Finally! Cupcakes!

A few weeks ago while biking with James, he told me about this great way to make butternut squash puree without the whole peeling and cutting torture - cut the squash in two lengthwise, remove the seeds, place cut-side down in a baking pan and pour in half an inch of water and stick in the oven for 1-2 hours at ~300 F, cool, scoop out the flesh, done. No, I am not kidding, we do actually talk about butternut squash and chocolate and white truffle oil and beans and mushrooms while we bike. Which explains why I end up eating three breakfasts on bike-ride days. Eager to try the idea, I applied it to a fairly big specimen of of the butternut family and now I have two boxes of pumpkin in the fridge. What to do with it? Pumpkin-chocolate chip cupcakes of course! These delicious winter treasures have been made a few times already and they go perfectly well with both a mug of hot chocolate or a mug of tea. The recipe below is tweaked to my liking from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing

1 C pumpkin
1/4 C soy milk (+some)
1/3 C canola oil
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 C chocolate chips
Icing
1-2 Tbs melted butter (or margarine to keep the vegan)
1 Tbs soy milk
1/2 C powder sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Notes: I prefer using vanilla soy milk - it adds to the vanilla flavor. I also used the home-made pumpkin mush, but canned pumpkin works just as well. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips. I wouldn't recommend that you use very dark chocolate because the cake itself is not very sweet and the chocolate makes up for that. I think I will try making these with brown sugar next time.

Heat oven to 350 F. Mix pumpkin, oil, soy milk, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Stir well. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients - baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and flour and stir. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix carefully stirring with a spoon or fork (not a mixer). The amount of liquid in the batter depends on how watery the pumpkin is so if the batter gets too thick splash some more soy milk in. You want the batter to be thick but not hard to stir. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Line a cupcake pan and divide the batter evenly. Bake ... I dunno... ~30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (which is a little tricky because of the chocolate) or the tops spring back when pressed. Better underbake a little to keep them moist.

To make the icing, stir all the ingredients in a bowl. The icing should be thick and dull looking. If it is glossy, add some more powder sugar. Keep at room temperature. Drizzle generously over the cupcakes after they have cooled (use left-overs on ice cream). Or if you'd rather skip the icing, sift some powder sugar and cinnamon on them... or, whatever, just eat them like they are.