Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Sweet
- Oven
Tender oven-baked pumpkin cupcakes scented with cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting. A simple Halloween bake made in one bowl.
- Total
- 77 min
- Prep 20 · Cook 27 · Rest 30
- Serves
- 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Whisking · Folding
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 180°C and line a 6-hole muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.
~10 min
-
While step 1 cooks
Melt 80 g butter in a small bowl in the oven as it heats, about 5 minutes, then set aside to cool slightly.
~5 min
Melting the butter in the warming oven saves a pan, and letting it cool slightly stops it from cooking the eggs when whisked in.
-
Whisk 200 g pumpkin, 2 eggs and 100 g sugar in a mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in the melted butter.
~5 min
Whisking the eggs and sugar first breaks them up and dissolves the sugar, so the batter blends evenly before the butter goes in.
Whisking Whisk briskly in a circular motion, scraping the bowl, until the mixture is uniform and no streaks of egg remain; stop as soon as it is smooth.
-
Add 150 g flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon and 0.25 tsp nutmeg to the wet mixture and fold with a wooden spoon just until no dry flour remains.
~4 min
Folding just until the flour disappears limits gluten development, which keeps the cupcakes tender instead of dense and chewy.
Do not overmix once the flour goes in: fold only until the streaks of flour disappear so the cupcakes stay tender rather than dense.
Folding Use a wooden spoon or spatula to lift and turn the batter gently, scraping the base, and stop the moment the last dry flour vanishes.
-
Divide the batter between the 6 liners, filling each about three-quarters full, and bake until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes.
~22 min
Filling three-quarters full leaves room for the batter to rise, and a clean skewer shows the eggs are set and the crumb is baked through.
-
Lift the cupcakes onto a wire rack and let them cool completely, about 30 minutes.
~30 min
A wire rack lets steam escape from the base so the liners don't go soggy, and full cooling keeps the frosting from melting.
-
Beat 120 g cream cheese with the remaining 30 g sugar until smooth, then spread over the cooled cupcakes.
~6 min
Beating the cream cheese with sugar smooths it into a spreadable frosting; overbeating can make it loose, so stop once it is silky.
Cream cheese frosting holds best on fully cooled cupcakes; if the cakes are still warm it will slide off.
