Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Today I went to a Pie Festival in Malibu with some friends (one of which is as obsessed with pies as I am). It was a church sponsored festival with a judged pie contest and a pie eating contest and of course plenty of pies to try. While the festival itself was quite nice we were somewhat disappointed with the caliber of pies. I think we were hoping for some more in the way of inspiration for our own pie recipes. Anyway, it was a nice was to spend a Saturday but it made me want to bake something when I got home. In the spirit of fall I decided to try to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, inspired by the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that my brother and sister LOVE from our local grocery store. I used a recipe I found for Pumpkin Cupcakes that had walnuts and just subbed in mini chocolate chips for the walnuts. Check it out below.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
from About.com

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten until frothy
1 cup mashed cooked or canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used 3/4 cup of mini semisweet chocolate chips instead of walnuts)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a bowl.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs. Blend in mashed pumpkin.
3. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, blending until batter is smooth after each addition; stir in chopped walnuts or pecans (mini chocolate chips).
4. Spoon batter into well-greased and floured or paper-lined muffin pan cups. Fill about 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Let cool for approximately 2 hours and frost with Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting (recipe below). Makes 18-24 cupcakes (I got 18 cupcakes. Remember, if you don't fill every cup in a cupcake tin to fill the empty cups 1/2 with water to allow for even baking)


Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
from The Cupcake Project

1 8 oz package cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 C butter (1/2 stick) at room temperature
5 C sifted powdered sugar (You can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping) (I used 3 1/2 cups and found that it was stiff enough for piping)
1/2 C cocoa powder

1. Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
3. Mix in cocoa powder.

These cupcakes got the seal of approval from the sis and now I need to figure out a way to adapt them into tasty, cakey cookies. I have some ideas and will post about them when I figure it out.

These are pretty perfect for fall and with the orange and brown/black they actually would make a great Halloween cupcake.