I've had cupcakes on the brain for the past couple of months. First a cupcake won the Cooking Light Reader Recipe Contest. Then I had fabulous cupcakes while I was in Charleston for the Southern Living contest. SL gave us each a gift bag with two cupcakes when we arrived, and they also served them backstage during the show. The cupcakes were from a new bakery in Charleston called Cupcake, and two of them are pictured here. I sampled, um, a few, and all were fabulous, although they had a little too much frosting for me -- and I thought there was no such thing as too much frosting.So when I went to a ladies' card night on Friday, I offered to make cupcakes. I decided to make Martha Stewart's recipe for pumpkin cupcakes. They were tasty, although the texture was a little heavy, like a muffin; I would have preferred a fluffier texture. I also didn't like the idea of using two sticks of butter. Here's the recipe.
Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Cupcakes
(Martha's recipe said it makes 18, but I got 21)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt (I don't know why she uses coarse salt in baking.)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger (I used 1/2 tsp as I worried the ginger would be too strong.)
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can pumpkin purée (15 ounces)
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin purée.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
As for the frosting, it was something I was experimenting with, and quite frankly I can't find my scribbles on what I did. But as I was Googling the Cupcake bakery, I found an article with several of their recipes, including one for pumpkin cupcakes. They use a cinnamon cream cheese icing, which I'm sure would be very tasty. Here's a link to the article. If you try any of the recipes, please post a comment and tell me how it was!