Pumpkin Walnut Cupcakes

I made a batch of perfectly pumpkiny autumn-inspired cupcakes today---Pumpkin Walnut Cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting topped with a fondant circle and finished with orange sprinkles. My daughter has been asking me a gazzilion times in the last few days to make these and I have also been wanting to try out my new Halloween Cupcake Stencils fromWilliams-Sonoma . So here is what I think...The cupcakes were howlerificly yummo. But, the stencils were a small disappointment. I think they might work better on a chocolate cupcake with powdered sugar instead of sprinkles. The cupcake was delicious and the cream cheese frosting went perfectly with the pumpkin walnut cupcake.

***Here is the recipe***

In a large mixing bowl

4 eggs beaten

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups canned pumpkin

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

1/2 chopped walnuts

Mix everything in bowl, pour into cupcake molds, bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting. Makes 24 cupcakes. Enjoy!

NOTE-I used a store bought cream cheese frosting and I also used a ready-made fondant by Wilton. I rolled out the fondant and used a small drinking glass to cut out the round shapes.

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

Brownie Howl at the Moon Night

What is cuter than a bunch of Girl Scout Brownies on an Autumn night? ---A bunch of GS Brownies howling at a full moon, that's what! I loved Girls Scouts as a kid and this is my daughter's first year to be Brownie. Going to the GS Howl at the Moon night was so much fun for both her and I. It brought back so many memories of when I was in Girl Scouts. Seeing her learn some of the same campfire songs that I learned was sorta like a right of passage. My Mom was a Girl Scout and so was my Mother-in-law. So many old familiar songs are still being sung today by Brownies across the globe like Bug Juice, Smile in my Pocket, Make New Friends-But Keep The Old . Of course the only one she seems to have remembered frontwards and backwards is a song titled, God Bless My Underwear . Hmmm, that's odd because I don't remember ever learning that one when I was a kid. By the end of the evening, she and about 150 other Girl Scouts had S'mores coursing through their veins and were shining their flashlights into the tree tops as they walked down the wooded path towards our cars. If I had measured my Brownie's smile that evening it would have been 10 feet wide. As we were getting in the car to head back home, she said, "Thank you soooooo much for putting me in Brownies. Can you tell me the story again about how Mema (my Mom), Tita (my Mother-in-law), and you were all once in Girl Scouts?" Of course that melted my heart like a marshmallow over a campfire flame. We sang the God Bless My Underwear song all the way home and when we pulled into the driveway she kept giggling and said, "Oh My Gosh, I can't take this smile off my face. I had so much fun tonight. My cheeks hurt." and then went into another fit of giggles. It doesn't end here. The next morning, a school morning, I walked into her room and woke her up and the very first thing she started singing was the Bug Juice song and started asking me how the lyrics went again. Needless to say, for the past few days we have been singing Girl Scout songs nonstop and all I can think is how super happy I am that I put my daughter into Girl Scouts. I love my lil' Brownie!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.