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A soft, moist pumpkin cake is lightly spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace and ginger; topped with a brown sugar toasted pecan crumble prior to baking; filled with a pecan pie filling; and frosted with a brown sugar bourbon cream cheese frosting!
What did I tell you? Cupcakes & Salads.
These cupcakes jumped to the front of the line because if I don’t share them with you, I will positively burst with excitement!
I’d like to say these cupcakes are all about the brown sugar toasted pecan crumble because it is heavenly, but that would be doing a huge injustice to the soft, perfectly spiced pumpkin cake, pecan pie filling and brown sugar bourbon frosting!
I got a little out of control with these Pumpkin Pecan Pie Cupcakes, so let me break it down:
A soft, moist, buttermilk pumpkin cake is lightly spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace and ginger;
Topped with a brown sugar toasted pecan crumble prior to baking;
Filled with a pecan pie filling;
And frosted with a creamy brown sugar bourbon cream cheese frosting!
It sounds like there is a lot going on but all the flavors come together perfectly into a sweet, brown sugar pumpkin dessert!
This pumpkin spice cake absolutely melts in your mouth: Soft and delicate but not too fluffy! The perfect balance of pumpkin and spice.
The smooth, creamy cream cheese frosting contrasts beautifully with a little crunch from the crumble topping and toasted pecans.
It’s like a pumpkin, brown sugar pecan dream that you never want to end.
I could bring myself to give them all away. I just couldn’t. The additional punishing hours on the treadmill will totally be worth it.
Pumpkin Pecan Pie Cupcakes {Bourbon Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting}
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon slightly rounded
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon mace
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted*
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie mix
- ⅔ cup buttermilk
For the Crumble:
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup toasted pecans chopped
For the Pecan Pie Filling:
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon salted butter melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup chopped pecans
For the Bourbon Brown Sugar Frosting:
- ½ cup unsalted butter cold
- 8 ounces cream cheese not whipped, not light, and the best you can find
- 1 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 2 teaspoons Bourbon to taste
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Instructions
Make the Crumble:
- Stir the vanilla into the melted butter. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir with a fork until all the ingredients are equally moistened. They should hold together and then break into crumbles when squeezed in your hand. If it is still too dry you can add melted butter 1 teaspoon at a time, but be careful not to make it too moist or it will be greasy and not crunchy/soft like it should be.
- Also note that if you chop your pecans too big, they will impede the crumbles from forming.
Make the Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350° and line 14 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners. I use two standard paper liners per cupcake.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and all spices; set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat sugars and melted butter together with a hand mixer until thickened, 3-4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla after the last egg.
- Add the pumpkin and mix on medium until smooth and creamy, about 30 seconds.
- Alternately add flour and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. I add a third of the flour then half of the buttermilk and repeat. Fold the last flour addition in by hand to avoid over mixing.
- Scoop into prepared tins, filling almost to the top of the cup. Add some crumble to the top of each cupcake. Bake in preheated oven 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few clinging crumbs. Mine took 18 minutes.
- Remove immediately from muffin tins to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the Pecan Pie Filling:
- Mix all pecan pie filling ingredients together and cook in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for a minute. Remove from heat and cool. If you continue to cook the filling, it will continue to thicken up. I got distracted and so mine boiled about 3 minutes before I took it off the heat.
Make the Frosting:
- Cream together cream cheese, butter and brown sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add the bourbon to taste and then add the powdered sugar and cornstarch, mixing well with a hand mixer. To further thicken the frosting, add more powdered sugar. This will obviously alter the taste if you add a lot more sugar. You can also refrigerate the frosting to thicken it a little as well. I did not refrigerate nor did I add any additional powdered sugar to mine before I piped it.
Assemble the Cupcakes:
- Once cupcakes are cool, cut a hole in the center of each cupcake with a pairing knife. Remove the cut-away piece and cut the bottom off, leaving some cake and the crumble; eat the cut off cake for quality control; place a dollop of the pecan pie filling in the center of each cake; and replace the crumble coated center piece, pressing down slightly. The centers will be slightly elevated, but this doesn’t matter because you are going to frost them!
- Frost with your favorite piping tip! There will be more frosting than you need for all the cupcakes. I’m sure you’ll figure out something to do with the remaining ⅓ cup!
Long Birthday Wishes
I made these for my works Christmas party last year, and to this day, everyone says it is the best cupcake they ever had and they’re scared to eat another cupcake in fear that it won’t be as good as this one! I have a quick question, last time I made these, I made them all in one day. If I make them the night before, will they be good for the next day. Thank you so much!
Hi Christine! That is so wonderful to hear!!! They will still be good the next day but they are best the day they are made. The cake just begins to dry out. Fortunately this cake is super moist from the pumpkin. Happy baking!
I’m about to make these but I do t have mace. Is there a substitute for that or is it imperative? Also, would homemade buttermilk be sufficient?
Hi Shane! You can definitely leave out the mace – no big deal. And homemade buttermilk is perfectly fine – just make sure to use at least 2% milk. 🙂 Happy baking!
Thanks for stopping by our party. Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
Can you tell me what lens you use on your camera? I have a 50mm I use for food shots, but I cannot get as close up as your amazing pictures! Thanks a bunch!!
Hi Christie! These are all shot with a 50 mm! I have a Canon T3i. I also crop further in Lightroom most of the time.
Great! Thank you!! I have Photoshop and another photo editing software. I’m going to experiment on a few of my recent pics.
Good luck! On the closest ones, I literally get as close to the food as my lens will allow. If it won’t focus, I back up my tripod a fraction of an inch & try again until it will focus 🙂
Wow. Literally all I can think of to say is wow. There is so much going on in these cupcakes and each layer adds even more wow! And then it’s topped with my fav–cream cheese AND bourbon! Even.better.
Thank you for sharing with us at Merry Monday!
Thanks, Amanda! Mmm bourbon. Cheers to that!