These cupcakes are made with freshly made pumpkin puree and warm spices with a vegan cream cheese frosting. It can also be made with canned puree, but the water content may vary, and make a slightly different result, so adjust the recipe accordingly. For ease, you can make the puree the day before, also the frosting.
Makes about 18 cupcakes
Ingredients
Homemade Pumpkin Puree (yields about 2 cups)
- 1 Hokkaido pumpkin (about 1.1 kg or 2.4 lbs)
- 3 tablespoons plant milk or as needed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground cloves
Dry ingredients
- 250g flour (2 cups)
- 100g brown sugar (½ cup)
- 100g sugar (½ cup)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients
- 225g pumpkin puree (1 cup)
- 120ml plant milk of choice (½ cup)
- 120ml neutral tasting oil, sunflower or canola (½ cup)
Vegan shiro miso cream cheese frosting
- 400g vegan cream cheese (14.1 oz)
- 3-10 tablespoons powdered sugar - to taste and texture
- 2 teaspoons shiro miso
- Chopped hazelnuts as garnish (optional)
What you will need
- A bowl and whisk
- Measuring cups and spoons or a scale
- About 18 cupcake molds and liners
- A baking tray
- A small bowl, fork, piping back and nozzle of choice (frosting)
- Cutting board and knife (puree)
- A lined baking tray (puree)
- 1 blender or a bowl and stick blender (puree)
Instructions
Pumpkin puree
Homemade Pumpkin Puree
- Preheat the oven to 200c (390 F).
- Chop the pumpkin in half and deseed it, put on a lined baking tray and bake in the middle of the oven on normal setting for about 35-40 minutes.
- When finished take out of the oven, scrape out the meat and discard the skins. Put in a big bowl with 3 tablespoons plant milk or so, blend until smooth with a stick blender. This should yield about 2 cups or 450g.
- Add in the ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves and mix and the puree is done. Store in the fridge and use within 4-5 days.
- The cupcakes recipe only uses 1 cup puree, so either double the recipe for the cupcakes, or alternatively freeze the puree until later use.
Cupcakes
- Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk well.
- Add all the wet ingredients and whisk well.
- Line 18 or so cupcake molds with paper. Fill up the cups just below the egde with the batter until there’s no more left.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180c (350 F) in the middle of the oven on normal setting for about 20-25 minutes, or until they looks puffed up and baked. When you can stick in a cake needle or a knife and it comes out clean they’re fully baked, so check before you take them out. Take out and let cool down completely before frosting them.
- Put all the frosting ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork until blended. Transfer to a piping bag with a nozzle of choice. Refrigerate to stiffen until the cupcakes are cooled down.
- Store the cooled down cupcakes sealed in a bag on the counter, keep the frosting in the piping bag in the fridge and just pipe the cupcakes as you eat them. Serve with chopped hazelnuts.
Enjoy !
