Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple-Bourbon Frosting

It’s reader’s choice week again on HAP and this time you picked a Thanksgiving classic: pumpkin! Since pumpkin pie recipes are on the back of nearly every can of pumpkin, we’ll be serving up some variations on the popular ingredient.

For my Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple-Bourbon Frosting, I started with Martha Stewart‘s pumpkin cupcakes, amped up the spices a little and then whipped some fall flavors into my favorite cream cheese frosting.  Although I don’t actually like drinking bourbon, the hint of flavor it adds gives the frosting great depth and pairs nicely with the spicy cake.

PUMPKIN CUPCAKES:
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1+ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/3 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 C brown sugar
1 C sugar
2 sticks butter, melted
4 eggs
1 can pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In a separate large bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs, beating one at a time. Working in thirds, add dry ingredients to sugar mixture and beat well. Beat in pumpkin.

Spoon batter into lined cupcake tin, filling 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 min for standard size cupcakes or 28-30 min for Texas sized cupcakes. Cool completely before frosting.

MAPLE-BOURBON FROSTING:
1 stick butter, softened
1 8oz pkg reduced fat cream cheese
3-4 C powdered sugar
2 Tbsp good bourbon, such as Maker’s Mark
1/4 C real maple syrup OR 1/2 tsp maple extract
*optional melted chocolate for fleur de lis

Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Beat in one cup of powdered sugar. Add bourbon and maple syrup and beat well. Beat in remaining powdered sugar. If frosting is not thick enough to your liking, beat in 1/4 C flour or additional sugar to thicken.

NOTE: I used maple syrup but didn’t get quite as much maple flavor as I wanted. If you can find maple extract I would try using that instead to get a stronger maple flavor.

CHOCOLATE
FLEUR de LIS:
Microwave 2/3 C chocolate chips in a small Ziploc bag for 1 minute. Spread parchment or wax paper on a cookie sheet. Clip off a tiny bit of  the bottom corner of the bag and  pipe chocolate into shapes on the parchment. Freeze for 2-3 hours.