Mango, Coconut, Pumpkin and Chocolate Brownie! + Pumpkin pie :)

I'm thinking 2 cupcakes a week will take me a whole year, but if I do three cupcakes a week, it'll take about nine months. So to kick this project into high gear, this week I started making three flavours! The cupcake flavours are: Mango Coconut Cupcakes, Pumpkin Cupcakes and Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes! To make it easier on me, I'm only making one type of frosting, Cream Cheese frosting. This was a big hit last time, so it's a safe bet. As it is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, I had to try my hand at a pumpkin pie (this is an extra to my cupcakes). All of this had to be done before the big Thanksgiving dinner. Challenge accepted!

Here's the out-of-the-oven look of the Mango Coconut and Chocolate Brownie cupcakes.

I think the mango could have been a little sweeter, it smelled like mango but the taste of coconut was definitely stronger. The chocolate brownie has the density of brownie so it was another scoop job into the pan. They both smelled wonderful!

Today marked the first time at any pumpkin recipe. Okay...I did do pumpkin seeds last year, but it's different. It's not the "meat" part. Anyhow, pumpkin cupcake came out wonderful - reminds me of carrot cake for some reason. And it goes perfectly with cream cheese. Plus, it's festive!

At the grocery store I could only find a giant can of pumpkin puree, which means I have left over to make a pumpkin pie. I used the simple recipe behind the label and it was so easy!

I liked that this pumpkin wasn't too sweet like the ones you buy in the stores. I had to buy some new spices for this recipe: all spice and ground ginger. I contemplated on grinding up the dried ginger I had at home. But remembering how much I loved crushing things, I thought buying the spice was a better choice. I had left over cream cheese frosting so I decorated my pumpkin pie with it. Maybe I should have waited for it to cool first but  I had to make it to dinner so no time to let it cool too much.

And there's my contribution to this year's Thanksgiving dinner!