Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Happy Autumn everyone! 😀 I’m a very happy baker as it’s my favourite season and accompanied by the hashtags #pumpkinspiceupyourlife and #pumpkinspiceeverything. I have a cupboard full of tinned pumpkin puree and a tub of Pumpkin spice and I’m ready to go!!!

I’ve been saving this cake for Autumn and it didn’t disappoint. As I added pumpkin puree, I cut back on the yogurt from 100g to 50g although you could probably leave it out completely. Instead of making a big cake I made 8 individual big muffins. Using a cupcake corer I then removed the insides and spooned in some pumpkin/philadelphia filling. The topping is slightly different without the pumpkin. You could use the same topping/filling for both though. I was really impressed with how moist the muffins came out. I think this creation is as similar to “normal” cakes as I’ve gotten so maybe the pumpkin puree would be a good addition for all of my chickpea protein cake creations.

For the Pumpkin Spice mix you can of course buy it ready made. It’s a bit tricky (aka expensive) to find over in the UK though. However, it’s so simple to make your own! I followed the recipe from Betty Crocker and made a big tub then I dip in whenever I need some. I’ve used 5tsp in this recipe, although I don’t think adding 6-7 tsp would hurt if you love your spices. I’ve found, however, that the spices can add a little bitterness. I think it depends on the brand. Taste your cake batter and see what you think. To counteract that I added about 15 Stevia drops. The spice bitterness didn’t come through to the final bake so that worked well.

To finish things off I made some little fondant pumpkins by rolling some balls of orange fondant. Then I rolled thin sausages of green fondant and wrapped them round a cocktail stick and stuck them to the pumpkins. This was just to add a fun little decoration.

I’ll definitely be making these again. I think I’ll add 6tsp of spice mix next time though and leave out the mixed peel. My other half thought the spice level was just right, but I want a tiny bit more for extra yum!

Serves: 8 big muffins
Ingredients
Cake (Wet Ingredients)
200 gram Tinned Pumpkin Puree (I used Libby’s)
1 Tin Tinned Chickpeas In Water
50 gram Brooklea 0%
4 egg whites
10g Slender chef Cinnamon syrup (Or other zero cal syrup)
10-20 Stevia drops
~80ml water

Cake (Dry Ingredients)
40g Egg White Powder (I use MyProtein Egg White Powder)
75g Cinnamon whey (I used MyProtein Cinnamon Danish, however, you could use vanilla + extra ground cinnamon)
25g Coconut Flour
30g Sukrin gold (Or other sweetner equivalent)
5tsp Pumpkin spice mix (see recipe below)
35g Mixed Peel (optional)

Cake (Rising Ingredients)
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp, Bicarbonate of Soda
15ml (1 Tbsp) lemon juice

Filling
75g Lightest Philadelphia
50g Pumpkin Puree
½-1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1-2 tsp powdered sweetener

Topping
1tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
2-3tsp powdered sweetener
105g (i.e. the rest of the tub) Lightest Philadelphia

Pumpkin spice mix (From Betty Crocker)
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice
1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves.

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl
3. Combine all of the wet ingredients, apart from the water, and blend until smooth. If the mixture needs it, add some of the water. Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use the remaining water to rinse out the blender and add to the mix.
4. Use an electric whisk or hand blender to combine the mix until smooth.
5. Grease the muffin tin/cups with a few squirts of Frylight.
6. Finally add the rising agent and blend/whisk well to combine.
7. Add the mix to the muffin cups. I use very deep muffin cups and fill with 3 scoops of batter which leaves about 1.5cm gap at the top. I then bake for 23 minutes in the middle of the oven. Reduce your cooking time if you’re using smaller cases/less batter.
8. Allow to cool and then remove the middle with a cupcake corer, preserving the top to pop back on.
9. Combine the filling and topping ingredients in separate bowls. Spoon the filling inside, pop the muffin top back on and then spoon on the topping to cover. Repeat until all muffins are filled and covered.
10. Place in the fridge for the topping to set.

Macros (Per serving): 172kcal (20P, 15C, 3F)