So a couple days ago, after carving my pumpkin and using the seeds to make delicious garlic roasted pumpkin seeds, and candied seeds, i still had the leftover “pumpkin guts” (as I like to call them) to work with! Because as the saying goes, ‘waste not want not’, so today i made pumpkin spice cupcakes!
Here’s what you’ll need:
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil, plus more as needed
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups pumpkin purée (you’ll get this after blending up your pumpkin ‘guts’)
1 container Cream Cheese frosting
Here’s what you need to do:
1st: Preheat oven to 350*F, and grease cupcake pan, or use paper wrappers
2nd: Mix dry ingredients, except sugar (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, salt), and whisk in a large bowl.
3rd: Place sugar and oil into a large mixing bowl, and beat for about 1 minute until sugar is well blended.
4th: In that same bowl, blend in 1 egg at a time, continuously mixing (it would be ideal for you to use an electric mixer for this process, but it’s not necessary)
5th: In the egg, sugar oil, combination, now add your pureed pumpkin guts, and beat until all contents are well blended
6th: While still mixing, slowly add the flour combination, mix well.
7th: Use an ice cream scoop to fill each cupcake well about 3/4 the way, and bake on bottom rack for about 25 minutes, and when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8th: Microwave your cream cheese frosting for about 30 seconds (making sure to take out the foil liner, before microwaving) and stir in about 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice. Mix well, and let cool until frosting is at a workable viscosity, then spread evenly onto cupcakes.
Now don’t worry if your cupcakes don’t look like the picture above. Mine didn’t either, but I bet they tasted twice as good. Hopefully this recipe gives you a great way to use those pumpkin remains you have laying around after cutting, and seeding your jack-o-lantern! Once again, don’t forget to take in the awesome smell of baked pumpkin while they’re toasting in the oven, it’s one of the best smells of the fall!
Additional Notes: While making these, i still had about 3 cups of this mixture, that I could’ve turned into cupcakes, but I wasn’t sure if I had enough frosting; So I took the remaining mixture, added 2 cups of flour, and 1 tsp of activated yeast (to activate, I put 1 tsp yeast into 1/2 cup water). This made a batch of Pumpkin Spice Bread!
1st: Warm up your oven to 200*F and place your bread pan (which should be greased, and have your mixture in it). Let it sit for 20 minutes.
2nd: Heat your oven to about 350*F and bake for another 25 minutes. let cool for 10 minutes. Store in cling wrap.
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