Occasionally, I do something crazy – like spend a whole afternoon baking for my boyfriend and my friends. With Halloween only ten days away (!!), the obvious choice for a seasonal dessert – for me at least – was pumpkin cupcakes.

You start with the above ingredients, plus oil, eggs and water. I basically followed these two recipes, from Very Best Baking and Real Simple. And yes, these are super, super easy to make.

First, I started by following the directions on the cake mix box – very basic. I bought spice cake mix, but you can also use regular yellow mix and pumpkin spice (or cinnamon, ginger and cloves). But hey, that’s an extra step, so I made life simpler for myself.

Then comes the secret ingredient:

That’s right: canned pumpkin. Shocker, I know. You should probably be careful not to buy pumpkin pie filling – I’m guessing that changes things with the recipe.

Let’s not make judgments on the fact that I’m mixing my cupcakes in a pot. The point is to mix in the canned pumpkin with the cake mix. Then pour into cupcake holders to get this:

And then one chemical reaction later (bake at 350℉ for as long as the box tells you too)…

Plus frosting and candy corn for garnish…

Cream cheese frosting is the traditional choice for pumpkin cupcakes, but a) I had leftover chocolate frosting and b) once I made a pumpkin pie in a chocolate crust and it was great, so I frosted some cupcakes with chocolate too.

And really, candy corn is a must – it’s Halloween! I love candy corn, so I added some pieces on the cupcakes I ate – yum! Do you have any fun Halloween recipes to share?

~ Sarah