Pumpkin spice cupcakes are moist and delicious, the perfect fall dessert. A moist pumpkin spice cupcake swirled with cream cheese frosting, these cupcakes will get you in the mood for PSLs, apple picking, and sweatshirts! The perfect pumpkin cupcake recipe packed with pumpkin flavor.
Ingredients for Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Pumpkin spice cupcakes
- All-purpose flour – To measure correctly, first fluff the flour before you scoop and level the measuring cup.
- Granulated sugar – For sweetness.
- Baking powder – Leavening agent to help the cupcakes rise and puff up.
- Salt – Enhances the flavor and contrasts the sweetness of the cupcakes.
- Pumpkin pie spice – A combination of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground allspice. Check out this blog post on how to make your own pumpkin pie spice or you can purchase pumpkin pie spice premade!
- Milk – Room temperature.
- Vegetable oil – You can also use canola oil or another neutral baking oil.
- Egg – Large egg, room temperature.
- Vanilla extract – Pure vanilla extract adds a great underlying vanilla flavor.
- Pumpkin puree – Canned pumpkin puree. The only ingredient should be pumpkin. Avoid using pumpkin pie filling as it will not work in this recipe.
Cream cheese frosting
- Unsalted butter – Room temperature for easy creaming.
- Cream cheese – Room temperature to combine well with the butter.
- Powdered sugar – You only need to sift the powdered sugar if it is lumpy.
- Vanilla extract – Pure vanilla extract adds amazing vanilla flavor.
- Salt – A pinch of salt enhances the flavor and provides some contrast to the sweetness.
Tools & Supplies for Making Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- Add in pumpkin puree, milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract to the flour mixture. Whisk until well combined with the dry ingredients, but do not overmix or the cupcakes will become tough and chewy.
- Portion the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners, filling about 3/4 full. Use a large cookie scoop for even cupcakes.
- Bake the cupcakes for approximately 20 minutes or until the cupcakes bounce back when gently touched or an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting
To make the cream cheese frosting, you will need a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or an electric hand mixer. There are only 5 ingredients and the frosting only takes a few minutes to make.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine unsalted butter and cream cheese. Whip for 2 to 3 minutes on medium speed until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar in two batches, mixing on low speed in between each addition.
- Add in the vanilla extract and salt and continue to mix. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Whip the frosting for an additional 2 to 3 minutes on medium-high speed until smooth, light, and fluffy.
Frosting the Cupcakes
To frost the cupcakes as shown in the pictures, you will need a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M piping tip. For these cupcakes, I created a simple “ice cream swirl” style. Check out this video on how to pipe a basic buttercream swirl. After the cupcakes are frosted, sprinkle on a tiny bit of pumpkin pie spice for decoration and additional flavor. Place a little pumpkin pie spice in a small fine mesh sieve and gently sprinkle over the top of the cream cheese frosting.
If you want to add extra cinnamon flavor, try out my recipe for cinnamon cream cheese frosting!
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes Recipe Tips
- Check out my baking tips blog post on 10 Tips for Baking Perfect Cupcakes to learn easy tips and tricks to bake the best cupcakes! I also have a post highlighting my favorite supplies for baking and decorating cupcakes!
- Be sure that you are using pure pumpkin puree as opposed to pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling contains other ingredients so you can pour it in a pie shell and bake a pumpkin pie! For this recipe, stick to 100% pure pumpkin.
- Check out my blog post on how to make your own pumpkin pie spice or you can purchase premade pumpkin pie spice. You could also replace the pumpkin pie spice entirely with cinnamon if you prefer.
- Store the pumpkin spice cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days! To serve, bring the cupcakes to room temperature by removing them from the refrigerator about an hour before serving so the cream cheese frosting can soften.
Click here to see a quick video on how to make these pumpkin spice cupcakes! Follow Cake Me Home Tonight on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more recipe videos and baking tutorials!Â
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Equipment
- Stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or electric hand mixer
Ingredients
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup milk room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- Add in pumpkin puree, milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until full incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Portion the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners ¾ full using a large cookie scoop for even cupcakes.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes bounce back slightly when touched or an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add room temperature butter and cream cheese. Whip on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and mix on low until combined. Add the remaining half of the powdered sugar and continue to mix.
- Add in vanilla extract and salt.
- Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and whip for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Whip until the cream cheese frosting is light, fluffy, and smooth.
Frosting the Cupcakes
- To frost the cupcakes as shown in the pictures, you will need a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M tip. Create an "ice cream swirl" of buttercream frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes. Start in the center, swirl outward to cover the cupcake and then swirl upward.
- Once the cupcakes are frosted, sprinkle on some additional pumpkin pie spice if desired.
Notes
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Comments & Reviews
Hi my dear,
Today I tryed your recepy pumking spice cupcakes and they are best one I have eated. Georgeos!
Hi Brigitte! So glad you loved these cupcakes! Thank you for trying the recipe!
can this be made into a cake ?
I have a recipe for pumpkin spice cake on my blog! I recommend checking that out! Sometimes, cupcake recipes do not translate well to cakes!
I make these cupcake for a get together event and they were delicious!. We all enjoyed them a lot. They are easy to made. I already did others recipes (Raspberry lemon cupcake, Lemon Cupcake with Blackberry buttercream) and they all are LOVELY and AMAZING! I have my own small bakery business and I start using some of your recipes. Thank you!
Maria, I am so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks so much for trying some of my other cupcake recipes! That’s amazing about your baking business! I’m honored that you use some of my recipes! Thanks for the positive review and comment! 🙂
Made these cupcakes for coworkers and everyone loved them. Made them twice now and each time the cake turns out perfectly. I love that they’re not overly sweet. They’re super moist and easy to make.
Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! I am thrilled to hear that you enjoyed it enough to make it more than once! 🙂
SUPER easy recipe to follow! These were so quick and easy to make and they smell DELICIOUS! I haven’t tried them yet but my step mom just ate one and she said it is amazing ! Can’t wait to try them tomorrow. The batter was the perfect amount for 12 cupcakes, but I ended up with a lot of left over icing which worked out perfectly because I plan on making another batch of these cupcakes tomorrow so in the fridge it goes!
Amazing! Thank you for trying the recipe! These are a personal favorite of mine! Extra icing is never a bad thing! 🙂
Can I make my own pumpkin purée? Would I have to reduce some of the liquid off of it first?
Hey there! You certainly can, however, that is not something I have personally done! I would imagine that you would need to drain or absorb excess moisture before adding to the recipe!
These cupcakes are so yummy! So soft and cream cheese frosting was sweet and slightly tangy which is perfect if you don’t like overly sweet frostings! Makes anyone who doesn’t usually like pumpkin , LOVE this !
Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed!
These are AMAZING!! Everyone at work LOVED them!!! Thank you!!
Thank you for trying the recipe! I am so happy to hear they were enjoyed!!