Spiced Pear Cupcakes

These cupcakes are muffins in disguise. They are full of fruit and not super sweet. That's how I justified having cupcakes for breakfast. The only thing that sets them apart from muffins are the yummy frosting and super fluffy texture from lots of butter and eggs...



OK. Whatever. They are cakes not muffins. Judge me. The ingredient list is almost exactly the same as the spiced pumpkin cake I made earlier this month - just exchanging pumpkin pureed with chopped pears and some yogurt.



Ingredients - make 28-30 cupcakes

• 3 cups all purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 teaspoon sea salt


• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


• 1 teaspoon ground ginger


• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves


• 2 sticks of butter at room temperature


• 1 1/2 cups sugar


• 4 eggs


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 cup plain yogurt


• 2 pears - peeled, cored and chopped

Directions

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper third and lower third. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin pans with paper liners.


2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices together.


3. With an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy - about 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well between addition. Add vanilla extract.


4. Alternately stir in flour mixture and yogurt into the batter in 3 batches. Stir in chopped pears. Just when the streaks are almost gone, stop stirring.


5. Scoop into the prepared pans - up to 2/3 full as the cake will rise and dome. Bake for 22 minutes. Rotate and switch the pans after 15 minutes. Turn out onto cooling racks and let cool completely before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

• With an electric mixer with wire attachment, beat a stick of soft butter (left at room temperature) with 2 packages of cream cheese until combined. Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of confectioner sugar depending on how sweet you want the frosting. Continue beating until fluffy.