Pumpkin Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Halloween week and Portland is fully in costume — both the city and its residents. Our neighborhood has gone all out: spiderwebs on porches, jack-o-lanterns lining sidewalks, a skeleton riding a bicycle in someone's front yard that I find deeply unsettling and that Miya finds hilarious. She is eight months old and her sense of humor already leans toward the macabre, which I blame on Brian's side of the family.

I carved a kabocha squash this week instead of a pumpkin, because I am who I am and because kabocha are smaller and more interesting and because carving a Japanese squash for an American holiday is exactly the kind of cultural cross-pollination that defines my life. The kabocha jack-o-lantern was tiny and a little lopsided and I put a tea light inside and set it on the apartment steps and it glowed like a small orange heart in the dark. I roasted the scooped-out flesh with sesame oil and made soup the next day, because in this house we do not waste squash. We honor it, we carve it, and then we eat it. This is the Nakamura way.

I made kabocha soup — roasted squash pureed with dashi, a little white miso, and ginger, topped with a swirl of coconut milk and toasted pumpkin seeds. It was velvety and warm and exactly the color of the leaves outside the window. I wrote the recipe for the blog and titled it "Kabocha-o-Lantern Soup" and it was the worst title I have ever written and also the most popular, because apparently people love a bad pun, which is information I will reluctantly use going forward.

Miya's first Halloween costume was a rice ball. Barbara sewed it — a white felt triangle with a black felt band across the middle for the nori. Miya could not walk and did not understand candy and spent most of trick-or-treat time chewing on the nori band, but she was the cutest onigiri Southeast Portland has ever seen. I took forty photographs. Brian took a video for his parents. Fumiko, when I sent her a photo, said, "The proportions are wrong." She was critiquing a baby's onigiri costume. She was absolutely serious. I love this woman with my entire heart.

Brian went to a Halloween party after trick-or-treating. He dressed as a craft beer bottle, which required no additional costume beyond his personality. I stayed home with Miya and handed out candy and felt the particular contentment of an introvert on a social holiday — participating from the safety of my own doorstep, engaging in controlled doses, retreating when I needed to. The rain started at eight. Portland rain on Halloween, the leaves slick and gleaming under the streetlights. I turned off the porch light and made tea and sat in the quiet and thought: this is the life. Not a life. The life. Mine.

After a week that involved a lopsided kabocha jack-o-lantern, forty photographs of a rice ball baby, and the specific joy of handing out candy from my own doorstep while Portland rain tapped at the windows, I wanted to close out Halloween with something unambiguously celebratory — something that leaned fully into the season without any cultural negotiation required. These pumpkin cupcakes were exactly that. Warmly spiced, embarrassingly soft, crowned with a frosting so light it barely counts as indulgence: they are the dessert version of turning off the porch light and making tea, which is to say they are perfect.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 42 min | Servings: 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup pure pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup neutral oil (such as avocado or vegetable)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz full-fat cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
Pinch of cinnamon, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin (and a second tin for the remaining 6) with paper liners.
Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and oil until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition, then stir in the vanilla extract.
Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined — do not overmix. A few small streaks of flour are fine.
Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared liners, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 20–22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting. Beat the softened cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat on low until incorporated, then increase to medium and beat until smooth. With the mixer running on medium-high, slowly pour in the cold heavy cream. Continue beating until the frosting holds soft, billowy peaks — about 3 minutes. Do not overbeat.
Frost and serve. Transfer frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large round or star tip, or spread generously with an offset spatula. Pipe or swirl onto each cooled cupcake. Dust lightly with cinnamon if desired. Serve immediately or refrigerate uncovered for up to 30 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting — Because We Honor the Squash in This House