Brittany's Kitchen Adventures- Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

Welcome to Brittany's Kitchen Adventures!
Before going on a "diet", I had practically never stepped foot inside the kitchen. I've had to teach myself how to cook/bake, but there's still a lot of things I've never tried, because they intimidate me. I'm a Deliciously Healthy cook/baker in training. Come on a journey with me as I conquer the kitchen! Every Monday, I pick something new and challenging to try in the kitchen! I blog about each kitchen adventure, whether it was a success or not. There's bound to be some disasters, but hopefully a lot of Deliciously Healthy successes!

A while ago (like as in a very long time ago. Okay, okay, it was LAST thanksgiving:), I bought everything to make pumpkin cinnamon roll cupcakes. Sounds yummy right? I thought so too. Everyday, I thought about making them, and everyday, I chickened out. Soon, the pumpkin season was over. As it rolled around this year, these popped in my mind everyday, just like before. But I was still too intimidated to make them. Yeast? Rise? Kneading? Hmmm. That's a whole lot of scariness right there. I saw it very fitting to make these for my first Kitchen Adventure. These weekly adventures are all about me trying new things, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone, so I can one day conquer the kitchen!

I got out all the ingredients, took a deep breath, and got started.

I started with "activating" the yeast. That was pretty scary to me. I don't know why. Now I know that all it involves is pouring a packet of yeast into 1/4 cup of warm water. What's so hard about that? See, I'm already growing. Master yeast: CHECK!

Next I put the first 9 ingredients into a mixer to combine everything, then pulled out the dough to knead it. That part was intimidating, hard on my hands, and fun at the same time! 10 minutes later, the dough was kneaded, smooth, and my hands were dead!
I kneaded dough for the first time! Yay me!
(Oh yeah, I cut my hair:)
Then you're supposed to cover the dough, and store it in a warm place for 45 minutes to let it rise. ???. What counts as a warm place? A little bit of stress kicked in at this point. Where the heck do I put this thing? My house is 69 degrees. I don't think that counts as warm. So, I turned on the oven for a couple minutes, then turned it off, and set the bowl in there, for 45 min.
Is there a better way to do this? What do you do?
It seemed to do the trick. It said if it leaves indents when you poke it with your fingers, then it's done rising. Looks like indents to me!
From this point, I started to get a little more comfortable. I rolled it out into a rectangle sprinkled the cinnamon mix, and the pecans, over the dough rolled it up cut it, and put it into the muffin pan. Then I stood in front of the oven, and watched the heavenly goodness, rise out of the pan!
Hot out of the oven:
When they were done, I drizzled the glaze over the top of the cupcakes, with a pipping bag and viola! They were done!
I did it!

And they are pretty darn yummy! And only 219 calories!

And if I can do it, YOU can do it!! Go HERE for the recipe!
I added 3 TBS of pecans to the mix, and I made them into cupcakes. Cause cupcakes are just better :)
Come back every Monday, and watch me try something new!

I think next week I'm going to make pumpkin pie, for the first time! Cause we gotta get ready for Thanksgiving people :D