Pumpkin spice buttercream frosting is the perfect fall buttercream recipe! Flavored with pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice, this buttercream has great flavor and works well with cakes and cupcakes!
Ingredients for Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting
- Unsalted butter: Room temperature butter works best. You can use salted butter, just omit additional salt.
- Powdered sugar: Provides sweetness and structure to the frosting.
- Pumpkin puree: Pure pumpkin puree. Not pumpkin pie filling. The only ingredients should be pumpkin.
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract adds great flavor to the frosting.
- Pumpkin pie spice: Pumpkin pie spice is a blend of warm spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice.
- Salt: Enhances the flavor of the buttercream.
- Heavy cream: Helps the buttercream whip up to be light and fluffy.
Tools & Supplies for Making Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting
To make the frosting, I recommend using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or an electric hand mixer. The frosting comes together in less than 10 minutes!
- Whip room temperature butter for 5 minutes until light and fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or with an electric hand mixer.
- Add in the powdered sugar in 2 parts, mixing on low speed in between each addition.
- Add in pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract and salt. Mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything is well incorporated.
- Slowly drizzle in the heavy cream, continuing to mix on low speed.
- Whip the buttercream on medium-high speed until fluffy.
- (Optional) Switch to a paddle attachment and mix on low speed for an additional 5 minutes to remove air bubbles and made the buttercream silky smooth.
Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting Recipe Tips
Make perfect buttercream frosting
Check out my Baking Tips blog post on 10 Tips for Making Perfect Buttercream to learn simple tips and tricks to make the best buttercream frosting.
Use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
I already mentioned this above, but it is worth the reminder. Be sure to get pure pumpkin puree as opposed to pumpkin pie filling. The only ingredient should be pumpkin. Pumpkin pie filling contains other ingredients to easily bake a pumpkin pie. Not ideal for this recipe.
Pumpkin pie spice
If you are fresh out of pumpkin pie spice, you can make your own at home if you have the ingredients! If not, reach for cinnamon and use it in place of the pumpkin pie spice. It will be absolutely delicious.
Storing and serving
Unlike most of my buttercream recipes, this is a buttercream I do NOT recommend storing for use at a later day. Make the buttercream on the same day that you intend to frost your cake or cupcakes. Once the buttercream is frosted, it will keep for about 2-3 days in the refrigerator. Unfortunately due to the pumpkin puree, this buttercream does not rewhip as well as other buttercreams to use at a later time. To serve, bring the frosting to room temperature by removing the cake or cupcakes from the refrigerator 30 minutes ahead of serving.
Click here to see a quick video on how to make pumpkin spice buttercream frosting! Follow Cake Me Home Tonight on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more recipe videos and baking tutorials!
Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting
Equipment
- Stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment/paddle attachment OR
- Electric hand mixer
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp heavy cream
- pinch of salt to taste
Instructions
- Whip room temperature butter for 5 minutes until light and fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or with an electric hand mixer.
- Add in the powdered sugar in two parts, mixing on low speed in between each addition.
- Add in pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract and salt. Mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything is well incorporated.
- Slowly drizzle in the heavy cream, continuing to mix on low speed.
- Whip the buttercream on medium-high speed until fluffy.
- Switch to a paddle attachment and mix on low speed for an additional 5 minutes to remove air bubbles and made the buttercream silky smooth.
Notes
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Comments & Reviews
I tried this frosting and It is absolutely delicious. The perfect blend of sweet and pumpkin spice!
Would be wonderful on so many fall desserts.
Thank you so much for trying the recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it!