Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
If you like pumpkin but not pumpkin spice like me, then these pumpkin cupcakes made with fresh canned pumpkin were made for us! This recipe skips the nutmeg and clove and relies on cinnamon to bring the cozy, warm, fall flavors. I let the pumpkin really shine here- they’re light, fluffy, and topped with my go-to cream cheese frosting with a dusting of cinnamon on top. They look bakery-level fancy, but come together without fancy tools, you don’t even need a mixer!
Unpopular opinion: lots of pumpkin desserts aren’t really about the pumpkin at all, they’re mostly about the spice blend. Pumpkin pie spice is literally everywhere this time of year, but you will not catch me ordering anything with it.
So for these cupcakes, I ditched the spice blend and pumpkin pie filling and used canned pumpkin puree spiced with cinnamon. You can actually taste pumpkin here, without all the extra unnecessary spices.
As a pastry chef, I’ve tested a lot of pumpkin desserts, and this along with my pumpkin banana muffins, are the ones I keep coming back to. These cupcakes come together with just a mixing bowl and spatula, no stand mixer needed, so there’s nothing fussy about the process either.
If you want to double down on the fall cozy factor, try topping these with cinnamon cream cheese frosting instead, or this brown sugar buttercream would work really nicely.
If you’re after something to feed a crowd, my pumpkin bundt cake follows the same real-pumpkin, light-on-the-spice approach. Although you can totally add in some too if you like. Get your pumpkin fix in while the season lasts!
Make sure you are buying canned pumpkin and NOT pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling is already spiced to put straight into a pie shell. I use canned pumpkin to can control which spices and how much of each go into my cupcake batter.
Making the Cupcakes
Prep for baking by preheating the oven to 350°F and lining a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
Cool and frost: Let cool completely, then frost with cream cheese frosting and dust cinnamon over the top (optional).
Recipe tips
- All refrigerated ingredients should be at room temperature – Set the eggs and milk out 20-30 minutes before getting started.
- Break up any clumps of brown sugar – Otherwise, it can create holes in your cupcakes.
- Pumpkin spice cupcakes – I stick with cinnamon because I don’t love nutmeg and clove in pumpkin desserts, but you can add ½ tsp of each to the batter to make pumpkin spice cupcakes.
Decorating
To decorate the cupcakes, fill a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip, with the cream cheese frosting and pipe over the top of the cupcakes. Dust with cinnamon to make them extra pretty.
Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour , 150g
- 1 cup brown sugar, 213g
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 eggs, large, room temperature
- ¼ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling 250g
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners.
- In a medium bowl combine the 1 ¼ cup flour, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp kosher salt, and ½ tsp ground cinnamon and mix well with a spatula to combine, making sure to break up the brown sugar clumps.
- In another bowl combine the 2 eggs, ¼ cup milk, ¼ cup oil, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, and 1 cup pure pumpkin and mix with a spatula until smooth.
- Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula only until combined.
- Fill the muffin liners ¾ of the way full with batter and bake for 20-22 minutes.
- Cool completely and frost with cream cheese frosting and dust with cinnamon if desired.
I have a recipe for a brown sugar cinnamon whipped cream cream cheese frosting that I’ve been dying to try, and now I’ve found this recipe I can’t wait to try them either! I think they’d probably go great together, but what do you think?. Would these cupcakes be good with brown sugar cinnamon whipped cream cream cheese frosting?
Hey Nikki! That sounds like a fabulous combo! Let me know how they turn out!!
So quick and easy, and the flavor is so amazing!!
As long as you make sure you don’t over mix the batter or over bake them, and they will be so soft, fluffy and moist!
I like to add nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves to mine for extra pumpkin spice flavor. 🙂
So glad Evangeline! So happy its finally fall baking season- I hope these filled up your house with all the amazing smells from the extra spices!
Do you think this would work for mini cupcakes as well? Thank you!
For sure! I would bake for 12 minutes.
A friend made these and they were moist and delicious 1 week later!! How can I make the recipe into a 9×13 sheet cake for a larger crowd?
These were still moist one week later?! OMG I love this! You can totally make it into a 9×13, I would bake on 350 still and then check after 30 mins! Thank you so much for letting me know!
You are quite welcome! For reference, I stored the frosted ones I brought home in a tightly closed Rubbermaid container, so that may have helped with the freshness. I wasn’t sure if I needed to increase the 12 cupcake recipe ingredients to make the 9×13 cake, so I appreciate your response.
Thank you again & have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving, thank you so much for letting me know!