Today I'm bringing you a recipe for absolutely delightful cupcakes! I was in the mood to bake cupcakes, and since pumpkin season is still going strong, I decided to use it. I started with my own Pumpkin Cake as the base, reworked it into a chocolate version by adding cocoa, and also folded in pieces of juicy apples. For the frosting, I used equal parts butter and cream cheese — it has a wonderfully delicate flavor and holds its shape beautifully on the cupcakes. The result was absolutely delicious: the cupcake itself is incredibly tender, moist, and chocolatey, with bits of soft apple throughout. You can't taste the pumpkin at all — it simply adds the perfect moistness and richness. The frosting is silky, creamy, and melts right in your mouth. So good! I'm really thrilled with this little experiment of mine!)) P.S. I ended up with 20 small cupcakes (using about 50 g of batter each).
Ingredients:
- 250 g pumpkin purée (about 350 g peeled pumpkin)
- 200 g flour
- 200 g sugar
- 100 g vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 30 g cocoa
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- a pinch of salt
- 2–3 tbsp milk
- 300 g apples (2 small apples)
- Frosting:
- 300 g cream cheese
- 300 g butter
- 60 g powdered sugar
- 1 packet vanilla sugar (10 g)
How to cook chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting
Peel the pumpkin and cut it into large chunks. Microwave until completely soft, about 5–10 minutes (if any liquid has released, drain it off). If you don't have a microwave, you can roast it in the oven instead. Alternatively, add a small amount of water to a saucepan and simmer until fully soft, then drain in a colander to let all the liquid run off. I use the microwave — it's the quickest and easiest method.
Add 2–3 tablespoons of milk and stir to combine. The batter will be thick but still pourable — use a little less or more milk as needed.
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 15–25 minutes. Don't overbake! A toothpick should come out without wet batter, but a few moist crumbs are fine — that means they're done. Let the finished cupcakes cool completely.
Make the frosting. Beat the softened butter thoroughly, gradually adding the powdered sugar and vanilla sugar, and beat until very light and creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat until smooth. Be sure to use a proper cream cheese — such as Philadelphia, Almette, Rasa, Buko, etc. I used Latvian Rasa cheese. I intentionally kept the frosting barely sweet for a nice contrast, but that's totally a matter of taste — feel free to add more powdered sugar if you prefer. In the photo I have half the batch of frosting.
Comments