The Belle of the Butterball

Day 4 of the Thanksgiving holiday: the sight of turkey on my plate for the 65th time, the stretchiest of pants don my waistline, and I'm simply proud of myself for showering today. I gotta say, I probably wouldn't need to take Zzz-quil every night if I ate a turkey leg an hour before bedtime. But post-fried-turkey coma, the thing I absolutely enjoy the most about Thanksgiving is the dessert spread. Like oh, you just ate your body weight in stuffing and mashed potatoes? Here's a platter of five different kinds of pies. We threw in some cobbler, too, just because we've officially lost our mind. It's absolute madness, and I cannot stress enough how much I love it. Dessert with a side of more dessert? This is my Shangri-La. If you've ever wondered whether a petite woman can eat an entire pie in less than a day, let me assure you, the answer is yes, and don't forget the Cool Whip. Considering my propensity to eat everything in sight during Thanksgiving, I decided to go small for the dessert table this year...in my defense, my husband was frying a turkey, and this is literally the only time I put the main course before dessert. Enter mini pumpkin cheesecakes with gluten free Oreo crusts!

I mean, I can't quit dessert cold turkey...

GUYS...I know I say this literally every single time I make a cheesecake, but this is the BEST RECIPE EVER. Unless you hate pumpkin, then I am sorry for you and your empty soul. But if you love it, this is the creamiest cheesecake with the right amount of pumpkin flavor, an extra little boost of sweetness and pumpkin spice in the whipped topping, and those buttery Oreo crusts are drool-worthy. Since I knew I'd be eating about 6,500 calories in main and sides on Thanksgiving, I made sure these were ultra low cal. This recipe makes 14 cheesecakes at 173 calories a piece (yes, less than a single dinner roll). Definitely keep this recipe in your back pocket for next year, or later this week because it is still November, and pumpkin is still a seasonally-appropriate flavor. Peppermint and gingerbread can stand in line and wait a few more days.

I refuse to Christmas bake before December 1.

There are actually 2 ways to go about the crust. I figured my cheesecake filling would make 12 total cheesecakes, but I had leftovers, so two of my cheesecakes simply had a single Oreo on the bottom as a crust, and honestly, I liked these better because they were easier to handle and retained a good bit of crunch after baking. But if you like a buttery crust, you need to crush 14 Oreos in a blender or food processor until a fine crumb, then pour in 3 TBS of melted light butter, and pulse until everything is wet. Line 2 muffin tins with 14 cupcake liners.

Like a bottomless pit of flavor.

Place one tablespoon of the crust into 14 cupcake liners, using a shot glass or the bottom of the tablespoon to smooth the bottoms out and slightly up the sides of the liners. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and place in the fridge to chill while you make your filling.

There's a little bit of a hustle and work here since these are cheesecakes, but baking is my cardio, so all good.

The actual cheesecake filling is made of:

• 16 ounces of 1/3 the fat cream cheese, softened at room temp
  
• 1/2 cup of Lakanto monkfruit sweetener (classic)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
• 1/2 cup of pure pumpkin
• 2 eggs at room temp

Once your crusts are done baking, lower the oven temp to 300. Start by whipping the cream cheese and sugar together until light, fluffy, and smooth, about 3 minutes. Then add the vanilla, pumpkin spice, and pumpkin, mixing well on medium. Switch the mixer speed to low, and add the eggs, one at a time, until fully blended.

I just want to bake the world a better place. One cheesecake at a time.

Grab the cooled crusts from the fridge, and fill each liner almost all the way to the top with batter. Gently tap on the counter to release any bubbles, then bake for 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Once those 15 minutes are up, turn off the oven, but leave the cheesecakes inside with the oven door shut for 30 minutes. Then crack the door for 1 hour to finish cooling...cheesecakes are fickle divas, but since they are so good, we let them pretend they're Mariah Carey.

I pecan't even...they are just so delicious.

Once cooled to room temp, you can remove them from the muffin tin and place in the fridge before topping with even more pumpkin spice.

Consider the whipped topping the sprinkle version of cheesecakes...it isn't done until it's got sprinkles.

Hi, sprinkles.

I took 124 grams of Cool Whip free (less than half the container) and mixed it with 1/2 a teaspoon of pumpkin spice. Truly, you don't need much here. A little pumpkin spice goes a long way...it isn't like garlic, where you can dump 10 cloves into a recipe and everything's fine. Ingestion of too much pumpkin spice puts you at risk of turning into a basic white girl.

I was going for pumpkins on top of pumpkins, but this is fine because I am wholly aware that I am a basic white girl.

