Sometimes you wanna bake just because. Yesterday was one of those times. Earlier this month I got the urge to bake cupcakes while watching Cupcake Wars (honestly, this never really happens). I decided on Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting since it's fall and I kinda prefer pumpkin-flavored things to apple-flavored things (cream cheese frosting just sounded like a good partner for pumpkin). So while I was looking for cupcakes for my grandma's birthday, I kept an eye out for pumpkin ones. I had to wait a few weeks because my parents (although it might just be my mother) fulfilled a long-time wish and got granite countertops in our kitchen (with subway tiled-walls to match), leaving the kitchen unavailable for baking. Finally the kitchen was (somewhat) back to normal by this weekend so after a little searching par deux, I found a unique recipe in Taste of Home's Cupcakes for Every Season (released in spring 2011).
My family is all about birthdays. Sure, we don't go all out and hold big blowout parties for each one, but we do get together to celebrate them. And that includes the only member of my mom's side of the family who lives up here in the Puget Sound: my grandma. Her birthday was last week and as always, we had dinner this weekend to celebrate it. We decided to go to Vince's Italian Restaurant in Renton. Because we were going to a restaurant, my mom suggested it'd be easier for me to bake cupcakes that we could hand out for dessert instead of having a cake to cut. After some searching through all of my cookbooks and recipe magazines (there's at least 3 dozen of them), I finally decided on the Chocolate Town Syrup Cupcakes from the Hershey's 1934 Cookbook (an updated version published in 1971). The recipe didn't include a frosting so I just purchased a can of Duncan Hines Whipped Chocolate at the store (frosting has always been hit and miss for me so this was for the better). I tried to decorate the cupcakes fancily with a pastry bag but, well, that didn't work out. One more try next time and then I'm sticking to my new frosting motto: you can't go wrong with a can and a spreader.
