Given the season, I thought I would make some delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes for Betsy to bring! I topped the pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting because I’m always looking for an excuse to top something in cream cheese frosting. I also threw on some candy corns left over from my cocktail adventures.

A good vessel for cream cheese frosting.

I got this recipe from a really good baker I know who has actually contributed to Macheesmo before. The pumpkin cupcakes are simple to make and have a very interesting twist on the normal cupcake recipe: brown butter. The nuttiness of the butter with the pumpkin and spices was a pretty amazing combo.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Yield: 20 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Dry Mixture:
340 g. all-purpose flour (2 3/4 cups)
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
2 Teaspoons ground clove
2 Teaspoons nutmeg (fresh grated is best)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt

Wet Mixture:
228 g. butter (1 Cup)
500 g. sugar (2 1/2 Cups)
2 Eggs
2 Egg yolks
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (be sure to get the 100% pumpkin puree, not the pumpkin pie filling.)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Cups powdered sugar, sifted

Helpful Equipment:
Microplane (for nutmeg or buy it ground already)
Cupcake Pan
Digital Scale (Best tool you can buy to ensure consistent baking results)

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well!

2) To make the brown butter, just put all of the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

3) Strain this! If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter.

4) Then pour all the brown butter into a bowl with all of the sugar and cream it together until smooth. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

5) Once cool, add eggs and additional egg yolks to sugar mixture.

6) Add pumpkin puree and finally whisk in dry ingredients in two batches.

7) Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up the cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

8) Bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

9) Move cupcakes to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes and let cool completely (approximately one hour).

10) For frosting, mix butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add vanilla and finally sift in powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

11) Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The Dry Stuff

Get all of your dry ingredients ready. I think it’s pretty important to weigh baking ingredients as my cup of flour is going to be slightly different than your cup of flour, but grams are grams no matter what.

The dry goods.

Basically, just combine all of these ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well to make sure everything is combined!

The Wet Ingredients

For the future detectives reading, yes, there are three sticks of butter and three eggs and three egg yolks below, but only two of each in the recipe. That’s because I needed about 30 cupcakes, not 20.

The wet goods (plus some dry goods)

Making the brown butter

Most cake recipes require that you cream the butter which involves (normally) using a mixer to beat the crap out of the butter and sugar to make sure that every little grain of sugar is coated in butter.

This recipe uses a different approach though which I immediately fell in love with. You make a brown butter and then pour that over the sugar and stir it up! It adds an awesome level of flavor to the final cake and I think it’s easier than creaming the butter and sugar together, but gives you the same results.

Update: As a few commenters have pointed out, you can’t always substitute brown butter for creaming butter. In this recipe it works well, but it’s a different physical process.

To make the brown butter, just put all of your butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

Take it off the heat when it looks like this:

In. Love.

Strain this

You don’t want those little burned bits in your cupcakes, just the lovely browned butter. Straining it is key. If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter!

Then pour all your brown butter into a bowl with all of your sugar and mix it up. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

This one time I made brown sugar.

Finishing the Batter

The hardest part is over! Next, add your eggs and additional egg yolks to your sugar mixture. Then add your pumpkin puree and finally whisk in your dry ingredients in two batches. Don’t over mix the batter. Just make sure all your flour is incorporated well and then stop.

Very delicious. I know because I ate a spoonful of it.

Next, using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up your cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

Don't overfill!

Baking the Cupcakes

These need to bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I would check them at 20 – my oven is a bit unreliable I’ve learned.

Look at these beauties!

I made these. You can too.

After these come out, move them to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes, but make sure they are not hot or even warm before you frost. I let mine sit for about an hour before even trying to frost them. If they are even slightly warm you run the risk of melting your frosting and melted frosting makes for a very sad cupcake.

Speaking of frosting, let’s make that.

Mix your butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk I guess) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add your vanilla and finally sift in your powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

You’ll end up with a very smooth and sturdy frosting!

Heaven.

Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Yum!

I must brag a little bit (even though it wasn’t my recipe) and say that Betsy reported these guys were the first thing to sell out at the bake sale and they were gone in about 20 minutes! How’s that for market research?!

If you’re looking for a solid dessert to make for a party this weekend and don’t feel like making your own gummy worms, these guys are surefire winners.

To kick things off, I made this sweet and very orange cordial: The Candy Corn Martini!

Kind of sweet for my tastes...

Ok. So I’m really not big on sweet cocktails and so I didn’t love this specific drink because as you can imagine, it is really sweet. But it’s pretty and very orange and I think I maybe didn’t put in enough lemon juice to balance the sweetness.

