As cute and delicious as this looks, we learned looks can be deceiving. Our taste tester reported the cake was “bogus and tastless”. Unfortunately, we had to agree. We had fun using the ginger with the pumpkin, but we are back to the drawing board…searching for a fantistic pumpkin cupcake with a bite of crystallized ginger. Happily, you can put the icing on just about anything (hairballs, four day old chicken ala king, sawdust) and it will taste just like carrot cake.

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted & cooled slightly
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) crystallized ginger cut into 1/8 to 1/4 inch pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger into a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer on low speed, beat the melted butter, sugar and pumpkin until smoothly blended.
4. Mix in eggs and crystallized ginger.
5. On low speed, mix in the flour mixture until it is incorporated. The batter will be thick.
6. Fill each paper liner with 1/4 cup of batter.
7. Bake until the tops are firm and a toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
8. Cook on a wire rack.

Frosting Ingredients

• 1 8 oz package of cream cheese (softened but still cool)
• 5 Tbs unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 Tbs sour cream
• 1 1/4 cup (5 ounces) powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Place cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sour cream into a large bowl and mix on high speed until smooth.
2. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Using an off-set spatula, spread a generous amount of frosting onto each cupcake.
4. Garnish with crystallized ginger if desired.

Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans

Frosting recipe from The Best New Recipe: All-New Edition