By Lisa Gutierrez on 11/01/2010 This is probably the least-Halloweenish cupcake ever (minus the awesome Martha Stewart cupcake liners I got on sale the day before)! However, it’s the only part of the day my husband requested. And not even directly. That guy can’t make a food decision to save his life! But he did say it was one of his favorites and I really wanted to try it, so I made them.
I originally planned to turn them into cute owls or scary werewolves, with candy and piped frosting and blah blah blah. I’m pretty gnarly at planning and ended up making the frosting while cooking dinner, so needless to say, I ran out of time. They still looked pretty sweet–
I got this recipe from my aunt. It’s the one she uses when she makes this enormous german chocolate bunny cake every Easter. It.is.scruuuuumptious!
Ingredients:
1 egg
5 1/3 oz can of evaporated milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
dash of salt
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions
In a saucepan, beat egg lightly. Stir in milk, sugar, butter, and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat for 12 minutes, or until thick and bubbly. Stir in coconut and pecans. Cool thoroughly, then spread on cake (or cupcakes!)
I would double for layer cakes. I was only able to frost about 12-13 cupcakes.
If you try the recipe, I hope you like it! October had 2 cupcakes because I accidentally skipped a month somewhere! I’m all caught up and brainstorming ideas for November’s cupcake recipe. Any suggestions??
p.s.! don’t forget to enter my giveaway, lovelies!
By Lisa Gutierrez on 10/07/2010 
or muffin.
or bake it in a loaf pan and make bread.
No matter your preferred method of baking, this is by far the BEST pumpkin recipe I’ve come across. The cake is just so moist and spicy and delicious! I took these photos, this morning. Then, I ate two. I still suck at frosting, but WHO THE HECK CARES when the pumpkin is that good? Not I!
I strongly suggest making your own pumpkin puree for this. To be honest, I had never made it before I came across this recipe, a whole 5 years ago. My oldest was just 5 months old, so I couldn’t share them with him, but I totally did a little dance, with a muffin in hand, that made him smile. This morning, I’m happy to report, he approved of these muffins and even took one to school for his teacher! Amazing.
I’m posting this recipe with permission from the author. This is the original link.
Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 7×3 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans. (I almost forgot, I had about half a cup of raisins leftover from something else, so I tossed them in as well, along with the wet ingredients.)
Bake for about an hour in the preheated oven. Bread is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. //I baked the cupcakes for about 23-24 minutes.
If you click on the original link, there are some simple directions for roasting a pie pumpkin and making your own puree. It’s so easy!
How about a closer photo?
from the top?
You’re welcome.
Now, go make some cupcakes!
By Lisa Gutierrez on 09/02/2010 
I know, I know! I’m late with the cupcake of the month. I’m sure you were all sitting there, holding your breath, so….here it is! You can breathe, now!
Technically, it isn’t a cupcake. It’s a muffin. And not just a muffin, a mini-muffin! These little guys are perfect in a household with kids. I can toss them to my kiddos after breakfast and it makes them happy. “Cake for breakfast?? K!” I can hand one or two to my kindergartener to snack on during his walk to school with daddy. I can hide one in my mouth, in its entirety when someone catches me in the kitchen at midnight. *ahem*
So, yeah. They’re pretty darn nifty.
Have you done any baking lately? What recipes are you MOST excited about, now that the weather may finally be cooling down?! I know I can’t wait to roast my first pumpkin of the season. Oh goooooodness, I’m just waiting for the scent of nutmeg and cloves to fill my house! I LOVE fall-baking!
By Lisa Gutierrez on 07/30/2010 
Here’s my cupcake of the month, just in the nick of time! I was really craving chocolate, last weekend, but never got around to making the cupcakes. I had some extra time, yesterday evening, and whipped these up. I used the chocolate cupcake recipe on joyofbaking.com and a peanut butter frosting recipe from allrecipes.com.
They came out pretty delicious. The cupcakes were moist and not overly sweet, which is a plus for me. The frosting tasted like the center of a Reese’s peanut butter cup, so that was pretty rad. My kids absolutely LOVED them. Especially Nathan, who usually isn’t into baked goods if they don’t involve a certain song and presents afterward. I’d call these a success.
!!PLUS!! Anytime I get to use all of my mixing bowls at once makes me smile inside. There’s something about these vintage Butterprint Pyrex bowls that gets my blood a-flowin’.
By Lisa Gutierrez on 04/13/2010
The cupcake of the month (and maybe the year..) is Chocolate and Chilli! Again, I got the recipe from 500 Cupcakes. The batter was pretty hot and I was a little worried. Then, I ate a warm cupcake and it was kind of amazing. THEN, I made the frosting (!!) and oh my God! It was DELICIOUS! Like, all the flavors melted together and kindly left me ugghhhmmming in the kitchen for a few minutes. Yeah, I ate two cupcakes today. SUE ME!
The frosting calls for Tia Maria, a coffee liqueur. I’m sure you can find it in any liquor store, but we used it as a reason to go to our favorite liquor/specialty foods & cheeses store, Spec’s. We visit the downtown Houston location, which is a pretty big warehouse with endless amounts of beer, wine, liquor, gourmet foods, cheeses, and an awesome deli ($2.50 po-boys! get ’em! they’re amazinggg). It was pricey, but I think it’s worth it. Same goes for the dutch-process cocoa and chipotle chilli powder. These are probably the priciest homemade cupcakes I’ve ever made! But. Seriously, guys. I wish I could email them to everyone I know because I think I’m going to marry it. They were that good.
I want to share the recipe, but that might be illegal, since it’s from a book. You should probably buy it, anyway. It’s cheap and there are 500 variations of cupcakes in it. A cupcake book! Everyone loves cupcakes.
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