I’m celebrating the autumn season by sharing my favorite recipe for pumpkin spice cupcakes with you today. 🎃
October is the perfect time to make it, especially because pumpkins are available everywhere and while kids crave their own ones for Halloween, why not use the opportunity to use it and contribute to less waste for something festive and special like pumpkin cupcakes.🧁
As I’m making my own pumpkin purée from scratch for this recipe I will use my new Cuisanart Prep Pro and show you how multifunctional and easy to use this machine is. 🙌🏽
It’s important to prepare the ingredients in advance ( pumpkin must be oven-baked first ) and the rest of the ingredients (such as eggs, milk & butter) should be left at room temperature it’s my personal tip which I found works great for almost every bake!
Let’s get started:
First of all, we will need to bake the pumpkin. I had a medium size pumpkin and used around half of it for this recipe. So, depending on how many you are cooking for this should suffice for this recipe. In preparation, you will need to clean the insides and place the clean half of the pumpkin on a tray, cover it with the foil and set the oven for 180C. It should then be cooked for about 40 min till soft and easy to mash. Just keep checking, as some may take longer or less to cook through.
Let it cool first, remove the soft part and place in the blender or food processor to make a purée. I used a small bowl and small blade in my Cuisanart prep pro for the recipe and it was perfectly smooth and ready to use in 3 seconds.
The key is to make sure is that it’s not watery, but that’s fine,as in this recipe I already balanced the amount of flour and pumpkin which will make a perfect batter for your cupcakes.
For the batter:
In a medium bowl, combine your dry ingredients: self-rising flour (or flour plus baking powder), salt, and pumpkin pie spice( you can make your own by combining):
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Set that aside.
In a separate bowl combine pumpkin freshly made puree, milk, and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth. Set this aside as well!
Next I will be using the big bowl of Cuisanart and mix together the brown sugar, white sugar and butter, add the three eggs one at a time and a quick blend again.
Even if we are using self-raising flour ( with raising ingredients such as baking powder) the raising process won’t be affected by using the blender with the blade. So don’t worry!
Finally, add the pumpkin mix to the bowl and the dry ingredients to the same bowl ( I used a large part of the Cuisanart for this mixture)
Few quick blends and the batter is ready.🎃
Next, prepare your cupcake pan with liners and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Use an ice cream scoop or a spoon whatever is easier for you, add the pumpkin spice cupcake batter to the pans. Fill them about 3/4 of the way.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Repeat all of this for the second dozen!
While our pumpkin babies are in the oven let’s make the cinnamon icing. Again I used Cuisanart for this and worked well to smooth out the mixture.
Combine butter, vanilla, icing sugar, milk and cinnamon and mix well till smooth and the ingredients are all even color. Let the cupcakes cool down first when you take them out of the oven and use the piping bag and nozzle for decorating.
Tip: keep the cupcakes in the fridge for storage so that the batter and cream will keep better shape and won’t melt quickly.
Final step: Toppings.
Feel free to use anything such as chopped pecan nuts, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, sprinkles or add any Halloween themed decorations!
I made some sugar pecan crumble to add a bit of texture to the creamy icing.
On the pad add sugar.. let it melt and brown on a slow heat.. once runny add pecans, mix well and quickly place on the baking paper lined on the table.. let it cool ( 3 min) . break in pieces and add to the blender/ food processor. Here again, I used my Prep Pro . Top the cupcakes with the crumble and keep in the fridge till ready to eat 🙂
I hope you enjoy them as much as we clearly do.
Thank you Cuisanart for sponsoring this recipe and providing the Pre Pro.
Ingredients:
For Cupcakes:
- 2 cups Self-Rising Flour OR 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour + 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup pumpkin puree ( homemade)
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup 1 stick) butter, room temperature or softened
- 3 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
For the icing:
- 175 g butter, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp. milk
- 350 g icing sugar, sifted
- 3 tbsp cinnamon
- Topping :
- 3 tbsp of sugar,
- 10 chopped pecan nuts
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