Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcakes

Each month for the past however long I have been honored to bake with some of the best ladies and gent in blogland… Regulars to here will know the drill around this time each month; where The Cake Slice Bakers and I chose a cake and bake it, comparing notes and annotations, joys and downfalls. 

We are a group of bake loving maestros who choose a book and bake cakes from said book.  This month is no exception, only our New Year begins. November marks the start of a new baking venture and we get to reveal our new book… World Class Cakes by Roger Pizey.

This month I actually made two of the same recipe... One in loaf form, which was rapidly devoured and therefore not available for photo shooting but the other in cupcake! Which worked out so lovely.. I am so pleased with it. And judging by some of the other bakers choices, makes a really great cake too! 

I added a dash of spice to the cupcake version, as I felt the loaf was a little lacklustre.. The addition of the spice was great and accented the maple and pecan flavours perfectly. A great start to the baking year I will say!

Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcake
adapted from World Class Cakes 

225g self-raising flour

110g caster sugar

120g light brown sugar

1tsp baking powder

1tsp pumpkin spice

280ml buttermilk

100g unsalted butter, melted

85ml maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85g toasted, chopped Pecans

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/ 350F or gas mark 4 and line a 12 (or two 6) hole cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl mix together the flour, sugars, and baking powder.

In a separate jug, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, maple syrup and vanilla. Add this into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, don’t over mix. Fold through the pecans and scoop out even spoons to fill the cupcake liners to 2/3 full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes and remove form the oven.  Leave the cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes then remove each one and leave to cool on a wire rack. Frost when cold.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

260g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter, softened

40g cream cheese

2tbs maple syrup

Beat together the butter, cream cheese and maple syrup. On a low speed add in the icing sugar, a small bit at a time. 

Mix on medium speed until it comes together. (You could add a little milk if you’ve reached a too stiff consistency.) Keep on mixing until soft and fluffy.

Using a plain piping tip, pipe rounds onto each cupcake and dust lightly in pumpkin spice.  

Pretty good looking right.. and they tasted just as good! 

Happy to be back baking with this group for another year!

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