If you love pumpkin desserts and all things salted caramel, these salted caramel pumpkin cupcakes are your dream come true. The cupcakes are made with a moist and fluffy pumpkin spice cake, swirled with salted caramel frosting, and drizzled in salted caramel sauce with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt.
Ingredients for Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Pumpkin pie spice – A mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice. Check out this blog post on how to make your own pumpkin pie spice or you can purchase pumpkin pie spice premade!
- Pumpkin puree – Canned pure pumpkin puree. Pumpkin pie filling will not work in this recipe.
- Milk – Room temperature.
- Vegetable oil – Or use your favorite neutral baking oil.
- Egg – Large egg, room temperature.
- Vanilla extract – Pure vanilla extract adds a great underlying vanilla flavor.
Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- Unsalted butter – Room temperature.
- Powdered sugar – Also known as confectioners’ sugar or icing sugar. No need to sift the sugar, unless it is very lumpy.
- Vanilla extract – Vanilla extract adds amazing vanilla flavor to the buttercream.
- Salt – Provides contrast to the sweetness of the frosting and enhances the caramel flavor.
- Salted caramel sauce – Check out the recipe for my homemade salted caramel sauce! The recipe only contains 5 ingredients and takes only 10 minutes to make! You could use a store-bought caramel sauce if you prefer.
- Heavy cream – A little heavy creams helps to make the buttercream very smooth and creamy.
Additional Ingredients
Tools & Supplies for Making Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- Add in the pumpkin puree, milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk until the batter is well combined and smooth.
- Portion the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners using a large cookie scoop, filling the liners about 3/4 full.
- Bake the cupcakes for approximately 20 minutes or until the cupcakes bounce back when gently touched.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
How to Make Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip the room temperature unsalted butter for 5 minutes on medium-high speed until it is light, pale, and fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until well combined. Add the vanilla extract and salt.
- Slowly drizzle in the salted caramel sauce while mixing on low speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything is well combined. Then, drizzle in the heavy cream.
- Turn the speed on the mixer to medium speed and whip for 3 minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffy.
Frosting the Cupcakes
- Fill a piping bag fitted with an Ateco 857 piping tip with the salted caramel buttercream frosting.
- Pipe an “ice cream swirl” style of buttercream onto the cooled pumpkin spice cupcakes.
- Use a piping bag to drizzle additional salted caramel sauce over the cupcakes and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes Recipe Tips
- Check out my baking tips blog post on 10 Tips for Baking Perfect Cupcakes to learn some of my favorite cupcake tips and tricks.
- Use a large cookie scoop to portion the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners to even, uniform cupcakes.
- I highly recommend using my homemade salted caramel sauce for the buttercream frosting and the caramel drizzle. You can make the caramel ahead of time.
- Store the cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Serve the cupcakes at room temperature for the best taste and texture.
Click here to see a quick video on how to make these salted caramel pumpkin spice cupcakes! Follow Cake Me Home Tonight on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more recipe videos and baking tutorials!Â
Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes
Equipment
- Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
Ingredients
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup milk room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup salted caramel sauce click here for the recipe
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
Additional Ingredients
- ½ cup salted caramel sauce click here for the recipe
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
Instructions
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
- Add in the pumpkin puree, milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients well combined and smooth.
- Portion the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners using a large cookie scoop, about ¾ full.
- Bake the cupcakes for approximately 20 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes bounce back when gently touched. Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip the room temperature unsalted butter for about 5 minutes until light, pale and fluffy.
- Add in the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until well combined. Add in the vanilla extract and salt and continue to mix.
- While mixing on low speed, drizzle in the salted caramel sauce, followed by the heavy cream. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Turn the mixer speed to medium and whip the buttercream for about 2 to 3 minutes until smooth and creamy.
Assembling the Cupcakes
- Fill a piping bag fitted with an Ateco 857 piping tip with the salted caramel buttercream frosting. Pipe an "ice cream swirl" style of buttercream onto the cupcakes.
- Use a piping bag to drizzle additional salted caramel sauce over the cupcakes and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Notes
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