The story behind my pumpkin cupcakes

Autumn and Halloween are my favorite seasons right behind Christmas, but I think I already told you that and what kind of fruit is in season during fall? It’s pumpkin! And Styria the part in Austria where I am living is famous for it’s pumpkins and pumpkin seed oil! So basically pumpkin and pumpkin seed oil is running in our veins like maple syrup is in the blood of Canadians 😉 Thats why I needed to make a pumpkin cupcake with vanilla cream cheese frosting. We’ve even put some pumpkin seed oil on top of the finished cupcake, right before serving and they were very delicious.

I have been making cupcakes since the young age of 15 with my sister Nina. We’ve been experimenting a lot (yeah nothing changed we still have small catastrophes happening in our kitchen cause of our experiments once in a while) and we’ve made a lot of cupcakes over the years. These pumpkin cupcakes are perfectly moist with the perfect amount of spices and combined with my favorite vanilla frosting a truly dream come true. Like biting into pure bliss!

How to make these delicious Pumpkin Cupcakes:

We start with the pumpkin cake made with real pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice. I always prepare a lot of pumpkin purée which I than try to use up and try to incorporate it in as many recipes as possiple! I always use Hokkaido Pumpkin, slice it and roast it in the oven at 180°C for 20-30 min until soft. Then I puree it in my high speed mixer. Voila now you’re ready to make these delicious Pumpkin Cupcakes!

Ingredients for the pumpkin cake

• Whole Grain Flour
• Baking Powder
• Homemade Pumpkin Spice
• salt
• Pumpkin purée
• Coconut oil, melted
• Brown sugar –> adds a caramel quality
• Granulated sugar –> adds sweetness
• Egg
• Pure Vanilla extract

1.Step
Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a muffin pan with 6 cupcake liner

2.Step:
In a large bowl mix together the whole grain flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice and salt.

3.Step
In a smaller bowl combine the pumpkin purée, coconut oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

4.Step
Using an ice cream scoop or spoons, divide the batter evenly onto the 6 cupcake liner. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean at 180°C. Let it cool completely before frosting

Now to my favorite frosting in the world – Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting!

This is my all-time favorite frosting and always the basis for other flavors of frosting! You know this is not just a plain-old recipe for vanilla frosting, this one is one of a kind! My secret recipe for frosting cakes and cupcakes. Psst don’t tell anyone! You know the secret ingredient is the caster sugar. Every Cream cheese frosting recipe in the world wide web calls for powdered sugar but I make mine with caster sugar. I don’t like my frosting extremely overly sweet which happens when you use powdered sugar, because when using powdered sugar you need a lot of it.

This recipe is for a small patch of cupcakes, but making frosting for only 6 is very difficult, just FYI and you will need a standing mixer like a Kitchenaid or something similar because the butter and the sugar need to be beat for at least 5 minutes.

The 4 holy ingredients:

• Butter
• Caster Sugar
• Vanilla extract high in quality
• Cream Cheese

Like I already said, first you need to beat the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy for at least 5 minutes, always scraping down the sides during. Then add the vanilla and beat again. This is the most IMPORTANT step add the cream cheese and carefully beat only until it’s just combined. Do not over beat it!!

Pipe the frosting on top of the little cakes and then dip the edges into the pumpkin seeds.

How to make little marzipan pumpkins

These little pumpkins are the perfect decoration for halloween too!

You will need:

• Green Fondant (I used this one)
• Orange Marzipan-Fondant (I used this one)
• Brown Fondant (I used this one)

or you could color your marzipan yourself – this is the perfect step by step directions if you’re coloring it by yourself

Lets begin with the orange pumpkin:

Cut the orange marzipan into 3 parts lenghtwise. You will need two parts. Now you divide the 2 parts into thirds and shape little balls. With a toothpick make intends where the stems and the green ranks will be placed afterwards. Press creases along outer edges from top to bottom for pumpkin ribs.

Next to the stems:

You will only a little bit of the fondant. Cut little pieces from the brown fondant and shape into small robes

Last but not least the pumpkin tendrils:

Just repeat the step how to shape the stems. You will only need a little bit of the fondant. Cut little pieces from the green fondant and shape into small tendrils.

Attach the stems and the green tendrils on the top of the pumpkin, pressing with a toothpick to adhere.

Believe me you need to make these cupcakes ASAP. They are like I already said perfectly moist, perfectly spiced and with the best vanilla cream cheese frosting 😉 This recipe is only for a small batch of cupcakes but you just need to increase the ingredients and you will be perfectly fine if you like to have more than 6 cupcakes-

Don’t forget to tag us on Instagram @twosisterslivinglife or hashtag #twosisterslivinglife. You can find us on Facebook too and Nina and I would be more than happy if you followed us on our social media channels for more delicious food pictures and infos to what we are up to at the moment.

