Pumpkin Lollipops (or Sweet Potato or Persimmon or Lucuma)

Lollipops don't require artificial flavors or colors or even fancy molds.  All you'll need to make these lollipops are canned pumpkin, canned sweet potato, persimmon pulp, or lucuma pulp*, plus water, sugar, and some sticks.  You'll also want to have a candy thermometer (my favorite is the Maverick because it's digital and you can set an alarm to warn you when you reach the desired temperature - but any candy thermometer will do). 

The texture of these lollipops is a bit different than a typical lollipop.  When you bite them, they have a slight crunch, like maple candy (my favorite candy on the planet).  However, sucking the pops is definitely an option.  I gave one to my gluten-free cousin (she is so happy when I make anything that she can eat), and she sucked on one pop for at least ten minutes.  She smiled the whole time, in a closed-mouth-I'm-sucking-on-a-pop kind of way.

The lollipops taste like a super sweet candy version of whatever you make them out of (pumpkin, sweet potato, persimmon, or lucuma).  If you make them out of pumpkin, they would be a such a fun treat for a Halloween party; it's mid-August - time to start thinking about one of the best holidays of the year!

Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes 3 Ways

I love sweet potato casserole cupcakes!  I can't get enough of them.  I love them so much that I'm giving you three different recipes:

1. The first sweet potato casserole cupcake recipe is one that I made back in 2007.  The best part about it is the maple marscarpone filling.  You could put that filling in any Fall cupcake and get rave reviews.
2. The next sweet potato casserole cupcake recipe has a crumb topping and crumbs baked into the cupcakes that give it a fun oatmeal-like texture.
3. This year, I made sweet potato casserole cupcakes with candied pecans.  It is probably my favorite recipe of the three.  But, you can't go wrong with any of them.  This year's recipe is below.  Sorry, they were all gobbled up before I could get a photo!  They look just like the cupcakes above, only they have toasted marshmallows on top instead of crumbs. 

Sweet Potato Pecan Cupcakes Recipe

Yield: 10 cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• ½  teaspoon cinnamon
• ½  teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup sugar
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons pureed sweet potatoes (I used the kind from the can. Try to get the kind without corn syrup if possible.)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• ½ cup candied pecans (make your own or buy some premade)

Cupcake Directions

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, and baking soda.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, sweet potatoes, and eggs. Beat until smooth.
3. Mix the oil and apple cider into the sweet potato mixture.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Fold in pecans
6. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full.
7. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes.

Brown Sugar Frosting Recipe

Top each cupcake with brown sugar frosting and mini marshmallows (you can toast them with a culinary torch for added fun).

Potato, Mushroom, and Apple Soup

Before I baked with my candy cap mushrooms (read my post on candy cap mushrooms for the back story), I wanted to try using them in a more traditional way.  I put them in a soup - something a normal person does with mushrooms.

My thick potato, mushroom, and apple soup would be a treat for a cool evening no matter what mushroom you use, but the candy caps made the soup extra special and provided more of a nutty, maple flavor than your average mushroom.  They were far less mapley in the soup than I would have guessed from their scent, but in this case, that was probably a good thing.

Because of the addition of  balsamic vinegar and honey, the soup has a soothing sweetness, but the appearance of paprika gives it just a bit of kick.  Keep a spoon near your pot and taste periodically - add more of any of the spices to make the flavor just how you like it.

Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes With Crumb Topping

Sweet Potato Casserole With Crumb Topping Recipe

Note that these cupcakes have uncooked crumb topping baked into them. The crumbs won't be noticeable if you don't know they are there. However, they will make the cupcakes extra sweet, moist, and buttery and give the cake an ever so slight grainy texture - which led Bride and Groom 3.0 to incorrectly think that the cupcakes contained oatmeal.

Because you'll need to use unbaked crumb topping in the cupcakes themselves and baked crumb topping to garnish the cupcakes, I suggest that you prepare all of the unbaked topping you'll need at once and I have written the instructions below accordingly.

Makes 24 cupcakes

• 3 C flour
• 2 t cinnamon
• 2 t baking soda
• 3 C sugar
• 1 1/2 C pureed sweet potatoes (I used the kind from the can. Try to get the kind without corn syrup if you can. They have a really good one at Trader Joe's.)
  
• 4 large eggs
• 1 C vegetable oil
• 1 C apple cider
• Unbaked crumb topping (1/2 C butter, 1 C flour, and 1 C brown sugar mixed by hand until crumbly)
  

1. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, and baking soda.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, sweet potatoes, and eggs. Beat until smooth.
3. Mix in the oil and apple cider.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Fill cupcake liners halfway.
   
6. Add a thin layer of the unbaked crumb topping on top of the batter. Bake the remainder of the crumb topping according to the directions in the crumb topping post.
   
7. Top off each cupcake with batter until 3/4 full.
8. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes.

Frosting and Topping

Top each cupcake with brown sugar frosting and sprinkle with baked crumb topping.

Inauguration Cupcakes - Sweet Potato Pie Cupcakes

I took this photo at the St. Louis rally for Obama.

Note that I did not make up the quote.

I'm in California this week getting away from the freezing cold of St. Louis. Like all good media on vacation, I bring you a rerun.

When Barack Obama spoke in St. Louis earlier this year, he mentioned that one of his favorite desserts was sweet potato pie. It also happens to be one of mine!

With that in mind, if you are looking for cupcakes to make for your inauguration party, I propose sweet potato pie cupcakes.

