Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes

Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes

My mom makes these amazing pumpkin cookies, and this was my attempt to replicate them as cupcakes. I decided to do mini cupcakes on the grounds that that would get the cupcake/icing ratio closer to the ratio of the cookies. I also used a few more spices in the cupcakes themselves, but I don't think that hurt anything. The soft crumbly texture of the cupcakes goes great with the crunch of pecans, and the brown sugar icing provides moisture and some extra sweetness.

Cupcakes:

2 cups cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/2 cup buttermilk

vanilla

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup pumpkin

1 bag (12 oz) pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, one a time. Stir in half the flour mixture, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the rest of the flour. Fold in the pumpkin, then the pecans, stirring by hand.

Spoon the batter into mini cupcake tin. Fill cups most of the way full. Bake for 10 minutes, turn, bake for 10 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes 48.

Brown Sugar Icing:

1 cup brown sugar, packed

6 tbsp butter

8 tbsp milk

1 1/2 cups xxx sugar

vanilla

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar, butter, and milk to a boil, stirring frequently to avoid burning. After 2 minutes of boiling, remove from heat and whisk in the xxx sugar and the vanilla.

Use immediately, spooning generously over each cupcake.

Decorate as desired.

Cupcake recipe adapted from The Baking Robot

Icing recipe by my mother

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes with Brown-Butter Spice Frosting

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes with Brown-Butter Spice Frosting

After doing a lot of complicated recipes in April, I wanted to start out with something nice and easy for May. Voila!

Cupcakes:

3 cups flour, sifted

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed

4 eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Whisk together flour and bp.

Cream butter until light and fluffy, then add brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Add flour alternating with buttermilk.

Fill cupcake tins 3/4 of the way full. I overfilled, and that was not a great life choice, since these rise outward rather than upward and you will end up with those giant cake rims overflowed on the pan.

Bake 14 minutes, turn tins, bake another 15 minutes. Let cool.

Makes between 24-30, depending on how full you fill tins.

Icing:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cups xxx sugar, sifted

2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp cinnamon

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it is brown and melted. Be careful, it burns easily -- I burned my first batch. Remove from heat, and strain into a mixing bowl to remove sediment.

Sift in sugar and spices. Add vanilla and milk, and beat until smooth and spreadable. If the icing is too thick, add more milk a little at a time. Use right away, as it sets up pretty quick.

I added the spices to this recipe because otherwise I think it can be somewhat bland. Cardamom is a huge favorite in our family, so I put in more of that than the other spices. You should definitely feel free to season this recipe to taste -- add spices you like, cut out ones you don't, and leave them out altogether if you'd prefer to have just the praline taste of the browned butter.

I only had 24 cupcakes because of overfilling the tins, and I ran out of icing, so you may want to make 1 1/2 recipes of the icing. You wouldn't think so, but sometimes Martha can lead you astray.

Both recipes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.