Autumn Pumpkin Goodness In A Cupcake

A couple weekends ago, Alexah texted me and said she was baking pumpkin cupcakes and I'll admit I was a little grossed out. I hate pumpkin... actually hated pumpkin. This is the first year that I tried a PSL from Starbucks and I'll admit it was pretty good (but it's time for us to break - up, more to come on this soon, promise). But pumpkin flavoured cupcakes... they just didn't sound that great. And then she sent me a picture.

This isn't the pic she sent me... her icing was way fancier than mine, but I mean COME ON, how good do those look.

Then she dropped off 6 little pieces of heaven to me at work.

And then I ate them all (ok, half of them. My BF ate the other 3, ok... maybe he had 2 and I had 4...).

I fell in love. 

I asked her to send me the recipe and then I baked some. And my family fell in love and they asked me to bake more (who knew I could bake and have people other than myself like it haha).

Ugh shitty picture quality. The lights in my kitchen suck and it was 9pm.

The recipe comes from Brown Eyed Baker's blog. I changed a few of the ingredients and plan on changing a few more the next time (aka tomorrow night) I bake them again.

Ingredients:

Cupcake Mixture:

makes 12 cupcakes

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

pinch of ground cloves

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

++ I used kamut flour as I eat gluten free. (Personally I tasted a difference, I prefer rice flour in baked goods but I didn't have any. My dad who HATES gf stuff didn't notice a diff so maybe it was all in my head).

++ substituting bananas for eggs is a dairy free alternative

++ substituting 1 tbsp ground chia seeds with 1/3 cup of water (let sit for 15 mins) is another substitute for eggs

++ substituting apple sauce for sugar is a healthier alternative

Seriously, this picture quality... ughhhh. Need to invest in lights asap. 

Frosting:

side note: makes way too much frosting. I doubled the cupcake recipe and had half a bowl of leftover frosting. I don't like frosting piled high. If you do, this is probably a good amount. But next time I'd cut the recipe in half, frosting wise.

1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)

8 oz cream cheese (room temp)

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

4 cup powdered sugar

++ I didn't substitute anything in the frosting because there really wasn't much to sub., plus who doesn't love cream cheese frosting. #indulge. I did add a tsp extra of vanilla though, I love vanilla.

Preheat your oven to 350F. 

Mix together your dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl aka your flour, baking powder&soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Mix together your other ingredients in a large bowl aka your pumpkin, both sugars and veggie oil. Add in your eggs one at a time. Add in your dry ingredient and stir til they're all good and mixed together. 

Line your cupcake tins and pour in batter until it's about 3/4 of the way filled.

Bake for 18-22 minutes (I had to do about 24 mins) depending on your oven.

Seriously people, this picture quality is pissing me off too... but how delicious do they still look!?

Cool and then frost.

I will definitely be adding these to my autumn must-haves. They are so good.

Enjoy!

julieann x