Pumpkin Butterscotch Cupcakes

A few years back I made some pumpkin butterscotch cookies for some friends of mine. You could taste the pumpkin so clearly without it being *too* pumpkiny, while the butterscotch held its own nicely. Tonight I attempted to turn that into a cupcake.

These don't taste anything like those cookies, but are still really good regardless. My biggest problem with them is that they don't have the defining pumpkin taste I wanted. I seem to fail at bringing the pumpkin flavor out of things.

These are good enough that they don't actually need to be frosted, but I would never send a cupcake into the field naked. That's preposterous.  The frosting I made for these works in flavor, but not in consistency. It sort of started liquefying as I was using it. So! I'm putting that in the tasty failure bin.

----------------------------------
Pumpkin Butterscotch Cupcakes

2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 c pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 c butterscotch chips

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl. In separate bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and brown sugar. Add in eggs and mix until well blended. Mix in half of flour mixture, followed by the milk and vanilla, followed by the rest of the flour mixture. Add pumpkin and mix until well combined. Fold in butterscotch chips. Fill liners about 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes. Makes 16.