Since the oven has been working again, I’ve been doing quite a bit of baking, but it’s already halfway through October and I had yet to bake something with a real Fall flare. I decided I would make pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
After some recipe comparison research, I selected a recipe that uses cake flour and that includes its own mix of spices instead of pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice. As convenient as pumpkin pie spice is, I wanted to really try to make the mix from scratch. So into the cake flour went cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, AND black pepper.
The black pepper was actually another reason why I chose this recipe. It seemed interesting, and I made an orange-pumpkin cake last year that incorporated pepper as well and it turned out really well.
This recipe also included buttermilk, which recent experience has shown to be a sign of a good recipe.
And here they are, wonderfully fluffy and a nice light color.
I made these on the same day that I made the chocolate salted caramel cupcakes for my neighbor’s Oktoberfest party. The house definitely smelled amazing.
The frosting was so easy – 12 Tbs butter whipped with 8 oz cream cheese, plus 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. It was a pretty sweet frosting, but the spice of the cinnamon and the tang of the cream cheese balanced it all out.
I was really pleasantly surprised with how these turned out. There was a great pumpkin flavor in the cupcakes, which themselves were perfectly light and moist. The frosting had a great fluffy texture, and of course cream cheese frosting is the perfect partner to a pumpkin cupcake.
Definitely a successful day of fall baking. These cupcakes would go perfectly with some hot coffee . . . as you sit back and watch the leaves flutter down from the trees, the sun catching on the bright yellows and oranges . . . yes, Fall is without a doubt my favorite season.