Pumpkin Cupcakes (With Cream Cheese Frosting)
Pumpkin season isn’t complete without pumpkin cupcakes iced with homemade cream cheese frosting. These cupcakes are easy to make, great to make ahead, and so fun to decorate!
Servings: 12 cupcakes
Equipment
- Muffin pan with paper liners (or aluminum foil cups with paper liners)
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cupcakes
- 1 can 100% plain pumpkin purée 15 ounces
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts (optional) or other mix-in like raisins or chocolate chips
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces full-fat cream cheese room temperature for 30 minutes
- 3 cups powdered sugar (AKA confectioner’s sugar)
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter softened
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon orange zest optional but recommended
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375℉. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, light brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt until well-combined.
- In a separate large bowl, mix together pumpkin, melted butter that’s been cooled, and the egg.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Batter will be thick and creamy.
- Fold in the walnuts (or other mix-in).
- Place 12 paper liners in a greased muffin pan. Add batter evenly to the 12 liners, so each liner is filled about three-quarters of the way.
- Bake cupcakes for 22-28 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs (not batter). Do not over-bake!
- Let cupcakes cool for 10 minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
- While cupcakes are cooling completely, in the bowl of a stand-mixer or with a hand-mixer, whip together the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes until creamy and uniform.
- Add the vanilla, orange zest, and powdered sugar. Turn mixer on low and then increase to medium-high speed. Whip together ingredients until a creamy frosting forms in 1-2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Use a piping bag or spoon to frost each completely cooled cupcake with however much frosting you like! If frosting is too loose to frost, refrigerate it for 10-15 minutes to firm it up. Decorate if desired. Serve room temp or chilled.
Video
Notes
- Libby’s brand of pumpkin puree is my favorite (this is not an ad). Look for 100% pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling.
- Keep to ¾ cup of mix-ins total.
- Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center shows moist crumbs. Don’t wait until your tester comes out clean or else your cupcakes will be overdone!
- The orange zest adds a delicious, complementary citrus touch. It’s highly recommended.
- If you don’t have a muffin pan, you can use foil muffin cups with paper liners.
- You’ll probably have some extra frosting unless you like extra-frosted cupcakes!
- If you’re using a piping bag, I find that frosting the cupcakes from the outside-in, in a spiral motion, is the easiest method.
- Store cupcakes in the fridge.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 398kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 52mg | Sodium: 285mg | Potassium: 129mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 44g | Vitamin A: 441IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 97mg | Iron: 1mg