Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ah, autumn.  The leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and everything is available in pumpkin spice flavor.  I'm not head-over-heels crazy about pumpkin spice everything. It's good, but I think it's a little overdone, and frankly, I think everyone has lost sight of what pumpkin spice is supposed to be. Most of the pumpkin spice goodies you see don't even have any pumpkin flavoring, let alone actual pumpkin.  But not my cupcakes! These have plenty of real pumpkin and warm cinnamon to make you feel cozy and happy this fall. Yum!

Pumpkin is very popular in our house, but not in the typical American household sort of way.  My favorite way to eat pumpkin, aside from in cupcake form, is in a Thai curry.  Unfortunately for me, it's difficult to find whole pumpkins outside of October. So I've been stocking up to cube and freeze them to use later.  My husband eats basically anything, and I'm not sure of his favorite form of pumpkin, but I've never seen him turn away any kind.  But most of the pumpkin we buy is canned, and the biggest consumer (eating-wise, not money-wise) is our dog Pippin.  You may remember from my previous post about the homemade dog treats that pumpkin is one of Pippin's all time favorite foods.  And when I use a pumpkin for pumpkin curry, I only can use about 1/2 of it, so the other half gets roasted and mashed for a furry somebody.  Long story short: Pippin is really liking fall.

I've known for some time now that I needed a great pumpkin recipe to share here, and when my husband's boss invited us over for dinner last week, their daughter requested I bring some cupcakes.  I whipped these up from a recipe my mom has previously used to make pumpkin bars. I wasn't sure how they would convert to cupcakes, but I shouldn't have worried. They are moist and flavorful, tender, but not crumbly, and they bake up like a dream.  Also, the batter normally works out to make exactly 24 cupcakes, so you don't have to cook partial pans, which I like.

So gather your ingredients and make sure you have everything.  You probably do; it's pretty basic. I wasn't paying enough attention when I took this picture and didn't realize how much I covered up the salt, but it's there behind the baking soda. I also was excited to show off my new canisters and chalkboard labels so that my lovely readers no longer had to guess at the contents of the containers, but then I ended up covering up most of the labels. Oops. And you'll see that this recipe calls for the whole can of pumpkin. I will add that I actually used the whole can minus about a tablespoon that I set aside for Pippin because I knew he would come running when he smelled the open can of pumpkin.

This recipe is so easy. Start by putting all the wet ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and mix them up. The recipe I was working on said to mix until "light and fluffy," but with as much liquid as this has, "fluffy" is hard to achieve.  Just mix it until it's smooth.  I made the mistake of turning the speed up a little too high, and it splashed over the edge. Don't make the same mistake. Or do. Learn for yourself. Whatever.

Then mix up the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. They aren't actually mixed in the picture.  This is not a good example of mixed ingredients. The cinnamon was just so pretty that I thought you'd like to see it.  Right?  After you've measured out the dry ingredients and whisked them together, slowly add them into the wet ingredients. The thickness of the batter will vary slightly from batch to batch depending on the brand of pumpkin you buy. This batch actually seemed slightly thicker than the last batch, but they turned out just fine, so don't fret.  

The color of your batter will vary slightly based on the pumpkin as well too. I'm not a big fan of food coloring, but if you really want it to be a brighter orange, go ahead and try, I guess.  You also could use fresh pumpkin, cooked and pureed yourself. I haven't tried this, though, so I can't guarantee moisture levels or texture if you use fresh pumpkin. I applaud your efforts though, and if you try it, I'd love to hear how they come out. (This goes for any recipes I post. I love getting your comments.) Isn't this batter lovely? Subtly orange with the happy little flecks of cinnamon!

Time to get the cupcake pan ready! Put cupcake liners in the wells and fill them each about 2/3 of the way full. This may look a little on the full side, especially considering that the batter will rise as the cupcakes cook, but they don't spread much as they rise, and I found that filling them to this level gives them a beautiful dome.  No flat or sunken cupcakes! If you need something a little more metric for divvying up the, I actually use my little cookie scoop dishes to fill these (like I have done in the past with my other cupcake recipes). It is about a tablespoon, and I found that about one and a half heaping scoops of batter does the trick for each well. That's really not that much more quantitative, but I tried. 

See?! Look how beautifully these babies baked up! They almost don't even need frosting! Except that pumpkin almost begs for cream cheese frosting, and I know that you all have certainly picked up on my fondness for cream cheese.  So let the cupcakes cool and the cream cheese and butter soften and enjoy how warm and cozy your house smells from the pumpkin and cinnamon.  And if you bake them in the early afternoon, the sunlight comes in the dining room window just so and lets you take picture with such brilliant lighting as this one! 

When the cupcakes have cooled, whip up the cream cheese frosting.  If you've actually tried to make any of my recipes with frosting, you've probably noticed that I have a tendency to make far more frosting than is necessary.  When I made the frosting for these, the amount came out much closer than I could have hoped, so I included the measurements below, but I know that you all know how to do this by now.  Cream cheese, butter, whip whip whip, vanilla, powdered sugar, whip whip whip. Ta-daaaa!

I found that a little cinnamon sugar was a nice little extra touch. It would probably be even prettier with sparkling sugar, but this definitely works in a pinch.  And they'll be all eaten before anyone looks too closely anyway!  Seriously, these are scrumptious, and so easy.  Perfect for autumn, but delicious enough that you'll want to eat them all year round!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

4 eggs
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

In the bowl of a mixer, beat together eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin until smooth.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture slowly.  Divide into lined cupcake pan, filling wells 2/3 of the way.  Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-oz. block of cream cheese
1 cup butter
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar

Beat together cream cheese and butter until fluffy.  Add vanilla and mix until smooth.  Slowly add powdered sugar.