Williams Sonoma Pumpkin Butter Dessert Squares

Three years ago I was in Kansas City for five weeks for work. There wasn't much to do so we went shopping and happened upon Williams Sonoma where they were handing out samples of the most delicious pumpkin dessert you could ever imagine! It was to promote their super pricey pumpkin butter and thankfully they were handing out the recipe so I snapped it up. I've since made it more times than I can count and every time I get asked for the recipe so here it is! I use Trader Joe's pumpkin butter which is less than half the price and just like the WS version you'll need two jars.

Ingredients

1 package yellow cake mix; set aside one cup

½ cup butter, melted

3 eggs, large

1 1/3 cups pumpkin butter

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

¼ cup butter, softened

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Divide yellow cake mix, placing all but one cup in a mixing bowl. Stir the melted butter and one egg into the cake mix. Press the mixture into the bottom of a greased 9” x 13” pan. Mix the pumpkin butter with two eggs and milk. Stir the reserved cup of cake mix with the flour, sugar, softened butter, and cinnamon. Mix together until crumbly.  

 Pour pumpkin filling over the cake mix crust. Sprinkle crumble over top of the pumpkin layer. 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool. Cut into 2” squares. Serves 24.

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Cheeseburger Cupcakes

This is one I get a lot of questions on so seemed like a good place to start. A while back Mike sent me this link and suggested I make these cupcakes that look like cheeseburgers. I did and they were good but boxed cake mix is not my favorite so I substituted that part with this cake mix recipe (tossing in some cocoa powder to make the chocolate cake mix). Then Mike's mom suggested using coconut mixed with green food dye for the lettuce. What a brilliant idea! And then she taught me how to make the icing (frosting?) so now the entire recipe is from scratch! Here's what I do:

Preheat oven to 350 (I always forget to do this).

Make this cake mix

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk

Cocoa Powder

red, yellow and green food dye

shredded coconut

Beat butter, sugar, baking powder, and vanilla in a large bowl with mixer on high 3 minutes or until fluffy.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each. On low speed, beat in flour in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, just until blended, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Spray cupcake tins with Pam (or the like) very generously. Cover every inch!

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes (I monitor them closely and use a toothpick to tell when they are done.) For some reason my cupcakes never seem to rise properly, even after buying a new can of baking powder, so yours will probably look much better than mine!

Once they are done, cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Now mix some cocoa powder in with the remaining batter (I just eyeball it, it will look pale but will be nice and dark once baked).

Spray cupcake tins again (I got some mini cupcake tins for Christmas and these work awesome for the patties but you can just fill normal cupcake tins about 1/4 or less full). Bake for a short time monitoring carefully.

Once they are done, cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Vanilla cupcakes should be cool by now, cut them in half horizontally with a sharp knife (try not to crush them). Once the chocolate "patties" are cool, you may need to cut or smush them to look more like patties, then place on the bottom half of the vanilla cupcake.

Now make the icing and use red and yellow food dye to make "ketchup" and "mustard/cheese." I fill a sandwich bag with each color and cut the tip to create a pastry bag, then squeeze onto the "patty." You may need to put the icing in the fridge to set a bit.

Mix the shredded coconut with the green food dye (liquid food dye works better than gel for this part) and add atop the condiments, then top with the top half of the vanilla cupcake.