fall

I love fall. It was my favorite season before it was cool. I think I always liked it because my birthday was in the fall and I liked going back to school. In Alaska fall is a blink-and-you-miss-it thing. It wasn't till college that I really discovered how great fall can be. I just have really great memories of things like bundling up for the Homecoming parade and walking downtown from my apartment while bright red leaves actually fell down on our heads.
That doesn't happen in Alaska. Up there, yellow, orange, and sometimes even green leaves just show up on the ground one morning. And then the next day it snows. I'm exaggerating but it's not too far from the truth.
Anyway, even though I like fall, I never really got into the pumpkin thing. I don't like pumpkin spice lattes, I don't run out and buy pumpkin candles, or obsess over everything pumpkin. I'm just not really into it (pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving is a different story). I also don't really like muffins. I know, it's sad. I can never finish them and then it just feels like I waste half of it, and it feels like I just ate half a loaf of bread for breakfast. But for some reason beyond my understanding, I had a little craving today. For pumpkin AND muffins. So I made these mini muffins with a cream cheese frosting because why not. When I saw on Pinterest that you can make pumpkin muffins with just cake mix and canned pumpkin I was like oh this is happening. And I kind of tweaked a bunch of recipes I found online to make this work for me because there wasn't a perfect recipe for mini muffins with only 2 ingredients. So that means I, not being a baker at all, had a major success here because I did not botch these! If you know me and some of my baking experiences, I know you're celebrating with me.

This is all you need! Until you want to make frosting.

Don't you just want to catch that drip from falling...

Mini Pumpkin Muffins
1 box yellow cake mix
1 15 oz can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients together and divide among muffin cups. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz softened cream cheese
1 c sugar (powdered sugar will be less granular, but you may need more of it)
1/2 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp milk

Whip ingredients together until smooth. Add more milk as necessary to make thinner.


That's it! Anyone can do this. If I can do this, anyone can do this.