Looking forward to spring but also looking back to autumn with these moist pumpkin cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting made of cashews. 

Aaaah cupcakes!

And pumpkin!

And frosting!

… And crumbs!

I’m doing a second pumpkin recipe in a row. That’s because I had a big pumpkin waiting for me in the basement. My relatives from Croatia gave it to me to try it out. It is a big pumpkin with a blue-ish skin and a deep yellow-orange sweet meat. They call it Turkinja in Croatia. I’m a sucker for pumpkins with very sweet meat, so this one is going to the top of my list, right next to hokkaido pumpkin.

We’re having pretty depressing days here. Like, really depressing. And these pretty pumpkin cupcakes are all gone. So I’ll be testing some new dessert recipes today, to cheer myself up. If you’re feeling down I suggest you start baking immediately!

You’ll notice that I’m separating eggs, whipping eggwhites and adding them at the end. I’ve been using this technique for a long time now. The basic cupcake recipe has been handed down to me by my mother in law. An it has never failed me.

I’m a mess sometimes. I forget key ingredients so often. Unsalted bread is a constant at our house. Not to mention the cupcakes! I’ve made them without oil and even without baking soda. But since I’m whisking the eggwhites separately, this doesn’t really seem to be such a big a problem. They rise a bit more with the baking soda, but it’s not a drastic change.

If you prefer the easier version (wet ingredients together, dry ingredients together, no eggwhite whisking), do it! I haven’t done it, but I’m pretty sure it will turn out just fine. Let me know if you try that.

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PUMPKIN CUPCAKES WITH CASHEW CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Course Dessert

Keyword cream cheese frosting, cupcakes, muffins

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

PUMPKIN CUPCAKES

• 2 cups whole grain spelt flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 2 TBSP lemon juice
• pinch of salt

FROSTING

• 2 cups pre-soaked cashews at least 5 hours
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 TBSP honey
• 1-2 TBSP water

TOPPINGS

• pumpkin seeds
• lemon zest

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg using a whisk.
3. In the bowl of the electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, blend together the egg yolks, sugar and sunflower oil on medium speed until well combined.
4. Add pumpkin puree and lemon juice and blend again.
5. Keep your mixer on medium speed and slowly add the flour mixture to the yolk mixture.
6. In a separate bowl (using a clean whisk attachment or a hand mixer) whip egg whites and a pinch of salt until it is stiff.
7. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter until well combined.
8. Divide the batter among 12 paper-lined muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 – 25 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean.
10. Cool in the baking pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
11. To make the frosting, take cashews, lemon juice, salt, and honey and blend in a blender until it has a smooth cream-like texture. If necessary add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
12. When the cupcakes have cooled completely frost them with the cashew cream cheese frosting and top with pumpkin seeds and lemon zest.

Notes

The smoothness of the frosting will actually depend on the quality of the blender you have. My blender is not top quality, so it’s quite difficult getting a perfectly smooth frosting

Also try this delicious pumpkin recipe:

Mini Pumpkin Pizzas

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