thanksgiving turkey cupcakes - pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Last year for my youngest son's preschool Thanksgiving party, I signed up to make dessert. I knew wanted to make Thanksgiving turkey cupcakes, but I wanted something different from the ones I had made in previous years (see these and these ones as well). So using the "petal technique" that I've done on cakes in the past (originally done by Hungry Housewife! Go check out her tutorial!), I created these cute little turkeys!

I decided on a pumpkin cupcake to match the occasion (and also it's semi-healthy for the kids!). I used the same Martha Stewart recipe that I've used in the past, because it always comes out moist and fluffy!

For the frosting, I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream and divided it into four, and colored the first three portions for the turkey's tail feathers.

The fourth portion I colored brown, for the turkey's head.

Using the petal technique, I created the first row of tail feathers with yellow frosting ...

Then the second row with orange frosting ...

And the third row with red frosting.

Then I piped a little round blob for the turkey's head!

Finally, I used black sugar pearls for the eyes, rainbow chips for the beak, and upside-down heart sprinkles for the wattle.

Aren't they cute?

Gobble Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving!

pumpkin spice mini cupcakes with brown butter cream cheese frosting

Okay, wow. I just checked the date on these pictures, and turns out I made these about four years ago, but never had a chance to blog about them. Whoops!

Anyhow, sooooo I made these little mini pumpkin cupcakes four years ago! I had leftover pumpkin puree from something or other (I can't remember at this point!), and so I decided to turn that into mini cupcakes. Just for fun. So for the batter I used Martha Stewart's trusty pumpkin cupcake recipe from her "Cupcakes" book (also used for these Halloween Jack-o-lantern cupcakes, as well as this pumpkin layer cake with piped roses).

For the frosting, I took my basic cream cheese frosting (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), but instead of regular butter, I browned the butter by melting it in a pan over medium heat, waited for it to brown, and then chilled it until it because solid again. Then I let it come to room temperature before incorporating it in my frosting. (Yes, sounds like a lot of additional work, but SO worth it for that brown butter flavor!!!)

To get the cute little dollop-shaped frosting on top, I used a pastry bag fitted with just a coupler (or you could also just use a large round tip). Holding the bag upright above the center of the cupcake, squeeze your frosting out slowly, and use a pumping motion to keep the frosting moving outwards. Once the frosting has spread almost to the diameter of your cupcake, stop squeezing the piping bag and slowly lift the pastry bag up and away from your cupcake, to give you that cute little point on the top.

And there you have it! Super simple yet tasty. And perfect for Halloween, or even Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

halloween cupcakes - pumpkin cupcakes with browned butter cream cheese frosting

A few weeks ago, I had signed up to make pumpkin pie for Matthew's preschool class Halloween party.  I had envisioned making cute individual mini pumpkin pies instead of one large pie.  But when Halloween week rolled around, I was more in the mood to make cupcakes!  So I decided to make pumpkin cupcakes instead.

I found a nice Martha Stewart recipe for the cupcake, and it came out tender and moist, with just the right amount of spices to enhance the pumpkin.  For the topping, I upgraded my favorite cream cheese frosting by adding some browned butter, just to give it a nuttier taste, and in the end the flavors of the frosting and the cupcake married quite nicely.

To go with the Halloween theme, I made my frosting look like spiderwebs:

I was originally going to pipe spiders on top of the webs too, but spiders really gross me out, and I don't want to even think about eating them!  So instead I piped a happy jack-o-lantern on top.

Happy Halloween!