Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Soft and moist pumpkin spice cupcakes with a sweet and tangy maple cream cheese frosting. This pumpkin cupcake recipe is easy to make and full of delicious fall flavor!

We love cupcake recipes all year-round! From apple pie cupcakes in the fall to carrot cake cupcakes in the spring and these easy vanilla cupcakes anytime!

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Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

These pumpkin spice cupcakes (along with my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies)were first on my list of pumpkin recipes. They’re easy to make (you don’t even need a mixer) and are full of pumpkin spice flavor. They taste like a glorified pumpkin muffin with the addition of a tangy and sweet maple cream cheese frosting on top.

The pumpkin puree gives them a super moist and tender texture, while the pumpkin pie spice adds just the right amount of fall flavor. They are a great to make for a Halloween dessert or to add to your Thanksgiving menu. Your guests will love them!

Recipe Ingredients

Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.

• Flour: All-purpose flour works best. It is thick and creates the base of the pumpkin cupcakes.
• Pumpkin pie spice: All the pumpkin spice fall flavors in one bottle – ground allspice, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and ground cloves.
• Baking soda: This helps the cupcakes rise while baking.
• Cinnamon: Just a pinch gives a beautiful flavor of sweet and woody flavor.
• Pumpkin puree: Canned or store-bought pumpkin puree works great.
• Sugar: Brown sugar and sugar are both used in this pumpkin cupcake recipe. Both sugars bring in sweetness but also give the cupcakes a soft texture.
• Canola oil: A moist cupcake comes from the oil. You can also use vegetable oil too.
• Eggs: Have the eggs at room temperature before mixing them together.

How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cupcake Recipe

These are the best pumpkin cupcakes plus easier than pumpkin pie or pumpkin bundt cake!

1. Combine. Whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Whisk. In a large bowl, whisk together or use a hand mixer to mix the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, sugar, canola oil, and eggs and mix until well blended. Mix in the flour mixture until combined.
3. Fill muffin tin. Scoop into prepared muffin tin with cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.
4. Mix. For the frosting, beat together the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar slowly and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and maple extract. If necessary, add more powdered sugar until the frosting is firm enough to hold its shape but still light and fluffy.
5. Frosting. Frost the cooled pumpkin spice cupcakes with a 1M frosting tip or piping bag if desired.

Baking Tips

• Pumpkin puree vs. pie filling. Many people often get confused about whether to use pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie filling. Pie filling has extra sugar and spice added in which will make the cupcakes overly sweet. Look for the plain puree, or even learn how to make pumpkin puree from scratch.
• Filling the pan. You don’t want to fill the muffin cups all the way with batter. Only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full so that they have room to rise while baking. I’ve found that using a large cookie scoop to fill each cup is the perfect amount.
• Toothpick test. Stick a toothpick in the centers to test if they are done. Also, try not to open the oven too much while baking (so that the heat doesn’t escape and cause the cupcakes to deflate).
• Cool before frosting. It’s important that you let the cupcakes cool completely before adding the frosting on top. If they are still warm, the frosting could melt and won’t hold its shape.
• Top with extras. To take these cupcakes to the next level, drizzle with a homemade caramel sauce and add an extra sprinkle of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.

Frosting for Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

The sweet maple cream cheese frosting is the perfect complement to pumpkin spice in pumpkin cupcakes. It’s easy to make with only 5 ingredients in just 5 minutes. Of course, you could always use a classic cream cheese frosting or cinnamon buttercream, but the maple extract adds a boost of sweet flavor that makes these cupcakes undeniable.

Make sure the consistency of your frosting is thick enough to hold its shape when piping. I like to use a 1M star tip to frost the perfect cupcakes. It’s easy to use and makes them look like they came from a local bakery! If you don’t have a tip, you could always snip the corner off a zip-top bag and pipe the frosting on that way.

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