Beyond the Box: Baking from Scratch

Ah, autumn.  The leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and everything is available in pumpkin spice flavor.  I'm not head-over-heels crazy about pumpkin spice everything. It's good, but I think it's a little overdone, and frankly, I think everyone has lost sight of what pumpkin spice is supposed to be. Most of the pumpkin spice goodies you see don't even have any pumpkin flavoring, let alone actual pumpkin.  But not my cupcakes! These have plenty of real pumpkin and warm cinnamon to make you feel cozy and happy this fall. Yum!

There are so many things I love about summertime.  All the green, the heat, swimming pools, fishing, baseball games, and bountiful, fresh produce!  I love getting fruits and vegetables from farmers' markets, and this year I'm even trying my hand at growing some of my own.  I have tomatoes forming and a bell pepper plant and plans for a zucchini plant (I'd better get on that....).  One thing I haven't been brave enough to try growing myself, but undoubtedly will before too many summers pass by, is strawberries.  

More cupcakes!  And today's is non-chocolate (you were starting to think that all my work was in cocoa, weren't you?).  Guys, this recipe is one of my absolute all-time favorites.  It's a little more work than the other recipes I've posted, but it is so  worth it.  The first time I made these and took them to work they disappeared like hotcakes (but, they're cupcakes, not hotcakes, so, even better, and probably faster).   One of my bosses at the time, a very classy, gentlemanly-type attorney, told me it was "the best cupcake he had ever eaten," and another attorney asked whether they actually had coconut in them, because he hates  coconut, but these were excellent.  They raved.  It was quite the ego boost.

It's Engineers' Week! Did you know? I didn't know either until my husband's work put a sign in their break room.  So I whipped up a little something for him to take in and share, as he is an engineer and that was the gist of the sign. Not knowing a TON of engineers, I'm going to explain a little bit of my reasoning for choosing this delicious treat.  The first reason I decided to make it was simply that I wanted to. I found it on Pinterest a long time ago (one of the first things I ever pinned) and finally had a chance to try my hand at it.