Easy Pumpkin Danish

I have but one photo to share with you of my pumpkin danish. Because we ate them all right away!



These are made by whipping up the filling, then cutting frozen puff pastry into quarters for each danish. I'm usually such a purist when it comes to baking, but I love puff pastry, and don't mind buying it! My advice on using the puff pastry is to let it thaw out in your fridge if possible, if it gets too warm, it's difficult to unfold! Also if you can, I recommend drizzling with glaze and dusting with powdered sugar right before you serve them, otherwise it melts into the danish!

Hummingbird Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these for an end of summer family bbq! They are denser than most cupcakes (at least mine were anyway). More like a quick bread I think, but delicious none-the-less! As to why they're called hummingbird cupcakes, I really can't tell you! They're made with pineapple, banana, coconut and carrot. Plus I added honey cream cheese frosting. My thinking is the sweet scent plus the colors of the fruit are reminiscent of what attracts hummingbirds? Who knows! It worked for the guests at the party! ;o)



Hummingbird Cupcakes with Honey Creamcheese Frosting
Adapted from 500 Cupcakes and Sprinkle Bakes

Yield 12 cupcakes 

For the cupcakes
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup safflower oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup (2 medium) mashed bananas
1 1/2 tablespoon grated orange zest
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup crushed, drained pineapple
1/2 cup flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 and place paper liners in cupcake pan
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and set aside
3. In a large bowl with electric mixer or stand mixer, cream the sugar and oil together until light and fluffy
4. Beat in the eggs slowly
5. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until combined
6. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until combined
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake about 25 minutes
8. Allow to cool in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes before removing cupcakes to wire rack to cool

For the frosting

8 oz. package cream cheese, room temperature

1 stick of butter, softened

1/4 cup clover honey

3-4 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Place cream cheese, butter and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until combined
2. Gradually add in confectioners' sugar, mixing until it is spreading consistency.  
3. If frosting is too thin, place in refrigerator until firm enough to spread

red velvet minis = love

For awhile now I think red velvet has been the new "trendy" cake flavor. Last month (bad blogger!) I had a jewelry party so thought I'd bake up a crowd pleaser! So I chose red velvet mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting since it seems the traditional combo. Plus Dave doesn't really like cream cheese frosting, but I wasn't baking these for the house or for our friends so I took advantage. Although my party had a small turnout a so bunch of them ended up coming home with me anyway, oh well, I liked em. :o)

I bought red food dye especially for them!


I recently found ming makes cupcakes and I am in love with it. The cupcakes are amazing. Took me awhile to figure out if you click text on the menu bar, you can bookmark individual recipes. So cupcake #4 here is what I used. I had a few other red velvet recipes bookmarked, but chose to use martha's recipe for cream cheese frosting, mostly because the volume and ratio of cream cheese to sugar seemed right.

They certainly came out a success! I didn't have cocoa powder so I melted about 1/2 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate instead of a tablespoon cocoa powder. I ended up with about 38 minis and baked em for 10 minutes.


Look at the sexy red minis! The cream cheese frosting, well, I think I let my cream cheese and butter soften too much because the frosting was way too thin...I added more powdered sugar to try to thicken it up, but I would of preferred less. But it still had a good cream cheese "tang" in the end! I had to put the bowl in the fridge for awhile before I could pipe them.


More in the baking adventures set!