Happy 11-11-11! A special HUGE thank you this Veteran’s Day to all the service men and women who put their lives on the line for us every single day!

Before we get to the cupcakes, super cool news!! Kensington Books, my fabulous publisher, is GIVING AWAY copies of Cupcake Club Romance #1, SUGAR RUSH. You know, the one that doesn’t come out until December 27th and the reason for all you will read about below? Yeah. That one. So…go follow Kensington Books on Twitter and find out how to win yourself a copy!

So….I was thinking that for this week’s cupcake recipe, I wanted to bake something with pumpkin, to celebrate fall. And, what goes better with a pumpkin ‘n spice cupcake but cream cheese? But….cream cheese frosting is just so….normal. Then I thought…hmm….what if we make some cheesecake filling for the pumpkin cupcakes instead? That would be yumm.

Of course, I could have stopped there. But….why would I do that? I still had to figure out what to frost them with. And, again, cream cheese frosting was the obvious, but who wants to go the obvious route? You might remember I made chocolate pumpkin cupcakes right here, last April, and the chocolate-pumpkin combo was super delish. Well, I could just use that recipe and add the cheesecake filling…and go with that crazy yummy cream cheese mascarpone frosting that was to die for. OR! I could make pumpkin-cheesecake cupcakes and then frost them with chocolate fudge frosting.

Oh…the dilemma!

In the end, I decided that I wanted equal parts pumpkin, cheesecake, and chocolate…. So, I give you Pumpkin Cheesecake cupcakes w/ Chocolate Fudge Frosting! Turns out…it was a verrrry good choice!

(And you can always go back to April in the archives, snag the chocolate pumpkin cupcake recipe, and add the cheesecake filling from this recipe to that one if you reallllly need to do a comparative study. And I totally think you should. Then report back!)

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

Cheesecake Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Pumpkin Cakes:
½ cup oil
1/3 cup applesauce
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup milk
1 ¾ cup pumpkin puree

Directions:
1. Filling: Beat cream cheese and sugar until evenly combined. Add egg and vanilla and mix until smooth. Place in a small Tupperware and put in freezer while you make the cake batter. (If you do this part overnight, put it in the refrigerator.)
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with 20-24 cupcake liners.
3. Mix oil, applesauce, sugar and brown sugar together until smooth.
4. Add eggs one at a time and mix well (do not over beat and do not beat on high.)
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
6. Add half of the dry ingredients to the oil mixture and mix.
7. Add milk.
8. Add the remaining half of the dry ingredients.
9. Mix in pumpkin puree.
10. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full.
11. Take the filling out of the freezer and place small spoonfuls (between 1 ½ -2 teaspoons) on the top of each unbaked cupcake. Slightly swirl into the batter.
12. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until and inserted tester comes out with no orange batter on it. The cream cheese will leave a little white on the tester, but that is normal. (So is licking the tester!)

They taste good even before frosting them…I’m guessing. You know. Just a guess…..

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa (I would use dark next time.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup hot fudge sauce (store bought)
1-2 tablespoons milk, only as needed for consistency

Blend butter, cocoa till smooth/creamy. Add vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar. Add milk for consistency. (I didn’t need any.) Spread over cooled cupcakes. Devour.

Seriously…you have to try this! Incredibly moist, with that surprise bite of cheesecake in the middle, topped with chocolatey fudge goodness. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Now that we’re sufficiently sugar buzzed, it’s time to reveal the winner of this week’s Free Stuff Friday contest! Up for grabs this week was an advance review copy of Cupcake Club Romance Book #2, SWEET STUFF! (Which hits the stands January 24…just a few short weeks after Cupcake Club Romance #1, SUGAR RUSH, is released, on December 27.) And the lucky blog babe is? Ashley B!!!!!

Congratulations, Ashley!! Please email me your address and I’ll get your prize in the mail to you.

Speaking of mailing prizes… I have long since mailed out everything that has been won by anyone on both this site and the sister Cakes by the Cup site. I have experienced several delivery problems (all taken care of now) but, given the issues that have cropped up with the lovely postal service, I wanted to give a shout out to all the winners…if you haven’t received your winning book, you should have by now, so please contact me to let me know and I’ll get a replacement prize in the mail to you!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!!

Tags: Writing //