We all know too well how much those Americans love their pumpkins, and these little goodies embrace them with open arms (and a touch of winter spices). Seriously when these are baking away in the oven, it will make your entire kitchen smell of autumn yummy-ness.
Ok ok enough of the elaborate descriptions. Let's get to it!
Ingredients
Makes 6 Large Cupcakes (I made mine in a muffin tin)
125g cooked, cooled and pureed Pumpkin (I bought a whole one and roasted it in chunks in the oven for approx 20 minutes at 180c)
55g Butter
1 Egg
140g Plain Flour
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 Tsp Ground Cloves
1/4 Tsp Ground Allspice
Pinch of Salt
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
110g Golden Caster Sugar
50ml Whole Milk
For the Icing;
35g Softened Unsalted Butter
60g Full Fat Cream Cheese (has to be full fat - lighter versions just go runny)
210g Sifted Icing Sugar
For the Candied Pumpkin Seeds;
2 Heaped Tablespoons of Pumpkin Seeds
1/2 Tablespoon Caster Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1) Start by browning your butter. Do this by placing the butter in a pan on medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter forms little brown particles at the bottom of the pan. When done it should smell nutty, or as I found, like a daim bar. YUM! This just gives the cupcakes that extra depth of flavour. This step can be skipped, just make sure your butter is really soft, or even melt it in the microwave until liquid.
2) Make sure your butter has cooled, then place in a bowl with the pumpkin and egg. Mix until combined.
3) Then sift all the dry ingredients into the bowl and fold until fully combined. Then add the milk, a little at a time.
4) Divide into your cupcake tins. As mentioned before I used a muffin tin to have supersized cupcakes, but you can use whatever you have lying around in the cupboard.
5) Bake at 175c for around 20 minutes, but start checking them after around 10. Once done they should spring back when poked (not too hard now, gently does it.)
6) When you're satisfied with the springy-ness of your muffins remove from the oven and place on a cooling wrack.
7) As the cupcakes cool, it's time to focus on the decoration for this spicy treats. Take a non- stick pan and place the pumpkin seeds into the pan. Then sprinkle on the half tablespoon of caster sugar over. Put the pan on a high heat and allow the sugar to melt. As it does this mix the seeds until all the sugar has melted. Place on a sheet of greaseproof paper to cool.
8) Now we're going to take our attention to the delicious vanilla cream cheese topping. Place the softened butter in a bowl and using your paddle attachment (or freehold electric whisker) cream the butter for around 2 minutes, basically until the butter is lighter in colour.
9) Then add your cream cheese and mix again for another minute or so. Then sift in half the icing sugar (I would suggest mixing by hand to begin with, unless you'd enjoy your kitchen resembling winter wonderland) and beat together for another 2 minutes. Then sift the second part of the mixture (mixing in by hand again to prevent a second snow blizzard) and beat for a further 2 minutes. Finally mix in the teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated.
10) Once your muffins are completely cool, decorate with the cream cheese frosting. I piped mine on but you can slather it on with a spoon, or small knife, or with your pinkie finger, it really is up to you.
11) Once the little beauties are covered sufficiently in the frosting then place some of the candied pumpkin seeds atop the cupcakes and voila! Pumpkin spice cupcakes.
12) This is the time to stick the kettle on and show off your amazing creations, potentially on your chosen social media page. This is assuming that you have more willpower than me, of course there is no judgement in not being able to resist shoving one in your mouth before you can say instagram.
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