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Ghostly Pumpkin Cupcakes
Just in time for Halloween! Combining two elements of the holiday: Ghosts and Pumpkins! The cupcakes are unbelievably moist; we used a lot of pumpkin puree in them. We spooned the batter in mini bundt pans and added pumpkin seeds in order for it to resemble real pumpkins. The ghosts are made out of cream cheese icing, swirled on top, and have a mouth and eyes made of of chocolate chips (no ghosts were used in this recipe.) All of the flavors complement each other perfectly. They're great chilled too.
First, the dry ingredients. Put the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl, then whisk the ingredients till they are very fine.
Next, put the sugars, oil, eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin puree into an electric mixer, and beat until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl when necessary.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and beat until it is well incorporated, again, scraping down the bowls when necessary.
Spray the mini bundt cake pans that look like the bottom of a pumpkin with oil liberally. We only have one mini bundt cake pan, but the recipe makes 2 dozen. It's better if you have 2 pans, but you can do them in two batches like we did.
Anyways, spoon the batter about halfway up the pan, then add a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, and spoon some more batter almost to the top of the pan. If you don't want pumpkin seeds, just fill them to the top.
Bake them in a preheated oven at 325℉ for about 30 minutes (the cupcakes should come out clean when inserted with a tester).
Let them cool for about 15 minutes, then put a cooling rack over the pan and tun them upside down. They should come out no problem if the pans were sprayed liberally.
Now for the cream cheese icing, Beat the soften cream cheese with the soften unsalted butter, and whisk until completely smooth, scraping down the bowl when necessary.
Add the salt and vanilla extract and whisk until incorporated.
Measure out 4 ½ cups confectioners' sugar unsifted, and sift it through a sieve.
Then, pour all of the powdered sugar into the bowl and mix, starting slow, to avoid the sugar flying out, then whisk faster until smooth, scraping down the sides when necessary.
Two mini chocolate chips placed above the regular sized chocolate chip.
Lastly, it is time to assemble the ghostly pumpkins:
- Put the cupcake, flat side up.
- Using a piping bag with a round nozzle, fill it with the cream cheese icing, and swirl it towards the middle till the cupcake is covered and pointed on top.
- Add one regular sized chocolate chip situated towards the middle of the side, tip first.
- Add two mini sized chocolate chips, tip first, above the regular sized chip (this part gets a little tedious).
Repeat with all of them. After that, you are done. Feel free to "scare" your party guest with these cupcakes. Happy Halloween! BOO!!!
Ingredients
Utensils:
- mini bundt cake pans
Pumpkin Cupcakes:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ tsp. baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cups white sugar
- ¾ cups light brown sugar
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (30 oz.) can pumpkin puree
- pumpkin seeds, optional
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 16 oz. cream cheese, soften
- 4 oz. unsalted butter, soften
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 ½ C. sifted confectioners’ sugar
Garnishing:
- regular sized chocolate chips
- mini sized chocolate chips
Instructions
For Cupcakes:
1. Heat oven to 325℉.
2. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside
3. In an electric mixer, mix white sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin puree until completely blended. Then, add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix, scraping down bowls when necessary.
4. Spray the mini bundt cake pans with oil, enough for about 24 cupcakes.
5. Spoon half the batter into the cupcake pans, add some pumpkin seeds and fill up almost to the top. If not using pumpkin seeds, just fill almost to the top.
6. Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes or until muffins are thoroughly cooked.
7. Let cool for about 15 minutes.
8. Take out of pans and set aside on a wire rack.
For Cream Cheese Filling:
1. In an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter for about 2 minutes, scraping bowl when necessary.
2. Add the salt, then the vanilla extract.
3.Measure out the sugar, unsifted, then sift all of it in a sieve in a bowl.
4. Add all of the sifted confectioners' sugar and beat until smooth, scraping down bowl when necessary. Set aside.
Assembling:
1. Take the mini bundt cakes, flat side up, and using a round piping bag, squeeze the icing around the cupcakes until it meets in the center resembling a ghost.
2. Take one regular sized chocolate chip, and insert it in the middle of the icing, tip side first, then add 2 mini chocolate chips above it, also tip side first (this resembles the mouth and the eyes).
3. Repeat, then eat.
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