It may not be a crisp fall day

but we are certainly ready! All daily temperatures are still in the 80's during the day, but our minds are set on fall and all things autumn. So, we decided to make fall cupcakes to take to home group on Friday. Here are the results.

I also made a cake from the left over batter.

You can find the recipes for the cake here (I made the Golden Pumpkin Cake instead of the chocolate one. It let's the taste of the pumpkin and pecans shine through instead of being muddled with the Devil's food chocolate. Trust me, I've done it both ways and the Golden recipe always wins, hands down.)

and the frosting here. (I will not use this particular recipe of frosting again. It is way too sweet with it's 1/2 c. honey and 1/2 c. sugar and rich with it's 3 1/2 sticks of butter. Plus, it only stiffens up if you keep it refrigerated. Next time (tomorrow) I will make a plain cream cheese frosting and just add a little bit of cinnamon to it for the speckled look. ) Olivia had a blast putting all the little pumpkins on the top of the mound of frosting. And I had fun decorating the top of the cake with pecans and brown sugar. Both turned out very lovely in our opinion.

All the kids and every adult enjoyed this little taste of autumn. It got all of us humming about Thanksgiving plans. :) What have you done lately to herald in the new season?