I have made hundreds of cupcakes since I started my baking adventures and have always been trying to create new flavors. This pumpkin spice cupcake is one of them and by far my favorite. I was playing with pumpkin as it was the Halloween season and I thought there is never a better chance to try this cupcake.
I loved the soft pillowy texture despite having pumpkin in. Also the spices came through beautifully. The cupcake itself is not overly sweet so the cream cheese frosting goes really well balancing out the sweetness.
I didn’t use canned pumpkin puree, instead roasted a sweet butter nut pumpkin half until soft and scooped out the flesh. Puree the flesh in a food processor before adding to the cake. Be careful of how much milk you’d want to add. This depend on how wet your pumpkin puree is. You want the cake batter in the ribbon consistency just like a butter cake batter would look like.
You can swap milk with non-dairy milk. I used dark brown sugar but I think light brown sugar would be fine too.
For the frosting, I used 3 cups of icing sugar at first and thought it was a bit too rich and sweet. So I have changed the recipe to use more butter and less of sugar. The trick is to whip butter until soft and fluffy. Then you can add cream cheese followed by icing sugar and give a quick whip on high until just combined. Keeping the frosting in the fridge until it is firm helps with piping.
Cupcakes would sit at room temperature for a couple of hours in cooler weathers. They will have to be refrigerated after that and thawed back before serving.
This is a must try, if you are a fan of all things pumpkin!!
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 250 g plain flour
- 180 g castor sugar
- 125 g butter at room temperature
- 80 g brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 150 ml milk
- 1 cup pureed pumpkin
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. bicarb soda
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 225 g cream cheese
- 100 g butter at room temperature
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
- Line a muffin tray with paper muffin liners.
- Sift together the flour and all the spices and set aside.
- Beat butter, white sugar and brown until light and fluffy.
- Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time clearing after each addition.
- Stir in the pumpkin puree and mix until just combined.
- Fold in the flour mixture alternating with milk.
- Dispense the batter into the molds and bake for about 20 minutes or the cakes are just done.
- Cool on a wire rack completely before frosting.
To make the frosting:
- Beat butter until pale and fluffy.
- Add softened cream cheese and icing sugar.
- Beat until incorporated and refrigerate for about 15 minutes or until piping consistency is achieved.F
- Frost the cupcakes before serving.
- Refrigerate leftover cupcakes in an air tight container.
