Ginger Pumpkin Cupcakes (Cupcake Hero)

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Ginger Pumpkin Cupcakes (Cupcake Hero)

This month’s Cupcake Hero theme is Squash. Luckily pumpkin is considered a squash. That makes my day because I do love baking with pumpkin!

I had some leftover Pumpkin Pie Dip from the other day and I wanted to incorporate it into a cupcake. I wanted to make a cupcake that would compliment the pumpkin well, so I thought of the ginger snaps I had served the dip with… I reused a cookies and cream cupcake recipe except instead of using Oreos, I added crushed up ginger snap cookies to the batter. These smelled amazing coming out of the oven.

Using the cone method, I scooped some of the pumpkin dip into the cooled cupcakes. I then frosted with some cinnamon cream cheese frosting that I had in the fridge. Then I simply sprinkled some chopped walnuts on top for garnish.

Cookies-N-Cream Cupcakes – 6 WW pts with frosting (from Crazy about Cupcakes) makes 24
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk – I used soymilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 cup chocolate sandwich cookies, lightly crushed – I used 2 cups crushed Ginger Snaps

Preheat over to 350F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.

In a large bowl cream together the butter, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in sugar. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites. Beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in the crushed cookies.

Fill the cupcake lines three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

For the frosting, I wanted it to be more like a glaze, so I combined 8 oz cream cheese, 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, 1 tsp vanilla and about 3 cups of powdered sugar. After it was to the consistency I wanted, I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon.