Pumpkin Cupcakes
22 cupcakes
These Pumpkin Cupcakes are made with a shortcut cake mix infused with warm spices and pumpkin puree, topped with a creamy and delicious cheesecake frosting for the best ever easy fall dessert!
Equipment
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- 1 box spice cake mix unprepared
- 1 x 3.5oz box instant pumpkin spice pudding mix unprepared
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup whole milk
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
Frosting:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup instant cheesecake pudding mix unprepared
- Sprinkles optional topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C and line cupcake pan with liners.
- Combine all cupcake ingredients in a large bowl or stand mixer and beat until combined.
- Add batter to the cupcake liners. I like to use a medium cookie scoop, and add about 3 tablespoons of batter per cupcake (that's about 2 scoops using a medium scoop).
- Reduce heat to 350°F/180°C.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes clean from the center of a cupcake.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool down in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and make sure that they have cooled completely before frosting.
For the frosting:
- In a large bowl or a bowl of a stand mixer, whip together the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and pudding mix until it's thick and fluffy. Make sure not to overmix the frosting as it can separate.
- Pipe the frosting onto the cupcake bases, and decorate with your favorite sprinkles.
Notes
Make sure you're using pure pumpkin. Which is basically a can of 100% pumpkin puree and nothing else, don't confuse it with pumpkin pie filling.
Add chocolate chips. To make chocolate pumpkin cupcakes, you can add up to 1 cup of mini chocolate chips to the batter.
Don't overbake the cupcake bases. There's nothing worse than dry tough cupcakes, and you really want to keep an eye on the temperature of the oven and the baking time. Don't walk away! Start checking at 15 minutes, and remove the cupcakes from the oven as soon as a toothpick comes out clean from the center of a cupcake.
If you can't find cheesecake flavored pudding, substitute with something like vanilla, chocolate, or caramel pudding. If you want to flavor the frosting with pumpkin spice, just add ¼ teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
Be careful not to overwhip the frosting. The base of the frosting is heavy whipping cream, if it's overwhipped it will separate into buttermilk and butter and you want to avoid that. Stop whipping as soon as the frosting comes together, and has a thick and fluffy consistency.
Nutrition
Calories: 190kcal