Love, Antonia

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

0 from 0 votes

Recipe by Antonia Course: cake, DessertCuisine: American

Servings

6

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

478

kcal

These Pumpkin Cupcakes are perfect for the fall season and for Halloween. They are moist and oh so perfect and with the vanilla cream-cheese frosting just pure perfection!

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Ingredients

• 3/4 cup 3/4 whole grain flour

• 3/4 tsp 3/4 baking powder

• 1 1/2 tsp 1 1/2 pumpkin spice

• 1/2 tsp 1/2 salt

• 3/4 cup 3/4 pumpkin puree

• 1/4 cup 1/4 coconut oil melted

• 1/4 cup 1/4 brown sugar

• 2 Tbsp 2 granulated sugar

• 1 1 egg

• 1 tsp 1 vanilla

• 1/4 cup 1/4 butter

• 1/2 cup 1/2 caster sugar

• 8 oz 8 cream cheese

• 1 tsp 1 vanilla

• 1/3 cup 1/3 pumpkin seeds lightly chopped

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a muffin pan with 6 black cupcake liner
• In a large bowl mix together the whole grain flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice and salt.
• In a smaller bowl combine the pumpkin purée, coconut oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
• Using an ice cream scoop or spoons, divide the batter evenly onto the 6 cupcake liner.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean at 180°C. Let it cool completely before frosting
• Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
• Beat the softened butter and the caster sugar until pale and fluffy for at least 6 minutes. It needs to be very light in color. Add the vanilla beat again. Add the Cream Cheese and only beat for a short time. IMPORTANT Don't overbeat it! only until its just combined!
• Pipe the frosting on top of the cake and then dip the edges into the pumpkin seeds.

Nutrition Facts

• Calories: 478kcal
• Carbohydrates: 44g
• Protein: 6g
• Fat: 32g
• Saturated Fat: 21g
• Cholesterol: 89mg
• Sodium: 401mg
• Potassium: 256mg
• Fiber: 2g
• Sugar: 32g
• Vitamin A: 5550IU
• Vitamin C: 1mg
• Calcium: 97mg
• Iron: 1mg

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This is my favorite Pumpkin Swirl Brownie recipe EVA. I always make these during the pumpkin season and because I love using fresh pumpkin purée they are always on my to do list. They are very easy to make and oh so very deliciously fudgy. These are what brownie dreams are made of. Believe me you will never taste better brownies than these.

The story how I got the brownie recipe – short version

The base recipe for these pumpkin swirl brownies was an old recipe which I got while traveling with my family to New York 10 years ago during Christmas time. We’ve been at this cozy little café in SOHO and with every check they handed out different recipes on little postcards. Thats how I got my favorite brownie recipe. 🙂

How to make these bad boys 😉 which will change your life, haha

First of we start with the brownie batter:

You will need:

• Dark Chocolate
• Butter
• Eggs
• Granulated Sugar
• Whole grain flour

Thats it, and these are normally always kitchen stables so you could whip up this recipe in no time

We start with carefully melting the chocolate and the butter either in the microwave or using a water bath. Combine sugar and flour and add the chocolate mixture. Beat the eggs and add them to the chocolate batter.

Voila brownie batter is finished now off to ..

How to make the delicious pumpkin swirl:

You will only need 4 ingredients:

• Pumpkin Purée
• Granulated Sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• Homemade Pumpkin Spice – you can find the recipe here

Just combine everything and we are ready to do the last step.

Pour the brownie batter into the prepared 8 inch square pan. Carefully add big dollops of the pumpkin batter and make swirls with a spoon or a knife, creating a marbled look.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, there should still be some batter sticking to a toothpick. If there is not sticking anything than your brownies will have a cake like texture which was not the intention because this recipe should be fudgy. To get them fudgy there still need to be some batter sticking to the toothpick. Let it cool in the pan completely before cutting.

This is our favorite recipe for pumpkin swirl brownies and I am pretty sure you will love them too!

Did you make this recipe? Great tag us on Instagram @twosisterslivinglife or use our hashtag #twosisterslivinglife so we can see.

Love, Antonia

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

0 from 0 votes

Recipe by Antonia Course: cake, DessertCuisine: American

Servings

9

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Calories

441

kcal

These are my favorite Pumpkin Brownies and the yummiest you will ever taste! They are very easy to make and perfectly shareable, if you'd like to!

