Introduction: Giant Pumpkin Cupcakes With Cheesecake Filling

About: I'm from nowhere in the middle of Russia, now live in Cyprus and writing recipes here - is a part of my English learning =) I love baking and can decompose every recipe in clear simple steps.

Amazing giant pumpkin cupcakes with super soft and moist dough, vanilla cheesecake filling and soooo delicious cream cheese frosting... and everything is sooo easy! You have to try this!

Step 1: Ingredients

For 4 giant cupcakes, about 9 cm in height.

Pumpkin pie spices:

  1. Ginger powder - 1 tsp.
  2. Nutmeg powder - 1 tsp.
  3. Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp.
  4. Allspice powder - 0.5 tsp.
  5. Clove powder - 0.5 tsp.

If you don't have some of this spices you can mix cinnamon and ginger, and it'll be amazing too.

Batter:

  1. Fresh pumpkin or pumpkin puree - 160 gr.
  2. Pinch of salt
  3. Dark brown sugar - 180 gr.
  4. Vegetable oil without fragrance - 120 gr.
  5. Egg - 1 piece
  6. Pecan nuts - 35 gr.
  7. All purpose flour - 150 gr.
  8. Pumpkin pie spices - 1 tsp.
  9. Baking soda - 1 tsp.
  10. Baking powder - 1.5 tsp.


Cheesecake filling:

  1. Cream cheese - 200 gr.
  2. White sugar - 20 gr.
  3. Egg yolk - 1 piece
  4. Cream - 60 gr.
  5. Vanilla extract


Cream cheese frosting:

  1. Cream cheese - 150 gr.
  2. Whipping cream 33% fat - 45 gr.
  3. Sugar powder - 30 gr.
  4. Vanilla extract

Optional:

  1. Cinnamon sticks - 4 pieces
  2. Anise stars - 4 pieces

Btw - instead of cheesecake filling you can fill cupcakes with frosting. It'll be easier and damn delicious.

Step 2: Equipment

  1. Small saucepan
  2. Sieve
  3. Mixer
  4. Chopper or coffee grinder to make nuts flour
  5. Oven
  6. Stove
  7. Bowls
  8. Spoons
  9. Cupcake pan - for these giants I use Wilton cupcake pan (10cm height, 4.5 cm diameter). You can use small molds, or even one big loaf pan (19х9х6cm)
  10. Paper inserts for pans.
  11. Pastry bag with a big piping nozzle.

Step 3: Prepare Nuts and Spices

1. First of all you have to roast pecan nuts (35 gr) until they have light brown color and nice fragrance. Let them cool.

2. Mix together spices for pumpkin pie (or you can use store-bought mix) - powdered ginger (1 tsp.) nutmeg (1 tsp.) cinnamon (1 tsp.), allspice (0.5 tsp.) and clove (0.5 tsp.).

Step 4: Make Pumpkin Puree

Feel free to use store-bought puree. In Russia, it's not so common, and I was forced to make it from scratch. However I found a really quick way to do it.

3. Peel pumpkin, and grate. We need just 160 gr. pumpkin here. Put it in a small saucepan, add a pinch of salt and pour in water just to cover the pumpkin.

4. Bring it to a boil and let simmer 8-10 minutes over medium heat, till pumpkin become soft and translucent - in this case you don't have to simmer it for 30-40 minutes - small pieces cook quickly!

5. Strain water using a sieve. Squeeze it well with a spoon. After that, blend pumpkin into fine puree.

Step 5: Mix Dry Ingredients

6. Turn your oven on at 170°C (340°F)

7. In a bowl sift flour (150gr.), pumpkin pie spices (1 tsp.), baking soda (1 tsp.) and baking powder (1.5 tsp.). Mix well to be sure no lumps of soda or spices remain.

8. Grind nuts (35 gr.) into coarse flour - you can use chopper or coffee grinder to get finer texture. As you may know - if you grind nuts for a long time, they warm up, produce oil and turn into paste. To prevent this you should add 1 Tbsp of flour mixture from the step above - it'll absorb some oil and you'll be able to grind them longer and get finer texture.

Combine nut flour and remaining flour mixture.

Step 6: Mix Wet Ingredients and Make Batter

9. In another bowl mix together pumpkin puree (160gr), dark brown sugar (180gr), vegetable oil (120 gr) and an egg (1piece, 55 gr).

10. Once wet ingredients have combined, add dry ones and whisk for 5-7 minutes with mixer - at this step we add air into batter, please do not omit it.

You can store batter in a fridge up to 3 days.

Step 7: Bake

11. Put paper inserts into cupcake baking mold, pour batter in - not full, left about 1/3 of height for rising. Put in the oven.

For Wilton's jumbo cupcake form I use ∼170 gr batter for a cake and bake it ∼35 minutes. You can use smaller cupcake forms, or make one big cake and then slice it.

To check doneness use a toothpick - just pierce a cake and check - it has to come out dry.

12. Cool cakes on a rack.

Step 8: Make Filling

You have to act carefully to get really nice and smooth texture of cheesecake. If you overheat it, your cheesecake become dry, crumble and not as pleasant as it could be. Just pay attention and don't walk away from a stove =)

1. Combine cream cheese (200 gr), white sugar (20 gr), an egg yolk (1 piece), cream (60 gr) and vanilla extract in a saucepan. Put it on the stove, medium heat.

Mix it very well with a whisk - to be sure nothing stick to the bottom. If you have a thermometer, heat it up to 70°-75°C (158°-167°F). If you don't have a thermometer - wait till the first bubble appeared, and warm it for 10 more seconds.

Step 9: Fill the Cakes

2. Make a hole in every cupcake using a teaspoon or small knife. Fill it with cheesecake filling and cool in a fridge (20-30 minutes will be enough).

Step 10: Make Frosting

If you sure about your mixer, just put all ingredients in a bowl - cream cheese (150 gr), whipping cream (45 gr), powdered sugar (30 gr) and vanilla, and whip it till stiff peaks.

If your mixer is quite weak - make it separately - firstly whip cream with sugar, and after that add cream cheese and mix well.

Step 11: Decorate

Put frosting in a bag with a nice tip (here I use 1M Wilton piping nozzle).

Make a whirl =)

If desire you can add a cinnamon stick and an anise star on the top.

Step 12: ...and Voila!

These amounts of ingredients made 4 big cupcakes, about 7 cm in height of a cake and 9 cm with cream.

Step 13: Enjoy =)

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