These start out so easy as you can literally just dump everything into a bowl. Unsweetened cocoa powder gives them a gorgeous color and deep chocolate flavor, without being to rich. They still have plenty of pumpkin, which makes them really tender, and just enough of those warm autumn spices.
One of my favorite secret tricks for pumpkin spice flavored things, is this extract, it’s totally optional in this recipe, but if I have some, I usually toss it in there:
You can find it wherever Watkins Spices are found. I buy them at Walmart! These bake up with the most perfect, rounded domes.
Fresh out of the oven, and plain like this, they make great muffins. You can even freeze them for quick snacks on the go.
The best part about calling them muffins is that it’s totally socially acceptable to slather butter on them. Even better, Maple-Cinnamon Butter.
If you want to turn it into an ultra-tender quick bread, just pop it in a loaf pan. I did mini loaves and tossed in some salted caramel chips I wanted to try out.
It was perfect. Totally didn’t need the chips, but it made it look kind of fun.
Lastly, you can spread on a dollop of frosting for an amazing fall cupcake. I did a cream cheese cinnamon-vanilla bean frosting (no recipe, just eyeballed it) and it was fantastic. This brown sugar caramel frosting would be amazing, as would cream cheese frosting.
They’re festive, and kind of perfect inside.
A recipe this versatile definitely needs to be in your recipe arsenal. If you make them, snap a picture and tag me on Instagram so I can see!
