With Sprinkles on Top

Last post for the week! I will be in Washington D.C. until Monday, so if you contact me or leave questions, I won’t be able to respond as quickly as usual. Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Sugar Pumpkin Cupcakes
Print Recipe

You will need:
1 batch of cupcakes (I made chocolate cupcakes from a box mix; any brand/flavor would work — or go homemade!)
1 batch of buttercream icing (I used the white buttercream recipe listed here)
Cupcake liners (I used orange but any color would work)
Orange and purple food coloring
A disposable pastry bag
A large round pastry tip (like this one)
2 boxes of Wilton’s sugar pumpkins (part of Target’s 2014 Halloween seasonal items)

1. Bake cupcakes according to box directions; allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
2. Divide your batch of buttercream icing in half. Dye one half orange, the other half purple.
3. Fit your disposable pastry bag with the large round tip. Spread orange icing on the inside of half of the pastry bag, and purple icing on the other half. This is how the two icing colors will swirl together. If you need a visual, please visit Sally’s lovely tutorial.
4. Frost the cupcakes with the swirled icing. Top with a sugar pumpkin and enjoy!

Makes 20-24 cupcakes.

Here is the second of three posts this week featuring Wilton’s adorable seasonal decorations. If you celebrate the Day of the Dead, these sugar skulls would be perfect for you. I made Day of the Dead cookies a few years ago and encourage you to learn more about this Mexican holiday.

Sugar Skull Cupcakes
Print Recipe

You will need:
1 batch of cupcakes (I made vanilla cupcakes from a box mix; any brand/flavor would work — or go homemade!)
1 batch of buttercream icing (I used the white buttercream recipe listed here)
Cupcake liners (I used pink but any color would work)
Pink, neon green, and blue food coloring
A disposable pastry bag
A large star pastry trip
2 boxes of Wilton’s sugar skulls (part of Target’s 2014 Halloween seasonal items)

1. Bake cupcakes according to box directions; allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
2. Divide your batch of buttercream icing into thirds. Dye one third pink, one third green, and one third blue.
3. Fit your disposable pastry bag with the large star tip. Spread pink icing on the inside of a third of the pastry bag, green icing on another third, and blue icing on the final third. This is how the two icing colors will swirl together. If you need a visual, please visit Sally’s lovely tutorial.
4. Frost the cupcakes with the swirled icing. Top with a sugar skull and enjoy!

Makes 20-24 cupcakes.

Have you all been to the Halloween aisles at Target? Oh. My. GOD. Each and every year they out-do themselves with cuteness. I gravitate toward the baking goodies (obviously). This year they are stocking these adorable little cupcake toppers made by Wilton. There are sugar mummies, sugar skulls, sugar pumpkins, etc. I bought them all and will be featuring cupcakes decorated with them this week.

I’m not being paid by Target or Wilton for these posts. I just love Target 100% of the time and Wilton most of the time… especially when they are on-point with their seasonal goodies.

Sugar Mummy Cupcakes
Print Recipe

You will need:
1 batch of cupcakes (I made vanilla cupcakes from a box mix; any brand/flavor would work — or go homemade!)
1 batch of buttercream icing (I used the white buttercream recipe listed here)
Cupcake liners (I used green but any color would work)
Orange and yellow food coloring
A disposable pastry bag
A large French pastry tip (like this one)
2 boxes of Wilton’s sugar mummys (part of Target’s 2014 Halloween seasonal items)

1. Bake cupcakes according to box directions; allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
2. Divide your batch of buttercream icing in half. Dye one half orange, the other half yellow.
3. Fit your disposable pastry bag with the large French tip. Spread orange icing on the inside of half of the pastry bag, and yellow icing on the other half. This is how the two icing colors will swirl together. If you need a visual, please visit Sally’s lovely tutorial.
4. Frost the cupcakes with the swirled icing. Top with a sugar mummy and enjoy!

Makes 20-24 cupcakes.

My friend Molly gave me a box of peanut butter mini Oreos (along with alcohol and more Oreos for my birthday; she knows me so well!) and I decided to incorporate them into a batch of cupcakes! These are simple and very much semi-homemade.

Peanut Butter Oreo Cupcakes
Print Recipe

1 box chocolate cake mix (plus required oil, eggs)
1 batch of peanut butter frosting (recipe below)
1 box peanut butter mini Oreos

1. Make a batch of chocolate cupcakes according to box directions. Allow the cupcakes to cool entirely.

2. Make a batch of peanut butter frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter and peanut butter at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Add milk and vanilla, beating until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth.

3. Using a decorative pastry tip, pipe the icing onto each cupcake. Garnish with mini Oreos. Crush some of the Oreos and sprinkle onto each cupcake.

IT’S OCTOBER!! Like the cliched white, blonde girl that I am, I LOVE FALL! I do not, however, like pumpkin. I know, I know, but ugh. The rest of the planet loves all things pumpkin, so here are some pumpkin snickerdoodles! Hope you are all enjoying the start of this lovely season.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Recipe source: Sally’s Baking Addiction
Print Recipe

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 Tablespoons pumpkin puree
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

1. Melt the butter in the microwave. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the vanilla and pumpkin until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. Fold in white chocolate chips. Cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
4. Roll the dough into balls, about 1-1/2 Tablespoons of dough each. Mix together the remaining 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Roll each of the dough balls generously in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and arrange on baking sheets. Slightly flatten the dough balls because the cookies will only slightly spread in the oven.
5. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. If you find that your cookies didn’t spread much at all, flatten them out when you take them out of the oven. Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes on the cookie sheets before transferring to a wire rack.

Makes about 20 cookies.