Pumpkin Picking, Apple Cidering, and Cupcake Baking

Phew! 3 tests under my belt since I last posted.  It's been a long week! Fortunately, this past weekend, my friends and I visited the Louisburg Cider Mill in Louisburg, KS.  Knowing we had a busy couple of weeks coming up (Neurology and Microbiology exams are looming straight ahead of us!), we decided to celebrate fall and Halloween early by picking up some pumpkins and jugs of apple cider and have a carving party! Of course, I had to bring a snack to nourish us after a long hard day of playing on a farm!

For as long as I can remember, my family has been buying Louisburg's gallon, glass jars of apple cider. You can imagine my excitement when I found out their cider press is only 30 minutes from downtown KC!  Even more exciting, as I was checking their website, I found out they are even more famous for their apple cider donuts.  These sweet pillows of air and sugar are truly to die for.  Fresh from the fryer (that has a glass window a la Krispy Kreme so can watch the magic happen), the half dozen Ty and I bought were gone in 15 minutes! They were so good, I'm testing recipes right now so I can make them at home.

Our crew (I had to include the donut in this pic!)

After we navigated the corn maze, petted some farm animals, explored the apple press, picked our pumpkins, and perused the country store, we were off for home to give our pumpkins some personality and enjoy some tasty treats.  The Collards must have been missing their kitchen over our test week as much as I was.  Waiting at their house were Alton Brown's homemade pretzels and brats! Delicious!!

I knew I wanted to make my cupcakes cute and VERY on theme for Halloween.  Who knew I would find so many options; did I want to make ghosts, frankensteins, goblins, witches, dead fingers, eyeballs, spiders, spiderwebs, or any other assortment of ghoulish decoration? After pondering for a while, I couldn't settle on one.  I made the witches and the ghosts.  The witch cupcake is a dense chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (dyed green), while the ghost is red velvet with marshmallow frosting.  Both were delicious and so much fun to make! What a great way to celebrate Halloween!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Witch Cupcakes

from Foodnetwork.com Wicked Cupcakes
makes 15 cupcakes
Cake:
-1 1/2 oz. semisweet chocolate (chopped)
-1/4 c. prune juice
-3/4 c. flour
-3/4 c. sugar
-1/2 c. cocoa powder
-1/4 t. baking soda
-1/4 t. baking powder
-1/4 t. salt
-1 egg + 1 egg yolk
-1/3 c. buttermilk
-1/4 c. oil
-1/2 t. vanilla
Frosting:
-1/2 c. butter at room temp
-1 c. peanut butter
-4 oz. cream cheese at room temp
-4 c. milk
-2 T milk
-green food coloring
-chocolate wafers
-candy for decorating

Preheat oven to 300 F.  Line muffin tin with paper liners.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a small microwave safe bowl, combine prune juice and chocolate. Melt on low temp in microwave, stirring often until smooth. In another small bowl, mix buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.  In a stand mixer, beat the egg and yolk for 3 min, or until light. Slowly add the chocolate and milk mixtures to the eggs, beating continuously.  Then, add the dry, stirring until combined.  Fill cups half way with batter.  Bake 20-25 min.  Cool on rack in pan for 10 min, then remove from pan and continue cooling.
For frosting, beat butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Gradually add powdered sugar.  If too stiff, add milk.  Add green food coloring until desired color is achieved.  

Once cupcakes are cool, cut out center in a cone shape. Fill with frosting. Using a tablespoon, form a ball on top of the cupcake.  Invert the cone onto a chocolate wafer, using frosting as glue.  Decorate with whatever candy makes the best looking witch. (I used licorice and red hots) Poof! Cute witch cupcakes!

Ghost Red Velvet Cupcakes with marshmallow topping

from Foodnetwork.com
Cake:
-1 c. shortening
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 c. sugar
-2 t. cocoa powder
-2 oz. red food coloring
-2 1/2 c. cake flour
-1 t. salt
-1 c. buttermilk
-2 t. vanilla extract
-1 t. baking soda
-1 t. vinegar
Frosting:
-1 stick butter at room temp
-1 c. powder sugar
-1/2 jar of marshmallow fluff (7oz. jar)
-2 t. clear vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line muffin pan with liners
In stand mixer, cream together shortening, eggs, and sugar for 3 min or until light and fluffy. In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa and food coloring to make a paste.  Add the paste to shortening mix.  Whisk together salt and flour. Slowly add the flour mix and buttermilk to the shortening, alternating dry-wet-dry-wet-dry. Add vanilla.  Fold in baking soda and vinegar.  Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake 20-25 min. Let cool on a cooling rack for 10 min before removing.  Continue to cool until room temp.
In stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  mix in marshmallow and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.
Frost top of the cupcake.  Using a large circle tip, pipe the ghosts like you would make a soft ice cream cone. Once set, add a little color to frosting and pipe on to make eyes.

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!