My secret, favorite fall recipes

It’s my favorite cooking time of the year.

In fact, I love my autumn recipes so much, I’m going to share them. One per week, so keep checking back.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting

Sometimes, I call these delectable home-ade morsels “muffins” because that makes them healthier. But seriously, cream cheese icing on pumpkin cake? This is better than any other pumpkin cake or muffin you will eat. I’m not overselling it. It’s a cake recipe, but if you put cake in a muffin tin and eat it for breakfast, it becomes a muffin. And if you frost it and eat it in the morning, it’s still a muffin. The rest of the day, it passes for a cupcake. You will want to get out of bed for this one. You can put this pumpkin mixture in a 13×9, but it will not cook in the middle of the pan because the batter is so dense. I recommend cupcakes or round cake pans. Watch the edges. When they start to pull away from the pan, it’s done.

Mix together in electric mixing bowl:

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin

Stir together (by hand) in separate bowl:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Add flour mixture to mixing bowl mixture and blend on low.

Grease and flour cake pans or muffin pans. Bake at 350 degrees F.

• 25 min. for cake
• 15 min. for muffins/cupcakes

When cool, frost with cream cheese frosting (below):

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Stir together in electric mixer:

• 6 ounces of cream cheese
• 3/4 stick of butter or margarine (6 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Add slowly, stirring and scraping the bowl between additions:

• 4 cups powdered sugar