Pumpkin Mania: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes With Ginger

In my last column, I might have mentioned that no one needs another pumpkin recipe. What I meant was, the world needs more pumpkin recipes...yeah, that's it.

Let me explain.

Last week I asked a friend what type of birthday cake she wanted for her birthday. She said pumpkin spice. I really thought she was kidding. She wasn't. So I headed into the kitchen to make a batch of pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

Although I have a recipe for pumpkin bread that I love, I can't resist futzing with old recipes. Since my friend doesn't have a big sweet tooth, I reduced the amount of sugar and added a splash more orange juice. Then, inspired by that gingerbread pumpkin bread I'd just made, I boosted the ginger. It added a nice hot kick without turning it into a gingerbread.

As requested, I finished the cupcakes with a basic cream cheese icing. If you don't eat dairy, replace the cream cheese with a dairy-free cream cheese, like Daiya. The cupcake recipe itself is dairy-free, so you don't need to adjust it at all.

The cupcakes were a hit, and lots of people asked for the recipe. My lesson? Apparently there aren't enough pumpkin recipes in the world. So I'm eating my words from last time. My pumpkin-spice flavored words.