Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Fall means pumpkins!  Well, and a bunch of other stuff.  But one of my favorite things about fall is baking pumpkin goodies.  I decided to make some pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to add a little twang to the sweetness instead of the usual buttercream frosting.  They were oh so delightful, it was hard not to eat them all in one sitting!


Pumpkin Cupcakes

2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups canned or pureed pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or whatever proportional combo you like best of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and maybe some ginger)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the sugar, oil and apple sauce.  Add the pumpkin and vanilla and then beat in the eggs one at a time.  Mix all of the dry ingredients in another bowl, then slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients.

Grease a mini muffin tin or use baking cups (I found some really cute ones at Michael's for about the same price as the plain white ones).  Fill about two thirds of the way.

Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and then flip the cupcakes out onto a cooling rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling make the frosting.


Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
5-6 cups powdered sugar (can add more for thicker frosting)
2 tsp vanilla


Beat the butter and cream cheese together, then gradually add the powdered sugar and finally the vanilla (and any food coloring you may want to use).

Frost the cupcakes and enjoy!

You'll end up with a lot of frosting, so unless you like gobs of frosting on your cupcakes, I recommend halving the recipe (I ended up with a bunch leftover; not that having some extra frosting in the house is a terrible thing!).  This frosting is fairly soft, but if you want to firm it up a bit just add more powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.  The frosted cupcakes should be refrigerated.

Inspiration for cupcake recipe found here.

Caramel Frosted Cupcakes

Not a huge departure from what I've done in the past, but who doesn't like chocolate and caramel together?  Just before girl's night this month I realized that we hadn't properly celebrated our friend Jen's birthday.  I remembered from a previous party that Jen had mentioned the only thing that could make these cupcakes any better would be if they had caramel inside them.  Unfortunately I didn't have the time to experiment with this idea (although I'd like to in the future!); I decided the next best thing would be caramel buttercream frosting on the chocolate cupcakes.

I used this cupcake recipe and used the buttercream seen there as a base for the frosting

Caramel Buttercream Frosting

12 oz (approximately) of unwrapped caramel candies
1 tsp water
1 cup butter, room temperature 
5 cups powdered sugar
2 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


In a large bowl, cream together the butter and vanilla. Blend the sugar in one cup at a time.  You may need to stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl a few times to make sure it all gets thoroughly incorporated.  Microwave the caramel and water in a separate bowl until melted and smooth.  Allow it to cool just a little bit and then temper it by adding about 1/2 cup of the butter-sugar mixture until smooth.  Then incorporate the caramel into the rest of the butter and sugar mixture.  Beat in the milk and vanilla and continue mixing until well incorporated.  Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting.

The frosting is really fantastic and goes perfectly with the chocolate cake.  The caramel flavor isn't overwhelmingly strong, but you'll definitely know it's there and once in a while you get a nice chewy little piece of caramel that didn't get fully mixed in.  Yum!

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Chocolate Cupcakes

Last night was the sometimes-monthly-girl's-night and I got to bring dessert (yay!).  Of course I had to make something chocolaty, although the hubs said no matter what I made it would also be discriminatory.  He says that we're discriminating by not inviting the boys to these gatherings, especially since they always invite the girls (even to poker night!).  To retaliate, the boys ate out and went bowling while the girls had dinner in and drank wine.

Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand: chocolate.  I decided to make cupcakes (the hubs keeps saying I need to branch out from cookies, so I am trying to master the art of cupcakes) and use a new recipe since my usual one, while very yummy, results in a somewhat crumbly texture that can get a tad messy.

I picked a new recipe for the cupcakes but decided to stick with my usual buttercream frosting.  The cupcakes came out so moist and had great flavor.  They also came out less crumbly than the other recipe.  Someone commented last night was that it was one of their favorites of the desserts that I've made.  Given that I rarely bring home leftovers of my baked goods, that tells me it's a keeper!

Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer.  Add the boiling water last, and mix it in well.  The batter will be really thin - that's okay!

Place cupcake papers into mini-muffin pan and almost fill the papers with batter.  I put my batter into a really big measuring cup that has a spout so I could pour the batter in and it worked out quite nicely.

Bake for 10 minutes.  They are done baking when a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from pan and allow to cool on wire rack.

Those indentations on the top are from flipping them onto the cooling rack.  But the frosting is going to cover them, so it's no big deal.

Makes about a million mini-cupcakes.  Okay, you caught me, it doesn't make a million.  But it makes about 70, which is still a lot!


Buttercream Frosting


1 cup butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


In a large bowl, cream together the butter and vanilla. Blend the sugar in one cup at a time.  You may need to stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl a few times to make sure it all gets thoroughly incorporated.  Beat in the milk and continue mixing until light and fluffy.  Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting.

The final result:

Both of these recipes are very closely based on some that I found online:
Cupcakes
Frosting