Is there really anything left to say after a title like that? I tend to get ahead of myself when cream cheese is involved and a full moon is on the horizon but before we dive into mini cupcakes that are rich with warm spicy flavors and the subtle nutty texture of pecans where a dollop of sweet cream cheese frosting sits pretty, I want to share with you what made these cupcakes so enjoyable to make and so very easy without a smidgen of stress this week.
There was a true game changer in baking mini cupcakes for me this time around. For years I used two small mini cupcake pans over and over again, waiting for each batch to finish baking so I could prep the next batch to go into the oven. After I had enough of that, I bought two more pans but I still couldn’t make them fit well on the oven rack and I had to overlap the edges to make them fit.
Anyway, this past spring at the Wilton Sweet Up I was able to use the Wilton Perfect Results Mini Muffin Pan that bakes 48 mini cupcakes or muffins! OMGosh! Cue the angels!
It’s mini cupcakes as far as the eye can see! See? It’s so impressive and fabulous and they bake in approximately 10 minutes! Can you see why I’m loving this pan? You’ll have to scroll down just to see the scope of this pan but don’t worry, it’s made to fit in standard ovens at 15″ x 21″. It fits perfectly in my wall oven.
With my cupcakes all baked making my house smell amazing, I had to plan how to elaborately decorate them! Not! I remembered a couple years ago I bought little pumpkin Icing Decorations from Wilton. I loved that they had dimension as opposed to flat royal icing decorations. Oh-so-cute. Here’s a snap –
This year I found ghosts holding candy corn (the MOST adorable) and jack-o-lanterns with witches hats. I can’t resists pumpkins with witches hats. I just can’t. You should see the decorations around my house.
When I find cute icing decorations like this I do feel a twinge of guilt, I must confess. All I have to do is pipe a little swirl of icing on top of the cupcake and pop the decoration in place and people go crazy at how cute it is. And I totally agree and just love the whimsy yet elegant way it looks. Sometimes I have to tell myself that I don’t have to make everything from scratch just because I might know how to or want to learn. I thought of moms with class parties to bake for and how perfect this baking project would be with kidlettes and how much time it would save those who work all day to come home and put these impressive decorated cupcakes together with minimal time and effort.
Tell me these aren’t adorable!
They don’t even need dragees or sugar pearls. Perfect just the way they are. And guess what? You can still probably find the icing decorations at your local Michael’s or Joann’s stores. I found both the muffin pan and the icing decorations at the Michael’s by me.
Ready for the recipe? These cupcakes might be small but they’re rich and the icing is very sweet. I recommend not swirling it sky high but enough to give the icing decoration a nice little place to sit. This recipe makes 77 mini cupcakes. The combination of the warm spice flavor and the sweet icing is to die for, even for a non-Halloween night.
Have a bewitching evening!
As a Wilton Brand Ambassador and member of the Wilton Sweet Treat Team, I received product and/or compensation for this post by Wilton Cake Decorating. All ideas and opinions are my own and all the products were chosen by me to share with you because I use them and love them and thought you might have fun trying a new idea and like them too.
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp table salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup Muirhead Pecan Pumpkin Butter or canned pumpkin
- 1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
- 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tbl. half & half
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Lightly grease muffin molds or line with baking cups.
- Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.
- Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale yellow.
- Add the egg, pumpkin and nuts.
- Blend until well combined scraping down sides of bowl.
- Stir in dry ingredients.
- Fill muffin molds ¾ full. A small ice cream scoop work well for this.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Cool on racks.
- Cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and half & half, using the half & half to thin out the icing if it's too stiff. Beat until well combined. Decorate cooled cupcakes.
- I love Muirhead Pecan Pumpkin Butter that I get at Williams-Sonoma but you can use canned pumpkin for a substitution. If you use the canned pumpkin, add 1 tsp. lemon juice, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. cloves and 1/8 tsp. freshly grated (preferred) nutmeg.
- If you desire a more intense spice flavor, increase the cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to your tastes.
