So much has been said about cupcakes. So many have been eaten. I must say I am not a fan of desserts and I am not a strong baker. However, I wanted to at least try to make one and experiment with some frosting. You must know that every year I hold a Pumpkin party. All the dishes must be based on pumpkin, even drinks. I could not have it this year, but still wanted to expand my repertoire for future years.
There are many recipes for cupcakes but they all revolve around the same ingredients. Martha Stewart uses quite a lot of sugar, I wanted to avoid that. I read so many recipes and at the end the classic recipe comes down to the Joy of Cooking. What I ended up doing is my own version of cupcakes after having reviewed what was available online and via books.
Pumpkin CupCakes with cream cheese white chocolate vanilla frosting
Cupcakes: 1 can of pumpkin puree or make you own (one cup); 2 cups of flour (sift before); 1 cup of brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg; 1/2 teaspoon of ginger (fresh grated or dry); 1/3 cup of fresh orange zest (optional); 1/2 teaspoon all spices; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2/ baking soda; 1 1/2 melted butter or room temperature; 2 eggs beaten.
Frosting: 4 cups confectioners’ sugar; 1/2 soft butter; half melt white chocolate bar (double saucepan) ; one teaspoon vanilla extract. [I used Godiva white chocolate vanilla bar. You can also use Godiva liqueur].
You will need a KitchenAid mixer or equivalent. It is just easier.
Sift the flour, add all the dry ingredients, except the sugar. Set aside. In the KitchenAid whisk the eggs with half of the sugar. Set aside. Clean the bowl of the KitchenAid and place the butter and remaining sugar. Once the mixture is soft and creamy add slowly the dry ingredients and eggs whisked. You can add the orange zest if you like. Your final mixture should look like this:
Place the patch in cupcakes containers. Fill half cupcakes like shown in the picture (smooth the top of each).
Preheat oven at 350 and bake until the top is gold/brown. Use toothpick to check. It usually takes 20-25 minutes. Set aside to cool down.
Frosting:
Using the KitchenAid, whisk the melt/soft butter and cream cheese (Philadelphia) together. Add the chocolate melted it and the rest of the ingredients. Whisk until it is fluffy as shown in the picture. Place in the fridge until you are ready to use it. If it is too hard when you take it out the fridge set aside in room temperature for few minutes.
The result is this and let me tell you this is a pretty amazing recipe. The cupcake is so soft and the flavor is amazing. The icing is not overpowering. Just amazing.
Now you can probably have fun with the icing and do some amazing decorations. I am not, so I kept it simple. Make sure the icing and the cupcakes are cold if not the icing will melt. I also like to eat those without the icing. Please let me know what you think.
Intellectual Salon's Food Blog 