Autumn is officially upon us! And that can mean only one thing… it’s Pumpkin Spice Latte Season!
Traditionally, Pumpkin Spice (made up of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves) is used to flavour the American holiday favourite Pumpkin Pie but over the years it has spread to so many other treats, like lattes, cakes and even bread!
I love the warming spices in these cupcakes, it definitely makes me feel all cosy and ready for the cold months of Autumn and Winter.
To achieve a strong coffee flavour in the sponge, I find that using concentrated instant coffee rather than coffee flavouring is much better (and much cheaper!). Just mix 1 tbsp of instant coffee in 1tbsp boiling water. Make sure it cools down to room temperature before adding to your cake mix as otherwise it can cause the batter to split.
I love the piped pumpkin design too! It’s so simple yet so effective. All you need is a 1M piping tip to achieve the lined pumpkin texture. The stalk can be piped on with a round nozzle or you could even use a Flake or Twirl chocolate bar instead. You can see how to create these cute little pumpkins in my step by step below!
This recipe makes 12 cupcakes and will take about 2 hours to make and decorate. They will keep up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
- 175 g unsalted butter, softened
- 175 g light soft brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 125 g gluten-free self raising flour plus 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (check if your flour blend contains this as if it does you don’t need to add more)
- 50 g ground almonds
- 1/2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
- 1 tbsp of strong coffee essence or 1 tbsp instant coffee granules in 1 tbsp hot water
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp mixed spices
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the buttercream:
- 150 g unsalted butter, softened
- 300 g icing sugar
- 1-2 tbsp milk (or boiled water)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- pink, purple (or whatever colour pumpkins you want!), green and brown food colouring (I used Colour Mill as it’s oil based and works really well for buttercream)
- Sprinkles to decorate (My favourites are from Baking Time Club. They’re gluten free and vegan and you can get 20% off with my exclusive code PIPPA20).
Useful Equipment: 12 hole muffin tray, cupcake cases, weighing scales, mixing bowls, hand/stand mixer, spatulas, piping bags, piping nozzles (I used Wilton 1M, 1A, 70 and 4)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 175 °C/350 °F and place the cupcake cases in the 12 hole muffin tray.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, whilst whisking.
- Sieve in the flour, baking powder and spices and add in the almonds, salt, coffee and vanilla. Fold to combine.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 18-20 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream. In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the butter until pale and creamy (about 2 mins). Whilst, whisking, gradually add the icing sugar. Once smooth, add the vanilla extract. At this point, if needed, you can add 1-2 tbsp of milk or water to improve the consistency of the buttercream. It needs to be smooth and creamy so that it can be piped easily.
- Separate your buttercream into 4 bowls, coloring one with pink food colouring, one with purple, one green and the last one brown. Place each colour each colour into a piping bag ready for decoration – see my step by step below for how to decorate!
1. Make sure your cupcakes are cooled completely before starting to decorate. 
2. Fill your piping bags with buttercream. Use Wilton tip 1M for the main colours (I used pink and purple). Use a Wilton tip 1A for the brown buttercream and a Wilton tip 70 (leaf) and 4 for the green. 
3. Starting with the main colour, pipe the pumpkin shape. You can do this by starting from the bottom of the cupcake and piping upwards. Pipe in stripes going from the bottom to the top. I did about 4 stripes to cover the cake. 
4. Using the brown buttercream, pipe the stalk where the stripes meet at the top of the cupcake. 
5. Taking the green buttercream with the leaf tip, pipe leaves at the base of the stalk. 
6. Now use the green buttercream with tip 4 and pipe vines running from the stalk. I like to do these in swirls and loops to give it a fairytale look! 
7. Finally, top with some fabulous sprinkles! I used some small pink pearls from Baking Time Club but you can use whatever you fancy to match your colour scheme/theme. 
8. And there you have it! Cute and colourful buttercream pumpkins! A great decoration for your Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes! Enjoy!
Like the recipe? Click the links below to share with your friends and followers!
I love to hear what you think about my recipes and about your own bakes too! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! And don’t forget, you can subscribe to Pippatisserie to stay up to date on all new recipes and posts!
