Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

I have been dreading this, but the time has come.

Pumpkin Spice Season.

Don’t get me wrong. I love pumpkins, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I just hate what it represents. It’s the Grim Reaper of Summer. Even though something wonderful occurs at the start of pumpkin season, it nevertheless ushers in the inevitable heartbreak of the end of summer.

But to honor the upcoming fall season, I decided to suck it up and make some Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes for the Cops for Cancer ride of Northern BC.

For those of you unfamiliar with Cops for Cancer, it is an amazing (and grueling) event where several riders in the law enforcement and support community pick up their bikes and ride from Prince George to Kitimat. If you are looking for a worthy cause to give your money to, here’s my friend, Sharon’s page. She’s a paramedic in Northern British Columbia and it would a great way to show some support!

Anyway, I volunteered to make some cupcakes for the welcome event today. I wanted to make something more ‘summery’, but the weather in the upper/interior half of Canada has taken a comedic turn for the cold. I think people were reporting that it was snowing in Alberta! SNOW? It’s barely September.

As a result, I thought ushering in pumpkins into my kitchen was wholly appropriate.

I am generally not a huge fan of cream cheese icing, but this one is fantastic! It’s nothing particularly special, but the dash of cinnamon really warms up the soul! It ended up being such an obscenely large batch of icing that I can see myself making cinnamon buns just to use it all!

But I should also mention that if you are using a stand up mixer, ALWAYS START THE MIXER ON THE LOWEST SETTING WHEN ADDING ICING SUGAR!

Again, one of those things we are all aware of, but in the heat of the moment, my brain had a slip.

This will happen. It doesn’t look that bad in the photos, but my kitchen, along with everything I was wearing, was covered in a thick layer of sugar.

You may not be ready for pumpkins in your kitchen, but when you are, YOU HAVE TO MAKE THESE CUPCAKES! They were perfectly moist, fluffy and dense. The pumpkin flavor was spot on!! It also gave me the opportunity to use up the pumpkin spice I got last year.

This is a must bake!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
Adapted from damndelicious.net

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice (make your own!)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 cups of pumpkin puree
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of vegetable oil
4 large eggs

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine and whisk all the dry ingredients together (flour, spice, bp, bs, cinnamon and salt).

In another bowl (or mixer), combine the wet ingedients (pumpkin, sugars, oil and eggs). Mix the dry with the wet ingredients, only until fully mixed.

Scoop the batter into a lined muffin tin. Place in the oven to bake for 16-18 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack after testing.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing (This made an obscene amount of icing. Feel free to half the recipe or freeze it for cinnamon buns later)

1 1/2 cups of butter
2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese
6 cups of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of heavy cream

Using a mixer, cream butter and cream cheese together. Add vanilla, cinnamon and heavy cream.

Add the icing sugar one cup at a time until desired consistency/sweetness.

Frost the tops of the cupcakes and enjoy!