Astute readers will note that the photo above is of my pumpkin cup-pies (mini pumpkin pie cupcakes). I did warn you that this was going to be a rerun. For the inauguration, I would suggest that you follow the cup-pie instructions from my post, but instead of making the pumpkin pie filling, make sweet potato pie filling.

It just so happens that I have a sweet potato pie recipe that is tried and true. I found it as a kid in the Williamsburg Cookbook and I have made this recipe probably more than any other recipe (that includes cupcakes!). Here is that sweet potato pie filing:

• 1 1/2 C canned sweet potatoes, mashed
• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 T butter, melted
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 T lemon juice
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 C light cream

1. Mix sweet potatoes and sugar.
2. Add butter, nutmeg, vanilla, salt, and lemon juice. Mix well.
3. Gradually add eggs and cream. Mix until smooth.
   

Enjoy the inauguration, and I'll respond to any blog comments when I'm back from California or if I decide to break my own rule and get on the computer during vacation.

Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes: The New Thanksgiving Classic

 The greatest food debate in Jewish cuisine and possibly the greatest Jewish debate of all time (though that's debatable) is whether the passover matzoh balls should be sinkers or floaters. My family traditionally always served both kinds, each grandma at the table making up a batch that her mishpacha would most enjoy.

My mother-in-law who had served rock hard, you-need-a-fork-and-knife-to-eat-them, sinkers before me has now also switched to a combination of sinkers and floaters. Goodbye, conflict.

There is a less documented though equally pervasive debate surrounding the Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole. Some like their casserole topped with marshmallows, while others (myself included in this second camp) prefer a sugary nut topping. Who needs white mush when you have sweet orange mush? What you need is crunch!

My all time favorite sweet potato casserole is the one my mother-in-law makes. I like it hot or cold and with a fork, a spoon, or hands. The recipe is at the bottom of this post.

The truth is, I like sweet potatoes in all formats. I like them so much that my brother even mentioned them in his wedding toast to me.

I've been plotting to make a sweet potato cupcake for months. This month was the time. Garrett of Vanilla Garlic and Chockylit of Cupcake Bakeshop are hosting a cupcake roundup with the theme of a classic dish redefined. I decided to model my cupcake after the sweet potato casserole.

I wanted to impart some of my favorite casserole flavors into the cupcake (brown sugar and maple syrup). I opted for the sweet potato flavor in the cake, a maple mascarpone filling, and a brown sugar frosting.

The results? This cupcake was light and fluffy (I had to point this out for those who didn't like my last two super dense ones) and tasted like Fall in a cupcake wrapper. I would not hesitate to serve this to my family at Thanksgiving dinner or any other day for that matter.

The Recipes


The Cake

I got the cake recipe from a Cupcake Bakeshop recipe for pumpkin cupcakes (reposted below). She got the recipe from Martha Stewart. I simply replaced the pumpkin with mashed sweet potato. I went the lazy route and got my sweet potato from a can. However, I'm sure you could make your own.

• 2 cups flour, all-purpose
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 15 ounces sweet potato puree

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in sweet potato purée.
4. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool.
5. Note: These cupcakes really do rise well. I filled some more than 1/2 way and they ended up bubbling over in the oven. I'd follow the instructions and just fill 1/2 way.

The Filling

For the filling, I simply whipped together 8 oz of mascarpone cheese with 2 T of pure maple syrup. When the cupcakes were done baking, I stuck the pastry bag right into the center of the cupcake and squirted some filling in. This, BTW, is much easier than the cone method (cutting out a cone, putting the filling in, and replacing the top) and it's more sexy, too. However, it does not work well with dense cupcakes.

The Frosting

I used another one of Chockylit's top-notch recipes for the frosting (reposted below). She used a caramel frosting on her "Peanut Butter-Banana Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Glaze and a Caramelized Banana Disk." I've had these cupcakes before at a friend's house minus the peanut butter, since I'm not a fan, and they were awesome! My favorite part though was the caramel frosting. This was the perfect cupcake for me to try it out on.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons half and half
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.
2. Add milk and brown sugar, stir to combine.
3. Boil vigorously for 1 minute.
4. Remove from heat and beat in 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
5. Cool slightly then and beat in the vanilla and remaining powdered sugar, add more half in half if necessary.
6. Quickly spoon over cupcakes before glaze sets.

I did not add the additional half and half on step 5. I think I would if I did it again. It definitely did not spoon well without it. I ended up spreading it. Regardless, it was delish and I will use it again!

What's On Top?

To please both the marshmallow and the nut camps and because I can't use nuts at the wedding, I made some cupcakes with toasted mini marshmallows (any excuse to use my culinary torch!) and some with candied walnuts.

Nancy's Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe

• 2 lb. sweet potatoes
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• ½ cup flour
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup margarine
• ¼ tsp salt
• cinnamon

1. Peel, cut, boil sweet potatoes until soft.
2. Mix everything together and put into 9 X 12 greased pan.

Top with a mixture of:

• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup chopped pecans
• ¼ cup margarine
• ¼ cup flour

Double topping for Stefani*
Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 min.
*That is actually in the recipe she sent. Isn't she sweet?

Footnotes

For those astute readers among you, you may note that Nancy's casserole does not contain any maple syrup, my cupcake filling flavor. Many sweet potato casseroles do, including this recipe from a fellow St. Louis blogger.

I'm done justifying my use of maple now. Does maple ever really need justification anyway?

Some final words on sweet potato casseroles: My Texas friend, and fellow sweet potato casserole fanatic, makes an outstanding one which uses Bourbon. A sweet potato and bourbon cupcake would also be sensational. I'm adding it to the lengthy to-bake list in my mind.