Sunday, October 3, 2010

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Pecan Frosting & Pumpkin Cupcakes


This is a far cry from frosting. This delicious concoction is worthy of the candy category! Or a fancy topping, for ice cream maybe? Wow. That's what I said when I tasted my first bite. The "topping" as I will affectionately refer to it going forward, is soft, caramelly and somewhere between crunch and chewy. The entire family enjoyed it and we mutually agreed this recipe is a keeper!

I feel like I continually repeat myself, but once again, I'm so glad I baked along this week. I would have never, really never, have tried this recipe if I wasn't part of this group. I am continually surprised by how my perceptions of what I what I like and don't like are challenged. In a good way.

This weekend hubby and my sister all headed up to Big Bear, CA to spend the weekend with my Grandparents to enjoy good food, family and the fresh mountain air. I brought along some of my baking supplies and Grandma helped me pull it all together.



I decided to make pumpkin spice cupcakes to serve as the base for the "frosting". The pumpkin cupcakes turned out nice and moist (despite 6000+ foot elevation here). Then it was on to making this topping. Melissa Murphy's recipe is actually for Coconut Pecan Frosting. I omitted the coconut and just did pecan frosting, I mean topping.


This topping consists of sugar, evaporated milk, egg yolks, vanilla and salt. Oh and the pecans of course. I don't know how these simple ingredients turn into such a tasty rich topping. It must be the evaporated milk that lends to such a deep flavor. After simmering and constant stirring for just about 12 minutes the topping thickened up and the pecan pieces went in. A 10-15 minute cooling period and this topping moved into the "spreadable" category.

As I was setting up to start taking photos, Grandma handed me a graham cracker with pecan topping to taste. Oh my! Wow. Wow! I had to take pause because I really wasn't expecting to like this, let alone be "wowed"!


Hubby and Sister, Grandma and Grandpa all had samples on graham crackers too. We all came back for more and I lost track of how many times hubby came back after the third time. This is good stuff people!

You can't go anywhere in Big Bear without seeing hand carved bears and Grandma's place is no exception. We thought this bear, that normally serves a wine bottle holder, needed to sample one of our cupcakes! He clearly gave his stamp of approval.



The pumpkin cupcakes were tasty on their own and even more tasty with the pecan topping. But honestly I enjoyed the pecan topping on the graham crackers the most. It was simple and allowed the full depth flavor in the topping to really come through. There was plenty of topping for 12 cupcakes and still a jar full left over.



For the recipe head over to Eliana's blog A Chica Bakes. Thanks Eliana for choosing such a great recipe! To see the other SMS bakers results this week click here.

20 comments:

  1. Yum, great idea to spread it on graham crackers. It looks delicious and would probably also be good as an ice cream topping.

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  2. I agree with you that this is worthy of being called candy! It's funny - you and I had similar ides of using this to make candy or some type of ice cream topping!

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  3. OMGoodness! I love every one of your pictures! Your grandma and you sitting together is so precious! The frosting is more like a topping, I totally agree! Your idea of putting this on graham crackers also has me curious. I still have about 1/3 cup of frosting/topping left so I am running upstairs to try this out.

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  4. I love the picture of you and your Grandma..how sweet is that!! Great look muffins and the graham cracker idea is one of my favs!! Im glad you enjoyed this recipe and baked with us!!

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  5. What fun ideas for the frosting! Love the photo of you and your grandmother! What fun!

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  6. Pumpkin spice cupcakes sound perfect right about now especially with that frosting. I'm a big coconut fan but I can imagine this one going with a lot of desserts without that. Great job.

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  7. Great choice to pair it with the pumpkin cupcakes! Pumpkin was actually one of my choices but I decided on the hummingbird cake. Your pics look great! My favorite one is with the bear! LOL

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  8. I tried the graham crackers and this is WAYYYYY to easy to nibble on, okay no nibbling. Full out munching but delicious! I am glad you tried this so the rest of us could know. Definitely easy and delicious!

    I am still thinking about your pumpkin spice. BTW, really like the carved bear. Too cute!

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  9. I forgot to tell you, Dorie not only chose all the recipes for the month of October, BUT she also has allowed the whole month's worth of recipes to be posted on the French Fridays with Dorie website. You can still cook along with us while waiting for your cookbook.

    I know you will want to! One of the dishes looks just like a shepard's pie, with a slight touch of Julia Child added in, and the rest ALL Dorie. The gougeres are super easy and you can freeze the dough balls in the freezer now and bake as you want; from freezer straight to oven. Can you tell I am impressed? Hugs Gloria and talk to you soon!

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  10. Fun pictures Gloria!! I particularly liked the one of you and your grandmother and of course, the one with the bear - so cute! What fun that you got to bake with your grandmother. I'm glad the frosting (or candy - it was really sweet, wasn't it?) was such a hit for your family. I probably wouldn't have tried this one either, but I'm glad I gave it a go this week even if it's not a new favorite :)

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  11. Too cute! I like the labelling of this as a topping rather than a frosting- will have to try it again if not just to put on ice-cream!

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  12. Adorable pictures! I LOVE LOVE the frosting, and I could eat it by the spoonful, I HAD to give the rest away before I finished it off alone in the corner!

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  13. I don't think it'd be a good idea for me to have a jar of this "leftover." I'm not sure it'd be around for too long. What a great simple idea to serve it on graham crackers. Mom used to do that with a simple buttercream she made when we were younger. Hopefully you enjoyed your weekend!

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  14. Thanks so much for baking along with me. I'm glad you liked it and love that you paired it with pumpkin spice cupcakes. Awesome combination.

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  15. Thank you for your wonderful comments on my post Gloria. When you decide the time is right to join the FFwD group, I think you will enjoy it because cooking savory dishes is a wonderful change of pace and you get to cook as much or as little as you like =).

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  16. Thank you Gloria for your wonderful comments on the apple crisp and stuffed sugar pumpkins =). Both are super easy and win lots of compliments!

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