Pie Spiked Maple Cakes
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Servings
24cupcakes
Servings
24cupcakes
Ingredients
Pie Dough
Maple Cakes
Pumpkin Pie Filling
Maple Almond Buttercream (Adapted from Country Living)
Instructions
Pie crust disks
  1. Preheat oven to 400
  2. Prepare pie crust and refrigerate for at least an hour. Or be kind to yourself and use store bought! Roll the pie crust out to about 1/4 inch thick – just a bit thicker than you would for a pie. Using a small round glass or cutter, cut 24 circles and and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. I used a 2.5 inch glass from my cupboard.
  3. To prevent the pie crust from shrinking, place a baking sheet or muffin tin on top of the circles. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes until just starting to brown. Remove the top sheet and return to oven for about 5 minute until they begin to brown. Let cool on the baking sheet while you prepare the cupcakes.
Cupcakes
  1. Reduce oven temperature to 350.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and soda, salt and spices. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time and when fully incorporated, add syrup and vanilla. Starting and ending with the flour mixture, alternate with the buttermilk and stir into the mixture.
  3. Line two muffin tins with liners. Trim pie crust circles down a bit and drop into the bottom of each muffin cup. The circles do not have to be pretty and it’s no big deal if they break. This is actually an important step because the crumbs will become garnish for the frosted cupcakes!
  4. Fill the muffin cups with cake batter as you would for regular cupcakes, about 3/4 full and bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely on a baking rack.
Pumpkin Pie Filling
  1. While cupcakes are baking, make the pumpkin pie filling. This can also be done a day ahead of time.
  2. In a small saucepan, boil the milk. While the milk is coming to temperature, whisk egg, pumpkin, sugars, cornstarch and all spices in a medium saucepan until smooth.
  3. When milk is boiling, remove from heat and using a small stream, pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and continue to stir. This will temper the eggs and ensure that they do not cook when coming in contact with the hot liquid.
  4. Pour the remainder of the milk into the mixture and place over medium heat. Whisking constantly, bring the mixture to a boil. *This is the fun part, but be patient! After 2-3 minutes, the mixture will begin to boil and thicken. Once thick, remove from heat, stir in vanilla and transfer into a bowl. If you’re impatient like me, place in the refrigerator and whisk frequently to bring to room temperature. You have just made pumpkin pudding!
Maple Almond Frosting
  1. While the filling is cooling, make the frosting. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, dark brown sugar and salt until light and fluffy. This will take about 3-4 minutes. Add maple syrup, vanilla and almond extract. Add the powdered sugar little by little and then mix on high until fluffy. Add more powdered sugar if you feel you need it for consistency. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Assembly
  1. Stay with me here. This is so worth it. To make your life easier, treat yourself to decorating tips. They can be found almost anywhere like Wal-Mart, craft stores, usually by the Wilton brand. If you don’t want to purchase the plastic decorating bags to go with it, you can use sturdy zip-lock freezer or sandwich bags. Or, better yet…grab one of the zillion medicine syringes you have floating around…those are AMAZING.
  2. Using a medium sized decorating tip, fill each cupcake from the top, making sure to wipe away excess that might land on the top of the cupcake. SUPER HACK: If you have a medicine syringe like the kid you get for your kids when you get antibiotics, this is AMAZING for filling cupcakes.
  3. Frost each cupcake with a thin layer of the buttercream (I would not suggest a lot of frosting), garnishing the top with left over pie crust crumbs. These are such a treat with the layers of surprises inside!