HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN CARROT CAKE CUPCAKES WITH BUTTERCREAM ICING

Homemade Pumpkin Carrot Cake Halloween Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting and Sprinkles Pinecones and Acorns Blog

Good morning friends I hope that you had a wonderful weekend. We worked a little, played a little and I baked these scrumptious and cute if I do say so myself, pumpkin carrot cake cupcakes. This recipe is one of my favorites and I have made it many times since I first featured in on the blog(excuse the photos it was a long time ago). The recipe is a little involved but this might be the best cake/cupcakes I have ever eaten. You might want to bookmark the recipe and make this as one of your Thanksgiving treats.

Pumpkin Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing and Halloween Sprinkles Pinecones & Acorns

How to Make Halloween Pumpkin Carrot Cake Cupcakes

PUMPKIN CARROT CAKE

Recipe from: Ben Starr

Cupcake Ingredients and Directions

Preheat oven to 370 degrees F. Prepare your cupcake tins with liners and set aside.

6 egg whites

1 cup of white sugar

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Using the balloon whisk attachment, combine the egg whites, cream of tartar and white sugar, turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until you have stiff peaked meringue. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, add:

2 sticks unsalted butter

1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 egg yolks

11/4 cups pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute until it is smooth and light in color. Slowly add the white and brown sugar. Beat for about 4 minutes or until both sugars are fully incorporates and the mixture is light and fluffy. Make sure to stop the mixer and scrape down the sides.

Then add the egg yolks one at a time, making sure to incorporate each. Beat until mixture is thick and pale, about 3 minutes.

Add pumpkin puree and vanilla, beat on medium for 1 minute then fold in the carrots.

Dry Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

5 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoon ginger

1 Tablespoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups grated carrots

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and salt. Whisk all dry ingredients, then sift. With the mixer on low, slowly add the mixture to the butter, sugar mixture. Mix until just combined.

Mix for 1 minute until everything is incorporated.

THEN, add 1/3 of the meringue mixture and gently fold in to the batter to lighten it. Add remaining meringue mixture and gently fold, do not stir or beat aggressively. Fold egg whites until you do not see any white in the mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared pans, and fill the cupcake tins almost to the top with batter. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. or until they test done.

TIP 1

Because the recipe is a little more complicated than a normal recipe, or at least the ones I have used in the past you might want to read Ben Starrs’ original recipe just in case I made a typo. Also, the cupcake recipe is a little different than the cake so if you are making a cake instead check the recipe first.

TIP 2

Black icing is a bit of a challenge to perfect, I used Wilton black gel food coloring and the color had a lot of dark blue undertones so I evened it out with black sanding sugar. If you have a foolproof method to create true colors using gel dye let me know.

TIP 3

If you do not have the time and don’t want to make homemade cupcakes buy a mix and make those then spend an afternoon with your kids or grandkids decorating/eating your own Halloween cupcakes. I am sure they will love them and you will love making memories with them.

pumpkin carrot cake cupcakes with black buttercream frosting and black sanding sugar pinecones & acorns

How to Decorate Pumpkin Carrot Cake Cupcakes

You can decorate these pumpkin carrot cake cupcakes with whatever frosting you like, when I make the cake I use cream cheese frosting but for these cupcakes, I decided to use my favorite buttercream frosting. Of course I added a few Halloween sprinkles and black sanding sugar.

homemade pumpkin carrot cupcakes with buttercream frosting and halloween sprinkles

Where to shop to Halloween baking paraphernalia

I purchased 50 of these sturdy cupcake cups, which could also be used to hold candy and other treats at TJ Maxx for $2.99 and I found the sprinkles and sanding sugar at Target but you can also find a huge selection at your local grocery store, Walmart and of course Amazon.

homemade carrot pumpkin cupcakes with sprinkles and sanding sugar

The cupcakes were a huge hit with the people working on the house they loved the taste and taking photos of one another with their black stained lips and teeth.

Pin Me Later

I hope that if you make the cupcakes or the cake that you let me know. I will be making the cake version of these cupcakes for Thanksgiving as I mentioned above, my family loves this cake. In fact now that I think about it, I am going to make it early and freeze it so that I have one less thing to do over the holiday.

Have a good day.