It’s pretty clear that people are crazy for pumpkins.  Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread.  I mean, if you can add a pumpkin to it, people are gonna eat it.  I know this because I saw a stand for pumpkin topped pizza at Half Moon Bay’s Pumpkin Festival this past weekend.  The only thing I didn’t see was pumpkin wine… and I’m wondering when that’s gonna happen cause then I’ll be a truly happy camper.  This leads me to believe that if you combined pumpkins and cupcakes… you’d really have a homerun.  And someone’s beaten me to the punch…

There’s a magical place called Sprinkles where I first encountered the pumpkin cupcake and it was love at first bite.  Sadly, there isn’t a Sprinkles on every street corner, so not everyone has access to such delightful baked goods.  Lucky for you and me… and everyone else reading this post, I’m about to let you in on a little secret.  Sprinkles was smart enough to realize that they just can’t franchise fast enough.  So, they’ve packaged their cupcake goodness and you can buy it at Williams-Sonoma (and at their store, but if you don’t have a store then you can’t buy it… and if you were in the store, wouldn’t you just buy a cupcake?).  This weekend, I took on the task of whipping up these babies.

Now, since I’ve been going on and on and on about pumpkin cupcakes… you probably would like to make them (and eat them).  And because it will take too long to either 1) order and wait for your Sprinkles Cupcake Mix to arrive, or 2) find your closest Williams-Sonoma, I’ve taken the liberty of providing you with an alternate cupcake recipe (but have kept the Sprinkles Icing recipe – which is kinda the best part).

Ingredients: 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

  • 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
  • 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 5/6 cups sugar
  • 1 eggs, beaten until frothy
  • 1/2 cup mashed cooked or canned pumpkin
  • 3/8 cup milk

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 8oz. cold cream cheese
  • 1 stick (113g) unsalted  butter, firm but not cold
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 3 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a bowl.
  2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs.
  3. Blend in mashed pumpkin.
  4. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, blending until batter is smooth after each addition.
  5. Spoon batter into well-greased and floured or paper-lined muffin pan cups.
  6. Fill about 2/3 full.
  7. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
  8. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the cream cheese, butter, salt, and cinnamon on medium-low speed until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes.
  9. Reduce the speed to low, gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until incorporated.
  10. Add the vanilla and beat just until incorporated.  Do not overmix or the frosting will incorporate too much air.  It should be creamy and dense, like ice cream.
  11. Add milk 1 tsp at a time if frosting does not have a spreadable consistency.

If this doesn’t get you into a festively fall mood, then I really don’t know what will.  Probably that pumpkin wine.

xx,
WhyDid

 

*Editor’s Note: I did, in fact, make that cupcake up above.  Sprinkles is so thoughtful that they even include the cute little candy dots.