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I’ve been making quite a few cupcakes and a request was made for a) something with cream cheese and b) a pecan pie cupcake. Well, I’ve decided to combine the two into one. I did some searching and found this: Pecan Pie Cupcakes. Then I went and found a recipe for Cream Cheese frosting that I’ll incorporate some pecan’s into. I’m probably going to modify the cupcakes a bit so they will rise, but we’ll see. For now here’s the recipes.

Pecan Pie Cupcakes
Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs

Directions

• 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• 2 Combine all ingredients and mix well
• 3 Spray a miniature muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray
• 4 Fill each 3/4 full
• 5 Bake in preheated oven for approx. 18 minutes

For the cupcakes I will most likely do my normal cupcakes:

• 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

But add in some pecans and maybe switch out the mix for something else. I’ll have to play around with it.

For the frosting this is what I’m going with.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 (3oz) pkgs cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• dash salt
• 1 box (1lb) confectioners’ sugar — sifted
• cup chopped pecans

Hopefully everything will turn out ok. If not it was a learning experience and I’m sure people will eat them any way. I’ll post some pics after they are done.

The cup cakes:

• 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream (at room temperature…or close)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1.5 package candy corn

Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 1 1/2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. Fold in the candy corn (don’t use the mixer). Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each lined cup cake cup (make sure to spray these first), filling it three quarters of the way full. Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cup cakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

The frosting:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
• a pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup whipping cream (Cool whip also works)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 10-15 candy corn flavored Hershey Kisses
• 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil

Melt Hershey Kisses in a double boiler with the vegetable oil, allow to cool slightly. Mix together butter, confectioners sugar, and a pinch of salt until it’s creamy. Increase your mixer speed to high and beat until its light and fluffy. Add whipping cream and vanilla. Beat until its smooth. Fold melted Hershey Kisses into the frosting. Once cupcakes are cool or at room temperature, frost them, then make sure you tell everyone that you could only make about 12 so you can have the rest for yourself. This last step is very important.

This past weekend was rather chill. Not a whole lot went down. Friday was mainly just relaxing at the computer playing some WarCraft with Lewis. It was good to not really have to worry about things and get back to just doing nothing. Saturday I got up, did some cleaning and headed off on a mission to make a personal best 10k time. A goal which I demolished by a full 2 minutes! In running time that’s pretty danged good. I’d like to get it down to around 1hr. That’ll take some doing, but shouldn’t be impossible.

Candy Corn Cupcake sans frosting

The rest of saturday was spent resting up from the run and baking cup cakes. They turned out pretty damn good. I made several different batches. The ones seen here i placed the candy corn on top then baked them. This melted the candy corn down and created somewhat of a candy ’shell’ inside the cupcakes. This also allowed for more frosting since I could cram it into the crevices. For another batch, I folded the candy corn into the frosting. This worked out pretty good and put the flavor throughout the whole thing.

For the frosting, I made a standard butter-cream frosting, melted some candy corn flavored Hershey Kisses in a double boiler, then folded that into the frosting. I have to say it was one of the better frostings I’ve had. It was creamy and had a candy corn flavor. Quite tasty actually. Check my photos page or the Food Stuffs page for a pic of the other variety. At the party they were a hit! So I’ll be making these again, however up next is either a Pecan Pie cupcake or something with pumpkin.

Bout to get KTFO!!!

The party at Kim and Chris’ was pretty fun. Standard party for the most part. There was drinking, Rock Banding, food, people being crazy, then passing out. For some reason boxing gloves were brought and some sparing took place. As a future reminder do not spare or anything of the sort with glasses on. This will result in them breaking again. I made it out ok, though I got punched in the face, however Neal suffered a blackish eye. More of a scratch he says, but who knows. So based on this pic it would appear that I have a pretty beefy arm. Not sure what’s up with that, but I’ll take it.


After the sparing and Rock Banding people started heading home. I decided I would just hang there since I really didn’t have a NEED to be back home or anything to get up the next day for.

Sunday was spent just kinda hanging around the hosue. I did some more cleaning, paid some bills, debated on making some chili, didn’t actually make any chili, watched some tv then went to bed. All-in-all, not to shabby of a weekend. Here’s a quick rundown: cupcakes baked: 36, punches in the face: 1 (maybe 2), shots taken: X (10 or ?, you decided), achievements earned in WarCraft: countless, pumpkins carved: 0, faces seen and rocked: a million. Halloween is this week and I still have mixed feelings about that day. I hope all goes well.