Candy Corn Martini

Yield: 4 martinis

Prep Time: 15 minutes + Time for Candy Corn Vodka

Total Time: 15 minutes + Time for Candy Corn Vodka

Ingredients:

Candy Corn Syrup:
3/4 Cup vodka (you can use the cheap stuff for this)
1/4 Cup candy corn

Final drink:
3 parts candy corn vodka
1 part orange liquor (triple sec)
1 part lemon juice
1/2 egg white (I used one egg white per two cocktails. This is optional, but the egg white does make for a very frothy and delicious final drink.)

Helpful Equipment:
Cocktail Shaker

Directions:

1) Add vodka and candy corn into a vessel of some sort, cover it, and let it sit for about 2 or 3 hours.

2) Strain vodka before making the drink just because there may be a few bits of undissolved candy corns.

3) Add some ice cubes to cocktail shaker, then add a few ounces of the candy corn vodka. If you aren’t comfortable with guessing at mixology, I would start with 1/4 cup of vodka.

4) Assuming you added 1/4 cup of the vodka, go with 1.5 Tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is best), 1.5 Tablespoons orange liquor, and 1/2 of an egg white. Add all that stuff to your cocktail shaker!

5) Because of the egg thing, it’s easier to make two cocktails at once in a larger shaker so you don’t have to divide an egg white.

6) Once all of that is in the shaker, just shake if up for 30 seconds or so until it is super-chilled and frothy! Pour it into a martini glass and garnish with a few candy corns!

From a Food Network recipe.

Making the Candy Corn Vodka

So it turns out that candy corn dissolves in vodka. That makes it pretty easy to get that very signature, sugary flavor infused with the vodka. All you have to do is add your vodka and candy corn into a vessel of some sort and let it sit for about 2 or 3 hours. It’s probably a good idea to cover it just so stuff doesn’t get in it.

Kind of odd.

After the few hours of sitting, all that awesome orange color will be dissolved in the vodka!

Whoa!

I’d recommend straining your vodka before making the drink just because there may be a few bits of undissolved candy corns.

Mixing up the drink

Add some ice cubes to your cocktail shaker, then add a few ounces of the candy corn vodka. If you aren’t comfortable with guessing at mixology, I would start with 1/4 cup of vodka.

You’ll need these ingredients also!

You could not use the egg white if that is worrisome for you.

Cocktails are usually given in proportions (as I listed it above) that way you can make as much as you want! Assuming you added 1/4 cup of the vodka, go with 1.5 Tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is best), 1.5 Tablespoons orange liquor, and 1/2 of an egg white. Add all that stuff to your cocktail shaker!

Because of the egg thing, it’s easier to make two cocktails at once in a larger shaker so you don’t have to divide an egg white.

Anyway, once all of that is in the shaker, just shake if up for 20 seconds or so until it is super-chilled and frothy! Pour it into a martini glass and garnish with a few candy corns!

Like I said, I’m not one for sweet drinks really so this wasn’t my favorite. Also, I didn’t use enough lemon juice when I made it so it was really really sweet. Be sure to taste it as you go though and adjust to your tastes.

Honestly, I think that this mixture might be better as shots instead of martinis! A full drink of it is almost too much, but it would be cool to have it as a shooter!

10 Other Drinks! Ok. So if candy corn isn’t your thing, I didn’t want to leave you high and dry for Halloween! Here’s 10 links to a variety of drinks that I think would be great for a Halloween Happy Hour.

Witch’s Brew – A pretty good looking lime punch. You can probably fore-go some of the kitschy Sandra Lee decorations. You could also leave out the vodka and add more water (or Sprite) to make a non-alcoholic version. (@ Food Network)

Slime Rickey – The grapes look creepy! I love it. Also, I’m not the only one who digs the candy corn cordial idea. (@ Yum Sugar)

Blood and Bones – I love a good meringue and the hot chocolate recipe looks great! (@ Joy the Baker)

Maggotini – Now this is my kind of drink! Not because of the maggot factor, but because I enjoy gin. (@ Talk of Tomatoes)

Satan’s Whiskers – One more gin based drink, but this one has some interesting flavors going on. Not sure what makes it Halloween-ready besides the name, but it does look tasty! (@ Serious Eats)

Eyeball Highball – Ok. Maybe the most realistic cocktail I’ve seen. It looks pretty real if you ask me. (@ Martha)

Bloody Apple Cranberry Cocktails – An easy recipe that can be made in bulk for a party! (@ The Cooking Photographer)

The Warlock – This drink has some interesting ingredients that you may not know. No better time than Halloween to try out some new beverages! (@ Al Dente)

Pumpkin Cocktail – Get on this one today if you want to have it ready by Saturday! You need to let the vodka infuse with pumpkin for at least a few days. (@ Slashfood)

Blood Orange Cocktail – So this is exactly a Halloween specific recipe, but it has blood in the title! And it’s an awesome color! (@ The Hungry Mouse)

That’s a start, but my hunt for good Halloween cocktails is far from over. Have a favorite? Leave a comment!