Pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon frosting

Well, Rob and I ran out of pound cake and were dessert-less so I had to to bake a bit early this week. Last weekend we visited a speciality food shop called Partridges near Sloan Square, amongst all the gourmet food they sell classic American favourites like Candy Corn and canned pumpkin. I've been in the UK for 6 years and have not seen candy corn at all and normally canned pumpkin sells out very quickly. This year I got in early and got plenty of both. The pumpkin is primarily for pumpkin pies at our annual Thanksgiving dinner; however, I over-bought and decided to use the extra for these delicious pumpkin cupcakes. The recipe is from the same Glorious Treats blog that I used for my chocolate cupcakes, but adapted to make spicy and warm pumpkin cupcakes that really make you feel great in the blustery autumn weather. The original recipe is here.

Here is the recipe as I did it:

Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground clove

1/4 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

In another large bowl whisk pumpkin, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir until completely combined.

Scoop batter into cupcake pan, lined with paper liners.  Fill cups about 3/4 full.  This batter perfectly makes 12 standard sized cupcakes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 (F) degrees for 22-24 minutes.

Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Then transfer cupcakes to the wire rack and let cool completely.

The recipe called for a vanilla cream cheese frosting but somewhere on Pinterest I saw a cinnamon cream cheese frosting that I thought would go perfectly. I found this one and it worked great, not too sweet or too heavy, it balanced the cupcake spice just right.

Here is the recipe as I did it:

Cinnamon Frosting 

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (add more to taste)

2-3 cups powdered sugar (add more or less to make it a stiffness that you like)

12 candy corn pieces (optional)

Mix cream cheese and butter well.Add vanilla and cinnamon.Add powdered sugar, whisk until desired consistency. Top the cupcakes then add a piece of candy corn.