Getting into the spirit of halloween with these spiced pumpkin muffins. I made them on Halloween but didn’t have the time to post. I tried to do a chocolate frosting that looked like cobwebs. It turned out pretty alright for some of my cupcakes. I was struggling with the white chocolate because it hardened very quickly so some of my “cobwebs” didn’t turn out very well. But hey, the muffins still tasted delicious.

Pumpkin is in season now and I bought a whole pumpkin to experiment on different recipes. Pumpkin is one of my favourite vegetables – even though it is technically a fruit. It tastes good steamed, boiled, roasted and even stir-fried. Plus, they are relatively low in calories and are nutritious. Today’s spiced pumpkin muffins is a slight adaptation from my carrot cupcake recipe. It’s super easy to make, the only “difficult” or I would say troublesome part is the grating of the pumpkin. Other than that, you will be indulging in delicious freshly baked spiced pumpkin muffins in less than an hour!

Nutrition per cupcake (one batch makes 12)

Ingredients for the cupcake

1. 200g self raising flour
2. 120g brown sugar
3. 200g grated pumpkin
4. 150ml coconut milk
5. 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
6. 0.5 tsp nutmeg
7. 1 tsp cinnamon powder
8. 2 large eggs
9. 100ml olive oil
10. 1 tbsp poppy seeds

 Ingredients for the chocolate topping

1. 150g dark chocolate (I used 70% lindt chocolate)
2. 30g white chocolate

Directions

Preparation time: 15min
Baking time: 20min or when the muffins turn golden brown

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Prepare a 12 case muffin tin
3. Using a grater, grate 200g of pumpkin
4. Mix the sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Use your fingers to run through the mixture to remove any lumps
5. Whisk together the eggs, oil and coconut milk
6. Stir the dry ingredients in together with the wet ingredients, grated pumpkin and poppy seeds
7. Mix well until a uniform mixture is formed
8. Divide it out evenly between the cases
9. Bake for 20-25min or when the skewer comes out clean
10. Leave the muffins out to cool
11. After the muffins have cooled down completely, melt 150g of dark chocolate. I usually do it in bursts of 30sec using the microwave
12. In a separate bowl, melt the white chocolate
13. Prepare a piping bag and place the melted white chocolate into the piping bag
14. Dip the tops of the muffins into the melted dark chocolate
15. Pipe the white chocolate onto the top of the melted dark chocolate in concentric circles
16. Using a small skewer, drag through the circles at regular intervals, from the centre to the edge, to create a cobweb effect

There you have it – spiced pumpkin muffins!