Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes
- Uses just the right amount of pumpkin puree to add flavor without making the cupcakes too dense or soggy
- Packed with the same warm spices found in traditional pumpkin pie
- A combination of baking powder and baking soda ensures a light, fluffy texture
- Perfectly balanced flavor that truly tastes like pumpkin pie in cupcake form
- Butter: Unsalted candy cream butter that's at room temperature provides you the best outcomes.
- Delicate brown sugar: Brown sugar is enhanced with candy molasses model and it really works fantastically with the pumpkin.
- Pumpkin puree: You solely want 1 cup of puree which is a bit more than half of a 15-ounce can. Save the leftover puree for pumpkin bread.
- Eggs: Full eggs which can be at room temperature could also be most interesting to include into the batter.
- Vanilla: Use high-quality pure vanilla extract. Or you can also make large batches of homemade vanilla extract. It’s divine!
- Flour: All-purpose flour works greatest for these cupcakes nonetheless take further care to not overmix the batter. You don’t wish to find yourself with extremely efficient cupcakes.
- Spices: A combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt are used to model the cupcakes.
- Milk: I added milk for further moisture. The cupcakes come out delicate and fluffy with out being gummy all through the center.
These pumpkin cupcakes are exactly what your Thanksgiving table needs! Swap out the traditional pie for these, and you won’t even miss it.
Growing up, Thanksgiving desserts were always centered around pumpkin pie. There were usually two or three sitting on the table, and sometimes even a pumpkin cheesecake made an appearance.
Pumpkin pie is loved for its rich filling, packed with warm, cozy spices, nestled in a buttery crust, and topped with sweet whipped cream. It’s the perfect combination of flavors and textures.
Now imagine all of that transformed into a cupcake—that’s exactly what this recipe delivers. Every bite captures the essence of classic pumpkin pie in a soft, handheld treat.
I’ve made mini pumpkin cupcakes before, but this version has been slightly refined to create the ultimate pumpkin spice cupcake. And trust me—they smell absolutely amazing while baking!
Why This Recipe Works
Can You Use Cream Cheese Frosting?
Absolutely! While these cupcakes are typically topped with whipped cream to mimic pumpkin pie, you can easily swap it for cream cheese frosting.
Whipped cream gives a more authentic “pumpkin pie” experience, but cream cheese frosting adds a richer, tangier twist. It all comes down to your personal preference.
Pumpkin Pie Cupcake Ingredients
This recipe uses simple pantry staples you likely already have on hand. Aside from pumpkin puree and a blend of warm spices, the ingredients are straightforward.
The spices—like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves—work together beautifully to enhance the pumpkin flavor and bring out that cozy fall feeling we all love in holiday desserts.
To bake these cupcakes you’ll want:
- Mixer: I regularly use my trusty KitchenAid stand mixer*. It merely makes the mixing course of masses simpler.
- Muffin Pan: Bake the cupcakes in a regular muffin pan* lined with paper liners.
- Spatula: A silicone spatula* is good for scraping the edges and backside of the bowl when you end up mixing the substances collectively.
How one can make pumpkin cupcakes
Pumpkin spice cupcakes are terribly simple to make. The recipe follows the creaming method for mixing. This implies you cream the butter and sugar collectively prior to along with the puree and eggs. The dry substances are mixed in a separate bowl then added alternately with the milk.
The Cupcakes – The batter comes collectively merely and is thick. Assure to solely combine the substances till they're merely built-in. Over mixing provides you a tough, dense cupcake.
The Frosting – Stabilized whipped cream holds up correctly. It'll maintain for a variety of days all through the fridge prior to separating. I choose this as a frosting so the cupcakes vogue further like pumpkin pie.
The Topping: Pie crust cutouts make unbelievable garnishes for the cupcakes. They add to the pumpkin pie ingredient and magnificence good!
Combine the moist substances
It's important to make the most of room temperature substances. This makes it simpler to include them into the batter.
Set the butter, eggs, and milk out on the counter 1 hour prior to you plan to make the cupcakes.
Cream the butter and sugar and sugar collectively till it’s lighter in coloration. This may take 5-7 minutes. This is ready to be the longest time interval you’ll combine one factor for this recipe. All the choice mixing should be merely till the substances are built-in.
Add the pumpkin puree and combine merely till built-in. The puree has a variety of moisture content material materials supplies so the combination might begin to look curdled. That is frequent.
Beat all through the eggs and vanilla merely till they're built-in. Take further care to not over combine when you’ve added the eggs.
Combine the dry substances
Use a separate bowl to whisk the flour and spices collectively till correctly mixed.
You possibly can sift them collectively to make sure the spices are evenly blended all by way of the flour. This might even create further air all through the flour and produce a lighter cupcake texture.
Add half the flour combination to the pumpkin combination and combine till it’s virtually fully built-in. Add the milk and combine it the equal technique. It should be not fairly fully built-in nonetheless principally blended. Add the remaining flour combination and combine all of it collectively till merely mixed.
Merely mixed means as shortly as there normally aren't any seen streaks of dry flour, cease mixing.
Bake the cupcakes
Fill 14 paper-lined muffin cups 2/Three of one of many easiest methods full with batter. That is roughly Three tablespoons of batter.
Bake the cupcakes merely till a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out with just a few moist crumbs connected. Take care to not overbake or the cupcakes might find yourself dry.
Permit the cupcakes to loosen up on a wire rack prior to frosting.
Make whipped cream frosting
I reap the advantages of my favourite stabilized whipped cream for frosting the cupcakes.
You want:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- Three tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon clear piping gel
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Beat the whole substances collectively on medium-low tempo till the sugar is totally dissolved. Flip the tempo as quite a bit as medium-high and beat till the medium to stiff peaks kind.
Stabilized whipped cream pipes correctly. You must use a large spherical tip to pipe it on the cupcakes.
Make the pie crust cutouts
Use my homemade pie crust recipe or any storebought crust you want.
Roll the crust out and use a 1-inch pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter to chop out shapes. Rating the dough so it appears to be like further like a pumpkin. I want to make use of the bigger finish of an Ateco 809 or 849 piping tip to create curved traces all through the dough.
Brush the cutouts calmly with milk and sprinkle them with coarse sugar. Bake them for 15 minutes in a 350°F oven.
Let the cutouts cool completely prior to along with them to the perfect of the cupcakes.
How one can retailer pumpkin cupcakes
The unfrosted cupcakes will maintain for as quite a bit as 5 days all through the fridge. Cupcakes frosted with stabilized whipped cream will maintain for as quite a bit as Three days all through the fridge.
Additionally it is doable to freeze unfrosted cupcakes for as quite a bit as Three months. Thaw them in a single day all through the fridge and frost them prior to serving.
Inside the event you need pumpkin, you’ll love these fully completely different tasty pumpkin recipes:
