If you are working with a whole baking pumpkin from scratch, start by turning the oven on at 325 degrees. While heating up, cut the pumpkin in half and remove the stem. Hallow out the pumpkin until you’re left with two half shells. Wrap the halves in aluminum foil and place in oven for 45 min to 1 hour.(I also like to clean the leftover pumpkin seeds, sprinkle them with a bit of salt and place them in a baking tray in the oven along with the aluminum covered pumpkin halves.) While the pumpkins are left to soften in the oven, in a large mixing bowl, add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar and mix together well. If you have a mixer, add in the butter, milk, vanilla and eggs. Otherwise, beat the eggs first, then place the ingredients along with the dry ingredients. Set aside.
Once the pumpkin halves are done, remove them from the aluminum foil and carefully peel off the shells. Alternatively, I like to use a fork and spoon and spoon off the softened pumpkin from it’s shell. Make sure to keep the oven on and turn up to 350 degrees.
Place small amounts into a small mixer of blender at a time and blend until pureed. Add small amounts of water if necessary to get a puree consistency. You should produce about 4 to 5 cups of pumpkin puree. Add the pureed pumpkin into the large mixing bowl containing the flour.
Add the caramel, and optionally, the Nutella into the bowl and mix together.
Fill the cupcakes liners 3/4 of the way with the mixture, place them evenly on a baking tray and pop them into the oven for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, take out the cupcakes and let cool for a while. Or, place them in the fridge for a few minutes to cool down.
Apply the frosting on each cupcake and dip them in the chocolate sprinkles. Decorate with the candy eyes, caramel noses, and candy corn ears!
