Pumpkin, Caramel, Maple, Oh My!

It's been too long since I have taken the time to bake something. You could say that my mixer hasn't been used since we moved.

On Sunday, I decided to remedy that with the best that fall has to offer: pumpkin cupcakes with a caramel-maple filling and cream cheese frosting (dusted with cinnamon sugar). This is one epic cupcake my friends.

The recipe for the cake comes from A Thousand Phases.

At some point during the making of these cupcakes, I decided to go rouge, as I usually do with recipes. This time, it was both a blessing and a curse, as I ended up with the most delightful frosting ever created... but also, the caramel center of my cupcakes was tough, hard and sticky.

So my advice is this: use caramel SAUCE, not caramels melted with maple syrup (though the maple syrup taste was delectable. Additionally, write down or try to measure your ingredients. I only had a certain amount of cream cheese (possibly 5 oz) and powdered sugar (maybe 2.5 cups?) so I just dumped it all in. You can imagine my dismay when Mama Crafty-Pursuits declared, "this is the best frosting. I hope you wrote this recipe down".

Doh.

Happy Fall dear readers, it is truly a magical and wonderful time.