Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I baked a LOT of cupcakes yesterday. I originally wanted to try piping a rose on each cupcake, but realized later that the cream cheese frosting does not have enough powdered sugar for the frosting to fully harden. So I did swirls on the small cupcakes and just spread the icing on with a knife for the bigger cupcakes. These cupcakes have a very smooth taste, probably due the massive amounts of butter in them (2 sticks). The recipe also calls for ground ginger and ground allspice, which I don't have, so I just added some extra cinnamon and nutmeg. This is something I do all the time. Both the cream cheese frosting and the cupcake recipe comes from Martha Stewart's website (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pumpkin-cupcakes)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

(If not using all of the above spices, increase the ones you are using by a little bit. And you don't have to measure spices out, just eyeball them)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 sticks butter (1 cup) melted and cooled (Always use unsalted)

4 eggs lightly beaten

1 15 ounce can pumpkin

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line cupcake tins with papers or spray them with non-stick spray

In a bowl, whisk together first 8 ingredients (flour, soda, powder, salt, spices)

In a bowl that's a bit larger, whisk together brown sugar, sugar, butter, eggs)

Add the dry ingredients to the moist and whisk until smooth

Stir in the pumpkin puree

Fill muffin containers about halfway. Tap down to ensure even distribution.

Bake 20-25 mins or until knife inserted in center comes out clean

Cool on a wire rack. Once cooled completely, you may frost.

Frosting:

I use Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting recipe found here: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/perfect-cream-cheese-frosting

There's nothing too special about it, so any recipe will really do. I actually add a bit of maple syrup to the frosting. The flavor goes nicely with both the cream cheese and the pumpkin.

Enjoy:)