Choc chip pumpkin cupcakes and Halloween desserts

I mentioned in my previous post that my parents didn’t consider Halloween a very Australian holiday. And I’ve inherited this view to some extent.

It’s odd trying to translate the dark, spooky images that permeate the idea American Halloween to Australia’s October, when the weather is mostly sunny and warm. It doesn’t stop me wanting to make Halloween-themed goodies, though!

So for this year’s Halloween, I’m focussing on another thing that I equate with the American Halloween; pumpkin. I remember making a pumpkin pie for my family, years ago, and they all cringed at the idea of it. It was delicious (how modest of me…) but pumpkin and dessert don’t often meet in Australia.

So I’m mixing traditional, American-Halloween-appropriate pumpkin with bright, colourful, Australian-Halloween-styling – I think this is a good culture clash.

And honestly, these little cupcakes are delicious. The pumpkin puree makes them super moist, and gives them a delicious sweetness. Even with all of that pumpkin in there, these beauties definitely don’t taste like they belong alongside a Sunday roast.

And even if your audience isn’t a big fan of pumpkin – nobody can argue with cream cheese icing or the chocolate chips that cluster deliciously at the centre of these cupcakes.

Choc chip pumpkin  cupcakes:

Makes 12

• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 80g butter
• 1 cup  pumpkin puree
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• Pinch of ground ginger
• 1 teaspoons bicarb
• 1 ¼ cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup  milk
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Cream cheese icing:

• 70g butter, softened
• 130g cream cheese
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 ¼ cups icing sugar

Optional garnishes:

• Star-shaped sprinkles
• Teeth lollies
• Chocolate spider webs

Preheat your oven to 190°C and grease a 12 cup capacity cupcake tin.

Cream together the brown sugar and butter. Add in the pumpkin puree and vanilla, then mix well. If you’re using frozen pumpkin puree (like I suggested in my last post) and it causes the butter to seize up and clump, make a warm water bath and sit your bowl in it, mixing until all of the butter has melted.

Mix in the egg, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Add in the bicarb and flour and mix well, then add the milk. Stir in the chocolate chips and spoon into your cupcake tin.

Pop into the oven for 20-22  minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing.

While your cupcakes are cooling, whip together your butter and cream cheese until well combined. Add in the vanilla and icing sugar. If your icing is looking a little lumpy and yellow (ie. Not like soft and white like it looks in the photos), just keep whipping. The more you whip, the paler the butter in the icing will become, and the smaller those pesky lumps will become.

Once you’ve got a beautifully pale and smooth icing, scoop the icing into a piping bag fitted with a star shaped nozzle and pipe it onto your cooled cupcakes. Garnish cupcakes, if desired.