Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

Hi there!  Sorry for the absence.  I've had a bunch of stuff going on in real life that has prevented me from visiting blogland.  First there was the Toddler's urinary tract infection and then we had Winter Storm Alfred.  Since when did they start naming snowstorms?  Anyway, Alfred took out our power for 5 days.  And not just our power - 800,000 people in our state were out of power for days. 

To say it was horrible would be dramatic, but that is how it felt to have no lights, no heat and no hot water.  Thankfully my workplace (and the Husband's)  had power and so did the Toddler's daycare.  So at least we were safe, dry and warm during the day.  However, I spent most of my days trying to figure out where we would eat, sleep and shower since all of our friends and family were also without power and the hotels were all booked!  Needless to say - we are looking into getting a whole house generator so that never happens again.

But before I lost power on the Saturday before Halloween, I made these wonderful Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes.  I know I usually post about dinners, or lunches, but I felt that posting a dessert would be a good "welcome back" present to myself.

Pumpkin Spiced Cupcakes
adapted from McCormick
Ingredients:
1 pkg (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix
1 pkg (4 serving) vanilla instant pudding
1 C canned pumpkin
1/4 C oil
1/4 C water
3 eggs
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened.  Beat on medium speed for 2 mins.  Spoon batter into 24 lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.  Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 20 minutes.  Frost cooled cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese frosting.
Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting - 1 store bought container of cream cheese frosting with 1/4 tsp ground cloves stirred in.
Optional - topped with crushed walnuts