Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese | Barefoot Contessa


After encouragement from Tessa (@nineandsixteen), Jennifer (@faithmd) and Maria (@growersdaughter) I'm jumping on the Barefoot Contessa's Pumpkin Cupcake bandwagon.  Last year I made about 35 loafs of pumpkin bread from September-February, but I never put it in cupcake form and topped it with cream cheese frosting.  These were so utterly delicious.  The cake is basically the same recipe as the pumpkin bread recipe I use - so moist from plenty of pumpkin puree (making it healthy, right?) and warm spices.  And that frosting.  OMG - so soft and creamy.  The slight sweetness was absolutely the perfect compliment.  We've enjoyed them after school for snacks and for breakfast : )   And now they are gone and I want to make more.


I made them in my Jumbo Brown Cupcake Papers and used the Large Scoop to put them into the papers neatly and portioned.  Her recipe says it makes 9, and I found this to be exactly correct.  It filled the jumbo papers perfectly.  I think you could stretch it to 12 by using my White Cupcake Papers.



I used my Offset Spatula to spread the icing, instead of piping the frosting on per usual, I felt like a homemade spread icing was more appropriate for these simple, earthy (to use a Ina term) cupcakes.


The recipe can be found, here, or in the Barefoot Contessa's Foolproof Cookbook - one of my all time favorites.


Browse all of my favorite Fall Recipes, here >


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