Also known as, most of my favorite foods ever, all in one package.

I’m a pumpkin girl. It is my destiny – I was born in October and my mom and maternal grandmother have been calling me “Pumpkin” or “Punkin” (that would be Grandma) for my entire life. Maybe they made some kind of agreement when they found out when I was due to arrive.

When I call my grandma, who is in her late eighties, she recognizes my voice immediately and says “WELL HI, PUNKIN!” every. single. time. and it makes me happy just thinking about it. For reference, this is my grandmother. In a beard hat.

She is pretty much the greatest.

Anyway, somehow, it actually aligned that I actually LOVE eating pumpkin, more than most other foods. It’s right up there with lime. Maybe even above lime. I’m not sure. Things get a little cloudy when you throw the chocolate in, too. My mom makes the world’s best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies – I am not sure if there’s a ceiling to how many of those I could eat. These cupcakes remind me of them a little – the flavor combo is just crippling. And cream cheese? Hoo boy.

Anywho. Last week I made these cupcakes in a furious day of cooking. I had the day off because we have had some extra hours at work, and I was ready to work on the blog. I took them to my coworkers and they promptly disappeared

Here’s the cupcake recipe. This is adapted slightly and the amount here will make 24 cupcakes. I adapted it from a Tastes of Home recipe.

3/4 cup butter, softened
2-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg.
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. freshly grated ginger
1 cup milk

For the chocolate cream cheese frosting, I used this recipe (source):

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
½ cup cocoa powder
4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Please note! Whether or not this will be enough frosting for your cupcakes depends on how you frost them. If you plan on spreading a thinner layer with a knife or spatula, one recipe should be fine for 24 cupcakes. If you plan on piping frosting on like I did, double it

Okay, here we go:

Preheat your oven to 350.

In the bowl of your stand mixer or a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, while the mixer is going. Add the pumpkin and continue to mix until combined.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, soda, and ginger. Add to the mixture in alternate batches with the bilk, while keeping the mixture on low so the dry flour doesn’t fly everywhere.

Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups, and then fill to 3/4 full (ish) with the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until they stop making noise (reminder: here is how to be a muffin/cupcake whisperer). Cool completely before you frost – THIS IS NOT NEGOTIABLE because the frosting will melt.

While the cupcakes are cooling you can begin making the frosting. Using the paddle attachment if you have one, beat the butter, cream cheese and cocoa until combined. Then add the powdered sugar slowly, and keep the mixer on low too. At this point I switched to the whisk attachment and whipped the frosting until it had almost doubled in volume.