Pumpkin Spice Rum Cupcakes

This post is also available in（こちらの言語版もある）: Japanese

The first time I made these cupcakes was as a gift for a friend when I visited her home to play with her kitten. It’s pretty much my policy not to show up at someone’s house empty handed and this particular friend hadn’t tried any of the “cocktail cupcakes” I’d been posting all over Instagram for the last couple of months so I wanted to bring her something both cocktail-inspired and autumn-appropriate. Fruity flavors go well with cupcakes so up until now most of my cupcakes had taken their inspiration from fruity summer cocktails, but rum is a flexible spirit and goes just as well with summer fruit as spicy autumn flavors like the ever-popular (and sometimes infamous) pumpkin spice, so I decided to go with pumpkin spice rum cupcakes this time around.

At first I considered making normal pumpkin spice cupcakes and only adding the rum to the frosting, but in the end I figured why not and added it to both and man am I glad I did. As I thought, the rum went well with the browned butter frosting, but it also helped bring out all the spicy flavors in the pumpkin spice cupcakes.

I like them, my friend and her roommate said they enjoyed them, as did the coworker I give all my extra baked goods to, so you can bet I will be making more of these next year. My friend’s cat seems to enjoy playing with bowls and dishes so maybe I will ask him to help me next time. I could use an assistant…or rather, I’d really just like to have a cat too.

Pumpkin Spice Rum Cupcakes

 

Print（印刷）

Prep time（準備時間）

30 mins（分）

Cook time（加熱時間）

25 mins（分）

Total time（合計時間）

55 mins（分）

 

The perfect cocktail cupcakes for autumn packed with pumpkin, spices, browned butter, and rum!

Author（投稿者）: Xiomara Entropy (adapted from bakeitwithbooze.com)

Recipe type（レシピカテゴリ）: Dessert

Cuisine（どこの料理）: American

Serves（何人分）: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients （材料）

• For cupcakes:
• 1 cup (128 g) all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice (see notes about making your own if you can't find the premade stuff)
• 2 tbsp chopped crystallized ginger
• ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• ½ tbsp molasses
• ¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter (browned and cooled)
• ½ cup plain yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 7.5 oz (213 g) pumpkin puree (see notes about making your own from kabocha squash if you can't find orange pumpkins where you live)
• 1 tbsp rum
• For frosting:
• ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1½ tbsp rum
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1½ cup (192 g) powdered sugar sugar

Instructions（作り方）

1. Brown the butter for the frosting in a sauce pan and then refrigerate it until it becomes somewhat solid again (at about 65°F or 18°C).
2. Brown the butter for the cupcakes in a sauce pan, set aside to cool.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and prepare cupcake pan with liners.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tarter, salt, and pumpkin pie spice and set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream together the browned butter, sugar, molasses, and yogurt with a hand mixer on medium speed.
6. Add the eggs, pumpkin puree, and rum and mix until smooth.
7. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
8. Add the ginger and mix until combined.
9. Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
10. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
11. Place the cooled, solidified butter for the frosting in a medium bowl and beat it with a handmixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
12. Add the salt, rum, and vanilla extract and beat to thoroughly.
13. Slowly add the powdered sugar while beating on low speed. When the sugar is mostly incorporated, beat on high speed until fluffy.
14. Frost cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Notes（コツ・ポイント・注意点）

★Pumpkin pie spice: I know you can easily buy this in the US, but here in Japan we don't have the premade stuff so I make my own according to illmakeitmyself.net's instructions. Combine the following spices together, mix well, and store in an empty spice shaker or small jar (yields about 2Tbsp):
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
★Pumpkin puree: Canned pumpkin puree is easy to come by in the US, but orange pumpkins themselves are hard to find in Japan, However, there's no reason to spend a lot of money on either because kabocha puree tastes pretty much exactly the same. I originally happened across instructions for kabocha puree on illmakeitmyself.net, and of her methods, this is the one that works best for me:
1) Cut up about 550g of kabocha, put it in a pan of hot water, and boil until soft enough to stick a cooking chopstick through it
2) Carefully remove the skin and discard (or eat it if you are me and like kabocha skin).
3) Add 110 ml of water to the squash and puree with a blender or immersion blender. Keep adding water (I usually have to add another 100 ml) and blending until the puree will mostly fall ofｆ a spoon when tipped sideways.
4) Store puree in sealed container in the refrigerator for a week or freeze for a few months.

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Homemade pumpkin pie spice recipe from: http://illmakeitmyself.net/2012/10/22/pumpkin-spice-latte-with-kabocha-puree-bonus-pumpkin-pie-spice-recipe/

Homemade pumpkin puree recipe adapted from: http://illmakeitmyself.net/2012/10/15/kabocha-squash-puree-pumpkin-puree-substitute/