It's The Great Pumpkin Cupcakes

Tonight one of my favorite childhood cartoons is on TV.  "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is a timeless favorite for young and old and I can't wait to curl up with The Mr and hear Linus faithfully try to talk everyone into staying in his sincere pumpkin patch or Charlie Brown watch his rock collection grow.  (Seriously, how rude!  Poor kid.)  In honor of this childhood classic (and needing to make something for The Mr's Halloween potluck today), I came up with these "It's the Great Pumpkin" Cupcakes.

This is more about decorating than a big homemade recipe so I'm keeping it simple.  Here's what you'll need:

24 baked spice cupcakes from a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix (I followed the lower fat recipe)
1 can of whipped vanilla frosting  (used whipped over buttercream to save on some calories)
Wilton Gel Kelly Green food coloring
Autumn Leaves sprinkles
Brachs Mallowcreme Pumpkins
Wilton #233 "Hair" decorating tip and coupler
Wilton disposable piping bag (or ziptop bag and a lot of patience)




Put gel food coloring in the whipped icing can and stir until blended.  I came up with this idea which I think is genius but I'm pretty sure it's not and has been done by a bazillion people but I'll pass it along in case it helps one person.  I put the piping bag in my adjustable measuring dohicker but you could use a glass and was able to scoop the icing in the bag without trying to hold the dumb thing open at the same time.  I was more happy about that than should be allowed.

I took this crappy picture to show you the #233 tip but you can only see a wee bit of the multiple holes in it to make hair or in this case grass.  Sorry 'bout that!  You'll get the idea in the next pic.

Apply slight pressure and randomly ice the top of your cupcakes until it looks like green grass, an overgrown pumpkin patch or the aftermath of a cat vs. yarn fight club as shown below:

Kinda cute eh?  Now it's time to plop the Brach's pumpkins in the middle of it's "patch."

The final touch?  Some autumn leaves that have blown in while the Red Baron flew overhead...

I absolutely love these little cupcakes.  If cutting calories aren't a concern to you, then use regular buttercream, it'll give stiffer peaks that more closely resemble grass.  Actually I'll probably do that next time if it's for Thanksgiving or something because I think I only ended up using 2/3's of the can.

Who knows, maybe these little babies will become an annual tradition just like It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Tune in tonight on ABC at 8pm EST/7pm Central and relive a piece of childhood with one of these little delights in your hot little hand!

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