Recipes

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

October 26, 2021

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These super moist pumpkin cupcakes are easy to make, perfectly pumpkin spiced, and finished with tangy cream cheese frosting. I adapted this recipe from my very favorite pumpkin cake. They’re a must-try during the fall season!

Pumpkin cupcakes deserve their own spotlight, right?

I received some questions about turning my pumpkin cake into cupcakes, so I figure a completely separate post for pumpkin cupcakes would be helpful. Compared to cake, cupcakes cook faster and are easier to decorate, transport, and serve. LOVE THAT!

pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

These are the BEST Pumpkin Cupcakes

And I have a list to prove it!

Easy to prepare
Simple, basic ingredients
Moist and soft
Heightened pumpkin spice flavor
Sweetened with brown sugar
Topped with tangy cream cheese frosting
Fun to decorate! ?

Let’s Compare

Let’s compare these pumpkin cupcakes to the pumpkin cupcake recipe I shared a few years ago. There’s definitely a few differences!

Ease: Both pumpkin cupcake recipes are super low maintenance. You don’t need a mixer to make either batter (though you could certainly use one!) and both batters come together in minutes.
Actual Recipes: The recipes themselves are pretty similar. Here I cut out the milk and reduced the flour to make up for less liquid. You only need 1 cup of flour, so you are basically guaranteed mega moist cupcakes. There’s also more brown sugar for extra flavor.
Flavor: The flavors are pretty identical, though there’s a little more spice flavor here.
Texture: But here’s the real difference– these pumpkin cupcakes are a little less dense. They’re incredibly moist and soft, but have more of a cake and cupcake texture and less of a muffin texture.

My tip: As with most of my cupcake recipes, fill the liners only about 2/3 full. This is about 3 full Tablespoons of batter per cupcake. (See 9 more tips for baking the BEST cupcakes!)

Ingredients in Pumpkin Cupcakes

Because this homemade pumpkin cupcake recipe is based off of my pumpkin cake, you’ll notice the ingredients are almost exactly the same. In a nutshell, we halve the cake recipe to yield about 12 cupcakes. The spices and vanilla extract aren’t completely halved. Rather, I kept both on the higher side for plenty of FLAVOR!

Here’s what you need:

Flour: All-purpose flour serves as the base. It’s sturdy enough to support the thick batter.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda: These help the cupcakes rise.
Cinnamon & Pumpkin Pie Spice: Instead of prepared pumpkin pie spice, you can use 1/2 teaspoon each: ground allspice and ground ginger AND 1/4 teaspoon each: ground nutmeg and ground cloves.
Salt & Vanilla Extract: Both add flavor. Try making your own homemade vanilla extract sometime.
Oil: Oil, as opposed to butter, guarantees a moist crumb.
Eggs: Eggs provide structure and moisture.
Sugar: I only use brown sugar to sweeten these cupcakes because it’s the best!
Pumpkin: Use 1 cup of pumpkin puree in this recipe, then browse my pumpkin recipes to use up the rest of the can.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese frosting is a pumpkin cupcake’s BFF.

Here’s what I love most about this duo: cream cheese frosting doesn’t take away from the pumpkin flavor. Rather, it lets the pumpkin cupcakes shine. Cream cheese frosting is not selfish. That’s a true friend, is it not?! ? We’d have a different story with, say, vanilla buttercream because it’s too sweet, too heavy, and too overpowering.

This cream cheese frosting will hold a little shape if you pipe it, though a simple swirl with a knife works too. I like to use a round tip for piping, like Ateco 808 large round because it resembles a big puffy cloud on top!

If you really want to go wild, try my brown butter cream cheese frosting, cinnamon cream cheese frosting, or pumpkin spice cream cheese frosting!

Find cute pumpkin decorating toppers here. (Link to adorable decor is an affiliate link.) You can also decorate these cupcakes with festive fall sprinkles or mellowcreme pumpkins!