Pumpkin pecan sandie cupcakes with maple rum buttercream
2 Nov
This past Monday and Tuesday, the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast had a VERY unwelcome visitor: Hurricane Sandy. We were extremely lucky in our immediate area–we had some minor power losses throughout Monday, but no major damage from wind or flooding. Tuesday evening, Ray and I walked around Haddonfield and noticed many large trees down, though most of them had just missed houses. And of course, there are numerous people who were not as fortunate–some are still without power in our area. Natural disasters like this and climate change are not a joke … but we can have that discussion another day.
I knew I wanted to do a pumpkin cupcake this week, and luckily for me, my fellow Sea Monkey and Twitter pal made a comment about all the “Hurricane” inspired recipes and how no one had jumped onto pecan sandies. So I thought, why not?
I worked with my spiced pumpkin recipe from last year, making a couple tweaks to the spices used (I LOVE Chinese 5 Spice so, so much). I looked up a couple pecan sandie recipes and found that they’re basically a buttery, vanilla-y cookie with pecans, so I took the leap from there and used my favorite pecan praline filling. Topped with a maple rum buttercream and finished with a praline pecan half (also made with Chinese 5 Spice), and I think I have a cupcake that is both defined and sophisticated enough to show Hurricane Sandy she couldn’t take us all out.
Ingredients
Directions
Start with your pecan praline garnish and pecan praline filling first to give them time to cool.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and position the racks toward the center. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.
For the garnish, combine all the ingredients and stir gently to coat. Spoon into the baking dish
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir gently, and let cool for approximately 10 minutes.
Stir again, gently separating pecan halves from each other. Place on a sheet of wax paper separated out and let cool fully before placing on the cupcakes.
For the pecan praline filling, combine all ingredients but the pecans in a small pot and heat until syrupy.
Mix in the pecans, stirring to combine. Take off the heat and cool to room temperature.
For the cupcakes, heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and position the racks toward the center. Line pans with cupcake papers.
Combine dry ingredients; set aside.
Cream butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, then add vanilla and maple syrup.
Add pumpkin puree and mix until combined.
Mix in the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each about halfway full. Bake for about 18-20 minutes.
When done, transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.
For the frosting, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add 1 cup of sugar, beating until combined.
Add the rum bakery emulsion and maple syrup. Finally, add the remaining sugar gradually and whip until light and fluffy.
To assemble, core the cupcakes and fill with a spoonful of pecan praline filling. Fit a piping bag with your favorite piping tip (I used an extra large round tip) and pipe frosting onto each cupcake.
Garnish with 1 pecan praline half.
Good cupcake! The praline on top and the filling really stood out to me against the pumpkin cake and rum butter cream. Nice layering of the flavors.
Oh my damn, this cupcake was scrumptious.
Sorry for my delinquent reviewing lately… hard to remember when I take them home and don’t eat them until Friday night!
This one was worth remembering to come back and tell you about though. Holy moly, it was AWESOME the buttercream, the pecan, the pumpkin. WOW.
How much butter is supposed to be in the cupcake?
Wow Wendy, I’m so sorry! I just updated the recipe (somehow the butter measurement didn’t copy over from my original, yikes!). So, the butter amount is 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks), or 12 tbsp.
Let me know if you try this recipe, and I hope it goes well!
Happy baking