220g butter, room temperature
100g sugar
100g brown sugar
3 eggs
425g pumpkin purée*
240g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
4 tsp pumpkin spice**
For the maple frosting:
120g butter, room temperature
55g brown sugar
40ml maple syrup
160g cream cheese
Chopped pecans, for decoration
Makes 28 mini muffins or 14 regular muffins
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan.
In a bowl, cream the butter with the sugar and brown sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat between additions. Add the pumpkin purée and mix again.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin spice. Briefly fold through the wet ingredients, making sure not to overbeat the batter.
Grease a muffin tin and fill the holes with the batter. Bake the mini muffins for 20 minutes or the normal sized muffins for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave the muffins to cool in their tin for 15 minutes, then turn them onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Once cool, prepare the frosting: cream the butter and the brown sugar in a bowl and mix until pale. Add the maple syrup and the cream cheese and mix for about 3 minutes until the sugar crystals have melted and you’re left with a smooth frosting.
Spread the frosting all over the muffins, sprinkle with chopped pecans, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
*You can make your own pumpkin purée, but I would urge you to seek out the tinned version – most shops sell it in Luxembourg these days. Homemade pumpkin purée tends to be more watery than tinned, which can have an impact on your cake.
**If you don’t have pumpkin spice at hand, you can use spekulatius spice mix or make your own: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1⁄4 tsp allspice or Lebkuchen spice, a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of ground cloves.
