co-worker's birthday

One of the secretaries that I work with is celebrating her birthday, and I was honored that the other secretaries thought of me when planning cupcakes for her! After some subtle interrogation by another co-worker, we established that she needed pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I found a promising recipe (or three) in a cookbook that was a recent gift from a good friend (Ok, really, a GREAT friend) - the Texas State Fair cookbook. I trust a Texan cookbook.




I used elements from a couple of different recipes. I did half all according to the one recipe - a pumpkin spice cake with a crumble topping (although I didn't half the topping). For the other half, I used that same cake recipe, and stole a marscapone spice frosting recipe from another spice cake recipe in the same cookbook. (The recipe called for baking one cake, in a spring form pan, so I adjusted the cooking time down to adjust for the size difference. Also, the recipe made one thick batter, so I had to kind of smoosh the batter down into the cups as best I could.) The frosting is to die for - Next time, I might do both the topping and the icing on every cupcake. They are both delish, and I don't think they'd really compete the way I was afraid that they would.


Finally, I used a few of the left-over chocolate wafers and some leftover royal icing from the monogram cookies, and spelled out her name and set them on top of the cupcakes. *
Here they are, boxed and ready for the trip to work!




* For some reason, people are always suprised at what I have "just lying around" my place. Yes, I do typically have the makings of at least one kind of cookie in my pantry, and yes, right now I have homemade marshmallow fondant and royal icing in my fridge. What's so odd about that?! I'm sure most bakers have something ready to go at most times! (No, I didn't have extra pumpkin puree lying around... but now I do!)