Cupcakes!!!

So the other day, I made these cupcakes for family home evening.

The kids...

Well, the boy loved the frosting.
The girl will eat anything. Literally.
And the Ish? Well, she loathes any and all things pineapple and raisins.

But the husband? He loved them. A lot. And since he is all that matters, then that is all that matters. It does help that he loves all things pineapple and raisins.

I had to do some revamping to this recipe to fit our particular dietary needs, and those can be found at the bottom of this post, with the changes marked with some a deese.... **

Okey dokey?

Now go make these. Seriously. They are SO GOOD! And if your kids are like mine, then it means MORE FOR YOU. And if you are nice, you will take a couple to your mom and dad to get back in their good graces for you not visiting them as often as you should have. I almost made it back into the will this week. Woohoo!

Sweet potato mini cakes
2 cups flour
1 cup each sugar and packed brown sugar
1 tsp each salt, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups canola oil **
3 cups shredded sweet potatoes **
1 tsp rum extract **
1 can crushed pinapple, drained
1 cup each golden raisins and chopped walnuts **

Frosting
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
1 cup butter, softened
5 cups powdered sugar
4 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp rum extract **
1 1/2 cups ground walnuts **

In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. Add the eggs, oil, potatoes and extract; beat until combined. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Fill 12 greased or paper lined jumbo muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until he toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan to cool completely.

For frosting, in a large bowl beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Beat in the sugars and extracts until smooth. Frost sides of cakes; roll in walnuts. Place cakes upside down and frost tops with remaining frosting.

** I put about half as much oil in as it called for because it seemed like a lot of oil. They still turned out perfect.

** I didn't have any sweet potatoes and didn't want to buy any, so I used 3 cups of canned pumpkin. They still turned out perfect.

**I don't happen to keep rum around the house, so I used coconut extract instead. They still turned out perfect.

**I don't put nuts in anything since the husband is allergic to them. Poor guy. He will never know the deliciousness one can find in a pecan pie. I also didn't roll them in nuts, either, just frosted them like normal cupcakes. And guess what? They still turned out perfect!