The cupcake pictured above may look like an ordinary cupcake to you. It has a cupcake wrapper, frosting, and sprinkles to boot. However, if you were to pick it up, you would immediately notice that something was, well, different. For one thing, it's heavy.
Go ahead, take a bite.
Yes, ladies and gentleman. That is a tiny pumpkin pie INSIDE of the cupcake!
I got the idea from this blog post. Sara is a pie baker. I am a cupcake baker. It seemed like a concept we couldn't pass up.
First, Sara made mini-pumpkin pies from scratch. Even the crust was from scratch, mostly because she is crazy. You want to use a mini-cupcake pan
that is sprayed with some non-stick spray for the pies. Use whatever pumpkin pie recipe you want, or just use some canned pumpkin pie mix. Bake the mini-pies for about 17 minutes on 375 F, or long enough until the pie is set and the crust is cooked. It's not a science and the pies will bake more inside of the cupcake so don't stress about it too much.
So you can see how small the pies are!
Next, whip up some cupcake batter. I used my signature vanilla cake recipe. Stop after step 6.
Baa Baa Vanilla Cupcakes - makes approximately 30 cupcakes
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces at room temperature
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners
- In a medium sized bowl, combine the two flours and the baking powder. Stir to ensure that the ingredients are mixed.
- Cream butter in a large bowl on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the sugar to the butter, mixing well after each cup.
- Add each egg separately, mixing well with the mixer after each addition.
- Add the vanilla to the milk. Alternate adding the dry mixture and the milk to the egg-sugar-butter mix. Mix well after each addition on medium speed so that the mixture is uniform.
- Fill the cupcake liners with 1/2 - 3/4 of batter. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
Now it's time for the assembly!
Put about a tablespoon of batter in each cupcake liner. You want enough batter so that the entire bottom of the liner is covered. Next, put a cooled pumpkin pie on top of the batter. Scoop enough batter over the pie so that it is completely covered. Bake at 350F for about 23 minutes. The tops of the cupcakes should spring back when you press on them. Don't put a toothpick in the middle - you'll just stab the little pie!
Frost as desired and enjoy. They were actually quite tasty! Plus, it's an easy way to impress your friends :)