Finally, I have made my way into a new apartment.  I’m thrilled to be here, and will hopefully be able to stop tripping over boxes soon.

The one major flaw in the apartment?  Tiny kitchen.  Tiny.  According to my father I’m going to have to “start making decisions”;  Sounds like there’s some Sophie’s Choice action that’s going to have to go on.  Which of my appliances is going to get the precious counter real estate?  Mixer?  Crock pot?  Blender, perhaps?  Who knows.  Right now, everything is just boxes.

Oh, and other issues that come with an apartment: not even knowing what you don’t have.  This post almost didn’t happen because I realized too late I had no can opener to open the pumpkin.  Instead I cut it open with a giant knife.  I felt pretty good about myself.

But I digress.  Tiny kitchen and missing utensils aside, what’s the good news?

Well, the good news is now that I’m vaguely settled in, what better way to welcome myself to my new apartment than baking cupcakes?

Yes, I agree that it is a totally awesome idea.

Since we’re kind of getting into the holiday season, and every other blog I’m reading is doing things with pumpkin, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and do the same.  Again using my Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes book, I found a Pumpkin Cupcake recipe with brown butter icing that looked pretty tasty.  Baking something without chocolate is a bit of a departure for me (typically I think, “If there’s no chocolate in it, why would I bother baking it?”), but I think it’s about time I expand my baking repertoire since I’m not the only person I bake for.  If I were, I’d be about 5 sizes larger than I am now.

To start, without further ado:

You wanna know how good this is?  My exact words when I tried this cupcake were “oh shit.”

The icing is diabetes-inducing.  The cupcakes are pumpkiny.  As my father would say: “I wonder what the rich people are having for dessert?”

In the end, the recipe turned out 12 dense cupcakes that by themselves I think may have been a little boring, but with the added sugar spike of the icing, really makes you close your eyes and smile; these cupcakes definitely require a glass of milk to go along with them.  I was a little concerned about the icing at first; this is my first time browning butter and if the icing sits for awhile it starts looking a little greasy.  I’m not sure if I didn’t add enough sugar or milk or something, or if my browning technique is a little off.  Regardless, it didn’t seem to ruin the cupcakes in the slightest.

Even if you’re typically a chocolate fan like me, you should totally try these out.  They are full of win.

For anyone using Weight Watchers, these cupcakes are about 5 points apiece, and the icing is an additional 3 apiece depending how heavy handed you are with your icing knife.