Easy Pumpkin Pull Apart Cupcakes

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Easy Pumpkin Pull Apart Cupcakes start with a box cake mix doctored up with apples and spices and then are topped off with vanilla buttercream frosting to make a pumpkin face cake.

I love watching baking shows on TV.   It’s one of the only things that I watch at night or on the weekends.   There are several shows I watch every year but my favorite ones are the holiday ones.

One of my favorites is Halloween Baking Championship.   Every time I watch it I want to get in the kitchen and start baking.  The most recent episode focused on pull apart cupcakes.

Pull apart cupcakes are when a set of cupcakes are baked separately but then are frosted together to look like a cake.  When it’s time to eat them they are pulled apart and enjoyed individually.  

During this same episode the bakers each had to use a mystery black ingredient.  There were easy ingredients like black tea and black licorice and then there were harder ingredients like black beans, black garlic, and black pepper.

I was intrigued by those ingredients and decided in addition to make the pull apart cupcakes I would use a black ingredient too.  After choosing apple spice as my cupcake flavor I decided to add black pepper to the spice mix. 

Ingredients:

• box of white cake mix
• water
• butter
• sour cream
• eggs
• cinnamon
• ginger
• nutmeg
• black pepper
• apples
• powdered sugar
• milk
• vanilla
• food coloring

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  
2. Line 18-20 muffin cups with cupcake liners.
3. In a large bowl combine the cake mix, water, melted butter, sour cream, and eggs.   Mix well until combined.
4. In a small bowl combine the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and black pepper.   Mix well.
5. Add the spice mixture to the cake mix and mix well.
6. Fold in the apples.
7. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.  
8. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
10. To make the frosting place the butter in a large bowl and mix on medium high speed until creamy.
11. Add in the powdered sugar, spices, milk, and vanilla and mix on medium speed until desired consistency is reached. 
12. Remove 1/4 cup frosting to two different bowls.   Dye one bowl green and one bowl black.  Dye the remaining large bowl of frosting orange.
13. Arrange the cupcakes in a pumpkin shape.  
14. Place about 3/4 of the orange frosting in a piping bag.  Clip off the end of the bag and pipe it all over the cupcakes.   Use a butter knife and spread it all over the cake.   Use remaining frosting to cover any areas that need touched up.
15. Use the green frosting to cover the top “stem” of the cupcake cake.
16. Put the black frosting in a piping bag and pipe on the eyes, nose, and mouth.

The cupcakes start with a box mix which makes it really easy to mix up.   Instead of oil I used butter.   I substituted half of the water for sour cream.   Then I added in apples and my spice mix.

I used a lot of spices but really if you have either apple pie spice or pumpkin spice you can use those along with the black pepper to get a very similar flavor.  These baked up just over top of the liners which was perfect for this type of pull apart cupcake cake.

Why did you use butter instead of oil?

I prefer butter in all of my baked goods.  This means real butter and not margarine.  I like using salted butter which adds a hint of saltiness to my baked goods.  I also prefer the flavor of butter to oil and feel that it makes baked goods taste richer.

Can I make the cupcakes according to the box direction?

You can but they will not be anywhere near as good as my doctored up cupcakes.  Using butter instead of oil and adding sour cream in place of some of the water gives a richer and denser cupcake and it tastes more homemade.  I also like to add in vanilla extract to give the cupcakes a boost of flavor. If you don’t want to use the apples and the spices that’s ok but I would still go with the butter and sour cream in the recipe.

Can I make homemade cupcakes instead?

Of course!   Use your favorite homemade vanilla or yellow cupcake recipe hen add in the apples and spice mix to turn them into apple spice muffins.

Why did you use black pepper and can you taste it?

The black pepper was a challenge ingredient and I thought it would work well with the other spices.   I think it added just the right amount of spiciness to these cupcakes.   No one at my work was able to pinpoint what the extra flavor was but they all really loved it!   After telling them that there was black pepper in it several of my co-workers were able to discern a faint taste of it on the finish.  I agree that this is where I could taste it as well.

Do I have to use homemade frosting?

This is a hard one for me.  While I don’t mind using a boxed cake mix I do not like the flavor of canned frosting.  It has a plastic taste that I do not like.   Anytime I make boxed cake or brownies I make a homemade frosting to go with it.   So while you CAN use a can of frosting I’d really recommend you go the extra mile and make your own frosting!

The cupcakes were delicious.   They were filled with chopped apples and I loved the spices in there.   I could taste the cinnamon and knew there were a few other spices in the cupcakes as well.   I was pleased that the hint of spiciness from the black pepper was only noticeable on the finish and it left an almost mysterious flavor at the end which was awesome.

More Cupcake Recipes:

• Brown Sugar Glazed Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes
• Cranberry White Chocolate Cupcakes
• Halloween Brownie Bottom Cupcakes
• Butternut Squash Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting
• Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream

For the frosting I made a basic vanilla buttercream recipe then added in cinnamon, ginger, and just a pinch of the black pepper.  I think it really helped to tie in the frosting with the cupcakes plus the black pepper tamed the sweetness of the American buttercream.

Decorating these was so much fun.  I had to lay out the cupcakes and figure out where to place them then I just piped a ton of orange frosting and used a butter knife to spread it around like a cake.  I finished up by using black frosting to make eyes, nose, and a mouth and a bit of green frosting for the stem.

The result was a super fun jack-o-lantern cake.   It really did look like a cake but it was perfect to take to work because my coworkers could just grab an individual cupcake.   This would also be great to make for a Halloween party!

If you’ve tried my Easy Pumpkin Pull Apart Cupcakes or any other recipe on Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks please take a minute to rate the recipe and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. I love hearing from you! You can FOLLOW ME on:

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Welcome to 2022’s #HalloweenTreatsWeek event!

#HalloweenTreatsWeek is a yearly Halloween blogging event that is hosted by Angie from Big Bear’s Wife . This event is an online, week-long event that is filled with some amazingly wicked Halloween treats and recipes from some fantastic Halloween loving bloggers!

For this year’s 5th annual #HalloweenTreatsWeek event we have 20 hauntingly talented bloggers that are sharing their favorite Halloween recipes throughout the week! You can follow the hashtag #HalloweenTreatsWeek on social media to collect all of these frightful recipes to use at your own Halloween parties and events!

Make Sure to check out all of the fun Halloween recipes that we’re sharing this week!

Check out all of these great #HalloweenTreatsWeek recipes for today

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