Fall Pumpkin Cupcake with Brown Butter Frosting

I've been wanting to try this pumpkin quickbread recipe for some time. It's also been almost a month since my last bake so I'm anxious to get back into action.
The can of pumpkin puree and dates have been sitting in the pantry since late August and this being the last week of October, I knew that this has to climb up to the top of my list of "cupcakes to bake", which by the way, is growing longer and longer. I get so inspired during travels and keep coming up with more and more cupcake flavors & frosting pairings. Wonder when I'll get to make all these flavors....?

This quickbread recipe is certainly a keeper. The cake is moist, not to sweet and the fruits & nuts add a nice crunch. Instead of a loaf pan, I opted to make them into cupcakes.
As such, I substituted some of the all-purpose flour in the original recipe with cake flour, just so that I get a lighter, cake-like texture. I've also included raisins on top of dates. Lastly, the pairing with brown butter frosting can't be more perfect. The original recipe is for quickbread and does not include any frosting. I found this brown butter frosting recipe in Martha's Cupcakes book and after tasting the baked pumpkin cupcake, I knew it would just be the perfect topping to complement the cupcake.

Ingredients:
For cupcakes
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp all-spice
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
6 oz vegetable oil
2 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (buy the larger, 1 lb can)
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup raisins

For frosting:
1 stick butter
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk

Marzipan Pumpkins
~5 oz marzipan paste
orange & green gel coloring (you can get orange color by mixing red with yellow coloring)
toohpicks

Method:
Preheat oven to 320˚F.
1. Sift dry ingredients and mix together
2. Cream oil with sugar (regular and brown) at medium speed ~ 2 mins. Do not overmix; with quickbread recipes, the key is to maintain the "tension" and too much air will cause it to sink in the center.
3. With mixer still on medium speed, add in eggs, one at a time
4. Add in pumpkin puree and mix at medium speed
5. Add in dates, raisins and walnuts.
6. Add in all the dry ingredients mixture and mix at low speed for ~ 1.5 mins.
7. Using icecream scoop (or portion scoop), spoon mixture to fill up to ~ 3/4 cupcake liners.
8. Bake for 22 mins.

Note: if you want this to be a quickbread instead of cupcake, just switch out the cake flour with all-purpose flour, bake in 9" loaf pan at 350˚F for ~ 1.5 hours.

Frosting:
Melt butter in saucepan at medium heat until it turns brown (not burned). Pour into separate bowl, mix in the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Whisk until you get a spreadable consistency. Add more milk if the mixture is too thick. Frost cooled cupcakes and top with marzipan mini pumpkins (optional)



Marzipan pumpkins:
Take ~4.5 oz marzipan and tint them orange. Tint the rest green. Form ~quarter inch balls with the orange marzipan. With a toothpick, make a hole on the top of each pumpkin. Make the indentations on the outer pumpkin shell with toothpick (I actually used the plastic toothpicks you can get at fancy restaurants as I find it easier to use and the marzipan tend to not stick to the toothpick). Roll the green marzipan into narrow, long strips. Cut into quarter inch lengths, pinch one end and make it sharp and narrow enough to fit the hole on top of the pumpkin. Top frosted cupcakes with these cute little marzipan pumpkins. A wonderful fall display!