Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

 

I can’t believe it is almost the end of October and I haven’t shared any pumpkin recipes! But I will change that right now.

Today also happens to be the 5^th week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. It is so insane to think that Christmas is that close!

So back to all things pumpkin: I always buy several cans of pumpkin puree because of all the ideas I have to use it with. And how any of those ideas are executed? Only a small fraction, which is sad because fall is the best time of all to bake. If it were acceptable to make things with pumpkin, maple, and molasses all year round I would be a very happy girl.

So for the 5^th week of Christmas Treats I’m sharing these lovely pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting (two seasonal flavors wrapped into one!

 

 

I wasn’t too excited about these cupcakes when I took my first bite, but that all changed the second day. I think the flavors just needed time to soak in and deepen. The cupcake because super moist and perfectly spiced. One of my favorite things about nutmeg is the little specks is leaves in the batter it is added to. It promises and delivers great things every time.

The frosting was so creamy. I love a good cream cheese frosting; if I were only allowed to have one type of frosting for the rest of my life, it would be of the cream cheese variety. Although with this recipe I think I should have added a tad more powdered sugar to stiffen it up a bit and a little more maple syrup to make it taste more mapley.

Once again, thank you Brenda for hosting such a wonderful bloghop.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Slightly adapted from Diethood

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

1 cup sugar

½ cup canola oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Frosting

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp. pure maple syrup

¼ pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a standard 12 cup cupcake tray with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil until smooth. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Mix in the pumpkin puree and stir until combined. Stir in the vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold the batter until just combined.

Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared cupcake tray. Bake on the center rack for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting: beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gently add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla until completely incorporated. Frost cupcakes as desired.

Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes

Hi. I haven't updated this blog in a while, but again I will put all the blame on school. I don't want to be a Debby Downer so I'll just leave it at that.

I made these cupcakes for the first time in mid-December. I was with my cousin and she wanted me to bake her something, so I texted her a few pictures so she could decide what she wanted.

My cousin, along with my aunt and basically her entire family, so not cook, like at all. I had to keep asking my cousin if she had measuring cups and spoons and if she had sugar and eggs. She had no idea about anything, so not only did we end up buying every single ingredient called for in the recipe, but a few of the measuring essentials too.

As I was making these cupcakes my cousin just kept looking on in astonishment. I felt kind of bad since she’s all like “Why do you have to do that?” and “Why can’t I just use the glass thing to measure the flour?” It was kind of bad, so I got her to crush the Oreos and so a little of the folding too. By the way, my cousin in six months older than I am, so if I’m portraying her as a little kid, I’m not. It shocks me every time I make something so simple and my aunt and her family are beyond impressed.

Anyways, these are some freaking fantastic cupcakes. I decided to make them again for my roommates to try and one roommate accused me of putting crack in them because she kept going back for more.

The cake part is really delicate, until you bit into the Oreo base and get a good chunk of Oreo in the bite, then these are just heavenly. The only part I kept having trouble with is the frosting. It’s dang good frosting, but it’s so…loose! The pictures make it look like this is an Oreo cheesecake, but it’s not. Besides the frosting being so limp, it’s great and soft and delicious.

Cookies ‘n Cream Cupcakes

From Indigo Scones

Makes 8 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

4 whole Oreos

¾ cup (90 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ + 1/8 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup (96 g) sugar

1 egg white, room temperature

¾ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup buttermilk

5 whole Oreos, coarsely chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 1/3 oz. cream cheese, chilled

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 whole Oreos, pulverized into crumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners. Twist the 4 Oreos so you have 8 cookies in total. Place one Oreo cookie, cream side up, in the paper liner.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set the bowl aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg white. Mix on medium speed until foamy and voluminous. Stir in the vanilla. Mix in half of the dry ingredients until combined. Add all of the buttermilk and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold in chopped Oreos.

Distribute batter among the prepared liners. Bake cupcakes for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

As the cupcakes cool, make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl on medium speed until smooth. Blend in vanilla. Slow the speed down and gradually add the powdered sugar. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Increase the speed and whip for 4 minutes. Frost cupcakes as desired (remember, the frosting will be really goopy). Sprinkle tops with Oreo cookie crumbs. 

Cake Slice Bakers - December 2012: Mississippi Mud Cupcakes

Happy Thursday, everyone! I can’t believe Christmas is only 4 days away! It’s unbelievable. I have so many more recipes to share with you for the holiday season, but first I will share this month’s Cake Slice Bakers cake.

The wining cake this month was the Mississippi Mud Cupcake. Mud cakes are typical sheet cakes known for their deep chocolate notes, nutty mix-ins, and gooey marshmallow toppings. Julie Richardson takes the sheet cake and turns it into a cute little cupcake.

I wasn’t too exciting about making this recipe only because of the marshmallow frosting. The marshmallow frosting is a combination of stiff egg whites and sugar syrup, something I have never been comfortable with.

I’m terrible at making candy. In February earlier this year I tried making marshmallows, boy was that a disaster. I basically made pink cement; it took about 10 hours of a hot water soak to get the whisk attachment free from the pink gunk. Oh and then there was the honeycomb candy disaster too where I made honey colored tar. Yeah, you can see why I’m a little apprehensive when it comes to anything that involved melting candy.

Despite my apprehension I trucked on and made the frosting anyways. You can take a guess as to how it turned out. If your guess is “horrible-tasting, honey-colored mush” then ding, ding, ding, you are a winner! I wasn’t too disappointed because I knew it wouldn’t turn out the way I wanted. So I went back to the drawing board. I knew I needed marshmallow frosting so I just looked up some marshmallow fluff buttercream from Baked Bree and used that to top the cupcakes.

