Description
These pumpkin cupcakes are quick and easy to make, perfectly moist and fluffy and flavorful, and topped with the most heavenly cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Scale
Pumpkin Cupcake Ingredients:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt*
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup pumpkin purée
- 1/2 cup canola oil or vegetable oil*
- 1/3 cup granulated (white) sugar
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
- 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of fine sea salt
Instructions
- Prep the oven and baking pan. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with baking liners, or lightly grease with cooking spray; set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt until combined.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate large mixing bowl, stir together the pumpkin purée, oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs until evenly combined.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently stir until the mixture is just evenly combined and no dry streaks remain. (Try to avoid over-mixing.)
- Bake. Portion the batter evenly into the 12 baking cups. (I like to do this using a large 3-tablespoon cookie scoop.) Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire cooling rack and let the cupcakes cool completely to room temperature.
- Make the frosting. Meanwhile as the cupcakes bake and cool, make your frosting by combining the cream cheese, butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a clean mixing bowl. Use a rubber spatula (or you can use an electric mixer) to stir the frosting until it is completely combined and smooth. If the frosting is too thin, continue adding in more powdered sugar until it reaches your desired consistency.
- Frost the cupcakes. Once the cupcakes are room temperature, use either a piping bag (I used a 1M tip) to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, or use a knife to spread it on generously. Feel free to sprinkle a bit of pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon on top of the cupcakes to finish.
- Serve. Then serve and enjoy! Leftover cupcakes can be refrigerated in a sealed container for up to 3 or 4 days.
Notes
Salt: If you only have iodized table salt on hand, use only 1/2 teaspoon.
Oil: Or feel free to use any other neutral-flavored cooking oil that you prefer.
Sifting the powdered sugar: If you would like your frosting to be free of powdered sugar clumps, I recommend sifting the powdered sugar before you add it to the mixing bowl. Or if you use an electric mixer (either a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer), that will also make it easier to reduce the clumps.
Recipe updates and source: Recipe updated in 2020 and slightly adapted from Sweetopia.
generally, pumpkin cakes aren’t something that i enjoy or go out of my way to consume. however, the instant you throw cream cheese frosting–CINNAMON-happy, at that–into the mix, the appeal skyrockets. :)
i made the exact same thing this weekend (slightly different recipe) and loved them. Yours look fab too!
3 batches of cupcakes in one week? Well done, well done! These look like a winner! Cream cheese frosting has become my new favorite type of frosting!
OOOOO these look yummy. Love cupcakes and love pumpkin bread.
These look amazing! Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors.
Yum.. Those cupcakes look fantastic! Last week I made some pumpkin cupcakes with a cinnamon brown sugar buttercream… I will try the cinnamon cream cheese icing next time!
These look great and oh so festive!
Ali – you are a genius! These cupcakes were super easy to make, and I was told they’re the best cupcakes I’ve made so far! I make them for my office every couple of weeks, but have turned into a baking machine recently. The cupcakes were gone in two hours once I put them in our break room! Thank you so much! Great recipe!
I love the name of your site!! Cute! I’m going to try these pumpkin cupcakes this week. Thanks for sharing!
Just found this recipe and made them last night, delicious!!! Question- my cupcakes are sticking to the paper, did I do something wrong, over mix? Help I want to make these again for Thanksgiving?
They Look beautiful!! And i’m so loivng your blog and photos!!! since signing up with Betty I realize I need to sit down and really figure out this blog thing before our Sept assignment! :) Congrats on some beautiful looking cupcakes though!
Fantastic!!!!!!
yum, yum, and yum! I love pumpkin anything and can’t wait to try these! :)
Just want to let you know I made these and they were an absolute hit! Some people even called them the best cupcakes they’ve ever had. Definitely worth making.
I came across this blog where the girl has taken your pumpkin cupcake photo but hasn’t provided you credit for the photo. Thought you’d like to know.
https://eatbakelove.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgif-thank-goodness-its-fall.html#comment-form
Really cool cupcakes! Nice and easy! Perfect Halloween treat! Great job!
I’m making a lot of cupcakes for a shower and am trying to decide between your recipe and taste of home’s. Their’s has 1 can pumpkin and 3 eggs. I’m not a baker at all! Will this difference be more in the texture of the cupcake?
Thanks!!!!
Made these to take to work everyone loved them big hit
I made these tonight and just finished one. Heavenly! The cake is nice and dense–bread-like, really. They’re a lot like pumpkin roll, only better and with a more favorable cake:frosting ratio. Highly recommend this recipe!
These cupcakes are amazing! I already wish I would have made a double batch, haha.
★★★★★
Delicious ?
Wondering if they will freeze ok? Have done with different recipes and even I can’t eat a whole batch myself!!
★★★★★
I made these on Halloween (come from a non Halloween celebrating country – so it was my first proper celebration) and they were simply sublime. So sublime that I re-made a half batch yesterday (having left over ingredients available) and have eaten them all myself (oops!)
Thank you.
★★★★★
I made this recipe a few weeks ago before it was updated and they were incredible, came out perfectly. I am unsure why it was changed – the updates seem pretty significant and it was amazing before. I haven’t tried this new version because I don’t want to mess with perfection but just wanted to share my thoughts! ?♀️
★★★★
What brand of liners do you use?
I just used some generic white liners from Amazon. :)