Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Autumn is definitely in the air at he moment, Halloween is just around the corner and before you know it London skies will be filled with fireworks. Farmers market stalls were filled with different squash in various colours and sizes this weekend - so in the spirit of the new season I bring you... Pumpkin-spice Cupcakes (with vanilla mascapone frosting)....


Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

260g Self Raising Flour
280g Golden Caster Sugar
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3tsp Ground Cinnamon + 1/2 tsp for decoration
80g Unsalted Butter - at room temperature
220ml milk
4 eggs (small)
425g tin of Pumpkin Puree
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg for decoration

This recipe is adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery pumpkin cupcake recipe. I've essentially doubled up on the recipe in order to make use of a whole can of pumpkin puree and changed the quantities of some of the ingrediants etc as I went along.

1. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl, add sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and butter until well mixed and sand like.
2. Add the milk gradually until all mixed in. Add the eggs in two at a time and mix on a slow speed until all mixture is included.
3. Mix the pumpkin puree into the cake mixture with spatula until smooth  - and bright orange!
4. I used an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the mixture into 24 muffin cases - cooked in a preheated oven at 180degrees for roughly 20 minutes. 

 Vanilla Mascarpone Frosting

500g Mascarpone Cheese
300ml Whipping/Double Cream
1cup Icing Sugar
1 tsp good quality Vanilla Essensce.

Add all incrediants to mixing bowl and mix by hand to incorporate the icing sugar - do not do as I did and turn on the electric mixer - you will have have a white kitchen! Mix for 2-3 minutes until all incorporated and thickened.

I refrigerated the frosting until the cupcakes were cooled.

I randomly sprinkled cinnamon and nutmeg on top of each of the cupcakes.

Voila!

The cake was really doughy despite being left in for the correct time, I don't know if this was just as a result of the vegetable? I've never made pumpkin cake before. Hmm. The frosting was fantastic, really light and not at all sickly, great stuff.