Makes 12 cupcakes
Best for: Picnics, Fall treats, Desserts
Recipe derived from Ben Starr's pumpkin carrot cake
Cookware needed:
- Hand mixer
- Muffin Tins x 2
- Piping bag & nozzles
- Cupcake liners x 12
- Sifter
- Spatula
Ingredients:
Meringue:
- 4 egg whites (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup monkfruit sugar (you can substitute with white sugar)
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Butter batter:
- 1 stick of unsalted butter (room temperature, softened)
- 1/4 cup of monkfruit sugar
- 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 10 tablespoons of pumpkin puree (you can use this recipe or use canned pumpkin puree)
- 1 cup shredded carrots
Dry ingredients: - 90g cake flour
- 180g all purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2-3 tablespoons of pumpkin spice mix (to liking)
Pumpkin spice mix:
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon powder
- 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1/2 tablespoon cardamom powder
- 1/2 tablespoon ginger powder
- 1/8 teaspoon (a heavy pinch) cloves powder
Cream cheese frosting:
- 1 pack of cream cheese (room temperature, softened)
- 1 stick of unsalted butter (room temperature, softened)
- 100g confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:
Make pumpkin puree - you can make this a day in advance.
Shred carrots.
Put all the dry ingredients together into a bowl and put them aside.
Preheat oven to 190C / 374F & line the muffin pan up with cupcake liners.
In a bowl, cream the butter batter ingredients in the order shown.
Sift the dry ingredients into the butter batter mixture with a sifter. Turn on medium speed on the hand mixer and beat the cake batter for 30 seconds to fully incorporate everything. Make sure you scrape down the flour on the sides of the bowl while you beat the mixture.
In a separate clean bowl (make sure it does not have any oil on the surface), whip up the egg whites with a hand mixer until it becomes slightly frothy. Once it reaches soft peak consistency (the peaks are just starting to hold. They’re soft and melt back into themselves after a second when you turn your whisk upside down), start adding the 1/2 cup of sugar & cream of tartar in batches while whipping the egg white mixture. Keep whipping the egg white mixture until it reaches stiff peak consistency (The peaks should hold firmly when you turn your whisk upside down. They should point straight up without collapsing at all. The mixture is thick and heavy.). Be careful not to overwhip your egg white mixture.
Take 1/3 of the meringue and add it to the cake batter, fold it in gently with a spatula to lighten the batter. The consistency should start to loosen and become less dense.
Add in the remaining 2/3 of the meringue and fold it into the batter very gently until no clumps of white are left in the cake batter.
Fill the cupcake liners almost to the top with the cake batter. Divide the batter evenly and bake in a 190C / 374F oven for 15-20 minutes until they are done. Test whether the cupcakes are done by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cupcakes at the 15 minutes mark. If the toothpick comes out clean that means the cupcakes are done.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let them cool in the muffin tins for 15 - 30 minutes. Take out cooling racks and take the cupcakes out to cool completely on the racks.
While the cupcakes are cooling down, work on the frosting. Cream together the cream cheese and butter with a hand mixer on high speed until it is light and fluffy.
Then slowly begin to add the confectioners' sugar, beating constantly with the hand mixer. Start with low speed and gradually increase the speed as the mixture gets incorporated. Continue adding the sugar in small batches until the frosting reaches the desired sweetness level. (The more sugar you add, the stiffer the frosting. Try to achieve a medium level of stiffness because it is really hard to work with stiff frosting, and you wouldn't want your frosting to be too runny either!)
Add the vanilla extract into the frosting, beat on slow speed until the vanilla gets mixed in and then beat on highest speed for 1 minute to ensure a light and fluffy frosting.
Add the frosting into a piping bag and pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. If you'd like to do any decorations on top of the frosting, you can add them after piping.
Put the frosted cupcakes into the fridge for at least an hour to firm up the frosting.
Once the frosting on the cupcakes are firmed up, the cupcakes are ready to serve. Enjoyyy! :)
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