Pumpkin spice and everything nice.

I’m loving all the fall colors I see everywhere. And I love the smell of fall baking. This past weekend I made over 200 pumpkin Nutella cupcakes for a friend that was giving them to her clients. Yes – it’s as crazy as it sounds. And if you saw my kitchen/work area, you’d think I was nuts taking this on.

I’m never one to shy away from a challenge. The baking itself wasn’t difficult. It was just working within the space I have. I would love to have a bigger kitchen. But then again, I found celery “put away” last week that was sitting on top of a bunch of jars of flours and mixes. 🙂 I can’t imagine where I’d find things my kids decided to “put away” in a bigger house!

These cupcakes are so good. The blend of typical fall spices really adds that extra oomph that make anything with pumpkin taste that much better. And Nutella. Who’s got anything bad to say about Nutella?! Not me. I’m ignoring all those people who raised their hands saying “meh” about Nutella.

These are a tiny bit time-consuming. Don’t let that scare you away! In order to have a swirl of Nutella in the cupcakes, rather that mixed entirely into the batter, you have to dollop/drizzle some on between scoops of batter. I used a long cake tester with a metal tip for swirling the Nutella into the batter. Worked like a charm.

And don’t pass up this incredible frosting. I’ve noticed my taste buds changing as I get older. I used to love really sweet frosting. But not now. Not only did I cut the powdered sugar by more than half of typical recipes, I added some cinnamon to really balance the sweetness.

Let me know if you love these and comment if you’ve made them and how they turned out. I love to hear from readers to see what they’ve been up to.

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pumpkin nutella cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

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Author: heidi | fig+fork

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Instructions

For the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 24 muffin wells with grease-proof liners
In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients (first 9 ingredients listed), breaking up any clumps of brown sugar.
In a medium bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, vanilla, eggs, and melted butter. Whisk to combine thoroughly. Stir wet ingredients into dry and thoroughly combine, being careful not to overmix.
Using a cookie scoop, fill bottom of muffin liners with cupcake batter. Drizzle softened Nutella over batter and swirl with a toothpick or skewer. Scoop a second dollop of cupcake batter over filling. Bang pan on counter several times to release any air bubbles.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.
Cool for 5 minutes in pan and then cool completely on wire rack.

For the frosting:

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add in sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon and continue mixing until thoroughly combined, 1-2 minutes more.
Using a decorator’s bag fitted with a large tip, pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes. Cupcakes hold up well when refrigerated 1 to 2 days. Best enjoyed the day of!

Notes

I suppose you could halve this recipe, but why!!? As soon as you make twelve, your family will be asking where the next twelve are.

Also note that this recipe calls for salted and unsalted butter. I prefer baking with unsalted because it lets me control the amount of salt added. Different brands of butter use varying amounts of salt. However, in the frosting, use salted butter as it offsets the sweetness of the powdered sugar.

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