Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

spreadnjoy's Note:

Delightful personal cheesecakes! My daughter requested these from a Rachel Ray magazine for her girl scout troup on her birthday, BIG hit! Fairly easy to make, but everyone will marvel at your amazing baking talents... only you will know how simple they really were :)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 12.0 Muffins

For the filling

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the cake

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350, and line a 12 cup muffin tin with baking liners.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese with powdered sugar for 3 minutes. Beat in egg white and 1/2 tsp vanilla, mix well.
3. In a seperate bowl whisk flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt.
4. In another bowl beat together pumpkin puree, 2 eggs, granulated sugar, oil and 1 tsp vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture.
5. Layer some of the batter in the bottom of the baking cups, then a layer of the cream cheese mixture, then top with another layer of pumpkin miture.
6. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, until the tops are springy. The original recipe calls for icing- but I think they're delightful as is!

Reviews

[MangoMel]

These were amazing! They taste best when they're still slightly warm and they definitely don't need any frosting. And I just used a small can of pumpkin, so I didn't have any left over and it tasted fine. It also works as a layered bar/cake

[Chef Rayne's]

This recipe was fun to make but felt it was a waist to have a partial can of pumpkin left. However, after making it, I found the pumpkin taste to be lacking even after I added an additional 2 tsp of pumpkin spice. I only gave this two stars, because this recipe could use an icing and that was not included, but I made my own. I also think putting a small amount of pumpkin at the bottom and a larger portion at the top level makes this cupcake less top heavy and easier to eat.