tricky treats

The belated birthday cupcakes I made for Greg last week turned out to be somewhat of a tricky treat. These Hot Chocolate Mexican cupcakes have a lot going on, and the recipe is not kidding when it says to fill the cupcakes only 2/3 full before baking. My “bake them big” instinct kicked in and the results were interesting…

Hello cupcake overflow. Luckily, I was able to cut off the excess filling and frost around the imperfections. 

And we ate the scraps, so nothing went to waste. 

Even though the preparation was a bit tricky, four different kinds of chocolate in one dessert is definitely a treat. Especially when there are Reese’s peanut butter cups involved. These cupcakes get their name from the combination of chocolate, cinnamon and chili powder in the frosting. Don’t worry – I used low fat cream cheese in there as well. And while there were no candles in the cupcakes, a round of happy birthday serenading did occur. Emma howled along.

The other treat over the weekend was the carving of our first pumpkins. Here they are coming home from the farm.

 And sitting happily on our porch after a good de-gunking and carving session.

 And lit up to scare the neighborhood children. Any guesses on which pumpkin belongs to whom?

We toasted the pumpkin seeds to crispy perfection and they made the perfect salty snack. This weekend I will be making chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, but not with our purchased farm pumpkins. They’re busy on the porch scaring children, remember? Also, local squirrels appear to enjoy snacking on them since a few teeth and eyeballs are now missing in action...