Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes

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Over the weekend I had a hankering for something pumpkin... and although I LOVE my favorite Spiced Pumpkin Bread recipe... I was feeling the need for something different.  I discovered this recipe in one of my "go-to" cookbooks and I think this one deserves coming back to, again and again.

I love all things Cream Cheese and anything Pumpkin - so this was a win win all around.

I will tell you this recipe makes a LARGE batch of cupcakes.  Yield:  36 cupcakes  Here goes...

~ Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes~

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped fine (you'll really want to add these)
1 cup vegetable oil

Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl.  Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full.

Filling:

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese - semi soft
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup of butterscotch chips.*  (I didn't have any - so I used Cinnamon Chips.  I loved it!!)

Combine and cream together cream cheese, egg, sugar and salt.  Add the  *chips by folding in.  Drop 1 heaping teaspoon filling in each cupcake.

Bake at 350* for 25 minutes.  Yield: 36 + cupcakes.  I still had some left over from filling all 36 papers.  So, I put the remainder into a microvable dish.  I mic'd the dish for 5 minutes on high.  It worked pretty good....

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But, one bite of these cupcakes - warm out of the oven - was like eating a slice of pumpkin pie.  You really want to be sure you include the fine chopped nuts.  It makes them so unique.

: : Scott (my husband) had a buddy come over to "redneck" his car... on Saturday, when I made these, and OF COURSE, we had to send a few along with Danny for he and his family's dinner later that evening.  I doubt the cupcakes made it home... at least that's what he threatened,  because I had given Danny - one fresh out of the oven and that was "all she wrote".

You know how that kind of thing goes with hungry guys...