Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese Icing

As we were heading out for our Lake District pod-camping adventure on Friday, as well as whipping up the good old Pumpkin Donuts, I scoured my favourite Primrose Bakery cupcakes book for a pumpkin recipe for us to use up the second of our two pumpkins.

Bailey was in charge of carving this second pumpkin and he actually took it very seriously and the end result was ace! A very spooky pumpkin indeed.

The recipe I chose from Primrose was for Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese Icing which sounded absolutely lovely - like a yummy, Hallowe'eny alternative to carrot cake.

I was happy with how the cakes turned out as they tasted very moist, flavoursome and with bags of flavour.

Although the cakes tasted nice, I was a little disappointed with the fact that they didn't really rise much - I think this could have been because I added the pumpkin purée to the cake batter when it was still quite hot. Next time I will prepare the pumpkin purée in advance so it cools down so as not to affect the rise of the cakes. Also the cakes got a bit squashed in the car which made them look pretty ghoulish but I guess there was nothing I could have done about that!

I think the Pumpkin Cupcakes went down well with the campers this weekend as being a little bit Autumny they fit in very well with our rural surroundings.

I was very happy with Hannah's comments who said the cupcakes were "just her type of cake"! Great stuff.

Recipe:

For the cakes:
100g butter, softened
240g brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g pumpkin flesh
125g self-raising flour
120g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
120ml milk
1 teaspoon vinegar

For the icing:
200g cream cheese
200g icing sugar
125g butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Cook the pumpkin for 3 minutes in the microwave until tender and blend to make a pumpkin purée and leave it to cool. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time followed by the vanilla, and mix well throughout.

Put the two flours, the cinnamon and ginger together in a separate bowl. In a jug, combine the milk and vinegar. Sift one third of the flours into the original mixing bowl and stir, before adding one third of the milk and stirring.

Repeat until all the flour and milk has been mixed into the cake batter.

Spoon the cake batter into the cupcake cases until they are two-thirds full of cake mix.

Place the cakes into the oven for around 25 minutes, or until the cakes are golden and cooked all the way through. Leave the cakes in the tin for around 10 minutes, before taking out and leaving to cool fully.

Meanwhile, make the icing by combining all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and stirring well to get rid of any lumps.

Ice the cakes using a palette knife before topping with Hallowe'en sprinkles or decorations. Yum scrum!