Pumpkin Cupcakes with Simple Vanilla Glaze

This marks the beginning of my excursion into the world of food blogging. I hope to provide you with a look into my kitchen as I experiment with from-scratch recipes in cooking and baking.

Tonight's recipe comes to you in the form of pumpkin cupcakes, from Martha Stewart Online. Here is a link to the original recipe, and below I share my alterations on that recipe.



I primarily purchase salted butter, as we use it on bread, and I have never had a problem using it in baking, as long as I take care to omit any salt that is added to the recipe. The recipe below reflects that, as well as my love for allspice.

CUPCAKE RECIPE:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 eggs
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pans with paper liners.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and all spices. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together both sugars, butter, and eggs. (I used my KitchenAid stand mixer at Speed 2 for about 1 minute.)
4. Slowly add the flour mixture, mixing until smooth.
5. Add the pumpkin puree. Beat at medium speed until smooth and almost fluffy. (KitchenAid Speed 4)
6. Fill each paper liner about half-full.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes.
8. Remove from cupcake pan and let cool completely.

GLAZE RECIPE

• 1 to 1-1/2 cups confectionary sugar
• milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  

1. Pour about confectionery sugar in a bowl. Whisk in a small amount of milk to thin out the sugar.
2. Add vanilla. Whisk until blended. Consistency should be thin but not watery.
3. To glaze the cupcakes, dip them into the bowl of glaze and let the excess drip off.
4. For a finish, sprinkle with confectionery sugar.

COMMENTS

The cupcakes are a lot like pumpkin muffins - very moist with a mellow flavor. My workup of the recipe produced 27 cupcakes, much more than the 18 suggested by Martha. They would also pair well with cream cheese frosting if you were looking for something more substantial than a thin glaze. I could probably eat a hundred of them.

Happy autumn!