Chocolate spice cupcakes with Pumpkin Pie and Cream Cheese Frosting

These cupcakes are currently the pride and joy of my baking adventures. Do they take a lot of prep? Yes, but  if you like pumpkin at all, you will be rewarded.

 With the exception of the pumpkin pie, I used box mixes, I truly did, and I am not ashamed, but the greatness of this little cupcake is the  main components can all be substituted with your own favorite recipes. It essentially comes down to a chocolate spice cake, cream cheese frosting, a crustless pumpkin pie and gingerbread cookies.  I am going to keep this pretty short and sweet, chances are if you can read, you know how to bake cupcakes.

Recipe yields about 36 cupcakes.

 I suggest preparing the pumpkin pie the day before so it can chill overnight. I also suggest making the cream cheese frosting the day you are going to icing them. when the frosting was a bit too cold from storing in the fridge the soft pumpkin came out a lot faster and resulted in sloppy icing. If you insist on making the frosting in advance be sure to let it come to room temperature.

  Batter

• 1 yellow cake mix and required ingredients on package 
• 1 brownie mix (I suggest anything but milk chocolate) and required ingredients on package 
• 2 tsp Cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg 
• 1/4 tsp ginger 
• 1 additional egg. 

Combine the cake mix with the brownie mix in one bowl.
Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.
Add in required ingredients called for on the back of the boxes, not forgetting to add in the one additional egg.
Mix until batter reaches a consistency similar to ribbon stage.
Bake according to temperature and time on your cake mix.

 Cream Cheese Frosting.

• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened 
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened 
• 2 cups powdered sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract

Pumpkin Pie

I'd share my own personal pumpkin pie recipe but...It ancient Chinese secret. SOoo... Use a family recipe or perhaps the recipe found here.  Do not prepare a crust!

Gingerbread leaves
I used a box mix gingerbread cookie, and a leaf cutter made for gum-paste flowers. use a toothpick to create the veins.


Assembly
Assemble a pastry bag with whatever decorators tip you would like, I used a Wilton 2D, Fill one side of the bag with cream cheese frosting, and the other side with your baked pumpkin pie filling.



Tip: Refilling the pastry bag eventually starts to cause the two separate icings to muddle together a bit more each time, If you want to keep them well separated get a very large pastry bag in order to minimize the number of times you have to refill it.

Food Myth Friday?

Fair enough! Look at all that alliteration!

Does alcohol really get cooked out of foods?

With the dawn of St. Patrick's day, quite possibly the booziest day of there year (after New Years Eve of course) I got a little curious about how much alcohol actually cooks out of all those booze infused cupcake recipes I've been ogling over. (If you're curious I will likely be trying my own adaptation to this Tequila Sunrise recipe) It's easy to assume alcohol would, as it's boiling point (173° F) is significantly lower then that of water (212°F)

It didn't take much searching to find out that some ultra-smurt scientists, universities and the USDA were way ahead of my ponderings. In the study they used a variety of alcohols, recipes, and preparation methods, including simmering, sauteing and my favorite of course, baking.  So does alcohol really get cooked off during cooking? Well the answer is...Kinda sorta..sometimes...maybe.

Not surprisingly the study concluded that the amount of alcohol retained in food ranged between about 4 and 85 percent. What was surprising was that the amount of alcohol remaining didn't just depend just on how long the alcohol spent above it's boiling point, but the types of foods and vessel size were a primary factors as well. Obviously foods that had alcohol added towards the end of cooking was clocking in at about 75% of the alcohol remaining. 

When baked for 25 minutes with the mixture not being stirred, I assume this is where cakes fall into, the retention rate was 45%. ...Those margarita cupcakes you wanted to take to work aren't looking like such a good idea now, is it?

When baked/simmered where the mixture was stirred ( sauces, glazes, syrups, etc)  are on average the following:
15 minutes 40%
30 minutes 35%
1 hour 25%
1.5 hours 20%
2 hours 10%
2.5 hours 5%

So...yes the alcohol cooks off, but to my shock not a whole lot of it... Guess my cupcakes won't be going to any AA meetings.



References
Ochef
About Home Cooking
Today I Found Out

Caramel Almond Monkey Bread

Caramel Almond Monkey Bread

I'm not really sure where I originally got this recipe, but I do know it's a  favorite of mine and it's exceptionally adaptable. The Almonds can be omitted or replaced with any type of nuts (i did half and half almond and walnuts for the one pictured) , the caramel can easily take additions of extract or zests for an orange or rum caramel.   And finally the dough can easily be switched with homemade, box mix, or frozen doughs.

• 2 package's of biscuits (one dough box mix prepared / one thoroughly thawed frozen loaf)  cut into one inch pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter/margarine melted

• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk or cream

• 1/2 cup of chopped or sliced almonds 

1. Preheat oven to 350F . 
2. In a wide bottom bowl combine cinnamon and sugar. 
3. In a small saucepan combine brown sugar, 1/4 butter and milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce slightly and cook until early in the soft ball stage (230-235F). 
4. While you're waiting for your sugar mixture to turn to caramel:  coat dough pieces in melted butter and roll into cinnamon sugar mixture.
5. In greased bunt pan layer in 1/8th cup almonds, 1/3 of the caramel, and about half of the dough balls, repeat this layer again,  top off with the last third of the caramel.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Carefully invert immediately or leave in bunt pan and return to 200F oven for 10 or 15 minutes prior to serving.
7. EAAAT!