Did ya’ll know I love my friends? I LOVE my friends and I love being Suzy Homemaker when it comes to our annual Haunted Forest night in Poolesville, MD. Normally I whip up a big batch of hot cider, but this year I wanted to trump that so I made the awesome hot cider and I made these pumpkin cupcakes.
Guess where the recipe came from?? Deb! See here for the recipe. I swear I should just rename this blog Elizabeth makes recipes that Deb made!!! She made them a couple of years ago and I went and copied and was so happy with how they turned out!
Pumpkin. It all starts with pumpkin. Well duh cause these are pumpkin cupcakes!
The real star of the show was these spices from Penzey’s. Thank you Stevie for this awesome gift back this summer. They truly are the best spices.
And you must meet my new phone! I think I will call her Siri. Or S for short. Seriously that personal assistant function is da bomb and its pretty funny too. Today I found out I could ask her “Beam me up Scotty.” And she replies- “Ok. Stand still.” And shes super fancy in her Kate Spade case. The inside reads, Be Bold Be Bright. Love K.S. and her mantras everywhere.
After the cupcakes were made, I got to the frosting. This frosting uses maple syrup… wish I had concentrated the syrup on the stove a bit to get that flavor amped up, but there was definitely a hint of it when it was all said and done (a bit of salt helped too!)
Jen got that maple syrup from her relatives in Canada. We have so much! I must make pancakes more!
And here was my simple frosting job showing off my fancy nail polish. Black base with gold Sephora sparkles. LOVE IT.
And voila! The most perfect little fall treat. The cake part turned out moist, perfectly spiced and very light (think the cake flour helped with that). The cream cheese maple frosting was a bit tangy and a bit sweet and had that je ne sais quoi from the maple syrup. And the candy corn helped out with the fall-ness of this treat too. Can’t wait for Halloween!!!
Filed in: Baking Adventures.
Elizabeth Griffiths writes the blog, Strawberries in Paris. She grew up in Jarrettsville, MD and has recently relocated to Frederick, MD. She was raised on her grandmother's Mexican food and spent many summer nights cheering for the Baltimore Orioles. Her mother was in charge of the church strawberry festival every year for the first 10 years of her life and Elizabeth happily helped her cut up quarts upon quarts of them, which later turned into an shopping and eating obssession! Moreover, two visits to Paris in 2006 and 2007 solidified her love for French style, food and pastries. She went to college to become a perfume chemist, but switched it up and now uses her chemistry knowledge during the day to do environmental chemistry and at night to bake and make dinner with local and fresh ingredients. 