Healthier Pumpkin Cupcakes with Coconut Lime Topping
These cupcakes originally came from Jamie Oliver’s television show ‘Jamie at Home’
They looked so yummy and easy I just had to try making them
(I especially liked that you used the pumpkin raw and with the skin on)
So I did. I couldn’t help myself and cut down slightly on the amount of sugar and oil he used and posted them on my old website about 6 years ago
I have been thinking about making them again ever since, and finally got the perfect chance.
First, I got given a whole lot of butternut pumpkins
only 3 of the 15 pumpkins I got given 🙂 woo hooo
And, although I don’t really celebrate it – tonight is Halloween – and this is about as festive as I get…
(But I did enjoy seeing all the little kids in our neighbourhood dressed up walking around with their parents! Sooo cute :))
Plus, another Jamie Oliver cooking show is about to start tomorrow night on t.v., which further inspired me!
This is my re-worked version of the cupcakes which has even less sugar (I replaced some with dates) and I threw in some chia seeds, well, just because I like the crunch!
I made a healthier lime coconut topping, which I’m not completely sold on, so if you prefer, just make real icing – or the tofu cashew cream from my carrot cupcakes and add lime
You can find Jamie’s original recipe on his website or you can try my version…
They are deeelicious!
- 240g butternut pumpkin, skin on (yes, that is correct!), deseeded and roughly chopped
- 3 medium Medjool dates, pitted (45 grams when pitted)
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup self raising flour
- ½ cup wholemeal self raising flour
- ¼ cup walnuts
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Coconut Lime Topping:
- 1 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 4 tablespoons lime juice
- lime zest, optional
- shredded coconut, toasted, optional
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line your muffin tins with paper cases.
- Add the pumpkin, dates, sugar and oil to the bowl of a food processor and whiz until it makes a smooth paste
- (This took 1½ minutes, speed 9 in my thermomix)
- You may need to pause the machine at some point to scrape the mix down the sides with a rubber spatula.
- Add the eggs, flour, walnuts, chia seeds and cinnamon and whiz together until just combined.
- Try not to overdo it with the mixing – you want to just combine everything and no more.
- (This took 8 seconds on speed 5 in my thermomix)
- Fill the paper cases evenly with the cake mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes.
- Check to see whether they are cooked properly by pressing lightly. If it springs back, they are done.
- When cooked, remove from the oven and leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack.
- When cooled, make lime topping by combining coconut flour and honey, then adding lime juice until you reach desired consistency.
- Or of course you can make Jamie’s sour cream frosting, but that was just a bit too indulgent for me!
gluten free pumpkin cupcakes
To make these, just replace the wheat flour with buckwheat flour + 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 2 teaspoons of psyllium husks
Taa daah!
