Recipe of the day

I hear some of my friends are pumpkinaniacs too...

Here's the recipe for the Pumpkin Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting, though I've had a request to call them muffins. Because truly friends, what difference is there? Why are some sugary pastries acceptable for breakfast while others aren't? You can have a gigantic cinnamon roll for breakfast and no one bats an eye but if you say you had a huge brownie, would that be met with the same acceptance? I think not.
So let's call  this recipe an enriched english muffin with a fruit topping if that makes you feel good about yourself. Tell 'em I said it was ok.

1/2 c (1/4 lb) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 lg eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 T vanilla
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c milk
Orange cream cheese frosting (recipe follows)
Candy sprinkles optional


1) In a bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add pumpkin and vanilla and beat until well blended (mixture will look separated at this point).


2) In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Stir half the flour mixture into pumpkin mixture. Stir in milk just until blended. Add remaining flour mixture and stir just until incorporated. Spoon batter equaly into 12 muffin cups (1/3 c capacity, cups should be about 3/4 full) lined with paper baking cups.


3) Bake in 350 oven till tops spring back when lightly pressed in the center and a wooden skewer inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pans on racks for 5 minutes; remove cupcakes from pans and set on racks to cool completely, at least 30 minutes.


4) Spoon orange cream cheese frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a 3/4 " star tip and pipe onto tops of cupcakes, or spread on cupcakes with a knife. Decorate with candy sprinkles, if desired.


Orange cream cheese frosting: In a bowl, with a mixer on low speed, beat 6 ounces cream cheese and 6 T butter, both at room temperature, until well blended. Beat in 1 1/2 c powdered sugar, 1 T finely minced orange peel, and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp orange extract until smooth.


Yield: Makes 12 cupcakes


Calories: 376, Fat 20 G, Fiber .8g

**Editors Note:
On my recipe card, it says it's from "Sunset". I think that might be a magazine? Anyway, they printed these nutritional facts at the bottom of my recipe. However, I can say almost surely that after doing WW for 10 years, that this fat gram count cannot be right. I would guess more like 2-5 grams instead of 20. So don't let that get you down. I think it was a typo.
Eat on sisters, eat on.