Feb 07, 2011
I am giving four stars based on the original recipe...my changes would boost it up to five. This is a great, basic pumpkin cupcake recipe as-is. However, as other cooks have commented, OIL is really what is needed to make a very moist and tender cupcake. Leave butter for your full-size cakes, bundts, and pound cakes (I even have certain bundt cake recipe that are all oil rather than butter.) I am not big on all the spices, so I kept it simple: 1 tsp. of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice, that's it! This will sound crazy, but I also double the salt. Why? Because something magical happens when you add a hearty dose of sea salt to a spicy cake. I make a spiced applesauce bundt cake a few weeks ago, and the recipe called for 1 and 1/2 tsp. of salt. I was hesitant but made it that way anyway. It was UNBELIEVABLY good! Now I always double my salt when using cinnamon and other spicy ingredients in my sweet stuff. As for the sugar, I just did equal parts of white and brown. And I made cake flour instead of using all-purpose. This small change alone will make your cuppies very fluffy and moist. I used buttermilk instead of whole as that's what I had on hand. Buttermilk is great with pumpkin anyway. And as a few others did...I increased the pumpkin by 1/4 cup, and then I added another 1/4 cup of sour cream. It seems like a lot of moisture, but it really makes the cupcakes super moist. I made both large and small, all turned out great.
—Trish
