Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 2 2/3 C. flour
• 3 Tbsp espresso powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 C. granulated sugar
• 1 C. brown sugar
• 1 C. vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs

Frosting

• 2 1/4 C. heavy whipping cream, chilled
• 1/4 C. powdered sugar

Caramel sauce filling/topping

• caramel sauce
• cinnamon

Instructions:

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 12-hole cupcakes tins with cupcake papers.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Stir together and set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, mix together the pumpkin, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and oil on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the flour mixture in two additions, mixing until just incorporated.
5. Fill the cupcake papers ~3/4 full. Bake until cupcakes are golden and a toothpick comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.
6. Transfer the pans to a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan. Let cool completely.

Caramel Sauce

1. Follow recipe, here.
2. Pour into a squeeze bottle. Insert tip of squeeze bottle into cupcake and squeeze some caramel sauce into the cupcake.

Frosting

1. In a medium bowl with an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip heavy cream on medium-low speed at first, gradually increasing to high speed.
2. Blend in powdered sugar, gradually.
3. Whip until stiff peaks form, careful not to over-beat.
4. Using a pastry bag with a decorative tip, frost the cooled cupcakes.
5. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon and caramel sauce.

*Store in an air tight container.
*Refrigeration recommended.

Recipe: Caramel Sauce

• 2 C. heavy whipping cream
• 1 C. brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 C. (1/2 stick) butter

1. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a sauce pan over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.
2. Reduce to medium-low heat and simmer sauce until reduced to ~1 3/4 cups, stirring occasionally. (I simmered for about an hour and it still wasn't at at the suggested 1 3/4 cups so I just stopped there and used it the way it was, and it was still really awesome.)

Great for cupcakes, ice cream, cheesecakes, etc.

DIY: Two Ingredient Play Dough

The other day, one of my followers on Tumblr "mentioned" me in a post about DIY play doughs (I love it when people tag me in that kind of stuff!) and I got so excited that I didn't know where to start. So I started at the beginning! Pokey and I made a trip to the grocery store for some corn starch and some cheap hair conditioner and then set about to make "the softest play dough". 

2:1, corn starch:hair conditioner, was called for in the original recipe but since different kinds of conditioner are different consistencies, you might have to tweak it a little and I ended up using a little more corn starch with Burt’s Bees conditioner. I used my Kitchenaid ‘cause I’m super lazy but I could’ve used a spoon or my hands, though it was pretty sticky and goopy until I got the consistency right and I hate having stuff stuck all over my hands. When I finally got it right--almost, it was a bit crumbly but hardly noticeable, I could've put in a little more conditioner--I took it all out of the mixing bowl and separated it out onto six paper plates and added food coloring to each—I just poked a hole into the top of them and dropped a few drops of color into the holes. Then I mixed them up with my hands, which is why my hands look like this now! 

I really love this play dough, in particular, because my son absolutely adores play dough but it's so dang expensive to buy it! This dough only cost about $2.25 to make twice what is pictured above so both mama and kiddo are happy!

We're super excited to try more of the play dough recipes! Maybe we'll make peanut butter play dough (that he can eat later!) or maybe we'll do some mummy crafts!

DIY: Glittery Leaf Garland

It's finally autumn which means it's finally almost winter, my favorite time of the year. To celebrate, I took on a DIY project that took me way longer to get done than I thought it would. But it was super easy and super cheap and anyone can do it! 

All you need is:

• Artificial leaves
• PVA glue (e.g. Elmer's)
• Glitter in autumnal colors 
• Ribbon
• Hole punch
• Paintbrush 

I got my leaves from Dollar Tree and I used about a bag and a half ($1.00/bag), hole punch from Dollar Tree and I don't recommend getting it from there, it broke a couple of leaves in ($1.00), Elmer's Glue came from Target ($0.99), glitter came from Hobby Lobby and I used two packaged ($1.50/package), ribbon from Hobby Lobby and I used two ($1.99/roll), and the paintbrush was one that I confiscated from my son's arts & crafts supplies but I'm pretty sure it came from Target in a package of five or six for a few bucks. Bringing my grand total to only about $11.00 + tax. (Not including the brush 'cause I already had that.)

All you have to do is brush the glue onto the leaves, sprinkle the glitter on, shake off the excess, and then set aside to dry. Also, you should be warned that the bottoms of your leaves are probably going to get gluey so I used aluminum foil to set my drying leaves on, so they didn't stick to my table or something. 

After your leaves have dried, punch holes into the bottoms of them, then, with the ribbon, just tie the leaves to whatever your want--a longer piece of ribbon, a string of twinkle lights, the ceiling, anything. I tied them to some string (seen in the photo above) and then strung them up with a string of twinkle lights.

It was only supposed to take an hour or so but it ended up taking me three days because I'm so stinkin' lazy and procrastination is my forte. However, I'm glad I didn't give up and that I finally finished it because I'm so in love with these leaves and I can't wait until night falls so I can see them in action! I hope that some of you take a stab at this, I wanna see what you can do with them!