Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple frosting

I stole the idea for these cupcakes from make bakeswap buddy Susie, who has a fantastic baking blog called 'fold in the flour': http://foldintheflour.blogspot.co.uk

They taste very autumnal with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in the sponge mix (they do taste like gingerbread, don't they Susie?!) The use of pureed pumpkin in the sponge mix and maple syrup in the frosting made me think of America, as these ingredients were being used in abundance during my recent visit to New York (yes! I am a Hurricane Sandy survivor!!) With that in mind, I suppose you could call them thanksgiving cupcakes...

Pink Piped roses at the Patisserie in my Kitchen

I wanted to have another go at piping buttercream roses on top of my cupcakes and, as it is a frolleague (friend-and-colleague, geddit?)'s birthday, I thought I'd make a batch to gift to her. I also wanted to put one of these super-cute patisserie boxes to good use. I reckon that if someone gave me this as a gift, I'd be pretty chuffed :-) My piping-work still needs practice - I piped a few dudds. Guess I'll just have to eat those myself... ;-)