Pumpkin Walnut Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

I realize that yesterday I told you that pumpkin and butterscotch were best friends. I lied.

I take that back - I didn't lie, I just didn't know yet how amazing pumpkin and Nutella are together.

However, these cupcakes are not all about the frosting - the pumpkin cake base is pretty darn good too!  It contains what you would expect... pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs, spices, brown and white sugar and flour.  It also contains sour cream - which I'm a big fan of in cakes because I think it helps lighten the cake and the sourness enhances all the other flavors.  (My favorite pumpkin and banana bread recipes both contain sour cream).  Another bonus ingredient is chopped walnuts - I thought long and hard about whether to leave these out (and you totally can if you want to) because I wanted it to be like cake and not like pumpkin bread but I opted to leave them in... mostly because I already had them in the house.  In the end, I liked the nuts in there - especially paired with the nutty Nutella flavor.

The original recipe calls for making a big cake out of this batter, but I opted for cupcakes for easing sharing.  In fact, I made regular and mini sized cupcakes because I ran out of regular size cupcake liners.  They both came out great and baked up nice and fluffy!

Now let's talk about the frosting because you can't have cupcakes without frosting... those are muffins.

This frosting is interesting in that there is no butter in it.  Weird right?  In fact this entire recipe doesn't have butter in it which is quite unusual for any of my dessert recipes.  This frosting is mostly Nutella with some sour cream and powdered sugar mixed in.  You then add a little bit of milk to thin it out just enough to spread it on the cupcakes.

What I loved about this frosting (aside from the fact that it tastes like Nutella) was that it held up really well.  It didn't wilt or get too soft when it sat at room temperature.

Luckily, I made a little bit too much frosting and have been spreading it on graham crackers.  I recommend it.

Together the light and fluffy pumpkin cake and the rich Nutella frosting are a perfect pair.  I'm beginning to think that pumpkin is not meant to be monogamous.

Pumpkin Walnut Cupcakes (or cake) with Nutella Frosting
adapted from The View from Great Island
Makes 1 9" cake or 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the Cake
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/2 cup Vegetable or Canola Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (you could also substitute all 4 spices for 1 tsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice)
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Cardamom
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup White Sugar
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Chopped Walnuts (optional)

For the Frosting
1 cup Nutella
1/4 cup Sour Cream
1 1/3 cup Powdered Sugar
Milk to thin it out (I used 2 T)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with cupcakes liners or lightly grease a 9" spring form pan.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the pumpkin, oil, eggs, sour cream, sugars and spices. Make sure everything is well combined.

In a separate small bowl whisk together the flour, soda and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing just until combined. Fold in the walnuts.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin or greased pan.  For cupcakes, bake for 25-28 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out without wet batter clinging to it. (Mini muffins bake for 20 minutes; the 9" cake bakes for 50 minutes). Cool briefly before removing from the pan.

Make the frosting by mixing together the Nutella, sour cream and powdered sugar. Add just enough milk or cream for a spreadable consistency. Add a little more sugar if the frosting seems too thin. Spread on the completely cooled cake.

Enjoy!
Julie