Pumpkin-Gingerbread Cupcakes
When chicken pox strike you’re stuck at home–For a looooooooooooong time. I guess this means you can count on a lot of posts from us. With half of “Day One: The Pox Outbreak” behind us, Scarlett already started to get ansy. She found a set of food coloring markers someone had given me at Christmas and decided she wanted to make cupcakes and decorate them using the markers. So the begging began, “Peez, can we mommy, peez?” Since it was vitamin week I needed to find something that was healthy, but, God, if they’re a cupcake they’ve got to taste awesome.
With no time to experiment, I plucked a great recipe off my trusty Whole Foods app. As I anticipated, as soon as we started, Scarlett was ready to throw in the towel. She was so tired she could barely stand (I did have to hold her a few times), but she mustered the energy and we managed to get them into the oven before she crashed for the evening.
Ingredients
- For the cupcakes:
- 1 cup cake and pastry flour
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup organic sugar
- 1/2 cup expeller pressed canola oil
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- For the Maple Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Method
Preaheat oven to 350.
Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners or spray and flour the pan using olive oil or cooking spray.
In a large bowl, blend flours, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and sugar.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs and then add pumpkin, oil and vanilla.
Combine with flour mixture.
Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to completely cool.
Cream together cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until fluffy.
Slowly add maple syrup until thoroughly blended. Frost cupcakes.
We did manicures earlier in the day. Cute, right?
As I mentioned, Scarlett lost steam almost as soon as we started this project. I kept telling her we could quit and go relax, but she wanted to stay the course. I think her determination came from her desire to eat one of the cupcakes. So she couldn’t wait to get them in the liners.
We decided to play connect the dots with the markers while we waited for the cupcakes to bake. We also had fun writing some graffiti.
I think the markers are way more cute on feet than on cupcakes. Don’t you agree?
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We're Ceri and Laura, a couple of magazine-editors-turned-food-bloggers. Also, we're mothers obsessed with delicious, healthy, family food. We're constantly thinking of ways to make your time (and our own!) in the kitchen easier and more productive, but still nostalgic for the days when dinner was cereal eaten over the kitchen sink.
8 Comments
Natalee
January 16, 10:34These sound awesome! Feel better Scarlett!
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