Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cupcake Eater

Well, it's time for my first official tutorial post, and I'm really excited to share something fitting for the season with you. While trolling Pinterest recently I discovered a recipe at Sweet Verbena (originally from Big Red Kitchen) for some super easy pumpkin cupcakes. Texas doesn't exactly have ideal fall weather for a native Northerner like myself, so I've been craving a taste of true fall.

Now I must warn you all, although I like to cook, I'm not necessarily the most creative in the kitchen, so I need a recipe. And I know you all hear me when I say I'm tired at the end of a long day, and don't exactly feel like putting a lot of effort into food. This particular recipe struck me because it only calls for two ingredients. Yep, you read that right, TWO INGREDIENTS! Delicious pumpkin dessert for minimal effort from this worn out gal? Where do I sign up?

The two ingredients required for this recipe are yellow cake mix and pumpkin puree. I wanted something a little more special, and felt the need to ever so slightly push my culinary skills by adding to them. I chose to throw in a bag of chocolate chips and top them with some cream cheese frosting.

The actual recipe only called for a 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree, but of course, I forgot to check that before I went to the store, so I got the big can just to be safe and ended up scooping out half with a spoon. I also almost forgot cupcake liners, and later on almost forgot to add the chocolate chips into the mix. Like I said earlier, star chef I am not.

Luckily, it's pretty darn difficult to screw this recipe up. I just mixed together the above ingredients and ended up with this tasty-looking mix:

I'll admit that I stuck my finger in a few times because I was just way too excited to see how this was going to turn out. So far, so good! The next step, of course, is putting the mix in the cupcake tin. I eyeballed this, and since I only have a cupcake pan big enough for 6, I had a few tries to test out how much mix to put in. The first time I didn't quite put enough in and ended up with some relatively flat cakes. I'll also let you know that before putting them in the oven is when you should smooth them out, or you will get some pointy, bumpy cupcakes.

The ones on the bottom right and left probably turned out the best, so that is what you should aim for if you're unsure. After popping these babies in the oven at 350 for 20-25 patient anxious minutes, I discovered these beauties beaming up at me:

Success! The mix yielded exactly 18 cupcakes for me. It was so tempting to not just dive right in at this stage, but I had one last, important step to make these even more amazing: homemade cream cheese frosting. This time I pulled the recipe from my boyfriend's Baking and Pastry book from the Culinary Institute of America. That's right, I've got a chef in the house and I'm making cupcakes from 3 store-bought ingredients. Let's just say one of us is in love with cooking, and the other just kind of likes it. You decide which one I am. Anyway, although the recipe came from the CIA, it was also surprisingly easy and simple, having only 4 ingredients.

The recipe was for quite a large batch so I cut in in half, which worked out great. This means I used 4 oz of butter, 8 oz cream cheese, 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract, and half a cup of powdered sugar. After mixing them all together the frosting looked like this:

So, you could just frost them with a knife, but I was feeling like Fancy Nancy and I decided to try my hand at piping it onto the cupcakes. I'm pretty proud to say that I got a few to turn out decent enough, and my final product turned out a little something like this:

I hope you're inspired to try these cupcakes, they were totally worth it in my book! I'm about to go have one right now, but before I go I'll leave you with a break down of the recipes.

Pumpkin Cupcakes


1 box yellow cake mix
1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
1 bag chocolate chips

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees (this is usually something I forget until I've already made my mix). Stir all of the ingredients together until fully incorporated. Pour into cupcake tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese

4 oz butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Blend the cream cheese on low speed until smooth. Add the butter in stages, and blend well. Add the powdered sugar and blend on low speed until fully incorporated. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Blend in the vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.