A Pumpkin Pake

Pumpkin Cuppake with a little bit of whipped cream on the side, sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon

      Well, technically, they are pumpkin cuppakes- cupcakes wrapped in little pieces of pie dough instead of the usual paper wrapper. Fair warning, this recipe makes for one heck of an awesome carb-filled biteful.
    For those of you who remember my first foray into baking a pake- it was a blueberry pie with a sour cream cake, aka a blueberry pake- I did it for the sake of Drop Dead Diva. They now have a recipe on their site for those wishing to make a pake, but all the ingredients are canned or come from a box (lame!) So, I set out to make another wonderful pake, this time with fall flavors in mind. My dad and mom came to visit last weekend, so I made these treats in my dad's honor since he loves pumpkin pie. And as much as I rag on the Lifetime recipe for not being "from scratch." I am not a total glutton for punishment, so I did use store bought pie dough and store bought canned pumpkin (if you want to make your own, feel free- I've done it in the past and it is delicious, if time consuming.)


     If you want to use a double pie crust, the rest of the recipe will need to be doubled as well. (One crust made me 7 cuppakes; a double would make ~15 if you don't eat some of the dough like I did.... )

Extra Materials:
a cupcake pan or two
a bit of powdered sugar
a circular cookie cutter (~3" diameter)
strips of parchment paper (optional)

Ingredients:
·  Pie Crust(s)                                                                ·  3 tablespoons butter, softened

·  1/4 cup sugar                                                             ·  1  egg 
·  1/2 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin                          ·  1/2 cups all-purpose flour

·  1/4 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice                              ·  1/4 teaspoon baking powder

·  1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon                                  ·  a pinch of salt

·  1/8 teaspoon baking soda                                           ·  1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

·  1/4 cup milk

How To:
     1.   If the dough is refrigerated, great, let it sit out and thaw a bit till it is unrollable. If it is frozen, let it sit out quite a bit longer (refer to the package for instructions). Or just use homemade dough.

      2.  Once your pie dough is ready to go, lay down a cutting board with a sprinkle of powdered sugar across the board (this is a bakers trick for not making the dough even more flour-y tasting). Lay down your dough and find a circular object about the same size as the cupcake pan holes. For me, this was a side dish bowl instead of a cookie cutter.

A Cupcake pan, a pie crust, and a cutting board covered with powdered sugar

     3. Cut out small circles of dough to lay into cupcake molds. If you want, first lay down a strip of parchment paper larger than the mold so that you will be able to remove your cuppakes more easily after they are baked (saw this trick on a cooking show.) Then pat your dough into the holes and bake for 3-5 minutes.

Cut circles out of pie dough and place them into cupcake pan; use strips of parchment paper for release easier

      4. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, beat well. Add pumpkin.

      5. Combine the flour, pie spice, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and ginger; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.

creamed butter and sugar; add pumpkin and egg

       6. Combine the flour, pie spice, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and ginger; add to the creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.

Add the rest of the ingredients until you get a pumpkin batter. It will be thick.

      7. If you want even more pumpkin flavor, take about a teaspoon of canned pumpkin and pat it into the bottom of the pie dough cup. Fill cup rest of the way with the cupcake dough.

Spoon batter into cup (canned pumpkin @ bottom)

     8. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

Finished cupcakes (I added little leaf embellishments about 15 minutes into the baking process)

 I also added some leaf details to the top for added prettiness- just used some of my pie dough scraps and a yoda cookie cutter (yes, I found out that the only cookie cutters my brother owns are star wars themed cookie cutters- yoda's ear worked well though.)

Yoda's ear = leaves

     9. Tada! You are finished! Enjoy the deliciousness of a dense pumppake. Add some whipped cream for extra luxury.

Cross section view of a pumpkin cuppake