An hour has passed and Aaron is still cleaning up the kitchen. We had a friend over for dinner tonight and it looks like a tornado has hit. So that the boys could enjoy an afternoon of football, I offered to handle dinner on my own. For most people, that wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I just can't do things halfway. Homemade pappardelle, veal ragu and a batch of cupcakes had taken their toll on the kitchen. I even managed to splatter pomegranate juice on the fridge - don't ask.
I thought about posting photos of the mayhem here (friends might enjoy imagining the horrified expression on Aaron's face when he saw the destruction). I also considered writing step by step instructions for homemade pasta. Nope - that will be saved for another day. For once, I'm going to stick to the original theme of this blog. The cupcakes were outstanding.
I have had pumpkin on the brain ever since my company offsite a few weeks ago. Our Q3 "day of fun" was at one of those "pick your own" produce farms in central New Jersey. After a few hours of presentations, we were released into the fields to pick apples and pumpkins. Let me just say, I take these things VERY seriously, as I planned for my pumpkin to be more than a jack-o-lantern. Ever since I learned about the plans for the offsite, I had been dreaming of making my own pumpkin puree for pancakes, cupcakes, bread, pie... you get the idea. I scoured the patch and managed to pluck an enormous, yet very perfect pumpkin to take home.
I hauled the pumpkin home and left it in the corner of my dining room. Then I got busy. The pumpkin sat there for a few weeks... and then it molded and I was devastated. Into the garbage it went and I was pumpkin-less. Unfortunately, all of my day-dreaming about pumpkin dessert meant that I wasn't giving up until I had a chance to test a few of them. On our next trip to the grocery store, I picked up two cans of pumpkin and waited semi-patiently for an excuse to use them.
One can of pumpkin was finished off with pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. This evening's company meant I would have an excuse to try a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes that I had been eying. Aaron begged me to skip dessert and respect the fatwa. Seriously? How could I skip dessert? I think that at this point it is all but expected from our guests. Moreover, I needed to get the pumpkin obsession out of my system. As a compromise, I halved the recipe and made just 8 cupcakes.
The melted butter (as opposed to room temperature, creamed butter) and pumpkin yield a very moist but very dense cake.
Recipe after the jump!