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Ingredients

• 190 g 190 dark chocolate 1 cup

• 190 g 190 butter 3/4 cup

• 4 4 eggs

• 240 g 240 granulated sugar 1 1/3 cup

• 35 g 35 whole grain flour 1/4 cup

• 130 g 130 pumpkin purée 1/2 cup

• 1 tbsp 1 granulated sugar

• 1 1 egg yolk

• 1/2 tsp 1/2 pumpkin spice

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 20cm/ 8 inch square pan with parchment paper
• Melt the butter and the chocolate carefully. Combine sugar and flour and add to the chocolate mixture.
• Beat the eggs and add them to the batter and combine.
• Pumpkin Swirl
• For the pumpkin swirl, combine the pumpkin purée, the sugar, egg yolk and pumpkin spice
• Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Carefully add big dollops of the pumpkin batter and carefully make artistic swirls with it using a butter knife or spoon, creating a marbled look.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. These brownies are very fudgy and moist so if you do the toothpick test there will definitley SOME (not a lot) of the batter on it when they are ready.
• Let them cool completely before lifting them out of the pan.

Nutrition Facts

• Calories: 441kcal
• Carbohydrates: 42g
• Protein: 5g
• Fat: 29g
• Saturated Fat: 17g
• Cholesterol: 140mg
• Sodium: 185mg
• Potassium: 227mg
• Fiber: 3g
• Sugar: 34g
• Vitamin A: 2918IU
• Vitamin C: 1mg
• Calcium: 40mg
• Iron: 3mg

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Tell me, are you one of these persons who are excited about fall to start all summer long just because you badly want a pumpkin spice latte fron your local Starbucks? Because I know you are. It’s my favourite time of the year too. Therefore I decided to dedicate one of our recipes to a homemade pumpkin spice syrup. I don’t get this delicious coffee beverage here in Austria.

Pumpkin spice syrup is one of my favourite pumpkin recipes

The recipe is fairly easy because you only need 3 main key ingredients:

• Water
• white sugar, you can us coconut sugar or brown sugar instead of it but the syrup will get a darker brownish coloring
• and pumpkin, my favourite ist hokkaido.
• The spices can very. The perfect match for the syrup would be our homemade Pumpkin Spice but if you only have some of the spices at home add at least cinnamon and nutmeg.

Enjoy the fall season with your own cup of homemade pumpkin spice latte. It’s much better than the one you get at Starbucks and you definitely know what went into it.

Warm cinnamonly hugs

Nina

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Syrup

5 from 7 votes

Recipe by Nina Course: coffee, Dessert, DrinksCuisine: American

Servings

25

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Calories

50

kcal

Total time

30

minutes

This is an easy and fast recipe for Homemade Pumpkin Spice Syrup. Its made in under 30 minutes and only has 3 main key ingredients and some spices which can be variete.

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Ingredients

• 400 ml 400 water

• 300 ml 300 white sugar

• 200 g 200 pumpkin Hokkaido , peeled, cored and cute into small chunks

• 1,5 tbsp 1,5 Pumpkin spice We used our homemade pumpkin spice

Directions

• Homemade Pumpkin Spice Syrup
• Put the water, sugar and pumpkin chunks into a medium pot and cook until the pumpkin chunks are tender.After the pumpkin chunks are tender add the pumpkin spice and let cool for 10 minutes.Blend everything until very fine.If you like you can strain your syrup before filling it into bottles but it's not absolutely necessary.You can keep the syrup for up to 2 weeks in your fridge.Its perfect as a adding to your coffee, hot chocolate, fall drinks, pancakes toppinng and much more.

Nutrition Facts

• Calories: 50kcal
• Carbohydrates: 13g
• Protein: 1g
• Fat: 1g
• Saturated Fat: 1g
• Sodium: 1mg
• Potassium: 29mg
• Fiber: 1g
• Sugar: 12g
• Vitamin A: 681IU
• Vitamin C: 1mg
• Calcium: 4mg
• Iron: 1mg

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If you loved this recipe maybe you are interested into our Cinnamon Brioche Rolls filled with caramelised pumpkin and pecans.

The post Homemade Pumpkin Spice Syrup appeared first on Two Sisters Living Life.

This Pumpkin-Chocolate Swirl Bundt Cake topped with a yummy maple glaze is perfect for Sunday lunch with the family! It’s on the healthier side, made with whole grain flour, greek yoghurt and pumpkin purée! You can either use canned or fresh pumpkin purée, but never under any circumstances canned pumpkin pie filling or sweetened pumpkin mix. Always use the pure pumpkin puree if you need to buy it.

Homemade Pumpkin Purée is so easy! I’ve used Hokkaido Pumpkin, you don’t even need to peel it, remove the seeds (which you could use for making pumpkin spice syrup), slice it and put it in the oven at 180°C for 30-40 minutes until the pumpkin is soft. Puree the pumpkin in a high speed blender and voila you have your own homemade pumpkin purée, which you now could use for making this delicious Pumpkin Bundt Cake.

