Foodie Friday--Mini Molasses Pumpkin Cakes

 

Perhaps you saw these Pumpkin cakes on the cover of Southern Living magazine last month.  I finally got around to making them last week.  It is the best tasting pumpkin muffin recipe I have tried!  It has a deep spicy flavor that is so good and different from most pumpkin bread-like recipes.  Probably because it uses molasses and just ginger for spices.  Their stem and leaves are made with caramels molded into the shapes.  I just glazed mine as I didn't have the caramels to work with.

Mini Pumpkin-Molasses Cakes (makes 4 pumpkins)

1/2 cup butterr, softened

34 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup molasses

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. salt

Beat butter at medium speed until creamy; gradually add brown sugar, beating well.  Add egg, beating until blended.  Add canned pumpkin and molasses, beating well.

Combine dry ingredients and add gradually to pumpkin mixture.

Spoon into a lightly greased pumpkin-shaped muffin pan, filling three-fourths full.

Bake at 375 for 24-26 minutes.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely.

 Cut rounded tops off muffins to make them flat (They were a very tasty snack)

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Invert top muffins onto bottom muffins, forming pumpkins.  I used pretzels for the stems.

I put a little of the glaze in between the top and bottom to "glue" them together.

Drizzle glaze over pumpkins.

 Caramel Rum Glaze

1 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 Tbsp rum

Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a 2 qt. saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly; boil, whisking constantly, 1 minute.  Remove from heat; gradually whisk in powdered sugar and rum until smooth.  Whisk gently 3-5 minutes or until mixture begins to cool and thickens slightly.  Use immediately.  Enjoy!

To find more tempting recipes click here for Designs by Gollum.