I have been cleaning out my apartment for what seems like weeks. I never knew I had so much stuff. I started to clean out my pantry on Sunday and came across a can of pumpkin. It needed to be used, so the hunt for a recipe began and I found a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes on pinterest. Since it’s Halloween and I had a ton of cute Halloween themed mini cupcake liners, I decided to make mini cupcakes. Besides, mini cupcakes are super cute, especially with sprinkles. Everything is better with sprinkles.
The recipe I found called for one 16 oz can of pumpkin. My pumpkin was only 15 oz, but I forged ahead and hoped for the best. The original recipe, that I slightly modified, is from Book Bound, All Things Inspired by Books. The original recipe can be found here: Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Frosting.
Several of my coworkers are allergic to milk/dairy. The recipe for the cupcakes doesn’t have any dairy in it, although the frosting does have cream cheese and butter in it. I sprinkled a few of them with some of the vanilla sugar I bought while I was in Prague. That way everyone was able to eat some if they wanted to and it worked out great. I liked the vanilla sugar cupcakes as well as the maple frosted ones, and I LOVE maple frosting.
Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 11/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 large eggs
- 15 oz canned pumpkin
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
Optional Topping for cupcakes instead of frosting
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 350, line your mini cupcake tin(s) with cupcake liners.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon in a bowl. In a separate larger bowl combine the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, brown sugar and oil, mixing until smooth. Add in the flour a little at a time until a smooth batter forms and everything is combined.
Pour batter into the lined cupcake tin, filling the cups about 2/3 of the way full. If you are using sugar as a topping, sprinkle it on the cupcakes before popping them in the oven. Bake for about ten minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in the pan then transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting them.
Makes about 100 mini cupcakes or 24 regular size cupcakes
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 – 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened
- 4 tbsp of butter, softened
- 1 1/4 tsp of maple extract
- 1 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- sprinkles
Combine the cream cheese, butter and extracts in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whip attachment whip until smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape the bowl. Add in the powdered sugar a little at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl before each addition to ensure that the frosting is properly mixed. Once frosting is smooth, pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Top with sprinkles.
thiscrazygirlcanbake 