The Pumpkin Bundt Cake looks even without the glaze very nice

Autumn is for sure one of my favorite seasons, right behind Christmas! You see I am the kind of girl who loves the cold weather and being outside. Doesn’t matter if it rains, snows or the sun shines. Fall with the color changing of the leaves is just truly magical for me and I love to walk through the woods and fields, especially pumpkin fields. There are plenty in the region where I am living.

Back to pumpkins, pumpkin spice and everything nice and to this beautiful Pumpkin-Chocolate Bundt Cake!

You will need pumpkin spice for this recipe. I am always making my own blend of pumpkin spice, which you can find here! And you will need it for all my sweet pumpkin dishes!

I’ve bought this beautiful Bundt Cake pan during my last vacation and since then wanted to finally use it and now had the opportunity!

How to make this very yummy Pumpkin-Chocolate Bundt Cake

Very important step before starting to make the cake is creasing the pan thoroughly with butter and flour. Very important especially if you use a fancy Bundt Cake pan like I did.

In a bowl combine whole grain flour, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, bakin powder and baking soda. In a large bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar and maple syrup. Add greek yoghurt, eggs, vanilla and melted butter. Gently add the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Put one third of the batter aside to make the chocolate part.

Add to the 1/3 of the batter the cocoa powder and 2 tbsp maple syrup and combine.

Drop chocolate batter by tablespoonfuls over pumpkin batter in pan. Top with remaining pumpkin batter; spread to edges of pan. Swirl chocolate batter into pumpkin batter with a table knife.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan turned around on a plate.

To make the glaze: combine powdered sugar, maple syrup and milk and whisk until smooth. Add milk until you have the consistency to your liking. Drizzle glaze onto cooled cake.

Don’t forget to tag us on Instagram @twosisterslivinglife or hashtag #twosisterslivinglife. You can find us on Facebook too and Antonia and I would be more than happy if you followed us on our social media channels for more delicious food pictures and infos to what we are up to at the moment.

Love, Antonia

Pumpkin-Chocolate Bundt Cake

0 from 0 votes

Recipe by Antonia Course: DessertCuisine: American

Servings

10

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

387

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

This Pumpkin-Chocolate Bundt Cake is a healthier version, made with whole grain flour, greek yoghurt and pumpkin purée! Topped with maple glaze. Perfect to incorporate all the delicious pumpkin! You can either use canned pumpkin purree or freshly made purree like I did!

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Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup 2 1/2 whole grain flour

• 1/2 tsp 1/2 pumpkin spice

• 1 tsp 1 cinnamon

• 1 tsp 1 baking powder

• 1/2 tsp 1/2 baking soda

• 1 1/2 cup 1 1/2 pumpkin purée

• 1/2 cup 1/2 brown sugar

• 1/3 cup 1/3 maple syrup

• 1 cup 1 greek yoghurt

• 2 2 eggs

• 1 tsp 1 vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

• 1/2 cup 1/2 butter

• 2 tbsp 2 cocoa powder

• 1 cup 1 powdered sugar

• 3 tbsp 3 maple syrup

• 4 tbsp 4 milk

Directions

• Preheat ove to 180°C. Grease a 10-15 inch bundt ban with butter and flour.
• In a bowl combine whole grain flour, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, bakin powder and baking soda.
• In a large bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar and maple syrup. Add greek yoghurt, eggs, vanilla and melted butter. Gently add the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Put 1/3 of the batter aside to make the chocolate part.
• Add to the 1/3 of the batter the cocoa powder and 2 tbsp maple syrup and combine.
• Drop chocolate batter by tablespoonfuls over pumpkin batter in pan. Top with remaining pumpkin batter; spread to edges of pan. Swirl chocolate batter into pumpkin batter with a table knife.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan turned around on a plate.
• To make the glaze: combine powdered sugar, maple syrup and milk and whisk until smooth. Add milk until you have your consistency to your liking. Drizzle glaze onto cooled cake.

Nutrition Facts

• Calories: 387kcal
• Carbohydrates: 59g
• Protein: 9g
• Fat: 14g
• Saturated Fat: 7g
• Cholesterol: 59mg
• Sodium: 181mg
• Potassium: 326mg
• Fiber: 4g
• Sugar: 35g
• Vitamin A: 6073IU
• Vitamin C: 2mg
• Calcium: 120mg
• Iron: 2mg

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The post Pumpkin-Chocolate Swirl Bundt Cake appeared first on Two Sisters Living Life.