Cupcake Saturday

Raise your hand if you think fall is a delicious, dreamy season.

Now raise your hand if you're convinced a good part of the magic comes from pumpkins. (I'm raising two.)

I could go on and about the wonder of a pumpkin, but for today, it's rocking the vote because....

This week's cupcakes are the best yet. I say so, Jan Michael says so, the whole office crowd says so, and there you have it.

PUMPKIN GINGER CUPCAKES
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted & cooled slightly
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 large eggs
1/4 cup (about 1 1/4 ouces) crystallized ginger, cut into 1/8 - 1/4 inch pieces

CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon
1 - 2 Tbsp whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 14 muffin cups with paper liners & coat with cooking spray. Sift flour - ginger into a medium bowl. In a large bowl on low speed, beat melted butter - pumpkin until smooth. Mix in the eggs & ginger. Add the flour mixture & mix until incorporated; batter will be thick. Fill each cup with a generous 1/4 cup batter. Bake about 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in muffin tins before removing to wire racks to cool completely. For the frosting, beat butter - vanilla on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding whole milk to thin out the frosting if needed.
* The recipes for both the cakes & the frosting are from Elinor Klivans' Cupcake Deck.
** I didn't use the crystallized ginger; is it becoming clear that I have trouble following recipes? I also made two batches, and added chocolate chips the second time around.
*** I gave the frosting a little more pizzaz with my vanilla cinnamon sugar spice grinder; I'm not sure that it made a difference taste-wise, but it looked pretty :)