Thankful for cupcakes

This coming Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving, which is definitely one of my favourite holidays to celebrate here. I think the two things I like most about it are taking the time to stop and remind myself of what I am thankful for, but also the delicious turkey dinner that I usually get to indulge in. I don't like to show up empty handed when I am a guest for dinner and a dessert item is always a good choice. With this in mind, I wanted to whip up a batch of cupcakes. I used the chocolate cupcake recipe I found here, but chose to add the coffee to the boiling water. For some reason the mixture only made nine cupcakes, which may have meant I filled up the cases too high. I also baked them for twenty-three minutes. This meant I didn't have an even dozen of cupcakes so I needed to make another batch or something different. I decided to look for another cupcake recipe and thought I had found the one here minus the chocolate chips. However, it wasn't until I was mixing the ingredients that I realised it wasn't going to make enough so I made two batches for a total of five cupcakes. This allowed me to have a sample one of each, which I always appreciate when I am baking something new that others will be eating. For the frosting, the key ingredient was quite random in the form of Smucker's Sundae Syrup, which also ended up being the finishing touch. The other frosting ingredients were:

• 500g icing sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp meringue powder
• milk, to create the desired consistency

As usual, I beat the butter by itself first in my KitchenAid stand mixer then added the remaining ingredients one at a time until the desired consistency was achieved. I used my trusty Wilton 1M decorating tip for the polished finish.

Not to make light of things to be thankful for, but I really am thankful for cupcakes. I am thankful for them because they allow me to be creative and make me feel quietly talented. Plus, they are pretty delicious!