Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Prep: 25 Minutes | Cook: 20 Minutes | Resting Time: 1 Hour | Total: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
Makes 12 Servings
Ingredients:
Pumpkin Spice
3 T ground cinnamon
2 t ground ginger
2 t ground nutmeg
1 t ground allspice
1 t ground cloves
Cupcakes
Makes enough for 12 Cupcakes
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
2 t pumpkin spice
1/2 t salt
1/2 C neutral oil
2/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 C pumpkin puree (13oz can’s worth)
2 large eggs
Cream Cheese Frosting
Enough for ~18 cupcakes
8 oz cream cheese (1 block)
4 T butter, softened (1/2 a stick)
4 C confectioner’s sugar
1 T pumpkin spice
Recipe Summary
30 minutes before you’re ready to make the cupcakes, take out cream cheese and butter to warm them up.
Heat oven to 375F and place cupcake liners in a muffin tin.
Measure out dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls for the pumpkin spice cupcakes.
Mix together dry and wet ingredients and portion out into the muffin tin. Bake for ~20 minutes or until fully cooked through.
Make cream cheese frosting by adding butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar (1 cup at a time) to a mixer. Mix until fully uniform and creamy.
Remove cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool.
To serve, pipe out cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes and dust with pumpkin spice.
Recipe
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes Recipe:
Preheat oven to 375F. Add cupcake liners to the holes of a muffin tray.
Dry ingredients: In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, pumpkin spice, brown sugar, and salt until uniform.
Wet ingredients: In a large bowl, mix oil, pumpkin puree, and eggs until uniform.
Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients and whisk until the cupcake mixture begins to form. Using a spatula to fold, or mix the ingredients is the easiest way to combine them thoroughly
Transfer the mixture to the muffin tray, filling ½ - ⅔ way full and cook for 20 minutes, or until they are fully cooked through. You can test this by placing a toothpick through the top of them, if no wet batter sticks to the toothpicks, the cupcakes are fully cooked
Carefully remove the cupcakes from the tray and transfer to a cooling rack.
After cupcakes are cool to the touch, pipe or scrape cream cheese frosting on top.
Dust pumpkin pie spice on top of icing to add color and additional flavor.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
Soften butter by either leaving in room temperature for 30 minutes, or putting it in the microwave for 10 seconds. Butter should not be melted.
In a bowl, mix together cream cheese block and softened butter until uniform. Mixture should have little to no clumps to ensure a smooth and creamy frosting
Slowly add confectioner’s sugar to the cream cheese and butter mixture. If using a stand mixer, 1 cup at a time should be added to avoid large messes. If using a hand mixer, 1/2 a cup at a time should be added
As sugar works into the cream cheese and butter mixture, the frosting will begin to constitute and become thicker and creamy
When all the sugar is worked into the frosting, add 1 tbsp of pumpkin spice. Mix in uniformly.
Why the Recipe Works
The cupcake’s primary flavor is a combination of pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice. These tastes are heavily associated with the fall and cooler weather because of their warming properties. While pumpkin spice doesn’t have any pumpkin in it, it provides the flavor profile for pumpkin pie and will be nostalgic for anybody who enjoys the fall staple.
Using pure pumpkin puree is important for this recipe because the alternative, pumpkin pie mix, has a lot of additives and sugar amounts that make balancing the recipe more difficult. Pure pumpkin puree doesn’t have any of those added ingredients which allows you to better control what is going into the cupcake and make adjustments if needed for future recipes.
The cupckes are only slightly sweet because they are topped with a cream cheese frosting with another dusting of pumpkin spice for cohesiveness with the cupcake
The cream cheese frosting adds a nice sweetness and texture to the cupcake. With the creamy texture provided by the frosting, you’re able to have multiple cupcakes without getting sick of them due to the textural variety