Chocolate-Pumpkin Cupcakes
Why I Love This Recipe
I found a fabulous 4-layer chocolate pumpkin cake recipe that wowed everyone. Here, I made the cake into cupcakes, added a buttercream frosting and topped it with a little candy corn. Very cute. Very tasty.
Ingredients You'll Need
Cupcakes:
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 15-oz can pumpkin
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
Buttercream:
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.;line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and cocoa. Set aside.
Fit mixer with paddle attachment. In large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, oil and applesauce on low speed to combine. Add vanilla and pumpkin. Increase speed to medium and beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat in flour mixture, mix until just combined. Turn off mixer and use a rubber spatula to scape sides and bottom of bowl, combine any dry ingredient traces.
Pour batter into the prepared muffin tins (I use a cookie scoop to avoid a mess). Fill 2/3 full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool completely.
For the buttercream, whisk together the flour and milk in a small saucepan. Heat, whisking contstantly, until the mixture is thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat, cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool to room temperature.
In the meantime, combine the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat the butter and sugar on medium high speed for about 5 minutes, until pale in color and fluffy.
Add the cooled flour mixture and vanilla and continue to beat for 5 to 10 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved and the frosting is very creamy.
Pipe onto the cooled cupcakes. Dust with colored sugar and top with candy corn, if desired
