No hey, how are you honey

I'm sorry it's been so long. Research and Development hasn't been able to eat with me at all for the last 3ish weeks. That cut down ALOT on how much I have cooked. I'm SOOOO glad that we can eat together again, I sure missed him and cooking!
When Research and Development walks in the door, some days he doesn't get a "Hey, how are you honey?" He gets a "Come here, come here! I need you to eat this!" He doesn't even get to put his bag down.
He asks, "What is it?" But usually I don't tell him until AFTER he has a mouthful :)
On Pinterest I have all these insane things that I feel the need to make, but usually it never actually happens. So in a effort to change all that, yesterday I made Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting!
Instead of, HMMMM, I wonder how that is, I went straight to Wal-Mart and bought those zucchini's!

The last week or so has been pretty stressful week or so and as a result, I've looked at about 102394710597 baking recipes. Finally I just sucked it up, picked one and BAKED!

Right on!

So! Let's get started!

Preheat to 350

2 cups of sugar. (I should warn you that this recipe makes a TON of cupcakes. I made 15 and am freezing the rest of the batter. Freeze it in a gallon ziploc bag. When you defrost it you can just cut a corner and squirt it right into the cupcake pan!)

3/4 cup of applesauce

I hate to admit it, but this is the first time I've used applesauce to bake with. I know that it's pretty common, I've just never done it before.

Add your 3/4 cup of oil and blend on a low speed.

Slowly, one at a time add your eggs. Make sure each one is blended well before adding the next.

Then add your vanilla.

This is the only kind of vanilla flavoring that my grandma has ever used. Watkins is a Pampered Chef kind of company where you use a catalog and order through a consultant. I can always count on getting some sort of Watkins on every occasion. I found out a little while back that Cracker Barrel now sells it!

In a seperate bowl add your 2 1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Add 2 tsps baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Do a little whisking action here to incorporate everything and make sure you don't have any lumps!

Now, every chef you see on tv has a different way to do this. Some say add the wet to the dry and some say add the dry to the wet. It depends on who you're watching. I am a fan of adding the dry (slowly) to the wet. So, turn your mixer on and slowly add your dry to your wet.

Now, for the fun part!!

ZUCCHINI! IN.MY.CUPCAKE!

Peel the Zucchini and grate!

Aren't they pretty?!?!

It took me about 2 and a half good sized zucchini's to get 3 cups of grated zucchini.

The grated zucchini had wayyy more water than what I figured them to have.

Slowly add this to your batter! Make sure it gets mixed in really well!

Look! The batter looks so funny with the zucchini in it. I must confess that I tasted the batter. It.was.delicious!

Ice Cream Scoop. SOOOO easy with an ice cream scoop.

I spray my liners with a little Pam just to make sure they will let go!

Bake for 20-25 minutes!

While they are baking, let's make the buttercream. This is my first buttercream experiment. I've always made icing with the crisco and powdered sugar way.

While you're making the batter, go ahead and get the butter and cream cheese out. They both need to be softened.

Combine well!

Add 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2ish cups of powdered sugar

1/3 tbsp milk

Get your desired consitancy. If it's too thick add a little milk. Only about a teaspoon at a time. If it's not thick enough add more powdered sugar, tablespoon at a time.

Powdered sugar will explode in your mixer if you add it ALL at one time or if you turn the mixer up. Add slowly and on low!!

Look! I LOVE the colors of this buttercream. It's soo good too! It's super sweet!

This cupcake is outrageous!
It is so moist!

I was scared that the consistency of the zucchini would remind me of that disqusting shaved coconut, but it cooked down and vanished!

There is absolutely NO WAY that anyone will be able to tell the zucchini is in there!

Cupcake success!!

Holy Caramel, Batman!

I pulled a little inspiration from a little bit of everywhere for this recipe.
First of all have you had one of these??

It's a Salted Caramel Mocha from Starbucks. If not, go try it!

Second, are you on pinterest? I'm totally addicted, I can't seem to help myself. I sit there and flip through all these gorgeous crafts and recipes, and some I actually try...like today's recipe. Like I've said before I sort of pick and choose from recipes and make it my own. I liked this and this. Let's begin!

First of all, if no one told you (like no one told me) making caramel is a serious thing. This is not something you just do in 15 spare minutes. They are delicious, but they require some work. It's not impossible, just be sure you have the time and patience required...oh and the thermometer. Seriously, you need a good one, temperature's are very important!

Ok, remember the pumkin?? Well that's where we get our Pumpkin Seeds!

Ok you take your Seeds

and boil them

No kidding...stick with me here.

For every 1/2 cup of seeds you need a cup of water. For every cup of water you need 1/2 teaspoon of salt. *Believe me, you'll be glad you did this step.*

Then drain and put in an oiled (tbsp or so of EVOO) pan

Salt them with some coarse salt. Not too much, just rather lightly.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or so. Mine took 25 minutes.

I forget how much I love these.

You may eat as is. In fact, please do.

For this recipe though, crack them to get the deliciousness inside.

Then spread the deliciousness into a pan that had parchment paper. (Oil the parchment). You totally need the parchment, totally need the spray on the parchment.

Now on to the other part!

You'll need one teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, I just made my own. Here's how:

Measure 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon into a small bowl or cup.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger.

Add 1/8 teaspoon of ground allspice or ground cloves.

Add 1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.

Stir to blend.

Makes 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.

Here's what else you need:

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2/3 cup of pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup water

4 tbsp butter, cut into chunks

1 tsp lemon juice

coarse salt

You will also need two pans. One needs to be fairly large because as the syrup cooks it grows and bubbles...it's amazing.

In your smaller pan we have the heavy cream, pumpkin puree and spices.

Heat until scorched. Scorched means that it's hot, but just below the boiling point. It'll need stirring a few times because it will form that skim on the top.

Aren't we looking fall-ish!

In your larger pan heat the syrup, honey and sugar. Let the sugar melt and do all it's caramelly goodness.

Here's where you need your thermometer. You want to get to 244 degrees. After you hit about 220 or so you're going to need to be stirring, constantly. Make sure your pan is at least 4 inches high, I would be more comfortable with 6 inches or so. You do not (believe me!) want this stuff to boil over. It leaves a lovely sticky film on everything!

I had to stir with an oven mitt on because it's crazy how much steam this baby creates and 244 degrees is pretty serious!

Once you get to 244 degrees SLOWLY add your cream and pumpkin mixture.

Now you want to get your temp back up to 244.

This could take a while, it took me at least 30 minutes. It gets back up to the 220's pretty fast, but it's the last bit there that takes so long.

Keep an eye on it, it starts getting thick really fast and you'll want to keep it from sticking to the bottom.

Once you get to 244 degrees, take it off the heat where we'll add out butter and lemon juice.

Stir well to work the butter in evenly.

Here's what we have!

Now, pour (slowly) over your pumpkin seeds.

After it has cool for about 30 minutes or so, sprinkle your coarse salt and press it in (just a little)

Now you'll have to let it set in a cool dry place for at least 2 hours. The longer the better.

Then flip it out of the pan and remove the parchment

Then cut into cute little squares!

The easiest way to keep these is to wrap in parchment.

These were quite delicious. Next time, I would probably half the recipe because that's alot of caramels. But they have this slight pumpkin flavor that add so much to the candy. And who doesn't love pumpkin seeds!