Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

I really don't care for pumpkin pie, but I kind of feel obligated to serve it at Thanksgiving. This year I came up with an alternative, however. Earlier this month I went through my pie cupcake phase. My friend Ginger loves pumpkin anything, so I took her a cupcake. She's so funny ... she saved it until the next morning so that she could have it for breakfast. Anyway ... she loved it so much that she asked me to make 2 dozen for her Thanksgiving dinner. So this morning I got up and made 3 dozen so that I could have some for my Thanksgiving dinner as well.

I found the recipe for these on the Internet somewhere ... I can't seem to remember where. I always enjoy doctored box recipes, and this one proved to be a winner.

This is all you need to make these tasty little treats.

Yep ... that's a box of Fun-da-middles. I saw the Fun-da-middles at the store a while ago and thought, "What a waste. I already know how to fill cupcakes. Who would buy those?" It turns out ... I will.

So ... I just followed the instructions on the back of the box, but instead of oil I put in 1/3 cup of pumpkin pie filling. I also put in 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice. When I got the spice out of the cupboard (I had to climb on a stool to get it off the top shelf), the lid was slid open and I ended up spilling some on the floor. I really made the kitchen and my apron smell like Thanksgiving.

Here comes the time consuming part. I filled each cup 1/3 full and squeezed a dollop of the vanilla cream that came in the package in the center of each well. Next, I squeezed a bit of maple syrup on top of each cream filling.

The syrup I used was given to me by my fabulous and extremely talented friend Heidi. She brought it back from Minnesota for me. It is so incredibly yummy. 

Next, I filled each cup with a little more cake batter and then sprinkled pecans on top. Off to the oven they went for 24 minutes.

Again, my whole house smelled of pumpkin ... but without the pie.

After the cupcakes cooled ... and before I boxed 2 dozen of them up to take to over to Ginger's house, I had to try one of the smaller ones.

Mmmmmmmm...

Tomorrow I'll show you what else I made for Thanksgiving ... and it wasn't pie. I know my mother will show up with pie, so I just didn't bother. I'll be satisfied with 1 ... or 2 ... or 5 ... pumpkin pie cupcakes.