I used a piping bag fitted with a 2D tip to place little pumpkin-y dollops of whipped topping onto each cooled cheesecake. I had a little topping leftover, so to prepare for Thanksgiving, I just piped the leftovers straight into my mouth. Shame? What is that?

There's no time for shame when cheesecake is involved.

Keep your mini cheesecakes in the fridge until ready to serve and devour by multiple handfuls. My in-laws were with us on Thanksgiving, and these were a big hit. My husband isn't huge into pumpkin (because there's a 2-month window where I put it in EVERYTHING), but he even liked these, so it strikes a good balance with pumpkin lovers and people who are indifferent to pumpkin flavor. I mean, it's a cheesecake, so it's absolutely decadent, sweet, and heavenly. It also certainly does not hurt that there's a chocolate Oreo crust...don't sleep on this flavor combo. Pumpkin and chocolate are meant to be together...like most other things and chocolate. Because if there's one thing in this world I am always thankful for, it's reliable, old chocolate. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday celebrating with family, friends, and loved ones. I know we did, and we are so grateful for the time we got to spend with our family (and not just because of the smorgasbord of fried turkey and these cluckin' awesome cheesecakes). Never take those moments (or desserts) for granted. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Until next fall, pumpkin, my love...

Bone-a Fide Celebrations

We had a bone chilling Halloween thanks to New Mexico taking it upon itself to have a chilly, windy, spooky day that was just the perfect amount of seasonally appropriate. It gave me great comfort to sit in the dark and hide from my greatest fear (children) while watching Hocus Pocus for the 6,575th time this month...the weather really set the tone for Halloween ambiance, and I could not be anymore thrilled with spending a Halloween at a temperature below 85 (looking at you, Florida). I actually made my final dessert of Baketober on Saturday, but I wanted to wait to post about it since it is not a Halloween dessert, but a tribute to Dia de los Muertos. Although Novembooer doesn't have as much of a ring to it as Spooktober, I am happy to close out my favorite season of baking with none other than sugar skull-decorated sopapilla cupcakes with honey buttercream frosting.

These were skele-fun to make.

You know a good pun always tickles my funny bone, but in all seriousness, I have always been so interested in the Day of the Dead, especially growing up in and then spending a good part of my adult life in regions that celebrate it. Thanks to movies like The Book of Life and Coco, I feel like Dia de los Muertos has become a holiday more people are familiar with, which I love. It's an excellent tradition to honor and celebrate the lives of those who have passed. The vibrancy, dedication, and love put into each ofrenda is amazing...to celebrate what was had instead of mourn what was lost is something beautiful. I wanted to bake something for us to celebrate in our own way, and I positively love the festiveness and spirit of a calavera. I will admit I have absolutely no idea how to make a proper pan de muerto, but this basic white witch sure knows her way around a cupcake. And who doesn't love a good, pillow-softy, honey-soaked sopapilla? This was a mashup made for the holiday.

The only horror here is that I ran out of Whole Foods GF cake mixes.

Halloween is a scary time of year, but nothing is scarier to me than running out of a tried and true baked good mix with zero way to re-up my supply. I bought so many boxes of gluten free Whole Foods brand cake mixes before we left because they are hands-down the best gluten free mixes in the world. Sadly, I ran out (cue the horror music), so it was time to try some new mixes. For my very low calorie (157 calories a cupcake) sopapilla cupcake recipe, I used:

• 1 bag of Scotty's keto cupcake and cake mix (gluten free and found on Amazon)
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup of egg whites
• 1/3 cup of fat free or skim milk
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 1 TBS cinnamon, divided
• 2 TBS granular Lakanto monkfruit sweetener (or regular sugar)
• Also, the world's most amazing cupcake wrappers thank to my mom, the family Queen of Halloween:
  

I have waited a whole year to use these, so pardon my excitement.

To bake, start by preheating the oven to 350 and lining a muffin tin with 12 cupcake wrappers. Carefully pour the cake mix into a stand mixer (seriously, this mix was SO powder-fine, everything looked like it was covered in snow after I haphazardly dumped the bag in the mixer...including my face...spooky ghost makeup!). Add in the applesauce, egg whites, vanilla, and 1/2 TBS of cinnamon. Mix by hand for a second, then turn mixer to LOW speed..my Kitchenaid's idea of low made it look like a cloud of volcanic ash was settling in my kitchen...so definitely take a second to mix by hand. Then blend on low for about a minute. While this is mixing, put the sugar and remaining cinnamon in a small bowl, mixing together. Reserve for later.

All that cinnamon sugar goodness.

Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, plop a scoop and a half of batter into each liner. Then take the cinnamon sugar mix and sprinkle it on top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

End result gives off major concha vibes, not sopapilla ones, but still.

