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November 1st…why, hello. You came quickly this year. The temperature did drop about 20 degrees these past few days, but I was hoping the lovely, enjoyable fall would stick around a little longer. C’est la vie!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend! If you missed Pup-A-Ween or this week’s chili contest entry, you can check those out!

Remember how I made those delicious Pumpkin Pie Bars for my co-workers attending my in-service today? Well, a few too many of them disappeared over the weekend (still trying to solve that mystery!), so I decided I’d better come prepared with plenty of treats for all…leading me to these uhhh-mazing pumpkin cupcakes with Nutella frosting. They are as good as they sound, I guarantee it! Health-wise? Nothing positive to report on that account, just (hopefully) happy co-workers!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting from Cake Batter and Bowl

Pumpkin Cupcakes:

1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree

2 cups cake flour (or 1 3/4 cup flour + 1/4 cup cornstarch)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup 1% buttermilk

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 ounces light cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup Nutella

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350˚F. Place pumpkin puree in a small nonstick pan and simmer over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until reduced to 1 cup. Cool completely. Meanwhile, mix together flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and sift the mixture into a large bowl. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer in a large bowl until creamed. Add in eggs, vanilla extract, and cooled pumpkin puree, and mix until smooth. Slowly mix in half the sifted flour mixture until smooth. Mix in the buttermilk and then the remaining flour mixture. Line 16 cups of two standard cupcake pans with liners and evenly spoon cupcake batter into the liners, filling cups 3/4 full. Bake cupcakes at 350˚F for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack. Cool for 20 minutes or until cupcakes are room temperature.

To make the frosting, add the cream cheese, Nutella, and vanilla extract to a large bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar, scraping down sides of the bowl, as needed, until the frosting is smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes. Yield: 18 cupcakes.

Nutrition Information (per cupcake): 269 calories; 10.6 g. fat; 28 mg. cholesterol; 160 mg. sodium; 41.5 g. carbohydrate; 3.4 g. protein

Result: Only one word for these babies…AMAZING!

It’s been a sugary, sweet weekend with all of these treats and Halloween! I promise to get Prevention RD back on track this week with some yummy new recipes that include something other than sugar and butter! 😉

The RD Q&A is in the works, I hope to have it up by the end of the next weekend. We are in for a treat as the RD’s of the blogsphere share all! 😀

Question: Don’t you think Mr. Prevention should guest post on the blog? He says he will do a post on 5-Hour Energy and how it works, but I question the scientific validity of what that post will bring. Any ideas for him? If we beg long and hard, maybe he will cave and grace PreventionRD.com with his wisdom!

Have a great week!