Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes
Easy
A spooktacular cupcake sure to please any ghouls, goblins and ghosts! These are a deliciously spiced pumpkin cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting in a cute pumpkin design. Making your own pumpkin purée is simple to do, it just requires roasting a bit of butternut squash then mashing it with a fork. Full details are in the recipe!
PREP IN
25 MIN
COOK IN
25-28 MIN
SERVE
12
Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes
Easy
PREP IN
25 MIN
COOK IN
25-28 MIN
SERVE
12
Introduction
A spooktacular cupcake sure to please any ghouls, goblins and ghosts! These are a deliciously spiced pumpkin cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting in a cute pumpkin design. Making your own pumpkin purée is simple to do, it just requires roasting a bit of butternut squash then mashing it with
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Ingredients
- 255g pumpkin purée*
- 150g soft light brown sugar
- 125ml sunflower oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 140g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- Pinch of ground cloves
- ¼ tsp salt
- For the cream cheese frosting
- 135g unsalted butter, very soft
- 285g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 400g full fat cream cheese, chilled
- Orange, brown & black gel food colouring
FOR THE SPONGE:
Method
- 1. *To make pumpkin purée, pre-heat oven to 220°C / 200°C fan assisted. Cut the top of a butternut squash into thick slices (depending on the size of the butternut you’ll need between 5-6 slices).
- 2. Drizzle an oven safe dish or tray with a little bit of oil then arrange the butternut slices in a single layer. Brush the tops with a little bit of oil then cover and seal with a piece of tinfoil.
- 3. Roast in the oven until butternut is fork tender, about 45 minutes.
- 4. Once cooked, uncover and leave to cool completely. Once cooled, use a spoon to scoop the flesh away from the skin and into a bowl. Mash well with a fork then measure out 255g for the cupcakes.
- 5. For the cupcakes, pre-heat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan assisted. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
- 6. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the wet ingredients with the sugar.
- 7. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk together just until smooth.
- 8. Divide the batter between the cupcake paper, each should be about 2/3 full, then bake in the pre-heated oven until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean and they spring back when lightly touched, between 25-28 minutes.
- 9. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes in the cupcake pan on a wire rack, then remove from the pan and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- 10. Once the cupcakes are cool, prepare the frosting.
- 11. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla (if using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment). The texture will start out crumbly, then will become smooth as you mix. Tip: If your butter was still a little bit chilled, you can pop the bowl in the microwave for about 10 seconds at a time just to soften a little bit more.
- 12. Once the butter is smooth and creamy, add the cream cheese (if using a stand mixer, change to a whisk attachment) and whisk together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until completely combined and beautifully thick.
- 13. Set aside two spoonful’s of frosting, each spoonful in a small bowl.
- 14. Add orange gel food colouring to the bulk of the frosting and whisk until uniform in colour, you can add more colouring as needed. Spoon the orange frosting into a large piping bag fitted with a large plain piping nozzle. Tip: You may have to start with half of the frosting so that your bag isn’t over-filled and difficult to work with.
- 15. To one of the small bowls of frosting, whisk in brown gel colouring, to the other, colour with black gel colouring. Spoon the brown frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small star frosting tip. Spoon the black frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small plain frosting tip.
- 16. To decorate the cupcakes, pipe a parentheses ( ) with the orange frosting on the opposite edges of the cupcake. Then overlapping those, pipe another more closed parentheses (). Finally, pipe one stripe down the middle | to fill in the gap ((|)).
- 17. Pipe a small swirl or comma , at the top of the pumpkin, then for the face, use the black frosting to pipe two small triangles for eyes and a zigzag from left to right for the mouth.
- 18. Cupcakes will keep for about 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
