Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes!

So the bewitching season is almost upon us and all that goes along with it! In previous years the only reason I would have had a pumpkin in the house would be to carve it for a Jack-o-lantern but not this year. This year its going to appear in cupcakes, swirly buns, cheesecakes and pumpkin pie. There has been great talk on twitter over the last few days about pumpkin in all its forms and yesterday when I was up in Dublin I was delighted to lay my hands on two tins of Libby's 100% natural canned pumpkin in the gorgeous food lovers paradise that is Fallon & Byrne. The majority of pumpkin recipes on the web are American ones and they speak of a mysterious pumpkin spice that as of yet as far as I know has not reached our shores! Fear not, it's very simple to make and will take you approximately sixty seconds!

Pumpkin Spice

Ingredients

3 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp nutmeg
11/2 tsp ground allspice
11/2 tsp ground cloves

Combine all the spices together and place in a small jar. Voila, mysterious pumpkin spice is no longer mysterious!

I used this lovely recipe from the Libby's website to make the cupcakes and this recipe was enough for 24 mini cupcakes and 12 large ones;

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/144769/LIBBYS-Pumpkin-Muffins/detail.aspx

I knew the little set of baking cups I picked up would come in handy some day! I decorated with my usual buttercream recipe , 150g icing sugar, 100g softened butter and 1/2tsp of my pumpkin spice. I used a Wilton 1M icing nozzle to pipe a star onto each. Gorgeous!

So my first foray into the world of canned pumpkins was a delicious one! Would love to hear some of your recipes that your family enjoy making and eating!