Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

In honor of Thanksgiving coming up, I've got a yummy new pumpkin spice recipe for you! I admit it, I've shied away from pumpkin in the past, since I, you know, hate pumpkin pie (cough, cough...) But I realized that I was missing out on a whole delicious world just because of a texture problem! So I've been trying to embrace pumpkin more. And these cupcakes are the results!

PUMPKIN SPICE CUPCAKE WITH PECAN STREUSEL TOPPING

CUPCAKES:

2 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pie spice

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

1/2 C cream

2 tsp vanilla

1 C packed brown sugar

1 C sugar

1/2 C butter, room temp

3 eggs, room temp

PECAN STREUSEL:

6 T sugar

6 T flour

1/2 T water

1 tsp cinnamon

4 T butter

1/4 - 1/2 C chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Add cupcake liners to a cupcake pan.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, pie spice and pumpkin pie spice together. Set aside.

Combine pumpkin puree, cream, and vanilla in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream both sugars together with the butter with a mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring between eggs.

Beat in the flour mixture and the puree mixture alternatively, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Make sure your mixer is on low so you don't make a huge mess!

Fill your cupcake liners 3/4 full with the batter.

Mix all the streusel ingredients together until it is crumbly. Place a spoonful of streusel on top of each cupcake.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are baking, you'll want to mix up some frosting. For these bad boys, I decided to get crazy and make a whipped cream cheese cinnamon frosting. Pretty delicious if I do say so myself.

WHIPPED CREAM CHEESE CINNAMON FROSTING

1.5 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, room temp

1 C butter, room temp

8 C powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

8 oz cool whip

Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a cup at a time with your mixer on low. Add the vanilla and cinnamon and mix well. Add the cool whip and mix on low until just combined.

I don't have a pastry bag, so I always use a large ziplock bag and just cut the corner off, then squeeze the frosting out through that. It's a pretty handy tip I learned a few years ago and it's sooooo much easier for frosting cupcakes then using a knife!