Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Fluffy and moist cupcakes flavoured with pumpkin puree and autumn spices topped with decadent, creamy cinnamon frosting. A must-bake for halloween!

Pumpkin spice just SCREAMS "winter is coming".
And I love it.

Pumpkin is absolutely dominating food blogs everywhere. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice everything. I wanted to make my contribution! Complete with adorable, hand made tiny pumpkins to decorate, of course :)

I love baking with spice - ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice,,, They transform a recipe beautifully and give a lovely warm, autumnal flavour. But I had never baked with pumpkin before so wasn't quite sure how it would turn out.  I was very very pleasantly surprised with this combination of flavours!

 

The cupcake alone is gorgeous. There is no doubt about that. I couldn't stop sticking my finger into the batter (woops!) but paired with this incredible frosting, it is just wow!!

I don't particularly like cream cheese frosting, or I have never tasted one that has stopped me in my tracks. I usually love buttercream: you can do so much with flavours and pipe it into pretty swirls, but for this cake buttercream wouldn't quite cut it. I decided to try half cream cheese and half butter with icing sugar, vanilla and a big pinch of cinnamon. It was truly delicious. 

I 100% prefer this to standard buttercream. It takes away the sometimes sickly sweet edge to the buttercream - it has a slight tang from the cream cheese that cuts through. And it pipes like an absolute dream! One person liked it so much they ate it out of the bowl with a spoon... Highest praise I could ask for!

Honestly, can you get much cuter than those gorgeous little fondant pumpkins on top? All you need is green and orange fondant and a knife. Can be made in about a minute after a little practice. Super easy!! They really just add something special to these already mouthwatering cupcakes!

I feel like I have babbled on enough about these cupcakes, hopefully enough for you to be desperate to rush into the kitchen and get baking!! 

Ingredients: (makes about 20)

Cupcakes
225g self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
120ml vegetable oil
200g granulated
100g light brown sugar
175g pumpkin puree
2 medium eggs
1 heaped tsp vanilla
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice

Frosting
150g butter, softened
75g cream cheese
Approx 2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon (adjust for preference)

Mini Pumpkins
50g orange fondant
10g green fondant 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c and prepare a muffin tin with liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda and spices into a bowl and mix together.

In a separate, large bowl mix the brown and white sugar together before adding the oil and mixing until fully combined. Next beat the eggs one at a time into the sugar mixture. Add the pumpkin puree and the vanilla and mix well.

Gradually pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix in until just combined - be careful not to over mix!

Pop 2 heaped tablespoons of batter into each case or until they are about 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 15-18 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Make the pumpkins while the cupcakes are baking. Roll the orange fondant into little balls around the size of a 5p piece and squash down slightly. Use a knife to score lines around the ball. A pressing, rocking motion works better than dragging the knife. Use a cocktail stick or something similar to press into the top and wiggle to create a hole -  this is where the stalk will go. 
Pinch a tiny bit of the green fondant and roll to make a long, thin stalk to insert into the hole. Pinch another tiny bit, flatten it gently between your finger and thumb, pinch the end to create a leaf shape and place onto the top next to the leaf.

While leaving to cool prepare the frosting by beating the butter and the cream cheese together until soft and fluffy. Add the icing sugar gradually and cream together. Add until you reach your desired consistency for piping or spreading - you may need more or less than the ingredients suggest. Stir in the cinnamon.

Fill a piping bag with your favourite nozzle and the frosting and pip beautiful swirls on top before topping with a single pumpkin.

Teri x

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