Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

It's been awhile since I've posted and I apologize for the delay. The summer and beginning of fall was just a mass of working extra hours at work and making the trek back to Pennsylvania for personal reasons and my childhood best friends wedding. I was back in PA about 5 times over a course of four months. This was the most I spent at home since the summer of 2009. (It's really been 4 years? Wow how time flies)

But now that I'm getting back into my regular work schedule and much more time on my hands and a bit lonely with having all of my college friends now not living in Providence. I gave myself a challenge of perfecting the perfect cupcake; which has really turned into trying new cupcakes and particularly fall inspired ones. This brings me to this post. I didn't get a chance to really take pictures of the process of putting the batter together but I do have the end result pictures :)

I brought about 20 cupcakes into work for my coworkers and they were gone within about 4 hours of me setting them out. I'm taking that as it was a huge hit and everyone loved them! I myself am not of a fan of pumpkin flavor things but thankfully with these the pumpkin was not overly powerful and was a burst of fall flavors in my mouth!

I found this recipe like most of my others from Pinterest and you find the original recipe here.

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

Yields about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients Required

Cupcake Batter

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softned

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

Frosting

1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

3 cups confectioner' sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and grease or line 24 muffin cups (I used paper liners and reusable liners)

2) In separate bowl from your mixer bowl sift together the flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, allspice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

3) Beat 1/2 cup of butter, and both sugars with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; the mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to fully combine with the butter mixture before adding the second egg. (I then took the bowl off of my Kitchen-Aid mixer) Stir in the milk and pumpkin puree after the last egg. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Don't over-work it, the cake will come out soft. Pour the batter into the muffin cups. (They didn't raise as much as I was expecting, feel free to fill them about 3/4 of the way)

4) Bake in the preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed. (mine took just over 20 minutes) Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to completely cool.

5)  While the cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting by beating the cream cheese and 1/4 butter with an electric mixer in a bowl until smooth. Beat in the confectioners' sugar a little at a time until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; beat until fluffy. Once the cupcakes are cool, frost with the cream cheese frosting. 

I picked up some fall sprinkles to add to the festive cupcakes.

Look out for my next post, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Until Next Time,

Stephanie