Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

This past weekend was Thanksgiving back home in Canada, and some Canadian friends of ours invited us for a thanksgiving picnic at the beach, complete with a turkey and all the trimmings! Little P and I were very excited to go, and didn't want to turn up empty handed, so we decided to make some pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing.  We found this recipe through pinterest on the kitchen runway blog... not only are the recipes fantastic but the photography is beautiful!

Little P and I had a great time making this easy recipe and she loved measuring out and mixing up all the ingredients.  We made both large and mini sized cupcakes, and the results were fantastic.  The smell was everything autumn should be - even though here in Sydney it was a beautiful summer day.  Slightly more savory than sweet - it was a fantastic follow up to turkey dinner - and pretty good on its own the next day too.

Ingredients - cupcakes:

• 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 eggs, room temperature and lightly beaten
• 2 cups pumpkin puree

Ingredients - cream cheese icing:

• 8 oz cream cheese, cold
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold (not straight from the fridge)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Direcions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flower, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, brown and granulated sugar.
3. In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, oil, eggs and pumpkin puree.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine
5. Line the cupcake pans with cupcake liners and divide batter evenly between 24 cupcakes (we did 12 large cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes)
6. Bake on the middle rack for 20-25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting.  Cream the butter, cream cheese and salt.  Mix until smooth then add vanilla.  Gradually add powdered sugar and mix on low until combined.  Do not over mix as that will incorporate too much air and the frosting will be too loose.
8. Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost.  I sprinkled some pumpkin pie spice on the top to garnish.

You can check out the original recipe and many others on the kitchenrunway blog.