Recipe for success: Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Chalk one up for having magazines out and about that guests actually flip through...

This weekend our friends from Memphis, Jon and Julie, came up for a visit. Julie was flipping through my most recent issue of Real Simple that I had on the coffee table but just hadn't gotten around to reading. We were trying to decide what to make for dinner when, luckily, she found a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing that we decided we must make for dessert. We ate them that night as appetizers, as a side course during dinner and as a proper dessert. The next day we woke up and had more for breakfast. The consensus was the small cupcakes (little bite size bits) were the best. If you only bake one thing this fall - make it these delicious little treats.

1. Assemble the ingredients:
   

   1 18.5-ounce box yellow cake mix Cake mix requirement: 3 eggs (check box) Cake mix requirement: vegetable oil (check box) 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree 2 8-ounce bars cream cheese (room temperature) 2 cups powdered sugar



2. Preheat over to 350 F. Line muffin tins with liners (paper, silicone or, if no liners available, use cooking spray).
   
3. Mix the cake mix as directed but substitute the pumpkin puree for the water and add the pumpkin pie spice to the mix.


4. Divide the mix into the muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
   
5. Make the icing: beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar together until creamy. Ice the cupcakes.