PUMPKIN SPICE CUPCAKES

Hello Everyone! It has been a good few months now since i last did any sort of baking post and with Halloween creeping up in just a couple of weeks, i thought there was no better time to do one. I wanted to share with you something pumpkin flavoured, as firstly it is one of the most popular foods associated with Halloween and second of all it tastes amazing in pretty much anything from soup to cupcakes. With that in mind if you want to find out how to create these delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes, then please keep on reading...

12 Cupcake Cases (design of your choice)

120g Plain Flour

140g Caster Sugar

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon (plus extra to decorate)

A Pinch of Salt

40g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

120ml Milk

2 Eggs

200g Tinned Pumkin Purée (or fresh steamed and puréed)

300g Icing Sugar (sifted)

50g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

125g Cream Cheese (cold)

12 Decorations (of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 170c or Gas Mark 3 and line your baking tins with your chosen cupcake cases. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and butter in to your mixer (or bowl if you are using a hand mixer) and beat on a slow speed until you get a sand like consistency and everything is combined. Then gradually pour in the milk and beat again until well mixed. Add in the eggs and beat well, then stir in the pumpkin purée by hand until evenly dispersed. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases until two-thirds full and bake in the pre-heated oven for around 20 minutes or until the sponge bounces back. Once cooked leave the cupcakes to cool slightly before transferring to a wire cooling rack. To make the cream cheese frosting, beat the icing sugar and butter together on a medium/slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add in all of the cream cheese at once and mix until it is well combined. Turn the speed up to a medium/high speed and continue to mix until light and fluffy, but don't over beat. All that is left to do is pipe/spoon on and add the decorations of your choice. I decided to go with a sprinkling of cinnamon and these super cute vanilla marshmallow pumpkins from Wilko.

♥