Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are a delicious treat to make for fall holidays and celebrations!
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
These cupcakes are such a delicious sweet treat for fall! Moist and tender pumpkin cake in cupcake form is a good idea since they’re already portion-sized for you. That swirl of cream cheese frosting on top is your big indulgence. Since cupcakes are a 4 or 5 bite dessert, you get just enough to satisfy your sweet craving.
How to make Pumpkin Cupcakes:
Flour, baking powder and salt are combined with the best fall spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger). The wet ingredients are combined in a second bowl (oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin purée and vanilla). The flour is then mixed into the wet ingredients to create the pumpkin cupcake batter.
This recipe makes 12 Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, which is awesome since most of the time you don’t need more than that. If you are looking for a recipe that makes 24 standard-sized cupcakes, just double all of the ingredients in the recipe. Or you can opt to use a mini cupcake pan, and then you’ll be able to have 24 mini cupcakes with the original recipe. The batter is scooped into cupcake liners in a muffin pan. It’s easiest to transfer the batter evenly to the cupcake pan if you use a springform ice cream scoop.
How to make Cream Cheese Frosting:
Use your mixer to combine powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter, vanilla and salt. You can certainly spread the frosting on the cupcakes in whatever fashion appeals to you. Or you can use a piping bag and a swirl tip to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes in a fancier way.
Garnish your Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting with whatever you’d like. Little candy pumpkins look cute on top. But you can always opt for fall-colored sprinkles, candy corn or miniature pumpkin cookies. Of course, these cupcakes are perfectly delicious on their own without any extra adornments too!
Such a pretty cupcake!
Take a bite out of fall and bake some Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. Enjoy!
Here are a few more cupcake recipes you might like to try:
- Red Velvet Birthday Cupcakes
- Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
- Easy Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
- Emergency Blender Cupcakes
- Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
- Devil’s Food Cupcakes
- Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
CUPCAKES:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1¼ cups granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
- 3 cups powdered sugar (more if you intend to "pipe" it on)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan (or a 24 cup mini muffin pan) with baking cups.
PREPARE THE CUPCAKES:
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, stir the oil and sugar together. Whisk in the eggs, and stir in the vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir the pumpkin into the batter until it is thoroughly combined.
- Spoon the batter into the lined muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Less time will be needed if you are making mini-cupcakes. When cupcakes are removed from oven, let them sit for about 10 minutes, then remove them to cool completely on a wire rack.
PREPARE THE FROSTING:
- In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the frosting ingredients until smooth. If you're going to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes with a piping bag, you may wish to add a little more powdered sugar (1/4 cup at a time) until you have your desired thickness. Frost the cooled cupcakes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are delicious and super easy to make! I needed cupcakes at the last minute. Looking in the cupboard I spied the pumpkin puree. My own recipe makes 36 and I honestly was not in the mood to take time to 1/3 the recipe. 🙂 Found yours and am so glad I did! Super simple and not so sweet which allows for just the right amount of pumpkin flavor to come through! Very, very nice flavor and these were truly enjoyed by my coworkers. Thank you! I’m looking forwarding to returning over and over again for your recipes! ~ Chey
How long do these last in the refrigerator if i was to make these prior to the occasion?
I’d say if they are covered or kept in a sealed container they should be okay for 2 to 3 days.
Oh boy! My kids are going to flip! They will be so surprised to see these on the table Halloween morning! Cupcakes for breakfast! Once or twice a year we do something crazy like this. We’ve also made pancake “sundaes” by putting warm apple sauce and whip cream and caramel sauce on pancakes, or strawberries, whip cream and chocolate sauce. I haven’t done anything yet this year, so they’re going to love this!
YUM!!! My mom used to make these yummy pumpkin bars, but it’s a lot trickier to make than this recipe! This is really yummy! I have a special cream cheese frosting recipe…it’s got maple syrup in it! Try adding some, it makes for a really special frosting!
Just found my cupcake recipe for next weekend’s Halloween party! Had been debating just getting cake mix for them, but this is far better. Love the site!
Oh boy, I’m gonna be in a lot of trouble. Mmmm.