Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

As promised, here is another pumpkin recipe. Being the weekend, I actually had some time to do some baking, and a friend needed some cupcakes for an event she was having. This gave me the perfect reason to try to make pumpkin cupcakes using a recipe that I found on Taste and Tell. The recipe was fairly easy, and the cupcakes turned out great. To quote a friend of mine who was around to sample the end product, "These are good as h***!". That's a compliment.

So, without further ado...

Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 box spice cake mix
15 oz pumpkin filling/puree
3 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water

Mix all the ingredients together and fill cupcake tins 3/4 full. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes. Mine were actually done closer to 15 minutes, so make sure to watch them. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting them.

Cream Cheese Frosting

This is a unique recipe because it is a mix between cream cheese and whipping cream. The result is a much lighter, creamier frosting.

1 cup whipping cream
1 8oz package of cream cheese
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

My mom always told me that whipping cream worked better if everything was cold. So, I washed the metal bowl and egg beaters that I had used for the cupcakes and placed them in the freezer. Do this almost immediately after you put the cupcakes into the oven because then it gives them time to get nice and cold. Put the cream cheese in another bowl with brown sugar and vanilla, and set aside for now. Retrieve your bowl and beaters from the freezer, add the whipping cream and beat whip cream until soft peaks are formed. Put the whipping cream bowl into the fridge while you beat the other ingredients.

Without rinsing beaters, mix the cream cheese, vanilla, and brown sugar until smooth. Fold in the whipping cream until well mixed. Put the frosting into the fridge to firm up for frosting.

Once cupcakes are cool...frost away!

My one regret about this recipe is that the cream cheese frosting is pretty domineering compared to the pumpkin cupcake. I piped the frosting on fairly thick, but in retrospect would do a thin 1/8" layer on top so that you can taste more of the cupcake. The person who originally posted this recipe had a great idea and put a single candy corn on each cupcake...very cute.

So, does this satisfy my pumpkin craving? Yes, I'm definitely done with pumpkins for a while.