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3 Comments Have fun with decorating these delicious Halloween pumpkin cupcakes. They are filled with pumpkin, cranberries and autumn flavors you’re gonna love!
Halloween pumpkin cupcakes
I’ve gotta be honest here. I would love to be really good in cake decorating. But I just cannot do it. When I started making these Halloween pumpkin cupcakes, I figured I would be making these awesome tombstone decorations, with adorable little pumpkins. But my pumpkin came out somewhat less than perfect and my tombstone… Well, if I hadn’t put the letters RIP on it, no one would have known what it was I guess.
But let me first start by saying that these halloween pumpkin cupcakes are absolutely delicious. No matter how your decorations will turn out! And at the end of the day, that is all that matters.
What do you need to make these halloween pumpkin cupcakes?
For making the pumpkin cupcakes you need the following items:
- sunflower oil – or use another neutral oil
- light brown sugar – you can use white granulated sugar as well, I like the added flavor of brown sugar here.
- eggs – medium size
- vanilla extract – vanilla bean paste is also a good option
- pumpkin puree – you can use canned puree but use the unsweetened version
- cranberries – dried cranberries
- orange
- cinnamon
- cardamom
- anis seeds – don’t use ground anis seeds here as the flavor will be too strong. If you can’t find the seeds leave it out
- ground cloves
- self-rising flour
- chestnut flour
- baking soda
How to make the pumpkin cupcakes
Once you’ve assembled all your ingredients it is a good idea to have them all at room temperature before you start. But overall it is a super simple recipe to make.
If you don’t want to add all the single spices in you can use a ginger spice mix as well. I do that a lot too and it’s equally delicious. I have lined a 12 hole muffin tin with halloween themed cupcake liners. Obviously you can use any kind of liner you want. If you’re making them into halloween pumpkin cupcakes, using halloween liners is a nice touch.
Chestnut flour
I love adding a bit of chestnut flour here but if you don’t like it or don’t want it you can replace this with an equal amount of self-rising flour. If you do use the chestnut flour make sure to pass it through a sieve. Chestnut flour can be a little lumpy so passing it through a sieve is the safe option.
Baking
The cupcakes need about 25 minutes in the oven and you can check if they’re done by inserting a wooden skewer. If it comes out clean the cupcakes are done.
Let them cool down completely before you start with your decorations and the buttercream. Nothing worse than piping buttercream on a cupcake that is still to warm only to see the buttercream dripping off!
Making the marzipan decorations
I really don’t have any good tips here, as I am not the best decorator. There are plenty of websites out there that will give you good tips on how to make some decorations in the right theme, but if all else fails you can simply use halloween sprinkles on the halloween pumpkin cupcakes.
In that case you use the buttercream and sprinkle it with something orange and black. It will be equally delicious!
Buttercream
For the buttercream I used a recipe by my friend Laura, who is way better at baking than I am and she has a great recipe for ermine frosting on her website that is perfect for these pumpkin cupcakes. It holds its shape quite well and tastes pretty great too. Ermine frosting is a flour based buttercream.
More halloween recipes
Looking for more inspiration for your next Halloween party? Try these recipes as well:
Halloween pumpkin cupcakes with spices
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 175 ml sunflower oil
- 175 gr light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 gr pumpkin puree canned
- 125 gr cranberries
- zest of 1 orange
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cardemom
- 1 tsp anis seeds
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 150 gr self rising flour
- 50 gr chestnut flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
Ermine frosting buttercream
- 45 gr all purpose flour
- 240 ml milk
- 200 gr butter unsalted at room temperature
- 200 gr icing sugar
- 5 ml vanilla extract
How to make the halloween pumpkin cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F) and line a muffin tin with the muffin papers of your choice. Pour the oil into a large bowl and add the sugar, eggs and vanilla to it. Whisk this well, add the pureed pumpkin, cranberries and orange zest.
- Stir the cinnamon, cardamom, anis seeds, flour (both types. Sieve this before doing that as the chestnut flour tends to have little lumps in it) and baking soda. Mix it (don't overmix!) and then scoop into your muffin tins. Don't fill all the way to the edge but leave a little space for it to rise.
- Bake the cupcakes in about 25 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when you stick it in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely while you make your butter creme.
Ermine frosting buttercream
- Sift the flour and put this together with the milk in a small saucepan. Stir everything well until it is smooth. Put your saucepan on the heat and keep stirring. It will thicken quickly but keep stirring for about a minute or five. Once it cooks you turn the heat down. It should be ready when a small skewer will stay upright in the mixture. Than you know it is good to go.
- Put into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to cool to roomtemperature.
- In the meantime whisk the butter in another bowl until fluffy. Add the icing sugar (be careful as it will dust the whole kitchen!) and the vanilla extract and mix everything well together.
- As soon as your mixture is cooled off add it to the butter. Mix it well for another five minutes and put the bowl back in the fridge for half an hour. After that it will be ready to be piped.
Nutrition Information per portion:
Disclaimer:
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
I do recognise the pumpkin, honestly! 🙂 But the spiced pumkin muffin itself sounds good already! 😉
I clearly do recognise the pumpkin, honestly! 🙂 But the spiced pumkin muffin itself sounds good already! 😉
Lol…. I’m glad you do Elize! Hahaha… But yes even without the pumpkin these are pretty good!