Theses cupcakes have a lovely dark color, and their texture is light and soft. I had omitted the pecans in the cupcakes, but I loved the added texture and flavor of the semi-sweet chocolate chips. The frosting I used is really airy and delicate and pairs nicely with such a soft cake.

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes

Recipe from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

Frosting adapted from Baked Bree

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 cup hot coffee

¾ cup unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 cup toasted chopped pecans

1 cup, semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

½ cup canola oil

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Frosting

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 7 oz. jar marshmallow fluff

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the hot coffee and cocoa powder. Make sure to get all the clumps dissolved. Set the mixture aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Mix in the pecans and chocolate chips, making sure to thoroughly coat the mix-ins in the flour mixture.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Pour in the liquid chocolate mixture. Mix until combined. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Mix until combined. Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the cupcake tin for 10-15 minutes before removing. Repeat with the remaining batter if any is left. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. 

To make the frosting: beat the butter until fluffy. Add the marshmallow fluff and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually. Beat for another 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Frost the cupcakes as desired.

Cake Slice Bakers - September 2012: Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the 20^th again! I know I always say this, but time flies by so quickly and yet so slow. It seems like forever ago since I posted the Ultimate Lemon Roll Cake, but it seems like every week just goes by too fast.

This moth’s cake happens to be the second to last cake out of The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. Next month the Cake Slice members will be featuring a cake of our choice as a sort of last hoo-rah for finishing the book. 

I am not a big fan of peanut butter and chocolate. I know, shocking! I’m probably one of the 5% in the world that doesn’t like that combination. With that in mind, when I say I really, really, really enjoyed this mousse cake, it means the cake was seriously delightful. That’s the word I was looking for: delightful!

This cake is so light and creamy; I have never tasted anything with this kind of texture.

I decided to make cupcake mousse cakes because I didn’t think an apartment of four girls would be able to consume a full 9-inch mousse cake, but I think I like the presentation more than a slice anyways. The different layers look so pretty.

Now lets talk about taste. The crumb crust was sweet and a perfect contrast to the creamy peanut butter and chocolate layer, but lets face it; crumb crusts are never the stars of the show. The star here, for me at least, was definitely the peanut butter layer.

Usually peanut butter can have a very strong presence in desserts, which is why I prefer to get my peanut butter fix with my daily PB&GJ (grape jelly is the only way to go people). The peanut butter mousse layer was perfect! It was very light and was just peanut buttery enough to cease my peanut butter cravings. You can also taste just the slightest hint of cream cheesy goodness. I had a smidge-worth of trouble with the chocolate part, thought. The chocolate decided not to melt completely, but that did not stop me from enjoying the sweet and smooth layer. I actually thought the chocolate layer could have used a little more chocolate flavor, but it is still tasty nonetheless.

I took some over to my friend’s house on Monday for he and his roommates to share. 30 minutes after I left I got a text from him telling me that he and his roommates loved the little mousse cups. After just two days there are only three left in the freezer. I say this recipe is a success!

Oh and I forgot to mention something. Since we will be finishing The Cake Book next month, the Cake Slice Bakers are starting a new book in November and if you would like to join us in our year long devotion to cake, please email Paloma at love.for.coffee (at) gmail (dot) com with your name, blog name, and blog URL.

Also check out how the other members of the Cake Slice Bakers did here.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

Adapted from The Cake Book

Makes 12 mousse cups

Ingredients

Chocolate Wafer Crust

90g chocolate teddy grahams

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Peanut Butter Mousse

2 ½ oz. cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)

1 tbsp. unsalted butter, soft

72g confectioners sugar

100g smooth peanut butter

Pinch of salt

1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream

Chocolate Mousse

2 ½ oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

50g milk chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp. milk

3 tbsp. (33g) sugar

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions

Place 12 cupcake liners in a standard muffin pan and set aside. Crush teddy grahams into fine crumbs with either a food processor or place in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Transfer crumbs to a medium bowl and add in melted butter. Stir until combined. Place about 1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. of the crumb mixture into each muffin cup. Pat the crust down with a shot glass or something heavy. Refrigerate while you make the peanut butter mousse.

Beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-low until creamy, about 1 minute. Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar, you don’t want to get lost in a cloud of sugar. Mix until the sugar is well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the peanut butter and the salt. Beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed

In a separate bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream on high until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes. Gently fold in ½ cup of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture to lighten it up. Fold in another ¾ cup cream until light in color and airy in texture. Use a small cookie scoop (I believe mine was 1 oz.) and scoop two dollops on top of the crust. Smooth out the top. By the way, you may have extra peanut butter mousse; do what I did and top off the chocolate layer with some more peanut butter mousse. Refrigerate mousse as you make the chocolate layer.

Place chopped chocolate into a medium bowl. In a small sauce pan, combine the sugar and milk and heat over medium heat. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved. Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate and stir constantly until the chocolate has completely melted. Add vanilla extract and stir.

Fold in 1/3 of the remaining whipped cream to lighten the chocolate up. Fold in the rest of the cream and mix until light and airy. Dollop two 1 oz. portions of chocolate mousse on top of the peanut butter layer. If you have leftover peanut butter mousse, it’s a good idea to spread that on top of the chocolate, but only if you want.

Place muffin tin in the freezer for at least one hour to firm up. Take the mousse cups out of the tin a few minutes before serving. Store remaining mousse cups in the freezer until ready to be eaten.