The host of ‘America’s Test Kitchen’ shares one of her favorite fall dessert recipes
These pumpkin spice cupcakes with honey cream cheese frosting from ATK's newest book, 'Naturally Sweet,' are big on autumn flavor and low on sugar.
America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) wants you to know that, this fall, you can have your (pumpkin) cake and eat it, too.
Pumpkin cupcakes are one of many treats featured in ATK’s newest cookbook, Naturally Sweet: Bake All Your Favorites with 30% to 50% Less Sugar, which features recipes for baking using less sugar.
ATK host Julia Collin Davison told Boston.com she thinks this cupcake recipe is the perfect treat for celebrating the season.
“These cupcake’s flavors—warm spices like allspice, ginger, and pumpkin—makes you think of back to school and leaves falling, which makes it a great fall recipe,” Collin Davison said. “And it’s easy. The extra little bonus is that it’s lower in sugar, which is something you can put out there or hide from your kids. Either way, it’s all good.”
Besides the fact that pumpkin is a staple autumnal flavor, Collin Davison said pumpkin-based recipes are great because pumpkin keeps cakes smooth, silky, and moist. And this particular recipe uses canned pumpkin, which doesn’t hurt your sugar intake.
Unfrosted, the average pumpkin cupcake can measure in at 22 grams of sugar, but this recipe cuts that to 12 grams. Collin Davison appreciates that—she said that while creating and testing this recipe for Naturally Sweet, she and the ATK staff “happily ate about 50 batches for the reader.”
Pumpkin spice cupcakes
(Makes 12 cupcakes)
1/3 cup plus ¼ cup (3 ounces) Sucanat
1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
¾ cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 recipe Half-Batch Honey Cream Cheese Frosting (see below)
Steps
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12-cup muffin tin with paper or foil liners. Working in two batches, grind Sucanat in spice grinder until fine and powdery, about one minute.
- Whisk flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, allspice, and ginger together in large bowl. In separate bowl, whisk Sucanat, pumpkin puree, oil, and eggs until smooth. Using rubber spatula, stir Sucanat mixture into flour mixture until combined.
- Portion batter evenly into prepared muffin tin. Bake cupcakes until toothpick inserted in center comes out with few crumbs attached, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking.
- Let cupcakes cool in tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and let cool completely, about one hour. (Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to three days.) Spread frosting evenly over cupcakes and serve.
Don’t have Sucanat? You can try these sweetener substitutions: Coconut Sugar:
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (3 ounces)
Cupcakes will taste slightly less sweet; grind sugar as directed in step 1.
Granulated Sugar: 7 tablespoons (3 ounces)
Cupcakes will be paler and have slightly milder flavor; do not grind sugar in step 1.
Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
(Makes 3 cups)
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons honey
Steps
- Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and salt on medium-high speed until smooth, one to two minutes.
- Reduce mixer speed to medium-low, add honey, and whip until smooth, one to two minutes. Increase speed to medium-high and whip frosting until light and fluffy, three to five minutes.
Adapted from
Naturally Sweet: Bake All Your Favorites with 30% to 50% Less Sugar (America’s Test Kitchen, August 2016). Available here.
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