clinging to fall and testing Martha

So, did I mention that I was one of the winners of Martha's 2009 Cutest Cupcake Contest? I did? Oh right, here. Well, I'll boast again. I was one of the winners of Martha's 2009 Cutest Cupcake Contest, uh huh. And I won her cupcake book and have been wanting to try out a recipe.

Now, I'm mostly a baking purist because I grew up in a purist baking household. I would not could not ever dare to use anything but butter when baking. Or real sugar. And I would not could not ever dare to use a cookie mix or a brownie mix. But, alas, I heartily use cake mixes. I risk this hypocrisy because cakes and cupcakes from scratch are often dry and simply not as good as the cake mix (though I would not could not ever use canned frosting). So I had my skepticism about pulling a random recipe from the cupcake book. Foolish me. These brown butter pumpkin cupcakes from Martha are moist, soft, just the right amount of sweet and absolutely scrumptious.

pumpkin brown-butter cupcakes
{adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes}
3/4 cup butter (plus more for tins)
1 2/3 cups all-purposes flour (plus more for tins)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (I use Libby's)
1 cup packed brown sugar (I use dark brown, Martha uses light)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter and flour muffin tins (I made a dozen minis and 6 large). Melt butter over medium-low heat in saucepan, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown. Skim foam from top and pour butter into a bowl to stop the cooking, let cool. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugars, eggs and brown-butter mixture. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Fill tins 3/4 full and bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. When cool, dip tops in brown-butter icing.

brown-butter icing
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 1/2 cup unsalted butter, swirling pan occasionally, until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into bowl (leave sediment behind). Add 2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla extract and 2 tblsp. milk to the butter and stir until smooth. Add more milk if necessary.

for the fondant pumpkin cupcake toppers CLICK HERE to see my previous post