Once done, remove from the oven but leave in the pan for 10 minutes to cool. After they've cooled a bit, they'll be safe to remove from the pan and placed on a cooling rack. I put this in the fridge to chill completely while I made frosting. I have the same amount of patience as a skeleton has guts (read: zero).

Yeah, forgot a photo.

I was so excited at HOW GOOD MY HOUSE SMELLED after the bake that I completely forgot to take a photo of my frosting ingredients. It was all I had in me not to eat the entire dozen cupcakes before they were even frosted...you know, still in muffin format (really, what's the difference?). For my honey buttercream frosting, I used:

• 1/2 cup reduced fat butter, still chilled
• 1 cup of vanilla Greek yogurt, strained overnight, still chilled
• 2 TBS honey
• 3 cups Lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener
• Gel dyes in neon colors (I used pink, purple, yellow, and lime)
• Small round tips (#1, #2, #3) and a few open star tips (#18 and #21)
  
• I also had leftover black frosting, which I moved from the freezer to fridge overnight to thaw out. This recipe will make enough to cover all 12 cupcakes even without the extra helping of black frosting. You will just need a pinch of black cocoa powder or black gel dye.
• Optional: edbile silver luster dust
  

Simply whip the cold butter and yogurt together until smooth, then add in the honey and powdered sugar. Mix well, then grab your fully chilled cupcakes. Wait to dye your frosting until after you've made the skull's base.

I love a good sparkle.

I slathered on a hearty amount of plain white frosting onto each cupcake, then I used an angled spatula to smooth out. I put the cupcake on the counter, kept my spatula flat, and then used my free hand to spin the cupcake around...this let the frosting flatten out, then I repeated on the sides of the cupcake to give a solid base. I then took a paintbrush dipped in silver luster dust and gently tapped it on top of the cupcake to give it sparkle. Even skeletons should sparkle. It makes them look skella rad. I placed these in the freezer to set while dying my frosting. I was absolutely still so jazzed that I forgot to take even more photos, but split your remaining frosting up evenly and dye each a fun color, make sure to dye some black if you're not like me and don't have a special freezer section devoted to leftover frosting...if there's a Bakeaholics Anonymous, I probably need a meeting.

At least this guy wasn't judging me.

I used the following frosting tips for each color:

• Hot pink frosting with #18 tip
• Purple frosting with #21 tip
• Black frosting with #2 tip
• Yellow and lime frostings with #3 tips

Basically, your imagination is the limit here. Use the black to draw on the mouth and nose. The easiest way to pipe the nose is to turn the cupcake upside down and draw a heart, and this will be nose when you turn him right side up!

They may be dead, but they'd still like the option of looking decent.

For eyes, I used the star tips to pipe flowers, then came in with a round tip to give them pupils. I then used various colors in the round tips to draw lines, dots, and fun patterns on each calavera.

Looking fierce, might take a skelfie later.

I also used my round tip to draw hearts for eyes on several calaveras and then used the flower tips to give them a proper flower crown. You can come in with the round tips to give each flower little dots in the middle as well.

This dude is by far my favorite of the bunch. His slightly crooked smile just makes it.

He doesn't care that his smile isn't straight. He's a skeleton. Absolutely nothing can get under his skin. Ya know, on account of the fact that he doesn't have any.

They obviously get it...look at those smirks.

These ladies make me so happy.

Hey again, handsome.

I like to imagine this was a really fun double date...you could say it's a humerus prospect. Yep. more skele-puns.

Seriously, whatever colors or patterns you use, there is simply no wrong way to make a super cute sugar skull. As long as it looks happy, vibrant, and fun, you've done an excellent job of making a great Dia de los Muertos celebratory dessert.

Having some totally bomb cupcake wrappers also helps (thanks, Mom!).

OK, I could upload literally hundreds of photos of these cupcakes because they are probably my favorite bake of Baketober 2021...make no bones about it. As far as flavor is concerned, that honey buttercream frosting is absolutely fibula-ous. It's creamy, just the right amount of sweet, and if you drizzle a little extra honey on top, you definitely get the full sopapilla experience. As for that new cake mix, I will say it gave a nice, light, springy sponge, but if I hadn't added cinnamon, there would've been zero flavor. So, that's a major bummer since it did yield a really nice texture, but it was more like a bread flavor with cinnamon added in. I mean, maybe I just found the very basic pan de muerto recipe I've been looking for, so small Dia de los Muertos miracles? I will definitely make this sopapilla cupcake recipe again when I either find the right new GF box mix or convince someone with a Whole Foods nearby to mail me 65 boxes of their mix. I guess I better retire my resting witch face and ask politely. It's been a wonderful month of spooky bakes, and I can't wait until next October! 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Better get to work on my social skulls, you could say.