Smashing pumpkin cupcakes
It’s nearly Halloween! Not only is this my favourite time of year, it’s also the best time for baking, largely because of the seasonal delight that is pumpkin. The fact that it’s a seasonal vegetable is however completely irrelevant seeing as this recipe uses the tinned variety (I used Libby’s pumpkin puree procured from The Stateside Candy Company).
Once upon a time, the Smashing Pumpkins were my favourite band in the whole world and they serve as the inspiration for these cupcakes. Not only are they pumpkin flavoured, but I’ve also used the band’s Bullet with Butterfly Wings track as a theme for the topping, which consists of gunmetal grey cream cheese icing and sugar butterflies, kindly sent to me by the nice people at Dr Oetker. Thankfully, the brand has recently designed its packaging moving away from the pesky plastic bag and cardboard box combo to a more cupboard-friendly storage jar. But, enough on the riveting subject of kitchen storage, let’s crack on with the recipe, which is adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. Watch the Pumpkins video below (that’s a suggestion, not an order), then get baking.
What you’ll need:
120g plain flour (sieved)
140g caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, softened
60ml milk (doesn’t matter which kind, I used skimmed)
2 eggs
200g tinned pumpkin puree
For the icing:
300g icing sugar/confectioner’s sugar (sieved)
50g unsalted butter, softened
125g cream cheese
Black food colouring paste
Edible pearlescent spray
Makes 12 cupcakes
What to do:
Preheat the oven to 170°/150° (fan oven)/325°F/gas mark 3
Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cake cases.
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. Add the butter and work it in with a fork until the mixture looks like sand. Next, add the milk and mix until combined. Add the eggs one at at time, mixing after each addition then stir in the pumpkin.
Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases and bung in the oven for 20 minutes or until the tops of the cakes start to turn golden brown and ping back when touched. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Make sure they’ve completely cool before you add the icing, or it won’t stick.
For the icing, cream the icing sugar, butter and cream cheese together in a bowl, using a fork. It’ll look like there’s too much icing sugar to start with, but believe me, the proportions are correct, it just takes a bit of graft before they start to mix together. If you want to colour your icing, add paste food colouring, a tiny bit at a time, using a cocktail stick and mix in with a fork. If you want your icing to be dark grey like mine then you’ll need to add quite a lot of black colouring. Next spoon the icing into a disposable icing bag and pipe on using a large star-shaped nozzle. Lastly, add the sugar butterflies and a quick squirt of edible lustre spray for a shiny gunmetal finish and voila – smashing pumpkin cupcakes.
Here’s another Smashing Pumpkins video for your enjoyment – this time, an early performance from Japanese TV including a brilliantly awkward pre-song chat with the hosts. [Please take note: some of the lyrics might be a bit too salty for young ears].
09/10/2011 at 1:58 pm
Love pumpkins and cupcakes, sounds like a combo I will try. No fan of tinned pureed stuff, so will make from fresh. Funny that you use sprinkles from Dr. Oetker…
I once did a cake decorating class and had the “pleasure” of using black food color/paste..though I get your connection to the Smashing Pumpkins and the track, just the thought of that black taste…would ruin the work.
Bravo though, cool idea with the music which btw brought back some memories…thanks!!!
09/10/2011 at 5:35 pm
Thanks for your comment! I use Sugarflair paste colour which doesn’t add any flavour to the icing, although I admit that you have to use a hell of a lot of colouring to get it truly black (that’s why my icing is only grey!), so maybe that would have an affect on the taste…
09/10/2011 at 4:53 pm
Super cute!
09/10/2011 at 5:17 pm
These look delicious! Great post name too 😀
09/10/2011 at 5:35 pm
Thanks – glad you like it!
13/10/2011 at 11:30 am
“Uses Libbys tinned pumpkin”. How very eponymous! 🙂
06/11/2011 at 2:47 pm
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