Food Friday~ Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes

Friday, October 8, 2010

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s Lu today & I’m bringing you another sweet & spicy recipe! I am definitely in the mood for fall now… and that has me craving comfort foods! I have such a sweet tooth, and even though I don’t care for pumpkin pie, I  found a wonderful recipe for Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes on allrecipes.com…. and WOW! These little gems are tasty! They are delicious by themselves, but when you dollop them with cream cheese frosting… all I can say is, you better make two batches because they go quick. Here’s what you’ll need:

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcake Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 (3.4 oz) instant butterscotch pudding mix
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

 and…

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree

Cupcake Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease 24 muffin cups or line with paper liners.  In  a medium bowl, whisk together the first (9) ingredients.
• Beat together the butter and both sugars, until light & fluffy.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time, until each egg is blended. With the last egg, beat in the vanilla & pumpkin puree.
• Stir in the flour mixture, until just incorporated. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups.
• Bake for approximately 20-25 minures, or until tops are golden & spring back when lightly pressed.
• Cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Now,  you can either stop here & start enjoying or… you can proceed to the next step, the cream cheese icing! While the muffins are cooling down, now is the time to whip up the cream cheese frosting (also from allrecipes.com). If you plan to have the cream cheese icing with the cupcakes, it’s a good idea to go ahead & put out the cream cheese blocks & butter along with the cupcake ingredients, to come to room temperature at the same time.

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

• 2 (8 oz)  packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting Directions:

In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese & butter, until creamy.
Mix in the vanilla, then gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar.
Store in refrigerator after use.

As fall is something worth celebrating around here, I sent these cupcakes to work with my husband to share.  He said everyone in the office just raved about them (then he asked me where I bought them, lol).  Just like with my chai tea post, I thought this was a great opportunity to show off the Fall Festival Confection Collection! The cupcake wrappers (shown in my photo at the top of this post) are the perfect attire for these sweet treats!

 These cupcakes are perfect for school bake sales, Harvest dinners (they’re already on my menu for this year) or even a weekend breakfast/brunch. I love to bake up muffins for the girls… However they are served, they’re sure to please!  I’ve created recipe cards for both the cupcake & the frosting. I used the AUTUMN MEDLEY kit in the design – and don’t forget, it is on SALE this week only as the Shoppe’s product spotlight!  Just click on the image to download (or click HERE)… and enjoy!

Just a note:   the allrecipes.com logo is being used with permission…actually – it is a requirement in their licensing that we include it on the recipe cards as well as here on the post.  Just wanted to let you know in the event you were wondering why there is a logo on one of the cards :o)

We’ll see you back on Monday with our LOTW… Have a wonderfully “sweet” weekend!

LuFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 5 Comments