Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting by Birchberry

By Emma & Eric, founders of Birchberry

If you’ve ever fallen down a late-night TikTok or Instagram baking rabbit hole, you know just how mesmerizing it can be. You get caught up in the gooey but crispy-edged cookies, the perfectly piped frosting, and the cozy kitchens they’re baked in. Before you know it, two hours have gone by in a blink, and you’re drooling. Oh, how the times have changed, to where social media has become the new cookbook! In this fall and holiday season-inspired baking roundup, we’re highlighting some of the most talented bakers who have taken over our feeds (and even our kitchens) with their irresistible creations, like Birchberry’s Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting!

“For most of my life, I baked just a few times a year for birthdays and celebrations,” says Emma, cofounder of Birchberry with her husband, Eric. “But between 2018 and 2020, while we were in our twenties, my husband Eric and I both lost our dads suddenly within a year and a half of each other. While I was with my dad in the hospital, the pandemic hit, and I lost my job on the spot. With my birthday a few days away, this was an extra difficult time to be secluded from others. Just three months later, we lost our dog unexpectedly as well. It was a time when everything felt uncertain and closed-off, and so I started baking nearly every day as a way to ground myself, reconnect, and find something steady again.”

Emma continues, “As I spent more time in the kitchen, I realized how much joy baking and the amazing baking community brought back into my life, but I also noticed how the right tools could make or break the experience. My biggest struggle was rolling dough to the perfect thickness each recipe required. It’s such an important part of getting bakes to taste great, bake evenly, and look beautiful. After trying what felt like every adjustable rolling pin out there, I realized they all had something that was missing—they were too short and would cut through the dough, or too lightweight which required more effort and time, or looked and felt like kids toys, leaving me uninspired and limited in the kitchen.

“So, Eric and I started talking to other home bakers and quickly realized I wasn’t alone—they all shared the same struggles. This sparked a pull in us that we had to do something for them. The baking community gives so much of themselves, and if we could help in any way, we felt all bakers deserved to experience the same joy and love they give to others.

“After all we went through together, we embraced that you never know what can happen in life, and what’s most important is happiness and community. We learned the importance of doing what you love most and helping everyone you can with the time you have. So, we decided to create something new that would help make home bakers’ time in the kitchen more relaxing, rewarding, and fun. That’s when Birchberry was born—a premium baking tools business dedicated to the home baking community, where everything’s created by real bakers, for bakers.

“Last year, this led to our very first product idea, an extra-long, Premium Adjustable Rolling Pin. With Eric and my backgrounds in design, we’ve spent the past year and half creating every detail from scratch, testing it relentlessly at home and with other bakers, and working with twenty-plus manufacturers until it was perfect. And now, after putting everything we have into this, we’re so grateful to have recently opened for preorders.

“Baking has taught me how to find calm, creativity, and connection in everyday life, and how those moments in the kitchen turn into cherished memories with family, friends, and neighbors. Birchberry was born to share that feeling with other home bakers, making every bake a little easier, more joyful, and a lot more fun. And this is just the start!

“Everything Eric and I have been through together has brought us closer than ever. And more than ten years later, we love each other more each day, and I’m constantly amazed by his leadership and patience while we grow Birchberry together. He’s my best friend and inspiration.

“Most importantly, we know that our dads are still with us, and are certain they’ve been guiding us here. We wouldn’t have come this far without them.”

VIE: What makes the holiday time special for you?

Emma: It’s a time of year when community and connection are strongest. I love that it brings family together from all around the country, and new and old friends together from around the community. And there’s an excitement in the air of Christmas morning and decorations. We all want to give more, help more, and connect more. I’m fortunate that the holiday brings both Eric’s family and my family together, so everyone gathers from Nashville and New York to meet at my parent’s house in Connecticut. For me, as a baker, it’s a fun excuse to give the people closest to me something special that I made just for them. When you bake, you put a piece of yourself into everything you do, and you’re sharing it with someone you care for, so you want it to be special. I just love being able to focus all of my heart and energy toward that one person or family when I’m boxing up bakes for them. It’s actually helped us form incredibly strong relationships with all of our neighbors over the years, and now we all try to get together weekly as often as possible.

VIE: What makes baking around the holidays important to you?

For me, baking around the holidays is a way to create forever memories with my family and friends and stay connected to my family from the past. Every Christmas morning, my mom, who’s not usually a baker, gets up early to bake my grandma’s special “Christmas Bread” before anyone wakes up, just like Grandma used to. It might not be the tastiest of treats, but it brings so much joy to the day, remembering Grandma and reminiscing about all our secret fits of giggles over the bread’s “unique” taste. Waking up to the smell of her freshly baked bread keeps her memory alive and brings us all closer together every season.

VIE: Are you the baker in the family, or are there others in the kitchen during the festivities?

My aunt, Eric’s sister, and I are the bakers of the family. We make sure to bake often during the holidays so the house always smells like fresh cookies. My aunt has always been a huge inspiration to me with baking. My earliest memories with a whisk are dancing and singing around her kitchen together and standing on my designated step stool so I could reach the counter.

Though we three are the bakers, everyone’s in the kitchen! And we all contribute to our favorite meal together, Christmas Eve dinner. It’s so warming to look forward to baking and cooking all together in the kitchen, listening to Christmas carols or with classic Christmas movies playing in the background. Last year, we all came together to make beef tenderloin with a creamy horseradish dipping sauce, reduced red wine glaze, and a whole array of apps and sides! To this day, it’s one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

VIE: What’s a holiday tradition you did as a child that you still do or try to do today?

We bake sugar cookie cutouts and gingerbread men, then all decorate them at the table together. It’s so much fun and a highlight of the holidays for me. Today, I’m the designated cookie maker, which is a huge honor that I don’t take lightly.

VIE: What’s a holiday baking staple that you will always bake, year after year?

Every year, I bake my dad’s famous cheesecake. He used to make about ten of them each Christmas, gifting them to family, friends, and neighbors to enjoy on Christmas Eve. Since he passed away, I’ve carried on the tradition—it’s my way of keeping him close during the holidays. Every time I pull one from the oven, it feels like he’s still there with us, singing carols at the top of his lungs and laughing uncontrollably around the kitchen.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting

Ingredients

For the Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (freshly ground preferred)

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground turmeric

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup canned pumpkin puree (Libby’s preferred)

1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature

For the Brown Butter Frosting

1 1/4 sticks (10 Tbsp) salted butter

8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1 2/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

For the Browned Butter

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cook until it turns golden brown and smells nutty, about 6 to 9 minutes. Brown milk solids will form at the bottom of the pan.
2. Immediately pour the brown butter with the milk solids into a heat-proof measuring glass. You should have it at about the 1/2 cup line.
3. Let the butter cool to room temperature before using, ensuring it stays liquid.

For the Pumpkin Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line muffin pans with 14 to 15 cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Set aside. 
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil until well combined, about 1 minute.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition.
5. Whisk in the vanilla extract, pumpkin puree, and milk briefly until smooth. 
6. Gently fold or whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix. 
7. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners using a 3-Tbsp scoop, filling each about 3/4 full.
8. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Let the cupcakes cool in a pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting

1. Using a handheld or stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the softened cream cheese and cooled browned butter together on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes. (It may look curdled initially, but it will smooth out.)
2. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, spices, and salt. Beat until light and fluffy, about 2 more minutes.
3. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, pipe or spread the frosting evenly over each cupcake.

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To explore more recipes, visit BirchberryCo.com and follow @birchberry_co on Instagram.