Buttercream Frosting Mix, prepared using the directions on the package

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 18 cupcake liners.
  2. In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients together until smooth.
  3. Evenly distribute the batter into the 18 cupcake liners.
  4. Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs.
  5. Wait until cool and then frost with the buttercream. Top with chopped candy.
https://lovintheoven.com/simply-chocolate-cupcakes/

You can check out more Pillsbury ideas here:

This is a sponsored post, but the opinions expressed are my own.

Caramelizio Chocolate Cupcakes

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You might remember my last Nespresso post, where I was a little spoiled and got to go on a mini shopping spree. Well, they’ve done it again by sending me their latest flavor, Caramelizio, to try out!

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I was really excited when this new flavor was announced because there aren’t that many flavors to begin with since it’s a newer machine. I tend to drink sweeter coffee, so I usually stuck to the Vanizio (vanilla) and the Hazelino (hazelnut). Caramelizio is right up my aisle in terms of taste. It has subtle scents of vanilla and delicate notes of caramelized sugar.

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I was sent the tools to create my own drink recipe, but I couldn’t help but think of dessert when I had my first sip of Caramelizio. It was just begging me to make it into dessert! Who am I kidding, I’m a dessert person. I’ll try to make dessert out of everything. Is that so bad?

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One capsule made the perfect amount of coffee for a batch of cupcakes. All I needed was one cup, and it made exactly that. It was meant to be, I tell ya.

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If I had caramel on hand, I definitely would have drizzled some on top. Since I didn’t, I sprinkled some cocoa powder instead. The more chocolate, the better.

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I whipped up some cream in my mixer to ice the cupcakes, but a cream cheese frosting would be divine as well. Actually, any frosting would do it. These cupcakes are so good that it doesn’t matter what you put on top.

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The coffee flavor is very subtle. It’s really only apparent to me in the aftertaste. It does, however, bring out that strong cocoa flavor. The buttermilk and oil trap in the moisture, ensuring the perfect cake texture. This recipe is going to be added to my permanent selection!

To check out other coffee/espresso flavors, recipes, or even buy your own VertuoLine machine, visit Nespresso here. The VertuoLine retails for $299 and is available in five colors: black (like mine!), red, titan, white, and chrome. It brews 7.77 oz of coffee or 1.35 oz of espresso, depending on the pod you’re using.

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Caramelizio Chocolate Cupakes

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder (I used Rodelle)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup olive oil (you could also use vegetable oil)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used Rodelle)
  • 1 pod of Nespresso's Caramelizio, brewed

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcakes.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the buttermilk, olive oil, eggs, vanilla, and the Caramelizio.
  3. Gradually stir in the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until evenly mixed.
  4. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way full with batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
https://lovintheoven.com/caramelizio-chocolate-cupcakes/

This is a sponsored post, but the opinions expressed are my own.

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