Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Are you sick of pumpkin recipes yet?  Apparently I'm not.  Right now my friend Jacob must be thinking, "Where's the chocolate?"  I had actually planned a couple of savory, non-pumpkin recipes for this week, but then I wanted to bring a sweet to round out the pizza at an event for journalists I helped organize.  So I went with the seasonal favorite, pumpkin.  And who can say no to caramel cream cheese frosting?  The cupcakes were a big hit, and people asked permission to take home the last few.  Granted, of course.

This recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures produces a light and moist cupcake, slightly sweet and nicely spiced.  I thought it needed very little frosting, less than you see here.  The caramel flavor doesn't really come across in the frosting, so I would skip making the caramel and just go with a plain cream cheese frosting recipe.  Now, what should I make with the other half a can of pumpkin?

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Key Lime Cupcakes

I don't think there are enough key lime cupcake recipes out there.  When I got the idea to make some, I didn't find many recipes on the Web and I ended up adapting a lemon cake recipe.  The result was a moist cupcake lightly fragrant with key lime, which was echoed in the frosting.  To boost the key lime factor, you can add more zest.  Lime oil is another possibility, but adding more juice could dilute the batter.  But considering the praise these got, I think their lime factor was just fine.

I brought them in to work on the night of the Florida presidential primary, to keep up the sugar and carb high in the newsroom while we were working.  Aside from oranges, what else says Florida like key lime?  I don't think I'll be continuing the cupcake-for-a-primary theme, since my mind wandered to lobster cupcakes for Maine and Rocky Mountain cupcakes for Colorado.  Let's just not go there.  I often find key lime pie cloyingly sweet, but this cupcake dialed that back.  The frosting especially got rave reviews.

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Red Velvet Cupcakes

I made these for our summer intern's goodbye party, as a tribute to her southern roots. Paula Deen's recipe looked popular online, but I took note of comments about the recipe being too oily and the funny undertaste of food coloring and made adjustments. Actually, the latter adjustment was involuntary -- I had only a half-bottle of red food coloring, about half a tablespoon (a quarter of what the recipe called for), and the batter still came out scarlet, like a pretty nail polish, as you can see here.

It effectively tastes like yellow cake, and I used my own cream cheese frosting recipe, which goes on all my carrot cakes and pumpkin squares. They made a great first impression on my coworkers, but some of them asked, "What's in them?" Doesn't everyone know what red velvet cake is? A couple even wrinkled their faces and walked off when I joked, "red food coloring," but they generally got great reviews.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES (Adapted from Paula Deen's)

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk, well-shaken

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 tbs red food coloring

1 tsp white distilled vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl, lightly beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 full, and bake 20 to 22 minutes. Turn the pans around halfway through baking. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese and butter together on high, and then mix in the confectioners sugar and vanilla extract on low. Frost cupcakes with an offset spatula or piping bag fitted with a star tip. Or snip the corner off a Ziploc bag to make a makeshift piping bag.