Pumpkin Cupcake - Take 4!

It took four tries to get the pumpkin cupcake just right. The recipe is based on the one on Martha Stewart's website. Her recipe resulted in a dense cupcake - closer to pumpkin bread than to a cupcake. In take 2, I used cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, which makes the cake lighter. Cake flour also provides further allowance against overmixing which creates additional gluten causing toughness/chewiness in the cake. Take 2's crumb was smaller but still too dense - still could be lighter. In take 3, I changed the mixing method, the same method I use in my vanilla cupcake recipe. Take 3's texture was perfect but somehow the lightness diluted the pumpkin spices. In take 4, I increased the spices by about 50% and it was just the right texture and flavor.
I love the experimentation and tweaking of recipes, but there's always the problem of what to do with all the cupcakes. There was a community bake sale last week to raise money to end child hunger. I donated 2 dozen pumpkin cupcakes, frosted with cream cheese frosting, garnished with a candy corn. One taster said that my cupcake tasted better than the one she had at a New York cupcakery....hmmmm, could it be the mother of all cupcakeries? I'd like to think so.